2007-2008 Final Exam

F.3 English marking schemes

Composition1. You have decided to join a story writing

competition. The topic is ‘The Robot’. Write an interesting and creative story.

Remember that you are asked to write a story, with interesting characters and a plot (i.e. conflicts that are resolved at the end);

Short stories usually have a twist at the end. See if you can do it.

2. You are writing an argumentative essay to be published in the school newsletter on the topic, ‘Technology has made the world a better place to live. Do you agree OR disagree with it?

You can only choose I standpoint; Use the present tense to talk about a general

situation

E.g. ‘Technology was very advanced nowadays’ Is it correct?;

Have the concession at the beginning(i.e. Although some people say that technology is

beneficial to us, I think that technology actually causes a lot more problems…)

3. You have found that an increasing number of people are becoming addicted to the computer. Write a letter to the editor discussing this issue, sharing your opinions and providing practical suggestions for these people.

Remember the format i.e. ‘Dear Editor,’ ‘Yours faithfully’…;

Remember to be formal i.e. the choice of words, no short forms X I’m;

Make sure your essay is balanced i.e. don’t just focus on the addiction. Spend enough time on the suggestions as well;

Make sure the suggestion can actually help people ease the addiction.

E.g. ‘We should monitor the Internet to make sure that teenagers have no access to obscene materials’. Is it a good suggestion?

DictationMy Puppy and I

I used to be quite dumb, literally. I did not speak a word until I turned five. My classmates called me ‘fossil’ as I never responded to them and some of them named me ‘industrial waste’ as my face was always pale and full of acne even though I saw the dermatologist every week. I had nightmares every day and I got sick all the time. Whatever sickness you can name, I had it. I always felt dizzy and had a greasy stomach. Hay fever, sore throat, bleeding nose, migraine and serious flu were ‘faithful friends’. My body never stopped aching for a minute. Sometimes I wished I were dead. I wished I could just evaporate, like a molecule of water.

Luckily, all this/these stopped immediately the day my mother gave me a puppy. It was not an ordinary puppy. It was energetic and agile. When I took it out for a run, it could always dodge any obstacles in its path in a graceful way. It never tumbled. What was even more surprising was that it could talk and sing. It was chattier than any previous pets I had ever had. It could even make conversation with people and never interrupted anybody. It remembered the lyrics of all the songs it had heard. It was a special species that was more advanced and developed than any other species.

However, when my father saw my behaviour, he said I was losing* my mind. He said he was going to take me to the psychologist because I could not even recognise/ recognize that it was a mechanical (not ‘machanical’) dog. In anger, he threw it out of the window. Since then, I have never seen it again. Of course I knew it was a machine. I had just hoped that it was not.

Loose – adj., not tight Lose – v. do not have something Loss – n. failure to keep possession of somethi

ng

G.E.

Part A: General English (41 marks)Section 1: Comparative and Superlative

(5 marks, @ 1)1) taller 2) shorter than 3) less well-built4) most muscular 5) wider  

Section 2: Relative Clauses

1. The man whom/ that I saw was tall. 2. The victim, who came out of 7-11, was an old

lady./The victim was an old lady who came out of 7-11.

3. The robbery took place near Wing On, which is a famous department store.

4. The robber wore glasses which/ that were gray in colour.

5. The robber, who had a big tattoo of a white tiger on his right biceps, was tall.

6. The robber, whose shirt was red, had another tattoo of a green dragon on his left biceps

Section 3:- ing Form and Infinitive (5 marks, @1)

1. Going

2. Buying

3. to have

4. to fight

5. to be

Section 4: Question Tag (4 marks, @1)

1. shall we

2. weren’t you

3. didn’t you

4. did you

Section 5: Idioms and Phrasal Verbs (8 marks, @1 – deduct 0.5 mark for the wrong tense)

1. give in

2. let the cat out of the bag

3. a cog in the machine

4. do with

5. let sleeping dogs lie/ give up

6. got my wires crossed

7. throw a spanner in the works

8. give up/ give in

Section 6: Active and Passive Tenses (7 marks, @1)

1.was robbed

2.were taken

3. is believed

4. had been involved

5.was spotted

6. was captured

7. admitted 

Part B: TSA Reading (29 marks) Part 1 (8 marks, @1)

Part 2 (21 marks, @1)