test 4, speaking - Amazon Web Services4 TEST 4 student s ansWers PTE C ADEMIC PA CTICE TESTS PLS © Pearson education Limited 2013 PhotocoPiabLe test 4, speaking repeat sentence 1

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PTE AcAdEmic PrAcTicE TESTS PluS

© Pearson education Limited 2013 PhotocoPiabLe

test 4, speakingread aloud1 topic: the italian alphabet

student’s overall Pte academic score: 45

387 The Italian alphabet has fewer letters in comparison with the English alphabet. Italian does not use the letters J, K, W, X or Y, except in the borrowed words– words. However, young Italians are increasingly use– using the letter K in words that would be written with C or CH in standard Italian orthography.

examiner’s comments: This student frequently mispronounces words (e.g. ‘comparison’, ‘orthography’, and ‘borrowed’) and pauses unnaturally within sentences. Despite including all of the words from the prompt, the response would receive a low score.


388 The Italian alphabet has fewer letters in comparison with the English alphabet. Italian does not use the letters J, K, W, X or Y, except in borrowed words. However, young Italians are increasingly using the letter K in words that would be written with C or CH in standard Italian orthography.

examiner’s comments: This student reads all of the words from the prompt with adequate fluency, but they use intonation which is clearly non-native for certain words, such as ‘orthography’.


389 The Italian alphabet has fewer letters in comparison with the English alphabet. Italian does not use the letters J, K, W, X or Y, except in borrowed words. However young Italians are increasingly using the letter K in words that would be written with C or CH in standard Italian orthography.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully reads all of the words from the prompt with native-like fluency and pronunciation.

2 topic: summerhill school


390 Summerhill School was re– regarded with considerable suspicious by the education– educational establishment. Lessons were opitional– optional for pupils at the school, and the government, of the school was carried out by a School Council, of which all the pupils and staff were members, with everyone having equal voting rights.

examiner’s comments: This student would lose points for replacing the word ‘suspicion’ with ‘suspicious’, as well as for frequent mispronunciations and hesitations.


391 Summerhill School was regarded with considerable suspicion by the educational establishment. Lessons were optional for pupils at the school, and the government of the school was carried out by a School Council, of which all the pupils and staff were members, with everyone having equal voting rights.

examiner’s comments: This response includes everything from the prompt but the student frequently pauses and mispronounces certain words such as ‘pupils’ and ‘government’.


392 Summerhill School was regarded with considerable suspicion by the educational establishment. Lessons were optional for pupils at the school, and the government of the school was carried out by a School Council, of which all the pupils and staff were members, with everyone having equal voting rights.

examiner’s comments: This student has read every word from the prompt with appropriate fluency, and only makes one significant pronunciation error with the word ‘which’.

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3 topic: Workshops for interviews


393 This term the university is running a series of workshops, for final year students, on how to do well in interviews. These sessions will help participants prepare effectively for – and perform, at their best during – later job interviews. The workshop tutors have an excellent record of success in helping students acquire the position they desire.

examiner’s comments: This student would receive a low score due to mispronunciation of key words like ‘university’ and ‘year’ and for frequent hesitations.


394 This term the university is running a series of workshops for final year students on how to do well in interviews. These sessions will help participants prepare effectively for – and perform at their best during – later job interviews. The workshop tutors have an excellent record of success in helping students acquire the positions they desire.

examiner’s comments: This student reads every word with clear pronunciation but, in order to improve their response’s score, the student would need to hesitate less often.


395 This term the university is running a series of workshops for final year students on how to do well in interviews. This sessions will help participants prepare effectively for – and to perform at their best at during – later job interviews. The workshops tutors have an excellent record of success in helping students acquire the positions they desire.

examiner’s comments: This student reads everything from the prompt with native-like fluency, but makes a pronunciation error when saying ‘these sessions’ and therefore would not achieve the maximum score.

4 topic: tasmania


396 Tasmania is a large and relatively sparsely popu– populate island off the south coast of Australia. The island is of particular interest to natural scientists, who go there to research the unique wildlife. Tasmania has, for example, 12 speci– species of bird that are not found anywhere else in the world.

examiner’s comments: This student fails to accurately read many words such as ‘populated’, ‘wildlife’ and ‘species’ and, therefore, despite relatively good fluency, the student would receive a low score.


397 Tasmania is a large and relatively sparsely populated island off the south coast of Australia. The island is of particular interest to natural scientists, who go there to research the unique wildlife. Tasmania has, for example, 12 species of bird that are not found anywhere else in the world.

examiner’s comments: Despite strong fluency, this student fails to accurately pronounce words like ‘island’, which would negatively affect the response’s score.


398 Tasmania is a large and a relatively sparsely populated island off the south coast of Australia. The island is of particular interest to natural scientists, who go there to research the unique wildlife. Tasmania has, for example, 12 species of bird that are not found anywhere else in the world.


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5 topic: medical powers of honey


399 Honey has traditionally been credited with significant magical powers, and it has played a major part in many fork remedies. But it seems now its efficas– efficacy is not just an old wives’ tale. Recent research has sh– has shown there is sin– scientific evidence to prove that honey contain elements that prevent bacteria from growing.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces the words ‘folk’, ‘scientific’, and ‘efficacy’ in an incomprehensible, hesitant way. However the response contains all of the words from the prompt and would receive an intermediate-level score.


400 Honey has traditionally been credited with significant medical powers, and it has played a major part in many folk remedies. But it seems now its efficacy is not just an old wives’ tale. Recent research has shown there is scientific evidence to prove that honey contains elements that prevent bacteria from growing.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with adequate fluency and clear pronunciation, with one mispronunciation on the word ‘and’.


401 Honey has traditionally been credited with significant medical powers, and it has played a major part in many folk remedies. But it seems now its efficacy is not just an old wives’ tale. Recent research has shown there is scientific evidence to prove that honey contains elements that prevent bacteria from growing.


6 topic: the college museum


402 The College has a fascinating museum dedicated to antro– archaeology and anthropology. It contains information about many of the studies which have been carried out by members of the College over a 500 years of its existance. There are many unique exhibits brought back from the excavation and exploration in all the continents.

examiner’s comments: Frequent hesitations and mispronunciations would reduce the score for this response. The student would also lose points for saying ‘excavation’ and ‘exploration’ rather than ‘excavations’ and ‘explorations’.


403 The College has a fascinating museum dedicated to archaeology and anthropology. It contains information about many of the studies which have been carried out by members of the college over the 500 years of its existence. There are many unique exhibits brought back from excavations and explorations in all the continents.

examiner’s comments: This student mispronounces words such as ‘museum’ and speaks in an unnaturally slow way, so their response would receive low scores for pronunciation and fluency.


404 The College has a fascinating museum dedicated to archaeology and anthropology. It contains information about many of the studies which have been carried out by members of the College over the 500 years of its existence. There are many unique exhibits brought back from excavations and explorations in all the continents.


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test 4, speakingrepeat sentence1 topic: correlation


405 … Studies, er find that er, have a correlation between, er … education achievement and …

examiner’s comments: This student fails to repeat several words from the prompt and speaks with poor fluency and pronunciation.


406 Studies suggest that there be– there may be a correlation between educational achievement and family size.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with clear pronunciation and adequate fluency, but the response’s score would be reduced by a hesitation before the word ‘may’.


407 Studies suggest there may be a correlation between educational achievement and family size.

examiner’s comments: Despite slight mispronunciation of the word ‘there’, this response, which contains all the words from the prompt, would receive a high score for its native-like fluency.

2 topic: Lunchtime seminar


408 Tomorrow the nuclears– er nuclears seminar … will be postpored.

examiner’s comments: This response omits five words from the prompt, and the student’s pronunciation and fluency are very poor.


409 Tomorrow’s lunchtime seminar er on nuclear engineering has been postponed.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats every word with good fluency, but a small hesitation before the word ‘on’ and poor pronunciation of the word ‘engineering’ would reduce their score.


410 Tomorrow’s lunchtime seminar on nuclear engineering has been postponed.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully repeats all of the words from the prompt with native-like fluency and pronunciation.

3 topic: heavy industry


411 During that period the heavy inderusty, industry er grow rapdly … during that period.

examiner’s comments: This student would receive a low score for failing to repeat the second half of the prompt. Their score would be reduced further by the repetition of ‘during that period’.

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412 During that period heavy industry grew rapidly over the north of the country.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with clear pronunciation and good fluency but would lose points for replacing the word ‘in’ with ‘over’.


413 During that period, heavy industry grew rapidly in the north of the country.


4 topic: assignments


414 Students must hand in, their assignment … by Friday.

examiner’s comments: Despite containing all of the words from the prompt, this response would receive a low score due to a long, unnatural pause before ‘by Friday’ and the mispronunciation of ‘students’.


415 Students must return their assignments by Friday.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with clear pronunciation and native-like fluency but would lose points for replacing ‘hand in’ with ‘return’.


416 Students must hand in their assignments by this Friday.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully repeats all of the words with native-like fluency and pronunciation but would lose points for adding the word ‘this’ which is not in the prompt.

5 topic: most students


417 Most students in the last … coursed will be in this module.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with frequent hesitations and poor pronunciation and their response does not contain the words ‘course’, ‘did’ or ‘well’.


418 Most students on last year’s course did well in this module.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats every word with good fluency but would lose points for mispronunciation of the word ‘course’.

student’s o erall Pte academic score: 89

419 Most students on last year’s course did well in this module.


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6 topic: social psychology lecture


420 … Tuesday’s … sections er about psychology will be take, will not be take in Central [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student would receive a very low score as their response is hesitant and contains less than 50 percent of the prompt.


421 Tuesday’s lecture, on social psychology will now takes place on– will now take place in the Social Hall.

examiner’s comments: This response contains most of the prompt but the student would lose points for replacing ‘Central’ with ‘Social’ and for repeating ‘will now’.


422 Tuesday’s lecture on social phycology will now take place in the Central Hall.


7 topic: Problems with accommodation


423 Anyone who have, a problem with accommodation should will er– should speak with Welfare Accommodation … Officer.

examiner’s comments: This response does not contain the words ‘has’ and ‘their’, and it contains frequent unnatural hesitations and repetitions.


424 Anyone who has a problem with their accommodation should speak to the Welfare Officer.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats every word from the prompt with good fluency and pronunciation.


425 Anyone who has a problem with their accommodation should speak to the Welfare Officer.


8 topic: Plains in the east of the region


426 … [long pause] Provide excellent [long pause] …

examiner’s comments: This student only repeats two words from the prompt, so their response would receive a very low score.


427 With fertile planes in the east of the region provide excellent land for farming.

examiner’s comments: This student accurately repeats everything from the prompt after the word ‘the’ at the beginning, which would prevent the response from receiving the maximum score.

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428 The fertile planes in the east of the region provide ex– provide excellent land for farming.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully repeats all of the words from the prompt with native-like pronunciation, but would lose points for a hesitation before the word ‘excellent’ and for repetition of the word ‘provide’.

9 topic: opposition to tax policies


429 The position of the government about tax policy …

examiner’s comments: This student fails to repeat 50 percent of the prompt and says ‘the position’ rather than ‘opposition’.


430 Opposition among the government’s … um tax policy was wide spread among the, opposition.

examiner’s comments: This student fails to say ‘business sectors’, and would also lose points for repeating ‘opposition’.


431 Opposition with regard to government’s policy is er widespread in financial sector.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats less than 50 percent of the prompt accurately but they use clear pronunciation and have good fluency. The student would lose points for replacing and omitting words such as, ‘to’, ‘tax’, ‘policies’, ‘was’, ‘across’ and ‘business’.

10 topic: Queries about timetables


432 … Students … [long pause] … would want to change the timetable need to speak with er … immediately.

examiner’s comments: This student fails to repeat more than three words accurately and there are very long pauses between parts of the response, so this response would receive a very low score.


433 Students with queries about their timetable must speak to their tutors immediately.

examiner’s comments: This student speaks with clear pronunciation and good fluency but they would lose points for saying ‘their timetable’ rather than ‘this term’s timetables’ and for saying ‘tutors’ rather than ‘tutor’.


434 Student with any query er– resgard to the assignment must speak to their tutor immediately.

examiner’s comments: This student repeats most of the prompt with good fluency and pronunciation, but they would lose points for omitting ‘this term’, adding the word ‘any’ and replacing ‘about’ and ‘timetable’ with ‘resgard’ and ‘assignment’.

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test 4, speakingdescribe image1 topic: antarctica


435 Antarctica’s map shows er, in the South Pole shows, the capital that is McMurdo Station and two main cities, the Ross Ice Shelf, Ronne Ice Shelf and the four Oceans that have around, the are Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean ah the Ross Sea. Um South Magnet and that’s it … Oh, Pacific Ocean.

examiner’s comments: This student tries to describe the main features of the image but the description is very unclear due to extremely poor pronunciation of place names such as Ronne Ice Shelf and Ross Ice Shelf. The student does successfully mention the seas which surround Antarctica but, despite this detail being clear, the response’s score would be low due to poor pronunciation and fluency.


436 The image– this is an image of the Antarctica. On the top right hand side there is the Indian Ocean and on the top left hand side there is the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean is on the bottom left and the South Magnetic Pole is on the bottom right, and um, the Ross sea is um, in the middle, in the bottom middle of the um picture … [long pause] … It also shows the um South Pole, the Ross Ice Shelf and McMurdo Station.

examiner’s comments: This student mentions most main features of the image including the different locations within Antarctica and the surrounding oceans and seas. However, the student fails to mention Ronne Ice Shelf. The response would also lose points for poor pronunciation and for a long pause towards the end of the description.


437 The chart shows a map of Antarctica. Um Antarctica is surrounded by different Oceans, the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the Ross Sea as well. Um the South Magnetic Pole is near there and the South Pole itself is situated er right in the middle of the country. You’ve also got the Ronne Ice Shelf, the Ross Ice Shelf and finally the McMurdo Station.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all key features of the image with native-like fluency and pronunciation. The student describes each feature in sufficient detail and would achieve a very high score. In order to achieve the maximum score, the student would need to mention the size of Antarctica as this is displayed on the image.

2 topic: temperatures in the mountains of southwest tasmania


438 The graph shows er the temperature in South Tasmania er during er January to December and er it’s in degrees Celsius, so the highest temperature are between January and February, the lowest er temperatures are between May and July and it’s rise again, er from July to November.

examiner’s comments: This student misrepresents a key feature of the image when saying it shows ‘temperature in Southwest Tasmania’ as it actually shows temperature in ‘the mountains of Southwest Tasmania’, rather than the whole island. The student does mention some key features, but their response’s score would be low due to poor fluency and mispronunciation of words such as ‘February’ and ‘rise’, which is pronounced ‘rice’.


439 The graph shows the temperatures in mountains of Southwest Tasmania from January to November. From the graph it can be seen that the lowest minimum record has been fairly constant as well as the average minimum, but the average maximum has um decreased from um about 12.5 to nearly zero degrees and then it has increased again um reaching ten degrees. The highest maximum record has um on the other hand, greatly varied from about 20 um seven to a fall of about ten and then in [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student successfully mentions most points from the image, including details of precise figures. However, the response would lose points because the student says that figures are from January to November, whereas the points on the graph continue until December. The student’s pronunciation and fluency are sufficient for an intermediate score.

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440 The diagram shows the temperatures in the mountains of Southwest Tasmania. Um it’s got the highest maximum recorded, the average maximum, average minimum and lowest minimum recorded, taken from January till December. The average maximum, average minimum and lowest minimum follow a similar curve, like an upside down bell shape and the highest maximum, um has a very sharp drop and also very sharp rises.

examiner’s comments: This student mentions all the key features of the graph and successfully describes the relationships between some of them. The response’s score would be high because the student mentions the differences between the changes in the highest maximum recorded temperature and the other recorded temperatures. In addition, the student would achieve high scores for fluency and pronunciation due to native-like speech and no noticeable problems.

3 topic: Life cycle of a plant


441 Er this flow chart illustrates the life circle of the– of a plant. So it can be see that er, um the seeds er, should be plant by a man and the, the roof is er growing and rainfall and– and– and sunlight er make the plant growth and it can be see the leaves and the next step is the– the plant, the flower er growing.

examiner’s comments: This response would receive a very low score because it omits many of the main features of the image, such as the stem, seeds and shoots. In addition, the student mispronounces the word ‘roots’ as ‘roof’ and speaks with very poor fluency and pronunciation during the whole response.


442 The picture shows the life cycle of a plant, the farmer would dig a hole in the ground when it’s normally um sunny, following which he will um, sow the seeds and after some time um the seeds will um grow into roots, and it will also sho– a shoot following which um the stem will grow, and then um it needs to be watered, and then the leaves would grow, and following that the flower will eventually pop up and from the flower we would er eventually get the seeds again, and the same um life cycle um starts again.

examiner’s comments: This student describes most main features of the image but fails to develop the response beyond simply describing the pictures that appear. In addition, the response contains frequent hesitations, such as before the words ‘it needs’ and ‘sow’. Because words like ‘shoot’ are pronounced poorly, a relatively low pronunciation score would also be given.


443 The chart shows the life cycle of a plant. A plant starts off as a seed … Um a du– a hole has to be dug and the seed has to be sowed in it, after which you get a small root system and a shoot. The shoot turns into a stem with the aid of sunlight and some water obviously, and finally the stem gets some leaves. As the leaves grows– er the leaves grow and the plant grows it will occasionally flower and those flowers will produce new seeds.

examiner’s comments: This response would receive a high score because the student describes the key features from the image. The student’s pronunciation is native-like and most of the response contains a good level of fluency. However, the maximum score would not be achieved due to a long pause after the student says ‘a plant starts off as a seed’.

4 topic: export of motorcycles from Japan


444 Um the majority of um motorcycle, exported er from Japan er go to North America. And followed by Europe … Er which have er 35 percent and 34 percent respectively and the next err areas i– is South America, Oceania and Africa.

examiner’s comments: This student would receive a very low score because the response fails to describe the key features of the image and misrepresents others. The student does not mention the changes in exports from the previous year and wrongly says that, after North America and Europe, South America, Oceania and Africa import most motorcycles from Japan. In fact, Asia imports more motorcycles than Africa. The student’s speech would also receive a low score due to poor fluency and pronunciation.

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445 The table shows the export of motorcycles from Japan over the last calendar year by specific region. For Asia it– it was um 7.7 percent and, that was um a decrease of four perc– 4.7 percent. For the Middle East it was 0.7 percent, um which was a decrease of 2.9 percent. For Europe it was 34.5 percent, which was a decrease of 23.6 percent. North America it was 35.5 percent which actually is an increase of 68.7 percent. For Central America it was 1.2 percent, um which was actually an increase of 11.6 percent. South America [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student mentions some main features of the image, including the countries that import the most motorcycles from Japan and the increases and decreases in exportation. However, despite good fluency, the student does not have time to finish their response within the time limit. In order to achieve a higher score, the student would need to select the key features and describe them first. For the maximum score, the student should also develop their response and consider the implications of the image, such as possible reasons for increases and decreases.


446 The table shows the export of motorcycles from Japan in the last calendar year by region. The largest importers of motorcycles are North America at 35 and a half percent and Europe at 34 and a half percent. The smallest importer is the Middle East where it’s 0.7 percent. Overall, Japan has exported 2.3 percent more motorcycles than the previous year.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the key features of the graph, including the countries that import the most and fewest motorcycles, the relative increases and decreases in exportation, and the overall changes in exportation from the previous year. The student would receive a very high score for native-like fluency and pronunciation.

5 topic: employment of Physics graduates


447 This graph illustrates the employment of Physics er graduates one year after graduation. So er 35 percent now is working in full-time education and 30 percent er, is working with … er full-time paid employment. Fifteen percent work and part– part-time study, and the rest of them, er is divided in [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response contains some key features of the image, such as the main types of employment for Physics graduates and the percentages for these. However, due to frequent hesitations and very poor fluency between words, the student does not have enough time to finish the response within the time limit. The student’s pronunciation is also poor and their response does not mention any implications of the data.


448 The pie chart shows the employment of Physics graduates one year after graduation. Thirty-five percent are in full-time education where er 30 percent is in full-time paid employment, 15 percent work and part-time study and five percent wor– work part-time, five percent do unpaid work, three percent are not available for work and the remaining seven percent are actually unemployed.

examiner’s comments: This student describes all the main features of the image with good fluency and adequate pronunciation. The response would receive a higher score if the student mentioned possible implications of the data, such as the reasons for the different levels in different types of employment. In addition, the student’s score would be reduced by their mispronunciation of the word ‘seven’.


449 This pie chart shows the employment status of Physics graduates one year after graduation, we can see that 35 percent of the Physics graduate er decided to continue their education, they um, they er st– they still study full-time after they graduate and the another 30 percent er work full-time with er pay employment and another 15 percent of the student er work– work and part-time study er another five percent of er Physics graduates only work part-time, and the another five percent [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student describes most main features of the image with native-like fluency. The response shows a clear understanding of the data, because the student says ‘35 percent of Physics graduates decided to continue education’. However, the response’s score would be reduced because the student does not mention the graduates who are not available for work or are unemployed. A mispronunciation of the word ‘paid’ is the only significant pronunciation error, so the pronunciation score would be high.

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6 topic: contribution to the uK economy


450 Er the graph shows that er the contribution or in [unclear] economic in last tent– er twentieth century by agriculture, manufacturing and business finance sector. And as we can see er the er contribution by agriculture was v– um more than nearly 50 percent in the e– [unclear] economy, while um the others business and manufacturing was less than this, but in the– around er twentieth century the agriculture gone very down unfortunately while er business is doing well, and comparing manufacturing industry as well.

examiner’s comments: The student misrepresents the key feature of this image by mispronouncing ‘UK’ in a way that is incomprehensible. The student also misrepresents the trends in agriculture over the period by simply saying it went down, whereas it actually went up between 1900 and 1950. The student’s pronunciation and fluency are both generally poor, so their score would be low.


451 The graph shows the contribution of selected sectors to the UK economy in the twentieth century. It can be noticed that in the 90s– 1900s and 1950s the contribution of agriculture was quite massive where at um from 1975 onwards it was the um business and financial sector that have contributed most to the economy. The contribution of manufacturing has um decreased but not– it has um remained significant um, um in the industry over the years.

examiner’s comments: This student’s response contains many key features of the image, including the contributions of agriculture and manufacturing over the hundred-year period. In addition, a good score would be achieved due to clear pronunciation. However, due to relatively poor fluency, the student would not achieve a very high score, because the time limit is reached before a description of the business and financial sector’s contribution.


452 This graphic shows the contribution of selected sectors to the UK economy in the twentieth century. We can see four different periods of time and there’s clearly see a change. In the year 1900 we can see that agriculture and manufacturer er almost er took the contribution of to the UK economy and then when it changed to 1950 and 1975, we can see the sector of a business and financial started to er, overgrow er agriculture manufacturing. In the year 2000, er financial and business sector is now [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student mentions all the key features of the image and speaks with clear pronunciation and native-like fluency. Mistakes in word choice, such as saying ‘overgrow’ rather than ‘overtake’, reduce the quality of the response, but their score would still be high as the meaning of the whole description is clear.

test 4, speakingre-tell lecture1 topic: salt


453 Er the speaker was talking about um of about salt er, which is important in the food er about in anci– ancient time, er and he was talking about the value of the salt and how they used to use before to preserve the food. It’s not only used for um, to increase the taste, they used to use er this salt er, to transport for long distance. And er some Emperor, they– Rome Emperor they used er to raise money by increasing salt price, and African people they also are used [cut]

examiner’s comments: This speaker mentions many key points from the lecture but misrepresents one when saying ‘they used to use this salt to transport for long distance’. Salt was not used for transport; salt was transported. In addition, although African people are mentioned the speaker does not have time to state their relationship to salt. The student’s fluency is adequate but some words, such as ‘how’, are mispronounced.

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454 The lecture is about the social history of salt and mainly about the importance of salt. In the ancient times salt was um a highly valued commodity not because um it was adding taste to the food but makely– mainly because of its um preservative um benefits, because um food could be um preserved for a longer period of time by using salt. Also in the Roman times um salt was quite er an important communi– um commodity. Roads were built um during those times, so as to allow the easy transportation of salt and salt had [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student successfully re-tells most key points from the lecture, including the role of salt in terms of food preservation and raising taxes. However, the student’s fluency is very poor, and their response does not contain information about the lecture’s final point, the distances salt was carried in Africa. The student’s pronunciation is clear but not native-like.


455 Er this lecture talks about the role of salt and it’s er significant value. Er salt is probably the most important commodity in the history. It’s not because it can add flavour to our food but because it can be used to preserve food, and er with er the help of salt so um the preserved food can be transported and can be kept er for a longer time, and er it was also– it’s also believed that er many roads were actually built surrounding Rome, so that salt can be transported into Rome and then the Roman, er Rome empire even um [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student mentions most key points, such as the significance and value of salt and its connection to Roman roads. The response does not include the lecture’s final point regarding salt being transported across the Sahara, but the student’s native-like fluency and clear pronunciation would still allow a good score to be achieved.

2 topic: children’s literature


456 So the speaker er said that … the importance of er stories telling for children. Adult er normally er tell stories for children but the importance is not just to entertain, but to teach values– values of society er for example when you have a hero, hero truly hero can teach er loyalt, er courage, and the children er can learn [cut]

examiner’s comments: This student mentions some basic points of the lecture, such as the importance of stories to the teaching of social values. However, the student is very hesitant and frequently pauses between words. The response contains many mispronounced words, such as ‘loyalty’ and, therefore it would receive a low score.


457 The lecture is about children’s literature and it shows that um stories not only um have to um entertain um kids but they are also a means by which kids actually socialise, and this is mainly brought about by the um for example um hearic characters in the um story and for example from um fairy tales to um pictures.

examiner’s comments: This student successfully describes some key points of the lecture, such as the value of stories for entertainment and socialisation. However, the description of some points is unclear due to poor pronunciation of key words. For example, the student says ‘hear-ic characters’ rather than ‘heroic characters’, which makes the point about heroes impossible to understand. The score would be further reduced due to the student’s frequent hesitations.


458 Children’s literature can be used to entertain children, but also it has been used over the ages to educate them. Um children’s stories tend to be quite moralising and a means of socialising the children. They do that through for instance the heroess in the stories and children want to aspire to be like them, kind of emulate them and the um attributes that they have like courage, loyalty etc. In Cinderella for instance, Cinderella works very hard and she’s the one that gets the prince, whereas her sis– lazy sisters get nothing.

examiner’s comments: This response successfully describes all the key points from the lecture, such as the facts that stories can entertain and educate, and that stories moralize and socialize children. The student effectively re-tells the example of Cinderella and speaks with native-like fluency and pronunciation, so their score would be very high.

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3 topic: electric vehicles


459 … The electric vehicles um … has an importance er to the en– environmental issues, and was more used in twentieth centuries but after, this period decline and was a specific used er an ambulance and car deliveries and used more in Switzerland er for encouraged er by the climate [cut]

examiner’s comments: This response is slow and hesitant and the student fails to cover many main points of the lecture. The student does mention that electric cars have existed for a long time and that electric power was used for Switzerland’s trains. However, the student fails to mention the reasons why electric vehicles were used, that cars with internal combustion engines became more popular, and why the situation is changing today. In order to achieve a higher score, the student would need to select key points from the whole lecture rather than trying to re-tell the lecture from start to finish.


460 The lecture is about electric vehicles and it was um easing– in fact, um one of the um earliest types of cars, but with um the use of fuel and the use– um electric cars have um decreased, for example um in Switzerland due to the fact that they do not have um, um oil as a natural resource they have um developed an electrified train system, and there has been increasing con– um concern to use um electricity powered vehicles for um road users, um because of the um increase in the cost of oil and also for environmental motivations.

examiner’s comments: This student re-tells most main points from the lecture, including the history of electric vehicles and the situation today. However, the response does not include enough explanation for the increasing demand for electric cars. In order to achieve a higher score, the student should include details of the environmental problems caused by non-electric cars. The score for this response would be intermediate due to good pronunciation but poor fluency.


461 Er the lecture talks about the use of electric vehicles. In the early twentieth century, most types of vehicles were in fact electric. Er they were preferred because they were more comfortable than internal combustion engines. Then um, they were only used kind of for ambulances etc. The Swiss were the first– among the first to have electrical trains because they didn’t have any coal in their region. Nowadays we use electric vehicles because it’s more economical, ‘cos the price of oil has sky-rocketed and because of vi– environmental concerns like the ozone layer and global warming.

examiner’s comments: This student effectively re-tells all the key features from the lecture, and provides good examples of the changing situation. The student also speaks with native-like fluency and pronunciation, so their score would be very high. In order to achieve the maximum score, the student would need to develop the answer beyond re-telling the lecture and mention some implications, such as possible future developments for electric cars.

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test 4, Writingsummarize written text1 topic: mindfulness


Mindfulness, which is a state of intense awareness of the here and now and can be reached through meditation techniques, help person in many areas of life. Some examples of this areas are how to manage workplace stress, improve relationships, increse ethical behavior and make perception more ...

examiner’s comments: Despite mentioning the key points from the passage, this summary would receive a very low score. The student is required to write only one sentence, but this is two. The summary contains many grammatical problems; for example, the student should have written ‘and’ before ‘help’ and should have said ‘people’ rather than ‘person’. The spelling mistake ‘increse’ would also reduce the student’s score.


In the modern world, time is becoming more tight and people have to find ways to relax their mind such as meditation and a a matter of fact, Google has invited large companies to talk about it and assistant professor Don McCormick also shares the same view.

examiner’s comments: This answer does summarize some points from within the passage, but the main topic, ‘Mindfulness’, is not mentioned and this would reduce its score. In addition, the student’s poor control over grammatical structures leads to confusion, because it is not clear who Don McCormick shares the same view as: it could be Google, the companies, or the writer. Repetition of ‘a’ would also reduce the score.


‘Mindfulness’, a special state of consciousness achieved by meditation techniques, have proved to be effective in helping individuals to manage workplace stress and to improve the quality of their listening and communicating, which have impressed many large companies such as Google.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains all of the passage’s main points and would receive a high score. The student has suitably written just one sentence, and has used vocabulary accurately and precisely to express these main points. However, the student’s overall score would be reduced by two grammatical errors: the word ‘have’ should be replaced by ‘has’ twice within the summary.

2 topic: academic research


Some American faculty researches have being criticised by academic research which argue that this researches does not help the society in practical way. This thouth just do not help the Universities to get financial help from government and business. Despite having no idea how to aply some projects, research keeps fresh and up.

examiner’s comments: This student has misrepresented and omitted most key points from the passage. In addition, the summary contains more than one sentence. The student’s overall score would therefore be very low. Spelling mistakes such as ‘aply’ and ‘thouth’ would also reduce the student’s score.


People like politicians and businesspersons argue that research function doesn’t serve any person and should be taken away from academia, whereas academics on the other hand, have a complete different view and stronlgy believe that it helps students in their training as well as their careers.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains two of the main points from the passage: that some people argue that research is not valuable, and that others have a different view. However, the student has omitted the writer’s key final point, which is about ‘the power of chance’. In addition, this summary contains a spelling mistake (‘stronlgy’) and a poor use of language (‘have a complete different view’).

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In reponse to one of the critiques of academic research – its usefulness, the author argued that the power of chance also needs to be taken into consideration because we never know what might turn to be useful one day.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains the key points from the passage and appropriately presents them within one sentence. The student has used grammatical structures appropriately within the summary and would receive a high score for this. However, the spelling mistake (‘reponse’) and the incorrect use of the word ‘turn’ would reduce the student’s overall score. The student should have said ‘might turn out to be useful one day’.

3 topic: Physical activity and educational performance


Gaining success from combind for example educational and sprotive actevities have more effectiveness by intelliency of a person rather than a normal person to achieve their objective have both argumentive side.

examiner’s comments: This student’s summary is incomprehensible due to grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, and poor choices of vocabulary. The summary shows that the student has not understood the passage’s main points and the overall score would be extremely low.


Although various studies have established a relationship between sports/physical activity and educational performance, the results are inconclusive because we can not inference causality or make a generalisation.

examiner’s comments: This is a good summary of the passage’s main points. The student has mostly used appropriate grammatical structures within one sentence to summarize the passage. The summary contains correct use of vocabulary and spelling, so the overall score would be high. However, the student should have written ‘infer’ rather than ‘inference’.


Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies looking into the relationship between participation in physical activity and educational performance have produced inconsistent and often non-comparable results, and they also fail to solve the issue of direction of cause.

examiner’s comments: This student’s summary mentions all key points from the passage within one sentence; the summary contains sufficient detail about the types of study that have taken place. The student has used grammatical structures accurately and selected vocabulary appropriately. This summary would achieve the maximum available score.

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test 4, WritingWrite essay1 topic: impact of computer technology


Technology development is a blessing to us in which content has got advantage and disadvantage as well at the same time. Invention of computer is a one of the greatest discovery by the ligend in twentyth century.

It is imposible to imagin without computer in the modern days, specially the developed country. People give more importance to computer technology than other factor in their life. Computer actually made our life easier comparing to the last century. It brings the whole world in our hand very easy way. Life style has upgraded and become more faster due to computer technology. Communication and information becomes more accessable and faster and also industrinal sector are improving faster due to computer technology improvement as the output is quicker using a computer than a human being.

The negative side of computer technology is addiction of it. People are becoming very much dependend on computer and as a reasult of spending more time in computer, people are developing different health problems especially eye problem because of looking at computer for longer period. Also people are developing back pain due to sitting down front of computer to do various activity, sometime may be reason of work. Youth have got access to restricted activities which they may not be acccessible if the computer was not developed. Childrens are attracting to playing game in computer rater than field which reducing phycal activities and reasulting health problem.

At the end, computer has got both positive and negative impect of our modern life. We need to take the advantage of it and try to find an alternative possible solution for negative seide.

examiner’s comments: This essay has many problems. The student has misunderstood the question, which requires an opinion to be expressed and supported. Instead of writing about whether computer technology has more disadvantages than advantages, the student has only described the situation, which does not address the question. Alongside these problems with development and structure, the essay contains frequent spelling and grammatical mistakes and many poor choices of vocabulary.


The statement that ‘computer technology has had more of a negative than a positive impact on society’ is one that can be argued both ways.

Let us look at the positive impacts first of all. Computer technology has contributed a lot in the modern world. It has brought the world to a completely different level which would have been unachievable without computer technology.

Computer technology fits in each and every industry nowadays and does help a lot. Fields like science has progessed a lot in the recent years. More in depth research is now possible. Also there is more accuracy.

However, there are some disadvantages as well. People have become more lazy. People are glued to computer technology all the time and hence make them very dependent.Sports activities are being neglected. Kids are more into computer games and do not understand the real fun of playing, for example hide and seek.

The big question is whether human nature will be able to survive without technology or not and I bet the answer is no. However, we should not forget that in pre-historic times, people have lived without technology. Having said this, we should also not forget that computer technology has helped us to live a better way of life. There has been a lot of progress in the medical field, for example.

In a nutshell, I would conclude that computer technology has an equal amount of positive and negative impact on society. We, as a society should know how to use more of the positive side rather than the negative.

examiner’s comments: This student has suitably divided their essay into paragraphs and has made clear points with sufficient explanation and examples. However, the essay’s structure does not suit the question, which requires an argumentative approach rather than the descriptive approach that this student has used. The student’s use of grammatical structures and vocabulary is generally strong, but some small mistakes such as those in the sentence ‘Fields like science has progessed a lot in the recent years’, would reduce the student’s overall score. The student should use ‘have’ rather than ‘has’ to refer to ‘Fields’, and ‘progessed’ is a spelling error.

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I believe that computer technology overall has had a positive impact on society, as it has made life a lot easier.

Computers have helped me to communicate more effectively: If it weren’t for computers, I would not have been able to stay in touch with famil, as phone calls abroad would have soon become very expensive. It has also helped me to find jobs relatively easily and quickly, due to being able to search for them on the internet, rather than the papers and it has helped me secure jobs in the past, because I could have interviews, using a webcam. Without computers I would have had a hard time writing and updating my CV, because editing documents is so easy on them.

When travelling, computer technology has also been invaluable, from calculating currencies to translating words and phrases, to booking tickets and checking in. It has also helped me with Visa-applications to different coutries, because customes officials are now able to check my background with the click of a button. Lastly, without computers, several modes of transport would have been impossible, due to the calculations and many hours of modelling involved in designing and building an aeroplane or a high-speed train for instance. Maps, points of interest, things to do, I can access all of these on my mobile phone nowadays, rather than having to bring loads of maps and guides with me.

examiner’s comments: This student has directly addressed the question within the first sentence by clearly stating an opinion. The essay develops with an appropriate structure and the student supports each point with sufficient explanation and examples. In order to achieve a maximum score, the student should add a short concluding paragraph which summarizes the main points of the essay and remove spelling errors such as ‘coutries’ and ‘customes’.

test 4, Listeningsummarize spoken text1 topic: allergies


The speaker talk about alergies and explain what they are and why exist. Alergy is a body reaction, which can be noticed in the nose, skin and all body, produced in order to remove some parasiter from the system. In the firts suspicious about a alergy it needs combaning by estamines.

examiner’s comments: This summary provides a simple overview of the lecture’s topic but omits many key points. The student’s spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and poor vocabulary choices make most of the summary incomprehensible for the reader. Therefore, a very low overall score would be awarded. However the summary is at least of a suitable length (51 words).


People have always been suffering from allergies. We suffer from an allergy when our body reacts from something that tries to hurt it. Having an allergy may depend on the location, as for example places with little higiene would reinforce the immune system. In terms of dealing with an allergy it is essential to know what triggers it, but in any case, histamines will minimize its effects.

examiner’s comments: This student has included some of the main points from the lecture, such as what allergic reactions involve. However, the final sentence of the summary misrepresents a key point and would negatively affect the student’s score. Histamines do not minimize the effects of allergies; in fact, anti-histamines do this. Despite this big problem with the content of the summary, the student’s overall score would be reasonably good due to appropriate use of grammatical structures, though the spelling mistake (‘higiene’) would reduce this score.


Allergies are the body’s reactions to something trying to harm it. They can be mild, or life-threatening. Histamines try to forcefully eject allergens like pollen and dust from the body.

Ways to deal with allergies are first finding the trigger, then to avoid contact with said trigger and finally treatment with antihistamines.

examiner’s comments: The student has used appropriate grammatical structures and vocabulary to precisely summarize all of the lecture’s key points, from describing what allergies are to how they can be tackled. There are no spelling mistakes or language use errors, and with 52 words the summary is of a suitable length. Therefore, it would receive a maximum score.

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2 topic: european fascination with america


In the traveling European habbit, America has more attraction. As a British colonia, America recived a lot of European immigration there. Both Europe and North America have a co-related history in books.

examiner’s comments: This summary omits many of the main points from the lecture, such as the different ways America is viewed in the literature about it. This student’s poor use of grammar and frequent misspellings make understanding the summary very difficult. In addition, poor word choices such as ‘co-related’ in the final sentence would further contribute to a low overall score.


The lecture is about Europeans. There is the fact that the latter travel through the minds’ eyes and often to far away places such as America. There are many Europeans who now live in America as it is seen as the most dominant nation in the world. No one can be compared to the Americans.

examiner’s comments: This summary misrepresents the main topic of the lecture, which is not ‘Europeans’. The summary does not mention the fact that many Europeans have written about America, and some parts of the summary are incomprehensible, such as the final sentence. Alongside these problems, the student has frequently misused vocabulary and this would reduce their overall score. For example, it is unclear what ‘latter’ refers to.


Reading about America has fascinated Europeans for a very long time. Reasons for this are because many Europeans emigrated there, and the fact that it grew from a British colony to a global superpower.

It is also a very unique country, and seen as many as the forerunner of a true European, and later World Society.

examiner’s comments: This summary contains most of the lecture’s main points. Accurate use of grammatical structures and an absence of spelling mistakes would contribute towards a high overall score for this student. However, a maximum score would not be achieved because the student’s final sentence misrepresents one of the lecturer’s points: America is not seen as ‘the forerunner of a true European and later World Society’, it is seen as a forerunner of future European and World society.

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