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IGCSE Past Exam Papers - Reading and Writing - November 2012

The Question Paper

Download IGCSE Reading and Writing - November 2012

The Answer Key

Download IGCSE Reading and Writing - November 2012 - Answer Key

Notes:

• The use of the slash (/) indicates alternative options suggested by the examiner.
• Capital letters are underlined in Exercise 3 as capitalization is required for names and addresses to get your mark.
• In Exercise 5, all the relevant points have been provided. Any six out of these will give you the six marks for content ...but if expression hinders understanding you will lose all 10 marks.
• You will also be severely penalized for transferring chunks of text to your own summary or even worse for copying in extent. This is called plagiarism and you will lose all marks.
• You are expected to include all six relevant points in a paragraph of your own, using your own words as far as this is possible and providing effective linkers.  For more information take a look at IGCSE Summary Writing

IGCSE ESL Past Exam Papers - Reading and Writing - May/June 2004

The Question Paper

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Answer Key

Download Igcse-june2004-answerkey

 

IGCSE ESL - Past Exam Papers - Reading and Writing - May/June 2012 - Answer Key

Download Igcse-reading-writing-may2012-answer_key

IGCSE ESL Past Exam Papers - Reading and Writing- May/June 2012

Exercise 2- 33 miners trapped in the Atacama Desert in Chile for 69 days at 700 metres below the surface.

Photo Credit

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The answer key will be posted tomorrow at 10:00 am EET

IGCSE ESL Past Exam Papers - Reading and Writing - May / June 2011-Answer Key

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IGCSE ESL Past Exam Papers - Reading and Writing - May / June 2011

Download igcse-readingandwriting-may-june2011.pdf (5517.4K)

The answer key will be posted on Monday, June 7  2012   

Christmas Lunch - Reading Comprehension

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions which follow . Complete sentences are not necessary but your answers must be accurate!

The English are not particularly famous for their tasty food.
However, there are occasions when even the English do
themselves proud, and one of these is Christmas. Christmas for
the English is a time of "goodwill and peace to all men", a time
when children are spoilt silly and stay up all night, and grown
ups have no guilt feelings about being extra lazy and self­
indulgent. It is a time when relations are nice to each other,
when they sing carols together and eat, drink, and make merry
to their heart's content.

Preparations for the next Christmas begin almost as soon as the
last one is over. The famous Christmas pudding, which consists
of raisins, dates and an assortment of nuts and brandy, is made
immediately after the previous Christmas and is left to mature
for a whole year. The goose, turkey or duck - most people have
turkey these days, is bought some days in advance and hung to
allow it to become tender and acquire flavour. On Christmas
day, it is thoroughly cleaned and then stuffed. Two stuffmgs are
generally used; a herb stuffmg, consisting of bread mixed with
herbs, spices and onions, and a chestnut stuffmg. The bird is
placed in a hot oven and allowed to roast slowly for between
three and six hours. The pudding is steam-boiled in water for
about an hour.

After a glass of sherry or mulled wine, heated red wine with
sugar, cloves and a little brandy, the meal proper begins. The
first course is something light, either sliced melon or grapefruit,
often with a sugared sherry on top. This whets the appetite and
prepares the palate for the main course. The bird, which by this
stage should be crisp and brown, is cut into slices and served
with stuffmg, roast potatoes and a variety of vegetables, the
favourites being Brussels sprouts and carrots. All this is
accompanied by a rich brown gravy poured over everything.
Then comes the pudding. It is taken out of its bowl, steaming
hot, and brandy is poured over it and lit, so that the pudding,
often with a bit of holly stuck in the top, arrives at the table
flambe. It is served with brandy butter (brandy mixed with
butter) and whipped cream. Those who still have an empty
corner somewhere finish off with cheese - Stilton or Cheddar,two famous English cheeses. Throughoutthe meal, of course, red or white wine is drunk.

When the meal is over, people retire to the sitting- room for
brandy, liqueurs or coffee to gather strength for the washing-up.
Finally, the assembled company is jolted back to reality by the
lady of the house who reminds everyone about the washing-up.
Traditionally, this was done by the ladies, but today everybody,
regardless of age or status, pitches in. Some gather the dirty
dishes while others wash, dry and put away. Christmas day is
perhaps the only day of the year when noone begrudges lending a hand with the washing up.

 

1. What's Christmas like for the English?

2. What does Chistmas pudding consist of?

3.  Why is the bird hung a few days before Christmas?

4. What's mulled wine?

5.  What's the stuffing for the bird?

6. How does the Christmas pudding arrive at the table?

7.What's the gravy for?

8. What do the English eat after Christmas lunch if the 've still got an empty corner?

9. What do people do after the meal is over?

10. Who does the washing up?

 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

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IGCSE Exam Practice - Reading Comprehension

Read the following article and choose the best answer

The world's oceans have warmed 50 percent faster over the last 40 years than previously thought due to climate change, Australian and US climate researchers reported Wednesday. Higher ocean temperatures expand the volume of water, contributing to a rise in sea levels that is submerging small island nations and threatening to wreak havoc in low-lying, densely-populated delta regions around the globe.

The study, published in the British journal Nature, adds to a growing scientific chorus of warnings about the pace and consequences rising oceans. It also serves as a corrective to a massive report issued last year by the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the authors.

Rising sea levels are driven by two things: the thermal expansion of sea water, and additional water from melting sources of ice. Both processes are caused by global warming. The ice sheet that sits atop Greenland, for example, contains enough water to raise world ocean levels by seven metres (23 feet), which would bury sea-level cities from Dhaka to Shanghai.

Trying to figure out how much each of these factors contributes to rising sea levels is critically important to understanding climate change, and forecasting future temperature rises, scientists say. But up to now, there has been a perplexing gap between the projections of computer-based climate models, and the observations of scientists gathering data from the oceans.

The new study, led by Catia Domingues of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, is the first to reconcile the models with observed data. Using new techniques to assess ocean temperatures to a depth of 700 metres (2,300 feet) from 1961 to 2003, it shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.53 millimetre-per-year rise in sea levels rather than the 0.32 mm rise reported by the IPCC.

(c) AFP 12/23/2008

1. What happens when the ocean's temperature rises?
  (a) It causes sea levels to rise.
  (b) It causes sea levels to remain constant.
  (c) It causes sea levels to decrease.

2. The rise in water levels is especially dangerous for small island nations and:
  (a) low-lying urban areas.
  (b) all coastal cities.
  (c) people who live on the beach.

3. The new study:
  (a) shows that thermal warming contributed to a 0.32 millimeter-per-year rise in sea levels.
  (b) did not reveal anything that scientists didn't already know.
  (c) used new techniques to assess ocean temperatures.

4. Ultimately, the new study should help scientists to:
  (a) lower water levels.
  (b) better predict climate change.
  (c) bury sea-level cities like Dhaka and Shanghai.

5. What was the main finding of the study?
  (a) That not enough is being done about global warming.
  (b) That ocean waters have warmed faster than scientists had previously thought.
  (c) That the warming of the world's oceans is not a threat.

SOURCE: infosquares

ANSWERS

1a / 2a / 3c / 4b / 5b

IGCSE Reading - Exam Practice - Exercise 5: Answer Key

Reading Comprehension Reference

A.Reading Comprehension

1. True
2. False
3. True
4. True
5. True
6. False
7. True
8. True
9. False

B. Summary

The aim of the project is to encourage young children to take up cricket. The best approach to teaching cricket to young children is to get the children's concentration, keep everyone active and involved as well as let all the children have some time to hit the ball. At William Davies school, the project links with the interest children's families, who are largely Asian, already have in cricket. It is also popular because it introduces children to the ideas of team work, fair play, and the mental attitudes required to learn a game successfully. (96 words)

Source: Success International by Marian Barry

IGCSE Reading - Exam Practice - Exercise 5

Photo Credit

A. Reading Comprehension

Read this article on kwik cricket and answer the questions which follow it.

Cricket is not the easiest sport to introduce to youngsters. The traditional game demands time and patience and a high level of skill, something that small children do not always possess. They like action and non-stop involvement compressed into short periods of the primary school day.

The London Schools' Cricket Project has met these difficulties head-on. Desperately keen that more youngsters should be introduced to the sport, it sends coaches to hundreds of primary schools to give concentrated instruction and supervision of Kwik cricket.

The William Davies School in Forest Gate, East London did not have the most cheerful of January afternoons last week to introduce youngsters to England's traditional summer game. The sun may have been shining but a sharp wind cut across the playground. With 30 pupils eager to exercise, it did not seem a suitable day for refining individual technique.

Yet, what was remarkable was the amount of individual tuition that was possible by one coach, while still keeping the interest of the rest of the class. During bowling practice, the youngsters would deliver their balls and then run across the tarmac to swap places with their partners.  In this way, not only did they keep warm, but they also got more exercise.

Vic Griffith, the coach said: "I always try to get their attention, to get them to focus on me and, while they are in the cold, to get them in move up and down. They should have as much enjoyment and exercise as possible.

At this co-educational school, he is preaching, if not always to the converted, at least to the interested. 95% of the 250 pupils come from the ethnic minorities, particularly the Indian sub-continent.

Gill Gordon, the head teacher said: "They know far more about cricketers than footballers and their fathers will often play cricket with them on the park. They support England against Australia or the West Indies, but when England are playing India or Pakistan, they sometimes don't know where they are."

She has always welcomed the Project's suggestion to send in a coach for five sessions a year.

"Cricket teaches teamwork and the discipline of learning a game, with its rules and need for fairness,"

The project has a budget of about £100,000 for this year to help pay for two full-time and ten part-time coaches to tour the London schools. This total includes £5,000 from Tesco - the supermarket chain - plus a further £5,000 from the government and funds from charitable and cricket trusts and donations from the schools.

Oliver McClintock, the debuty coordinator of the Project, says: "We are not only creating the players of the future. We are also creating the parents and paying public of the future."

This hour-long session ended with 25 minutes of Kwik cricket, which allows everyone to have a go either hitting Griffith's deliveries across the playground to everyone's delight or missing the ball."

One pupil, Bilal Hassan, 9, said: " I like whacking the ball a long way." He was bowled by one ball that may have turned on the tarmac. "The ball went wonky", he said.

(a) Are the following statements true or false?

1. Traditional cricket is an ideal game for young children.

2. Secondary schools have been involved in the Project.

3. The coach tries to keep children as active as possible.

4. The William Davies School is a multi-cultural school for boys and girls.

5. The parents have encouraged their children's interest in cricket.

6. The head teacher is disappointed with the benefits the children get from the game.

7.  A number of organisations have contributed money to the Project.

8. The Project hopes to make an impact on cricket in the future.

9. Not all the children get a chance to hit the ball during the session.

 

(b) Read the article again and write a summary describing the aim of the project, the best approach for teaching cricket to young children, and the reasons why the William Davies School supports the project. Your summary should not be longer than 100 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Source: Success International by Marian Barry