ISTANBUL KÜLTÜR UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
PREP CLASSES
IKU SAMPLE ENGLISH PROFICIENCY EXAM
EXAM HALL: DFL/_____________
DATE: ____________
NAME SURNAME:
DEPARTMENT:
STUDENT NO:
FOLLOW-UP NO:
GENERAL EXAM INSTRUCTIONS
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Keep your student ID card on your desk throughout the exam.
Sign the exam attendance sheet.
Fill in the exam banners on your Exam Booklet.
You are allowed to use a pencil and an eraser only.
Dictionaries of any kind or any electronic gadget with a dictionary feature are not allowed. Please hand
over any such items to the Exam Invigilator before the exam is started.
Look through each and every page of your Exam Booklet, checking page numbers and readability.
Do not ask any questions to the Exam Invigilator during the exam.
You are not allowed to go to the restroom during the exam.
Your Exam Booklet will be taken by the Exam Invigilator at the end of the exam.
THERE ARE FOUR SECTIONS IN THIS EXAM.
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Listening: 10:00 - 10:30 ( ~ 30 mins)
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Reading: 10:30 - 11:30 (~ 60 mins)
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Use of English: 11:30 – 12:10 (~ 40 mins)
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Writing : 13:00 – 13:50 (~ 50 mins)
1st Grader
2nd Grader
LISTENING GRADE:
_________
/
__________ / 25 pts.
READING GRADE:
_________
/
__________ / 25 pts.
USE OF ENGLISH GRADE:
__________
/
__________ / 25 pts.
WRITING:
__________
/
__________ / 25 pts.
IKU Sample English Proficiency Exam
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SECTION A. LISTENING
PART 1: NOTE TAKING – LISTENING COMPREHENSION
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You will listen to an interview with Elizabeth Holmes about HER WORKING EXPERIENCE IN
AFRICA.
She is answering some questions about her voluntary activity in Africa.
Do not attempt to write everything down.
Just note down the main points on the space below.
Before you listen to the interview for the first time, you have ONE minute to go over the points
provided below.
After you listen to it, you will have TWO minutes in which to study the questions.
After you listen to it for the second time, you will have FIVE minutes to go over what you have
written and complete your answers.
You will listen to the interview TWICE.
You can take notes on this page.
REASONS FOR LEAVING
THINGS SHE DID AFTER THE APPLICATION
HER CONTACT WITH THE LOCALS
ENGLAND WHEN SHE WENT BACK
HER CURRENT WORK & RELATIONSHIP WITH THE ORGANIZATION
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NOTE TAKING – LISTENING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
Name & Surname: _________________________
Follow-up No: _______________
Number: __________________________________
Answer the questions in full sentence.
Listening Comprehension Questions
1. Why did Elizabeth leave her secure job as a travel agent and go to Africa?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
2. What kind of things did she do after she applied for volunteer work in Africa?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. How was her relationship with the local people?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What kind of differences did Elizabeth find when she returned to England?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
5. What kind of work is she doing at the moment?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. How does she contribute to the organization that sent her to Africa?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
7. How has the experience in Africa changed her?
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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PART II: WHILE LISTENING
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You will listen to a short lecture about GEOGRAPHY.
During the lecture, the lecturer will talk about different aspects of geography.
The questions are in the order the information appears in the lecture.
Before the lecture begins, you will have TWO minutes in which to study the questions.
At the end of the lecture, you will have TWO minutes to go over what you have written.
You will listen to the lecture ONLY ONCE.
Fill in the blanks with a word or a phrase, or choose the best answer.
1) Studying geography helps us to understand:
 the effects of different processes on the _______________________ of the Earth
 the dynamic between _________________________ and population
2) Two main branches of study are
 physical features
 human lifestyles and their ____________________
3) Specific study areas of geography are biophysical, topographic, _______________________ and
________________________ (Write only two)
4) Key point of geography is to
______________________ related.
help
us
understand
our
surroundings
5) What do geographers do?
 find data – e.g conduct censuses, collect information
_____________________ using computer and satellite technology
 analyse data – identify patterns e.g _______________________.
in
the
and
the
form
of
6) Geographers publish findings in form of maps, which
 are easy to carry
 provide a great _______________________ when collected into an atlas
 show physical features of large and small areas
7) A two-dimensional (2D) map will always have some ____ and it is hard to avoid.
a) description
b) direction
c) distortion
8) Aerial photos, which are taken from very high above ground, do not show____.
a) widespread diseases
b) traffic density
c) sea and ocean beds
9) Landsat pictures sent to receiving stations are used for monitoring ______________________
conditions etc.
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SECTION B. READING
Read Text I & Text II and answer the questions in Part I and Part II.
Text I. BILINGUALISM IN CHILDREN
1 One misguided legacy of over a hundred years of writing on bilingualism (being able to
speak two languages) is that children‟s intelligence will suffer if they are bilingual. Some of the
earliest research into bilingualism examined whether bilingual children were ahead or behind
monolingual (able to speak one language) children on IQ tests. From the 1920s through to the 1960s,
the tendency was to find monolingual children ahead of bilinguals on IQ tests. The conclusion was that
bilingual children were mentally focused. Having two languages in the brain, it was said, disrupted
effective thinking. It was argued that having one well developed language was superior to having two
half-developed languages.
2 The idea that bilinguals may have a lower IQ still exists among many people, particularly
monolinguals. However, we now know that this early research was misconceived and incorrect. First,
such research often gave bilinguals an IQ test in their weaker language – usually English. If bilinguals
had been tested in Welsh or Spanish or Hebrew, a different result may have been found. The testing of
bilinguals was unfair for this reason. Second, like was not compared with like. Bilinguals tended to
come from, for example, impoverished New York or rural Welsh backgrounds. The monolinguals
tended to come from more middle class, urban families. Working class bilinguals were often compared
with middle class monolinguals. So the results were more likely to be due to social class differences
than language differences. The comparison of monolinguals and bilinguals was unfair.
3 The most recent research from Canada, the United States and Wales suggests that bilinguals
are, at least, equal to monolinguals on IQ tests. When bilinguals have two well-developed languages
(in the research literature called „balanced bilinguals‟), bilinguals tend to show a slight superiority in
IQ tests compared with monolinguals. This is the received psychological wisdom of the moment and is
good news for raising bilingual children. Take, for example, a child who can operate in either language
in the curriculum in the school. That child is likely to be ahead on IQ tests compared with similar
(same gender, social class and age) monolinguals. Far from making people mentally confused,
bilingualism is now associated with a mild degree of intellectual superiority.
4 One note of caution needs to be sounded. IQ tests probably do not measure intelligence. IQ
tests measure a small sample of the broadest concept of intelligence. IQ tests are simply paper and
pencil tests where only right and wrong answers are allowed. Is all intelligence summed up in such
right and wrong, pencil and paper tests? Isn‟t there a wider variety of intelligence that are important in
everyday functioning and everyday life?
5 Many questions need answering. Do we only define an intelligent person as somebody who
obtains a high score on an IQ test? Are the only intelligent people those who belong to high IQ
organisation such as MENSA? Is there social intelligence, musical intelligence, military intelligence,
marketing intelligence, motoring intelligence, political intelligence? Are all, or indeed any, of these
forms of intelligence measured by a simple pencil and paper IQ test which demands a single,
acceptable, correct solution to each question? Defining what constitutes intelligent behaviour requires
a personal value judgement as to what type of behaviour, and what kind of person is of more worth.
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6 The current state of psychological wisdom about bilingual children is that, where two
languages are relatively well developed, bilinguals have thinking advantages over monolinguals. Take
an example. A child is asked a simple question: How many uses can you think of for a brick? Some
children give two or three answers only. They can think of building walls, building a house and
perhaps that is all. Another child scribbles away, pouring out ideas one after the other: blocking up a
rabbit hole, breaking a window, using as a bird bath, as a plumb line, as an abstract sculpture in an art
exhibition.
7 Research across different continents of the world show that bilinguals tend to be more
fluent, flexible, original and elaborate in their answers to this type of open-ended question. The person
who can think of a few answers tends to be termed a convergent thinker. They converge onto a few
acceptable conventional answers. People who think of lots of different uses for unusual items (e.g.
brick, tin can, cardboard box) are called divergers. Divergers like a variety of answers to a question
and are imaginative and fluent in their thinking.
8 There are other dimensions in thinking where approximately „balanced‟ bilinguals may have
temporary and occasionally permanent advantages over monolinguals: increased sensitivity to
communication, a slightly speedier movement through the stages of cognitive development, and being
less fixed on the sounds of words and more centred on the meaning of words. Such ability to move
away from the sound of words and fix on the meaning of words tends to be a (temporary) advantage
for bilinguals around the ages four to six. This advantage may mean and initial head start in learning to
read and learning to think about language.
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PART I: COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS. Fill in the blanks with a word or a phrase or
choose the best answer.
1) For more than ___________________________, books and articles were wrong about the
intelligence of bilingual children.
2) For approximately 40 years, there was a mistaken belief that children who spoke two languages
were __________________________________________.
3) It was commonly thought that people with a single ________________________________ were
more effective thinkers.
4) The word „This‟ Paragraph 3, Line 4 refers to _______________________________________.
5) The word „pour out’ in Paragraph 6, Line 5 probably means ____.
a) deny instantly
b) say accidentally
c) give so many
d) hurt purposefully
6) Which of the following summarizes the text best?
a)
b)
c)
d)
IQ tests need to be redesigned for more accurate conclusions.
The belief that monolinguals are superior to bilinguals has been proved wrong.
Social class is a significant factor in comparing monolinguals and bilinguals.
People have recently become more aware of the advantages of being bilingual.
7) Which of the following is not mentioned in the text?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Bilinguals tend to answer open ended questions in various ways.
People with two well-developed languages focus on meaning more than sound.
Imagination is believed to improve language abilities at early ages.
A monolingual is likely to be slower in learning to read.
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Text II. THE ROMANTIC POETS
1 One of the most evocative eras in the history of poetry must surely be that of the Romantic
Movement. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a group of poets created a new mood in
literary objectives, casting off their predecessors‟ styles in favour of a gripping and forceful art which
endures with us to this day.
2 Five poets emerged as the main constituents of this movement – William Wordsworth,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. The strength
of their works lies undoubtedly in the power of their imagination. Indeed, imagination was the most
critical attribute of the romantic poet. Each poet had the ability to portray remarkable images and
visions, although differing to a certain degree in their intensity and presentation. Nature, mythology
and emotion were of great importance and were used to explore the feeling of the poet himself.
3 The lives of the poets often overlapped and tragedy was typical in most of them. Byron was
born in London in 1788. The family moved to Aberdeen soon after, where Byron was brought up until
he inherited the family seat of Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire from his great uncle. He graduated
from Cambridge University in 1808 and left England the following year to embark on a tour of
Mediterranean. During this tour, he developed a passion for Greece which would later lead to his death
in 1824. He left for Switzerland in 1816, where he was introduced to Shelley.
4 Shelley was born to a wealthy family in 1792. He was educated at Eton and then went on to
Oxford. Shelley was not happy in England, where his colourful lifestyle and unorthodox beliefs made
him unpopular with the establishment. In 1818, he left for Italy, where he was reunited with Byron.
However, the friendship was tragically brought to an end in July 1822 when Shelley was drowned in a
boating accident off the Italian coast. In somewhat dramatic form, Shelley‟s body was cremated on the
beach, witnessed by a small group of friends, including Byron.
5 Historically, Shelly and Byron are considered to have been the most outspoken and radical
of the Romantic poets. By contrast, Wordsworth appears to have been of a pleasant and acceptable
personality, even receiving the status of Poet Laureate in 1843. He was born in 1770 in Cockersmouth,
Cumbria. By the time he entered his early teens, both his parents had died. As he grew older,
Wordsworth developed a passion for writing.
6 In 1798, Wordsworth published a collection of poems with Coleridge, whom he had met, a
few years earlier, when he settled in Somerset with his sister Dorothy. He married in 1802 and, as time
passed, he deserted his former political views and become increasingly acceptable to popular society.
Indeed, at the time of his death in the spring of 1850, he had become one of the most sought-after poets
of his time.
7 Wordsworth shared some of the years at Dove Cottage in Somerset with his friend and
poetical contemporary, Coleridge. Coleridge was born in Devon in 1772. He was a bright young
scholar but never achieved the same prolific output of his fellow Romantic poet. In 1804, he left for a
position in Malta for three years. On his return, he separated from his wife and went to live with the
Wordsworths, where he produced a regular periodical.
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8 With failing health, he later moved to London. In 1816, he went to stay with a doctor and
his family. He remained with them until his death in 1834. During these latter years, his poetry was
abandoned for other forms of writing equally outstanding in their own right.
9 Perhaps the most tragic of the Romantic poets was Keats. Keats was born in London in
1795. Similar to Wordsworth, both his parents had died by his early teens. He studied as a surgeon,
qualifying in 1816. However, poetry was his great passion and he decided to devote himself to writing.
For much of his adult life, Keats was in poor health and fell gravely ill in early 1820. He knew he was
dying and in September of that year, he left for Rome hoping that the more agreeable climate might
ease his suffering. Keats died of consumption in February 1821 at the age 25.
10 It is sad that such tragedy often accompanies those of outstanding artistic genius. We can
only wonder at the possible outcome if they had lived to an old age. Perhaps even Byron and Shelley
would have grown older with the years, like Wordsworth. However, the contribution to poetry by all
five writers is immeasurable. They introduced the concept of individualism and imagination, allowing
us to explore our own visions of beauty without retribution. We are not now required to restrain our
thoughts and poetry to that of the socially acceptable.
PART II: Fill in the blanks with a word or a phrase.
Poet
Date of Birth
Education
Byron
1788
Cambridge
University
Went
on
a
journey
around
Mediterranean
came
to
love
1) _____________________.
Shelley
1792
Eton and Oxford
University
some people disapproved of his
2)________________________ and
the beliefs he held.
Wordsworth
1770
became more accepted when he
changed his
3)______________________.
Coleridge
1772
bright scholar
his output was smaller than the
Romantic poets‟, left the Wordsworths
due
to
4)____________________________.
Keats
1795
qualified as a
surgeon
left England for a change of
5)__________________________.
According to the writer, the Romantic poets left us with the ideas of 6) ________________________
and 7) _________________________.
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SECTION C. USE of ENGLISH
PART 1. MULTIPLE CLOZE: Choose the best answer.
A SURVEY ON EDUCATION
The results of a new survey published in the form of a report have led to a certain
amount of discussion. The survey which was 1) _____ by a team of educationalists from
Coventry University, headed by Prof. B. J. Martin. According to the report, 2) _____
claims to have strong statistical evidence, children who attend a number of different
schools through their parents having to move around the country are not academically
successful. Professor Martin says that there are also 3) _____of an unusually high rate of
psychological disturbance among such children.
The professor has long suspected that the effect on children 4) _____ parents travel to
different parts of the country in search of work has not been sufficiently researched.
Moreover, he stresses that this is not simply an expression of opinions. “We are not
dealing here with opinions”, he says. “It is true; my personal feeling is that children should
stay in one school. However, our findings are 5) _____ on research and not on any
personal attitudes that I or my colleagues may have on the subject.”
Captain Thomas James, who 6) _____ an army lecturer for the past 20 years and
himself a father of two said: “I have never heard such a stupid idea. As far as I am
concerned, absolutely no harm is 7) _____ to the education of children who change
schools regularly 8) _____ they keep to the same system, as in our army schools. In my
experience, and I have known quite a few of them, army children are as well-adjusted as
any others, if not more so. What the professor doesn‟t appear to understand is the fact that
in such situations, children will adapt 9) _____ than adults.”
When this was put to Professor Martin, he said they had never suggested that all
such children were backward or disturbed in some way, but in their experience, they had
found out that the majority had problems.
“Our findings indicate that while the extremely bright child can 10) _____ changes
without harming his or her general academic progress, the majority of children suffer from
constantly having to enter a new learning environment.”
1)
a. conducted
b. carried
c. experienced
d. made
2)
a. which
b. that
c. it
d. those
3)
a. suggestions
b. celebrations
c. indications
d. recommendations
4)
a. when
b. who
c. whose
d. what
5)
a. to base
b. basing
c. base
d. based
6)
a. was
b. has been
c. is
d. will be
7)
a. done
b. made
c. had
d. shown
8)
a. even if
b. as long as
c. unless
d. until
9)
a. much better
b. much best
c. more better
d. a lot of better
b. cope with
c. take up
d. bring up
10) a. come up with
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Part II. GAPPED TEXT
FINDING A JOB
Not so long ago almost any student who successfully completed a university degree or diploma
course could find a good career quite easily. Companies toured the academic institutions, competing with
each other to recruit graduates.1) _____, even in Hong Kong, and nowadays graduates often face strong
competition in the search for jobs.
Most careers organizations highlight three stages for graduates to follow in the process of securing a
suitable career: recognizing abilities, matching these to available vacancies and presenting them well to
prospective employers.
Job seekers have to make a careful assessment of their own abilities. One area of assessment should
be of their academic qualifications, 2) _____. Graduates should also consider their own personal values and
attitudes, or the relative importance to themselves of such matters as money, security, leadership and caring
for others. An honest assessment of personal interests and abilities such as creative or scientific skills, or
skills acquired from work experience, should also be given careful thought.
The second stage is to study the opportunities available for employment and to think about how the
general employment situation is likely to develop in the future. 3) _____, graduates can study job vacancies
and information in newspapers or they can visit a careers office, write to possible employers for
information or contact friends or relatives who may already be involved in a particular profession. After
studying all the various options, they should be in a position to make informed comparisons between
various careers.
Good personal presentation is essential in the search for a good career. Job application forms and
letters should, of course, be filled in carefully and correctly, without grammar or spelling errors. 4) _____,
job seekers should describe their abilities and work experience in more depth, with examples if possible.
They should try to balance their own abilities with the employer's needs, explain why they are interested in
a career with the particular company and try to show that they already know something about the company
and its activities.
When graduates are asked to attend for an interview, they should prepare properly by finding out all
they can about the prospective employer. Dressing suitably and arriving for the interview on time are also
obviously important. Interviewees should try to give positive and helpful answers and should not be afraid
to ask questions about anything they are unsure. 5) _____ than pretending to understand a question and
giving an unsuitable answer.
Insert the following phrases or clauses (A-H) into the text (1-5). There are three extra options that
you do not need to use.
A) Where additional information is asked for
B) However, those days are gone
C) In addition, those are still true
D) This is much better
E) This is so good
F) which would include special skills within their subject area
G) that would contain specific abilities
H) To do this
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