Practice test: section 2

Do you ever wonder what will become of your classmates? Can you spot who’s going to become famous or get a really interesting job? Colin Bacon decided to look up some people he’d known at secondary school to find out just that.

1. The first person I found was Andrew. He’d always wanted to work in the music industry. He reminded me, “As a student, I used to do DJ work at the weekends. The academic side of university wasn’t my main priority. After graduation, I did temporary jobs before getting into a record company as assistant to the marketing manager. I learnt a lot from him and progressed quickly. I’m now in charge of signing new bands. A typical week involves meetings with artists and producers. No two days are ever the same in this job and an average day can change it in an instant if you hear a new band and you realise you’re on to something big. The thrill of that makes all the dull days worthwhile.”

2. Barbara was much more of a shock. She was always rather quiet at school. She explained, “After school I got a place at Art College to do a four-year degree, but after a year I swapped to a geography degree which I thought was more interesting. On that course, I met some people who were thinking of joining the army. I suddenly realised it was just the thing for me too. After graduation, I spent a year doing officer training and then shadowed another officer for two months before getting my own first commission”. She now has fifty-five soldiers under her command. “Promotion depends on the performance and time served, but I hope to have been promoted to the rank of captain in two years’ time”.

3. Carl was always a patient sort, so I wasn’t surprised to find him still in the classroom. He told me, “In my last year at school, I considered teaching as a career, but I ended up doing two years of a medical degree instead. I never really felt committed to it and after two years switched to Biology. I chose a very practical training course where I spent a lot of time in schools rather than in a lecture theatre. The advantage is that you build up a teaching style quite quickly, but you do miss out a bit on the educational theory behind it. I now work in an inner-city secondary school and the challenge is motivating the rather troublesome pupils to learn”.

4. Biggest shock of all was Diane. She was quite scruffy at school and the last person I expected to be working as a fashion model. As she explained, “Anyone who says you become a model just because you’re pretty is totally wrong. To be successful you need personality, drive, maturity as well as good looks. A model’s job involves getting up early, performing miracles in front of the camera even when you feel awful. It is often exhausting. It’s glamorous enough if you make it to the top, but most don’t. Fortunately, I’m building up the experience necessary to start my own agency because modeling is not something you can do forever”.

From: Dembovsky, D. L. (ed.) (2013) Centralised testing. The English language: collection of tests. Minsk: Aversev.