B1 Preliminary

Part 1

Questions 1 – 5
For each question, choose the correct answer.

Part 2

For each question, choose the correct answer.

The young people below all want to do a cycling course during their school holidays.
On the opposite page there are descriptions of eight cycling courses.
Decide which course would be the most suitable for the people below.



Nancy is fourteen and cycles quite well. She needs to learn how to cycle safely from her home to school on busy city roads. She’s only free at the weekends.

Markus is an excellent cyclist and he wants the excitement of riding on countryside and woodland tracks. He’d also like to learn more about looking after his bike. He can’t attend a morning course.

Ellie is nine and knows how to ride her bike, but isn’t confident about starting and stopping. She’d love to meet other cyclists with a similar ability and have fun with them.

Leo can’t cycle yet, and wants to learn on his own with the teacher. He’d prefer a course with sessions twice a week. He’d also like some practical information about cycling clothes and equipment.

Josh is eleven and a skilled cyclist. He’s keen to learn to do exciting cycling tricks in a safe environment. He’d like to be with people of a similar age.

Part 3

Play to win

16-year-old Harry Moore writes about his hobby, tennis. My parents have always loved tennis and they’re members of a tennis club. My older brother was really good at it and they supported him – taking him to lessons all the time. So I guess when I announced that I wanted to be a tennis champion when I grew up I just intended for them to notice me. My mother laughed. She knew I couldn’t possibly be serious, I was just a 4-year-old kid!

Later, I joined the club’s junior coaching group and eventually took part in my first proper contest, confident that my team would do well. We won, which was fantastic, but I wasn’t so successful. I didn’t even want to be in the team photo because I didn’t feel I deserved to be. When my coach asked what happened in my final match, I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe I’d lost – I knew I was the better player. But every time I attacked, the other player defended brilliantly. I couldn’t explain the result.

After that, I decided to listen more carefully to my coach because he had lots of tips. I realised that you need the right attitude to be a winner. On court I have a plan but sometimes the other guy will do something unexpected so I’ll change it. If I lose a point, I do my best to forget it and find a way to win the next one.

At tournaments, it’s impossible to avoid players who explode in anger. Lots of players can be negative – including myself sometimes. Once I got so angry that I nearly broke my racket! But my coach has helped me develop ways to control those feelings. After all, the judges have a hard job and you just have to accept their decisions. My coach demands that I train in the gym to make sure I’m strong right to the end of a tournament. I’m getting good results: my shots are more accurate and I’m beginning to realise that with hard work there’s a chance that I could be a champion one day.

Harry thinks he said that he was going to be a tennis champion in order to

Part 4

Five sentences have been removed from the text below.For each question, choose the correct answer.There are three extra sentences which you do not need to use.

Planting trees
by Mark Rotheram, aged 13

This spring, our teacher suggested we should get involved in a green project and plant some trees around the school. Everyone thought it was a great idea, so we started looking online for the best trees to buy. 16... If we wanted them to grow properly, they had to be the right type – but there were so many different ones available! So our teacher suggested that we should look for trees that grew naturally in our part of the world. 17... They’d also be more suitable for the wildlife here.

Then we had to think about the best place for planting the trees. We learnt that trees are happiest where they have room to grow, with plenty of space for their branches. The trees might get damaged close to the school playgrounds, for example. 18... Finally, we found a quiet corner close to the school garden – perfect!

Once we’d planted the trees, we knew we had to look after them carefully. We all took turns to check the leaves regularly and make sure they had no strange spots or marks on them. 19... And we decided to check the following spring in case the leaves turned yellow too soon, as that could also mean the tree was sick.

We all knew that we wouldn’t be at the school anymore by the time the trees grew tall, and that was a bit sad. But we’d planted the trees to benefit not only the environment, but also future students at the school. 20... And that thought really cheered us up!

A - So we tried to avoid areas where students were very active.
B - However, our parents did offer to help with the digging!
C - That could mean the tree had a disease.
D - But we soon found that choosing trees was quite complicated.
E - It can be quite good for young trees, though.
F - We knew they’d get as much pleasure from them as we had.
G - But at least we were doing it in the right season.
H - That way, the trees would be used to local conditions.


16.

Part 5

This car runs on chocolate!

Scientists have built a 300kph racing car that uses chocolate as a fuel! The project is (21) …………to show how car-making could (22) ………… environmentally friendly. The car meets all racing car (23) ………… apart from its fuel. This is a mixture of waste chocolate and vegetable oil, and such ‘biofuels’ are not (24) ………… in the sport yet. It has to be mixed with normal fuel so that all parts of the car keep working.

Carrots and other root vegetables were used to make some parts inside and outside the car. Even the mirrors are made from potatoes! The sides of the car (25) ………… a mixture of natural materials from plants as well as other recycled materials.

The project is still young, so the scientists have not yet found out how ‘green’ the car is. They are planning many experiments to compare its (26) ………… against that of normal racing cars.

21.

A intended    B wished    C decided    D insisted

Part 6

Questions 27 – 32
For each question, write the correct answer.
Write one word for each gap.

Our new skatepark!
by Jack Fletcher

Is there a great skatepark in your town? We’ve now got the (27) ………… fantastic skatepark ever, and it’s all because of my friends and me!

Our old skatepark was full of broken equipment, so none of us ever went there. But we all agreed that (28) ………… we had a better skatepark in our town, we’d use it. And teenagers might come (29) ………… other towns to join us, too.

So I set up an online questionnaire to find out (30) ………… local people wanted. I asked them whether we should improve our old skatepark (31) ………… build a completely new one. People voted to build a new one.

Then we held some events to get money to pay for it. In the end we collected half the cost, and the local council paid the rest. It (32) ………… finally finished last month. So come and try it – you’ll have a great time!

27.