APTIS READING TEST 62 (25 questions – 30 minutes)

TASK 1
Choose one word (A, B or C) for each group gap and write the letter on your answer paper. The first
one (0) is done for you as an example. The answer A is marked on your answer paper.

Hi Mia,

I have just (00) in London. The flight was fine and we reached the airport
on (01), so I could take the underground to the city centre. My hotel was
not far (02) the tube station, so I didn’t have to take a taxi. Instead, I
walked and so I was able to (03) the many attractions that the city has to
offer, (04) its shops, restaurants, cafés and wonderful parks and gardens.
I am looking forward to tomorrow, when I plan to visit the British
Museum.
I’ll write you (05) with more news!

0. a. been b. arrived c. got

1. a. hour b. soon c. time
2. a. from b. of c. since
3. a. enjoy b. like c. hate
4. a. like b. as c. such
5. a. early b. soon c. after

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 APTIS READING TEST 62 (25 questions – 30 minutes)

TASK 2
Order the sentences (B-G) below to make a story. Write tour answers on the answer sheet. The first
sentence of the story (A) is given for you on the answer paper as an example.

A. Italian Renaissance painter and architect Raphael was born Raffaello Sanzio on
April 6, 1483, in Urbino, Italy.
B. In his funeral mass at the Vatican, Raphael's unfinished Transfiguration was
placed on his coffin stand. Raphael’s body was interred at the Pantheon in Rome,
Italy.
C. By 1514, Raphael had achieved fame for his work at the Vatican and hired a crew
of assistants to help him finish painting frescoes in the Stanza dell’Incendio.
D. After leaving his apprenticeship with Perugino, Raphael moved to Florence,
where he was influenced by the works of the Italian painters Fra Bartolommeo,
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Masaccio.
E. Raphael died of mysterious causes in Rome on his 37th birthday, while working
on The Transfiguration (commissioned in 1517)
F. The apprenticeship lasted four years and provided Raphael with the opportunity
to gain both knowledge and hands-on experience.
G. In 1500 Pietro Vannunci, otherwise known as Perugino, invited Raphael to
become his apprentice in Perugia, in the Umbria.

0) A
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)

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 APTIS READING TEST 62 (25 questions – 30 minutes)

TASK 3

Read the text and complete each gap with a word from the list at the bottom of the page. Match
each space (12-18) with one word from the box below. Write the letters (A-L) on the answer paper.
The answer to question 00 is given on your answer paper as an example (K). You will not need
three of the words.

Don’t make a bee or wasp mad at you! Bees and wasps (00) back with their stingers
when they are disturbed or angry. A honeybee can sting a person (12) once. Its
stinger gets stuck inside the victim’s body. The honeybee dies (13) just one sting.
Wasps, like hornets and yellow jackets, can pull their stingers out. So, they can sting
their victims over and over (14).
A bee or wasp sting hurts when it happens, and it (15) on hurting. After a sting, the
skin becomes hot, turns red, and starts to itch. It’s always best to (16) the stinger as
soon as possible. Some people are very allergic to insect stings. They (17) get hives,
become dizzy, and have problems breathing. A little insect sting can (18) big trouble.

00 fight
A. keeps 12
B. might 13
C. only 14
D. remove 15
E. after 16
F. must 17
G. every 18
H. goes
I. well
J. again
K. appears
L. cause

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 APTIS READING TEST 62 (25 questions – 30 minutes)

TASK 4
Read the text below. Match the headings A-H to the paragraphs 19-24. Write your answers (A-H) in
the answer paper (19-24). There is an extra heading you will not need

your answers:

A) Birth of a tradition 19) A

B) Encouraging people to work together 20)
C) Different forms of creativity 21)
D) A temporary settlement 22)
E) The man behind Burning Man 23)
F) How to survive Burning Man 24)
G) A new symbol for a new age 25)
H) What is Burning Man?

19. On the 21st June 1986 – the date of the summer solstice – Larry Harvey and Jerry
James invited a few friends to Baker Beach in San Francisco to celebrate the
longest day of the year. They marked the event by setting fire to a nine foot
wooden model of a man and a dog. As they watched the flames consume the
crudely made figures, none of them could have known how their small gathering
would grow over the next two decades and develop into an annual seven day
experience that has become known simply as Burning Man. In 2011, so many
people wanted to be part of it that the number of participants had to be limited
to 50,000.
20. Even the organisers of the Burning Man project find it difficult to describe the
experience. ‘Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never
been to the event,’ says their official website, ‘is a bit like trying to explain what a
particular colour looks like to someone who is blind.’ Part celebration, part act of
rebellion, part community theatre, the week long event – now held in the Black
Rock Desert of Nevada – attracts tens of thousands of people. They still come to
watch the ritual destruction of a wooden figure (now more than forty feet high),
but most of all they come to take part in a series of spontaneous ‘happenings’
and to create a temporary community of like-minded people.
21. Larry Harvey, one of the founding members, is now executive director and has
become the project’s official spokesperson. Famous for his grey cowboy hat,
which he wears in memory of his father, he has become a familiar figure in the

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 APTIS READING TEST 62 (25 questions – 30 minutes)

media, featuring on television news reports and in newspaper and magazine

articles that appear as regularly as the Burning Man festival itself. The success
and the scale of the Burning Man owe a great deal to Larry Harvey’s imagination
and sense of vision.
22. Burning Man is often called a phenomenon of the ‘Internet Generation’ and, like
social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the festival encourages the
notions of community participation and self-expression. The event is governed by
ten principles which emphasise the key beliefs of self-reliance and communal
responsibility. People are encouraged to take part in the events and - by working
with and helping each other - to discover something about themselves.
23. Although the event takes place in a harsh desert environment, all participants
called ‘burners’ – are expected to be able to fend for themselves over the seven
day period. The organisers do not provide meals or accommodation and there
are no conventional shops to buy food at or hotels to sleep in. In fact, Burning
Man has its own distinct economy based on the concept of gift-giving, and the
use of money is forbidden.
24. Burners are encouraged to express themselves artistically through painting,
music, dance, performance and other forms of creativity. Each year Larry Harvey
announces a theme for the event to provide them with inspiration – in the year
2006, for example, it was ‘Hope and Fear’. The theme influences almost
everything about the event – from the clothes the people wear to the vehicles
they travel around in. In keeping with the original idea many of the art exhibits
and events revolve around fire, and specially constructed platforms are erected
to ensure that all acts of burning are done safely.
25. For the duration of the event the burners make their home in a self-built
community called Black Rock City, which regular attendees abbreviate to the
letters BRC. The city is always arranged in a distinctive semi-circular pattern, but
its street names differ from year to year in keeping with the changing theme. Just
as it seems to appear miraculously in the desert, the city disappears with equal
suddenness. Following the principle of ‘Leave No Trace’, the participants
dismantle the temporary structures that they built for shelter and take them
away together with all their litter as they depart, leaving the desert in the same
condition that they found it. Once Burning Man is over for the year, it is as if it
never took place at all.

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 APTIS READING TEST 62 (25 questions – 30 minutes)

Key

Part 1 - 1c 2a 3a 3a 5b

Part 2 - 0A – 6G – 7F – 8D – 9C – 10E -11B

Part3 3 - 12C – 13E – 14J – 15A – 16D – 17B – 18L

Part 4 - 19-A, 20-H, 21-E, 22-B, 23-F, 24-C, 25-D, Distractor-G