UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI CAGLIARI
Centro Linguistico Ateneo
End of course test for B2 preparation. Name…………………………………………
superstition affects her life. Is she
1 interested in magic potions, witches and
Janet Hollings spells? Of course not. Most of her
superstitions are well-known - she doesn’t
interviews Marsha walk under ladders or open umbrellas
Lake, one of Britain’s indoors. But she also has some of her own.
greatest murder She always sends a book to her publisher in
a green envelope, she doesn’t write on
mystery writers, in Fridays.4 I tried to find out why but she
her London home. wouldn’t tell me.
1When you walk into Marsha Lake’s home
there is a feeling of calm. You feel relaxed and At various times, however, Martha admits
welcomed. The walls are cream. The furniture is she has been obsessed. The worst time was
pale. Look more closely and you’ll see bright red her wedding day. As her husband-to-be was
colours present in the carpet and curtains. The putting the ring on her finger, he dropped
red allows energy to flow into the room, I am it. Most people would have dismissed the
told. And the furniture has incident and continued.5 Not Marsha. It was
been arranged carefully with everything a bad sign, it indicated that her marriage
pointing in the right direction, to reflect the would soon be over. She stopped the
principles of Feng Shui. wedding and sent the guests home. They
got married six months later. It’s just as
The focus of the lounge is a large desk. well her husband is a forgiving person.
Marsha has written twelve murder-mystery
novels and five plays there. She’s just finished her There is not so much superstition in her
first TV script. The desk looks out over a beautiful later books. I wondered why. Does Martha
garden. I asked her why she doesn’t work in the 2 believe in it less these days? Martha frowns.
study. The study is at the front of the house. The She feels she has explored the subject
road doesn’t give her the inspiration she needs. enough. There are other things to write
about. 6 You need fresh ideas to keep your
Marsha looks the part of a mystery writer. readers interested.
She wears a long flowing dress with strings of
beads around her neck. Silver bracelets jingle Martha is still writing books and they are
on her arm. Around the room are pots of still selling. It is clear she hasn’t run out of ideas
different types of gem stones. Each gem just yet.
means something different, she tells me.
Martha is superstitious. She was about eleven
when she first began to believe. She was
shopping with her mother, when a black
cat walked towards them. Her mother said what
good luck that was.3 When they got home, there
was a letter from a children’s
magazine. The story she had entered for a
short story competition had won first prize.
Many of the characters in her early books
are superstitious. I asked Martha how else
1.
1 The first thing you notice on entering Marsha’s home is
A the position of the furniture.
B the colour of the carpet and curtains.
C the importance of Feng Shui. You don’t notice the importance when you enter. She tells you after. (I am told)
D the atmosphere. “When you walk into Marsha Lake’s home
there is a feeling of calm” Other factors are noticed after you “ Look more closely and……..”
2 Why is Marsha’s desk in the living room rather than the study?
A It is too big for the study.
B There is a better view. See highlighted text 2
C The living room is her favourite place.
D The study is too noisy.
3 Marsha became interested in superstition when
A her mother predicted she would win a competition.
B she won a competition after something lucky happened. She believed after the cat episode and the competition
C She wrote a story about a lucky black cat.
D Her mother explained what it meant.
4 What did the interviewer want to find out?
A What Martha’s personal superstitions mean.
B In what way Martha’s characters are superstitious.
C Why Martha isn’t interested in magic potions and spells.
D How many days a week Martha writes
5 Why did she change her mind about her first wedding?
A She knew her husband-to-be would forgive her.
B She was annoyed with her husband-to-be.
C She thought their marriage might fail.
D She wanted her wedding to be different from other
people’s.
6 Why doesn’t Martha use the idea of superstition in her later books?
A She feels she has been too obsessed with it.
B She finds it uninteresting these days.
C She thinks it is unimportant now.
D She believes people will get bored with it.
.
2.
(8)Late in his career he went to Hollywood and
made
Magic has been a source of entertainment for films, performing his own stunts. He spent much
centuries. It is also a very complex art. A of his time proving that magicians who claimed
magician’s they could speak to the dead were cheats.
skill lies in distracting the audience and
making them
believe that illusion is reality. Read about
some of the better- known magicians who F Joseph Dunninger
have made their living in the 19th and 20th Dunninger was well-known in the United States
centuries. during the 1940s. He began his career doing card
tricks and other illusions. However, it wasn’t long
A John Henry Anderson before he found people were more interested in
Anderson was a Scottish magician who performed (2)his seeming ability to read minds. His
in Europe and the United States in the early 19th audiences were fascinated by his act. So much
century. His favourite trick was bullet-catching, but so, that in (9)1943 he started his own radio show.
he is best remembered for pulling a rabbit from a
hat. (1)He didn’t think of the trick first, but he G David Copperfield
made it popular and there have been variations on David Copperfield was born in 1956 in America.
it ever since. He began performing at the age of twelve. He is
noted for his ability to make objects disappear,
B Robert Houdin something he has done frequently whilst on the
Robert Houdin was born in France in 1805 (4). He air, watched by millions. (7)He once made the
was originally trained as a clockmaker. He first Statue of Liberty, America’s most famous
appeared as a magician in Paris in 1845. He used landmark,
common objects to create illusions rather than disappear. He also walked through the Great Wall
complicated pieces of machinery. He was known of China. From the late 1970s, (10) he was on TV
as the father of magic and it was from him that in The Magic of David Copperfield.
Harry Houdini took his name years later.
C John Nevil Maskelyne
Maskelyne was English born and well-known as
an escape artist. He began performing in 1871. As
well as his amazing escapes, he also perfected
levitation – the art of causing something to rise
with no visible means of support. In (3)1893 he
worked with another magician, David Devant. In
1911, they (0)published a book.
D Howard Thurston
Thurston was from Ohio. He started by touring
and doing card tricks. In 1908 he met the
magician, Harry Kellar. (6)Kellar sold him his
tricks and Thurston turned them into a 3-hour long
magic show. He toured with it for over 20 years
He was well known for illusions such as the
‘floating lady’.
E Harry Houdini
Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest,
Hungary. (5)Before taking up magic, he worked in
a circus. He began performing in the 1890s. His
world-wide fame came from his amazing escapes.
One of his most incredible escapes was from a
box that was locked, roped, weighted then
lowered into water.
2
answers
0–C
1- A
2- F
3- C
4- B 5- E
6- D
7- G
8- E
9- F 10- G (on stage is not TV. It is theatre or
concert)
