Exam B1 LV

Complete each paragraph with these words from Unit 1, Reading 1. Use each word only once. 

• arrive
• communicate
• connect
• extraordinary
• produce
• project
• team
• upload

Match each word or phrase from Unit 1, Reading 2, to the correct definition. Not all answers will be used. 

• a. balance
• b. depend on

READING 1: A DAY ON PLANET EARTH 

What happens in a single day on planet Earth? In 2010, a team led by film director Kevin Macdonald tried to find out. The team asked people around the world to film their life on a single day – July 24 – and to send in their videos. As a result, people uploaded 80,000 videos to YouTube – a total of more than 4,500 hours. The videos were sent by people from 192 countries, from Australia to Zambia. Macdonald’s team used the videos to produce a 90-minute movie called Life in a Day. 

The movie begins as most days begin. People wake up, get dressed, wash their faces, and brush their teeth. Parents take care of their children. People laugh and cry. As the day goes on, we see changes in people’s lives. A man thanks the hospital workers who helped save his life. A woman learns that she is pregnant. A man calls his mother and asks, “What should I say to the woman I love?”

Macdonald understood that what may be normal to one person may be extraordinary to another. For example, the movie shows cultural differences in the different ways that people travel to work. Macdonald explains, “What we might see as banal, living in our own culture, is not banal to somebody growing up in Dakar.”

Macdonald’s team also asked people the following questions: “What do you love most in the world, and what do you fear?” People speak of their love for family and friends, of football and fast cars, a pet cat, or even a refrigerator. Children speak of being scared of imaginary monsters and of real-life lions. Some Ukrainian farmers worry that wolves are going to eat their goats. People around the world talk about their fear of guns, of war, and of the loss of natural beauty.

Macdonald says that Life in a Day was possible because of the way we are all connected. “The film is doing something that [was not] possible pre-Internet … The idea that you can ask thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people all to contribute to a project and all to communicate about it and learn about it at the same time.”

One of the people in the movie is a Korean cyclist named Okhwan Yoon. After traveling alone for nine years through 190 countries, he arrived on July 24 in Kathmandu, Nepal. “When I close my eyes,” he says, “I can see all the different people in the world, from town to town, from country to country. I can feel it. I can touch it. I can see it.” The Life in a Day team hopes that, after watching the movie, others may feel the same way.

READING 2: A DAY IN A LIFE 

What is it like to be a National Geographic Explorer? Three explorers describe their working lives. 

Ricky Qi takes images and videos to tell stories about people and places.

What time do you normally start and end your workday? 

That depends on the part of the project I’m working on. Before and after filming, I usually wake up at 7 a.m., start working soon after that, and stop in the afternoon. During filming, I don’t have a regular schedule. I usually wake up when the sun comes up and I quit when the sun goes down.

Where do you work? 

That also depends on the project. I work from home when I’m not filming. While I’m filming, I work all over the world. For example, when I was making a film about the Himalayas, I worked in a village in the mountains.

Why did you choose to do this kind of work? 

When I was young, I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books. They showed me different ways of living and thinking. I want my films and photographs to do this for other people!

What’s the most difficult thing about your job? 

The paperwork. It’s boring, but it’s important.

Kakani Katija studies the movements of jellyfish and other ocean animals.

Where do you work? 

Sometimes I work in my office or with animals in a laboratory. I spend a lot of time in the ocean, too. I dive with animals to learn how they swim and eat.

What time do you normally start and end your workday? 

I often keep a nine-to-five schedule. When I am studying animals in the ocean, my start and end times depend on the behavior of the animals.

What’s the most difficult thing about your job? 

It’s tough to balance my work schedule, travel, and time with my family.

What’s one of the strangest things that happened to you at work? 

One night I was diving in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. I was measuring a jellyfish. Suddenly, a crab swam up. It grabbed the jellyfish in its claws and ate him! It was a big surprise!

Christine Lee studies the skeletons of ancient humans to understand how they lived.

Where do you work? 

I work on archaeological excavations in China and Mongolia. I also work in a professor’s office and in a laboratory.

What time do you normally start and end your workday? 

If I am on an archaeological excavation, I usually work from sunrise to sundown. In the laboratory, I work as long as the laboratory is open.

What’s the best thing about your job? 

Finding a story that has been buried for hundreds or thousands of years.

What’s the toughest thing about your job? 

Cold weather, no bathrooms!

What’s one of the strangest things that happened to you at work? 

When I was working on two children’s skeletons, the skulls started moving back and forth. Luckily, I realized there was a rainstorm coming. The wind was moving the skulls!

Review Reading 1 and Reading 2 from Unit 1. 

Read the statements below. Match each one to the person who said something similar. Answers can be used more than once. Remember to answer like this: “a. Kevin Macdonald“.

• a. Kevin Macdonald
• b. Okhwan Yoon
• c. Ricky Qi
• d. Kakani Katija
• e. Christine Lee

A The National Geographic Society was started in 1888 by Gardiner Greene Hubbard. He was an American lawyer who wanted to help people learn about science. The society is now one of the largest and most important scientific and educational organizations in the world. Like Hubbard, the society’s goal is to share knowledge about science, geography, and the world.

B Since it started, the Society has supported over 11,000 projects. Some of the most famous of these include sending explorers to the North Pole and to Machu Picchu in Peru, helping Robert Ballard to find the Titanic at the bottom of the cold Atlantic Ocean, and supporting the work of famous explorers and scientists like Jacques Cousteau, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Louis and Mary Leakey.

C In addition to its support for well-known experts, in recent years, the National Geographic Society has started supporting Emerging Explorers. These are mostly younger people who work as scientists, conservationists, and even storytellers. Each explorer wants their work to make a difference. They use new technology and clever ideas to help people understand the world.

D One National Geographic Emerging Explorer is Jeffrey Marlow. He studies life that lives in places where most other things cannot live, such as deep at the bottom of the sea or even inside a volcano. His work is important, but not just because it can teach people about Earth. Marlow’s research could also help us learn more about the possibility of life on Mars or other planets. In addition, he is studying whether ocean microbes could turn a gas called methane – which is bad for the planet – into something useful.

E Another Emerging Explorer is Wasfia Nazreen. Her home country – Bangladesh – has no mountains higher than 1,000 meters. However, Nazreen has climbed the highest mountain on all seven continents, including Mount Everest. In addition to climbing, Nazreen tries to help people, especially women, find better opportunities. One of her biggest goals is to help people take care of their environment.

F The National Geographic Society will continue to support the work of Emerging Explorers like Jeffrey Marlow and Wasfia Nazreen. In this way, the Society hopes that more people will want to care of this amazing, beautiful planet on which we all live.

Read the passage before. Then read each statement and write in CAPITAL LETTERS: 

TRUE if the statement agrees with information in the passage 

FALSE if the statement contradicts information in the passage 

NOT GIVEN if there is no information about this in the passage

A The National Geographic Society was started in 1888 by Gardiner Greene Hubbard. He was an American lawyer who wanted to help people learn about science. The society is now one of the largest and most important scientific and educational organizations in the world. Like Hubbard, the society’s goal is to share knowledge about science, geography, and the world.

B Since it started, the Society has supported over 11,000 projects. Some of the most famous of these include sending explorers to the North Pole and to Machu Picchu in Peru, helping Robert Ballard to find the Titanic at the bottom of the cold Atlantic Ocean, and supporting the work of famous explorers and scientists like Jacques Cousteau, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Louis and Mary Leakey.

C In addition to its support for well-known experts, in recent years, the National Geographic Society has started supporting Emerging Explorers. These are mostly younger people who work as scientists, conservationists, and even storytellers. Each explorer wants their work to make a difference. They use new technology and clever ideas to help people understand the world.

D One National Geographic Emerging Explorer is Jeffrey Marlow. He studies life that lives in places where most other things cannot live, such as deep at the bottom of the sea or even inside a volcano. His work is important, but not just because it can teach people about Earth. Marlow’s research could also help us learn more about the possibility of life on Mars or other planets. In addition, he is studying whether ocean microbes could turn a gas called methane – which is bad for the planet – into something useful.

E Another Emerging Explorer is Wasfia Nazreen. Her home country – Bangladesh – has no mountains higher than 1,000 meters. However, Nazreen has climbed the highest mountain on all seven continents, including Mount Everest. In addition to climbing, Nazreen tries to help people, especially women, find better opportunities. One of her biggest goals is to help people take care of their environment.

F The National Geographic Society will continue to support the work of Emerging Explorers like Jeffrey Marlow and Wasfia Nazreen. In this way, the Society hopes that more people will want to care of this amazing, beautiful planet on which we all live.

Skimming for gist means to look at a passage before (or a paragraph) in a passage quickly in order to find out the main idea. You don’t need to read or understand every word. 

Choose the best answer to each question. 

26. Which answer best describes the gist of paragraph A?

27. Which answer best describes the gist of paragraph B?

28. Which answer best describes the gist of paragraph C?

29. Which answer best describes the gist of paragraphs D and E?

30. Which answer best describes the gist of paragraph F?

We use the simple present for habits and daily routines. We also use it to give facts or general statements about people or places. 

Choose the answer that best describes each sentence. 

31. In many countries, more boys than girls study science, technology, engineering, and math at university.

32. The National Geographic Society was founded more than 120 years ago to promote science and learning.

33. National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers program began less than 20 years ago, in 2004.

34. I normally drink one or two cups of coffee before starting work for the day.

One key to writing good sentences is to make sure you use the form of the verb that agrees with the subject. 

Look at these sentences. Write the correct present simple form of the underlined verbs in the blanks. 

Combine the short sentences into one longer sentence. 

45. Read the email from your classmate. Then write a short response in your own words.