EPE Übungsprüfung 1

Read the text from 2016 about a trend in education. First decide whether the statements (1-10) are true (T) or false (F) and put a cross in the correct box on the answer sheet. Then identify the sentence in the text which supports your decision. Write the first 4 words of this sentence in the space provided. There may be more than one correct answer; write down only one. The first one (0) has been done for you.

Brains without borders

Montana Hirschowitz remembers exactly when she decided she would seek her higher education abroad: one night when she was ten, and armed robbers broke in and terrorised her family in Johannesburg. Quang Nguyen dates his decision to no particular moment: he simply did not want to spend a big chunk of his classroom time on communist ideology, as is standard in his native Vietnam. Jehanne Aghzadi, from Morocco, had attended American schools all through her childhood; she wanted to continue her studies in English. Joy Lin was looking for a better course than she could find in China, with more social activities on campus and the chance to gain foreign work experience after graduating. All four students ended up at the University of Miami in Florida, for reasons that varied as much as those that pushed them to leave home in the first place: good weather, highly regarded courses in subjects they liked, student aid and in one case a scholarship. But beyond the specifics, they are part of a mass trend. More university and college students than ever are studying outside their home countries. Foreigners now make up a sizeable share of students in some countries and courses—a quarter of all those in Australia, for example, and around a million of those on American campuses. There are 4.5m international students globally, up from 2m in 2000, and that is expected to swell to 7m-8m by 2025, driven by population and income growth in developing countries where local provision is poor. Some places that have not traditionally hosted many foreign students are trying to grab market share. Japan has a goal of 300,000 foreign students by 2020, 60% more than now; Malaysia, of almost doubling numbers to 250,000 by 2025. Foreign study took off in the 1980s, when several rich countries started to offer large numbers of scholarships as part of their aid programmes. Rising incomes in poorer countries added a financial motive. Universities in rich countries are often constrained by their governments in how many locals they can recruit and how much they can charge them. Foreigners, who can be charged more, help pad out budgets and subsidise local students. But not every country lucky enough to have lots of foreign students is doing what is needed to keep them coming. Today Anglophone countries take the biggest share, since English is quite a useful language to acquire. France is popular with bits of its former empire and pupils from the French-language schools around the world that France’s government subsidises. Germany, which has started to offer postgraduate courses in English and has abolished all tuition fees, even for foreigners, also takes large numbers.

America leads in absolute terms, with 975,000 foreign students in 2014-15. Its best universities have long attracted the very brightest foreign minds, especially in the sciences, often luring them with generous scholarships. But for its size its performance is less impressive: just 5% of all students on its campuses are from abroad. One reason is tighter visa rules imposed after the terrorist attacks of 2001; another is that students must seek special permission to work off-campus while studying, and it is hard to stay and work for long after graduating. Longer-term employment visas are also hard to get, so many students without deep pockets choose to go elsewhere so they can defray some of the cost. And most American institutes refuse to pay education agents—consultants who help youngsters, particularly in Asia, to choose institutions and apply to them. According to i-graduate, a consultancy, agents rank America as the most attractive destination, but are less likely to recommend American institutions, as they mostly work on commission. Students usually choose their target country first and then decide which college to apply to. That means national advertising strategies matter, says Mark Reid of the University of Miami. But America has none, leaving individual institutions to promote themselves overseas.

0. One student considered a specific aspect of the school curriculum as too dominant.
1. One student went abroad to have the option of getting a practical insight into the world of work after leaving university.
2. None of the young people getting into one particular university received financial support.
3. Several non-European countries are just beginning to target young people from abroad.
4. Students from abroad are a financial burden for universities.
5. A high proportion of those going to university abroad choose their destination for the same specific reason.
6. In one particularly popular country, high achievers may get financial support.
7. Foreign students can do a job outside university without additional approval.
8. The preferred educational institution is generally top priority for young people who want to study abroad.
9. Relative to the size of its student body, America takes in an impressive number of people from abroad.
10. In the United States, few colleges are willing to pay the advisers who help young people apply.

Datenquelle: Bundesministerium für Bildung (BMB), CC BY 4.0

Read the texts about eight people who spend most of their free weekends competing in an unusual amateur hobby. Find out which statement is true for which person and put a cross below the right person. Just use one cross for each line. The first one (0) has been done for you. (10p.)

Find out whose…

0. took up their hobby after a family pet needed more exercise than daily walks could provide → A — Marcus

People who take an unusual hobby seriously

A — Marcus

I'm Marcus, and most people are surprised by how seriously I take dog agility. I got into it four years ago after adopting a rescue collie called Scout who had far too much energy for ordinary walks. We train three evenings a week at a club twenty minutes away, and most weekends from spring to autumn we drive to competitions. I have to memorise each course and signal which obstacle comes next, so if I hesitate for a second, we lose time. My wife thinks I've become obsessive: I've built a practice course out of scrap wood in the back garden. Last year we placed third in a regional final. Scout used to be nervous around other dogs, and agility completely changed that.

B — Halina

My name's Halina, and six years ago I couldn't run for a bus without getting out of breath. Now I compete in amateur triathlons most of the summer. I started because a colleague dragged me along to a beginners' swim class, and I found I liked training for something specific. I swim before work twice a week and do a long bike ride every Saturday. My husband has got used to eating dinner alone on Wednesdays, when I do a two-hour session on the trainer in the garage. A stress fracture in my foot once kept me out for three months. What I love is that nobody cares how old you are: at my last race, the woman who beat me was sixty-one.

C — Tomas

I'm Tomas, and for five years I've spent almost every free weekend preparing for amateur cake decorating competitions. It started by accident: I made an elaborate cake for my daughter's tenth birthday, and a friend entered a photo of it into a regional show without telling me. I came second, and that hooked me. A competition piece can take thirty hours of sculpting sugar flowers and building tiers that must survive a two-hour car journey. My wife simply avoids the kitchen during competition week, since I cover every surface with edible glue and trays of drying sugar. Two years ago I won my category at a national show. Friends assume it's relaxing, but it's closer to engineering under a deadline.

D — Ines

My name is Ines, and I build sand sculptures. Every summer I enter about six beach competitions, where you get four hours and a marked-out square of sand. I studied architecture, which helps more than you'd think: tall pieces need the sand packed wet into wooden forms before you carve from the top down. Last August a toddler ran straight through my sea turtle ten minutes before the judges arrived, and the parents didn't even apologise. I train in winter too, with a load of builder's sand delivered to my parents' driveway, which the neighbours have stopped asking about. My best result so far is a silver medal on the Dutch coast.

E — Kwame

I'm Kwame, and I grow giant vegetables for shows. My best pumpkin weighed 412 kilograms, and getting it onto the trailer took eight friends and a borrowed forklift. It began when my grandfather left me his allotment and a jar of seeds labelled in his handwriting. In summer a single pumpkin can gain fifteen kilos a day, so I water at dawn and again at night. In the week before a show I sleep in a tent next to the patch, because entries have been sabotaged at other allotments. My partner jokes that the pumpkins get more attention than she does. Most growers are retired, and at thirty-four I'm usually the youngest at the weigh-in.

F — Yara

I'm Yara, and I compete in speed crossword tournaments. Most people think crosswords are something you do slowly with a cup of tea, but at a tournament you get fifteen minutes for a grid that takes most solvers an hour. I practise on the train to work every morning, timing two puzzles with a stopwatch on my phone. My first national final ended badly: I was disqualified for filling in the grid in pencil when the rules demanded ink. Since then I've reached the semi-finals three times. My flatmate tests me on obscure words over breakfast. The prize money barely covers entry fees and hotels, but I've made friends in four countries.

G — Seo-yeon

My name is Seo-yeon, and I paddle in a dragon boat crew. I'd never been in any boat until a colleague's team was one paddler short for a charity race and she begged me to fill in. Twenty of us sit in pairs, and the drummer at the front sets the rhythm, so one person out of time slows the whole boat. We train on the river at six on Sunday mornings, whatever the weather. In my second season we qualified for the national championships, and I cried on the bank afterwards. The hardest part is my shoulders; I see a physiotherapist every month.

H — Fergus

I'm Fergus, and I skim stones competitively. The world championships are held every September on a small Scottish island, in a flooded slate quarry, and a throw only counts if the stone bounces at least three times. I practise at an old quarry pond near home, where swimming has been banned for years, so I usually have it to myself. I collect flat stones on every walk and keep the best ones in a biscuit tin. My personal record is sixty-three metres. People laugh when I tell them, but there's real technique: the angle matters more than strength.

1. uses the daily journey to work for practice against the clock
2. made a training set-up at home from leftover materials
3. only started because a group needed one more member for an event
4. began competing after someone else submitted their work without asking first
5. spends nights outdoors beside an entry before a show to protect it
6. was recently beaten by a competitor in their sixties
7. had a finished piece wrecked by a small child shortly before it was assessed
8. was once thrown out of a major final for using the wrong writing tool
9. trains at a spot where people are not allowed to go in the water
10. partner keeps out of one room completely in the days before a contest

Read the text about Daniel's move to a new city. Fill in the missing gaps, one letter per underscore. Type either the missing letters or the full word into each gap; both are accepted (in the exam itself, the full word goes into the grid). The first one (0) has been done for you. (10p.)

Settling Into a New Flat

When Daniel finished university, he decided to move to a bigger city to look for work in his field. He had lived in the same small town his whole life, so the idea of renting his own apartment felt both exciting and slightly frightening.

He spent several weekends vie____ (0) flats before he finally found one he could aff___ (1) near the old harbour district. The building was much older than he expe____ (2), with crea____ (3) wooden floors and a narrow stai_____ (4) that groa___ (5) under every step. Still, the landlord seemed frie____ (6), and the monthly rent inclu___ (7) heating and water, which made the decision easier. On his first night there, Daniel reali___ (8) he owned almost no furni____ (9) and had to sleep on a borr____ (10) matt____ (11) on the floor. Over the following weeks he gradu____ (12) colle____ (13) secon_____ (14) chairs, a small table, and a bookshelf from local markets and online listings. His new neigh_____ (15) turned out to be surprisingly welco____ (16), often knoc____ (17) on his door to intro____ (18) themselves or offer advice about which shops sold the freshest bread. Daniel disco_____ (19) that the neighbourhood had a strong sense of community, something he had not anticipated in such a large city. Within a few months, he had pain___ (20) the walls a warmer colour and hung photographs of his family along the hallway. What had once felt like an empty, unfamiliar space slowly began to resemble a proper home. Looking back, Daniel admits that leaving his hometown was frightening, but he has never once regretted the move, and he now cannot imagine living anywhere else.

Read the text about a famous British author. Some words are missing. Choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) for each gap (1-10). Put a cross in the correct box on the answer sheet. The first one (0) has been done for you.

Agatha Christie’s private life

Some years ago, in a little market town on the cusp of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, a lady used to go shopping. Her house was (0) ___ from a road just outside the town, and she used to take that road into the town centre. She might stop at the Nag’s Head for a cup of tea, before visiting the department store and (1) ___ the chemist. In the evenings, she might go to the Masonic Hall for a play or a pantomime; she had been (2) ___ to become the President of the local amateur dramatic society, as long as she didn’t have to (3) ___ any speeches. If this doesn’t sound like the best-selling novelist of all time, you (4) ___. The lady in question was known in Wallingford as Mrs Mallowan; to the rest of the world, she was Agatha Christie. In a pre-internet, pre-email, pre-Twitter world, Agatha found her perfect space a few miles from Oxford and some way west of London, with (5) ___ poor transport connections, meaning she was (6) ___ many visitors. Here, where she bought Winterbrook House in 1934, she could work on her (7) ___ murder mystery or romantic novel, and relax with her second husband Max Mallowan. Max was already a well-known archaeologist and Agatha loved (8) ___ him to digs in the Near East for several months each year. But Wallingford was something else and, as Max acknowledged many years later, (9) ___ residents helped Agatha to enjoy her new home by (10) ___ her as Mrs Mallowan, respecting her privacy and enabling her to get on with writing. It’s hard to imagine, in our era when JK Rowling tweets her thoughts most days to millions of followers, that a famous writer could crave privacy, but Agatha did, and it’s to the great credit of Wallingford that she found it here. Agatha and Max lived at Winterbrook for 42 years and now share a gravestone in the church in nearby Cholsey.

0. (A) aside (B) set back (C) in front (D) set apart
1. (A) consequently (B) actually (C) constantly (D) possibly
2. (A) persuaded (B) announced (C) talked over (D) talked about
3. (A) bring up (B) make (C) answer (D) set up
4. (A) may be overwhelmed (B) might be annoyed (C) might be surprised (D) may be irritated
5. (A) a means of (B) effectively (C) relatively (D) a lack of
6. (A) not accepting (B) unlikely to receive (C) rarely obtaining (D) failing to welcome
7. (A) latest (B) last (C) actual (D) recent
8. (A) moving with (B) working with (C) assisting (D) accompanying
9. (A) official (B) fellow (C) peer (D) related
10. (A) treating (B) referring (C) calling (D) naming

Datenquelle: Bundesministerium für Bildung (BMB), CC BY 4.0

Read the text about one runner of the Boston Marathon. Some words are missing. Change each word in brackets to form an appropriate word for each gap (1-11). Write only one word in each space provided on the answer sheet. The first one (0) has been done for you.

26.2 miles

The Boston Marathon in Massachusetts, USA, is one of the most high-profile running events in the world. The race has been held (0) ___ (annual) for over 100 years now, attracting elite runners, as well as amateurs from all walks of life. However, this was not always the case. Beginning with its inception in 1897, the prestigious event was an (1) ___ (exclude) race for male runners. Until one woman decided to change the way the world defined a marathon runner. Katherine Virginia Switzer, born in 1947, was an (2) ___ (enthusiasm) runner in her youth. She began attending Syracuse University in 1966, which had no athletics team for women at the time. Thus, Switzer began training with the men’s cross-country team unofficially. This is where she met her coach, Arnie Briggs. It was (3) ___ (suppose) on one of their training runs in December 1966 that the idea of Switzer entering the Boston Marathon was born. Briggs (4) ___ (initial) dismissed the idea, insisting that 26.2 miles was much too far for a ‘fragile’ woman to complete; however, he quickly conceded. Three weeks before the race, Switzer registered for the event, using only her initials K.V. rather than her full name. She paid the $3 entry fee and began making the travel (5) ___ (arrange) for her trip to Boston. On April 19th, 1967, Switzer, full of (6) ___ (determine), pinned her bib number on her sweatshirt and set off in the crowd of runners milling around the starting line of the marathon. (7) ___ (Need) to say, none of the race officials noticed she was female underneath her baggy sweater.

But Switzer’s gender did not go (8) ___ (notice) for long. Around 4 miles into the marathon, race manager Jock Semple became aware that there was a woman among the (9) ___ (competition). He dashed up next to Switzer and (10) ___ (patient) tried to rip her bib off, (11) ___ (repeat) grabbing her arm in the attempt. Photos taken of the unprecedented incident made headlines the world over. Switzer completed the race that day and became an inspiration for women runners everywhere. Five years later, the Boston Marathon established an official women’s race.

Datenquelle: Bundesministerium für Bildung (BMB), CC BY 4.0

Blog Comment Task

Read the blog post below, then write a blog comment responding to it.

"Are We Too Quick to Call Someone a 'Best Friend'?"

by Mira Klein ("mira.writes"); 14/03/2025; 06:42 p.m.

I counted the other day. On my phone, twenty-three people are saved as "best friend." Twenty-three! But when I actually needed help moving out of my old flat last month, only two of them showed up.

I used to think that was normal — that's just how friendship works now, right? Everyone's busy, everyone's online, a like or a comment counts as staying in touch. But standing in that empty flat with two friends and a pizza box, I realised how far the label had drifted from the reality.

So tell me — how many of your "friends" would actually show up for you at 2 a.m.?

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You have decided to comment on the blog post above. In your blog comment you should:

1. summarize Mira's view on modern friendship in one sentence and comment on it.
2. discuss why the word "friend" has become so easy to use nowadays.
3. suggest what actually makes someone a true friend.

Include a range of interactive elements to engage your readers.

Write 250 words (+/- 10%: texts that grossly fail to meet the word limit will be penalized).

Start your text with the following information (not included in the word count), each on its own line, exactly as shown:

User name … (your own username)

Date … (today's date)