Semester Reading Test - Focus 4 (Units 1- 5)

Read the text. Choose the correct answer for the questions.

‘He has a great personality!’ That’s how Bill, who later became my husband, was first described to me by my best friend. What she was trying to tell me in those five innocent words was that the man I was about to meet was less than attractive. And it’s true, you wouldn’t notice him in a crowd. But he really does have a great personality. From the first time we talked I was attracted to him, and after a few short weeks we fell madly in love.

Our idyllic life together was shattered a few years later when I almost lost Bill. In some sense I did lose him. Bill was driving home from work when he lost control of his car and crashed, leading to months in hospital. When he finally regained consciousness, the good-natured, affectionate Bill I used to know had been replaced by a much more self-critical and insecure version.

As a psychology student I’d studied theories on what makes us who we are, whether we are a product of nature or nurture and how far we can choose our identity. I’d even read up on a few cases where people had suffered catastrophic events and seemingly woken up with whole new personalities. It was only when I witnessed it first-hand that I became fascinated.

The tendency to classify people into personality types goes way back, even as far as the Ancient Greeks. They believed people could be categorised into four main humours, not dissimilar to the more modern Myers-Briggs test which is based on a wider range of sixteen personality types. Another field of thought, professed by Walter Mischel, was that behaviour was much more dependent on the situation a person found themselves in, rather than something present from birth.

1. The writer’s friend focussed on Bill’s personality because she believed                                        [he had a similar personality, it was the easiest way to identify him, it was his most attractive quality, she didn’t know what he looked like]

2. The writer became really interested in theories about personality when                                       [  she read cases about people, she was studying psychology, she started working as a psychologist, she noticed changes in Bill]

3. Walter Mischel suggested that the way people behave is deeply affected by                                     [  behaviour fixed from birth, the circumstances around them, people who have the power to change, sixteen different personality types]

Read the text. Choose the correct answer for the questions.

It’s now generally accepted that there are five main personality types. These are conscientiousness, which is connected to your goals and how sensitive you are towards them. Agreeableness, whether a person is insecure and seeks approval from others or trusts in their own abilities. Extraversion, whether or not you enjoy socialising. Neuroticism, how you respond to threats, and finally openness, whether you are daring when it comes to new experiences or prefer to keep things the way they are.

Of these five traits, the one that seems easiest to change is neuroticism. Research shows that over time, everyone’s personality changes. It just happens so gradually that we don’t notice. Since neuroticism is linked to poor health and a reduced lifespan, it’s the one that people are most likely to seek help for, usually through therapy. When the right help is given, rather than a gradual change, such as the growth of a plant or the erosion of a cliff, the changes in terms of neuroticism are far easier to identify. Instead of thirty or forty years it can take as little as a month.

With that in mind, Bill and I have been on a mission to help him regain some of the identity he had before his accident. Scientific papers state that one way to change the mechanisms of behaviour is to focus on strengths and resources rather than problems, and finding ways these strengths can help you. Since Bill has always been very athletic, we found ways for him to channel his anger through learning martial arts, which he has gone on to compete in successfully. We still have a long way to go, but there are more and more glimpses of the old Bill showing through, and I have no doubt that this will continue as we keep working together.

1. Research shows that neuroticism is the trait that people                                          [most commonly want to work on, take up to forty years for personality, having therapy for personality disorders, notice changes in your own personality]

2. Bill is now                                        [focussing on his problems, returning to his hobby of martial arts, as confident as he was before, slowly returning to his own self]

Read the text about wedding. For the questions, choose the correct answer.

On a week – day morning a small congregation, consisting mainly of women and girls, rose from its knees in the church called All Saints'. They were about to disperse, when a smart footstep, entering the porch and coming up the central passage, arrested their attention. Everybody looked. A young cavalry soldier in a red uniform strode up the aisle, with an embarrassment which was only the more marked by the determination up on his face to show none. As light flush mounted his cheek but he never paused till he came close to the altar railing. Here for a moment he stood alone.

‘Tis a wedding!’ murmured some of the women, brightening. ‘Let's wait!’ The majority again sat down. There was a creaking of machinery with a quarter-jack and small bell beneath it, the automaton being driven by the same clock machinery that struck the large bell in the tower. The jack had struck half-past eleven. ‘Where's the woman?’ whispered some of the spectators. The young sergeant was as silent as he was still. The silence grew to be a noticeable thing as the minutes went on, and nobody else appeared, and not a soul moved.

The rattle of the quarter-jack again, its blows for three quarters, caused many of the congregation to start that artificial coughing which betrays a nervous suspense. But the soldier never moved. There he stood, upright as a column, his cap in his hand. The clock ticked on. The women threw off their nervousness, and giggling became more frequent. Then came a dead silence. Everyone was waiting for the end. The sergeant had not yet turned; every woman in the church was waiting to see his face, and he appeared to know it. At last he did turn, and stalked resolutely down the nave, braving the mall.

Opposite the church was a paved square. The young man on leaving the door went to cross the square, when, in the middle, he met a woman. The expression of her face, which had been one of intense anxiety, sank at the sight of his nearly to terror. ‘Well?’ he said. ‘O, Frank – I made a mistake – I thought that church with the spire was All Saints', and I was at the door at half-past eleven to a minute as you said. I waited till a quarter to twelve, and found then that I was in All Souls'. But I wasn't much frightened, for I thought it could be tomorrow as well.’ ‘Shall it be tomorrow, Frank?’ she asked. ‘Tomorrow! I don't go through that experience again for some time’.

‘But after all,’ she expostulated in a trembling voice, ‘the mistake was not such a terrible thing! Now, dear Frank, when shall it be?’ ‘Ah, when? God knows!’ he said, and turning from her walked rapidly away.

1. At the start of the story, the people in the church                                       [knew there was going to be a wedding, could see how the soldier was feeling, had left before the soldier arrived, noticed the soldier’s uniform before]

2. While everyone was waiting for the bride,                                    [the soldier didn’t move at all, the women stared at the expression, there was no sound in the church, the soldier showed his nervousness]

3. The thing which frightened the woman the most was                                       [realising she was in the wrong church, arriving at All Soul’s church, seeing the expression on Frank’s face, waiting for Frank]