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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Proficiency Tests & Test-taking
A Task from the Croatian "SATs"
Hello everyone, I would really appreciate your help on this. I'm a high school graduate from Croatia and this is a task we had on our test "Državna Matura" which is something like an SAT in Croatia I guess.
The whole educational system and institutions in Croatia are messed up at the moment, there's been a lot of controversy about these exams lately and a lot of people are agreeing that the composers of these tests are incompetent and that the tests are too difficult or "unclear" (for lack of a better word, sorry, English is not my mother tongue).
So here is the task:
You are going to read an article about planning a mountaineering expedition.
Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one
which best fits each gap (19-24). Mark your answer on the answer sheet.
There are two letters which you do not need.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Naturally, you need to prepare yourself physically, so you can be confident that you will
not let either yourself or the rest of the team down. (0) ___. You have to be positive, but not
overconfident. However, no matter how mentally and physically ready you are, you must not
set foot on the mountain without a plan.
When leading an expedition to conquer a high mountain, it is essential to plan well in
advance. (19) ___. The greater the detail, the lower the possibility that something is left out,
which might make the difference between life and death. And you should aim not only to
ensure that everything will go all right but also to cover situations when things go wrong.
And you can be sure that things will go wrong. There can be a sudden change in the
weather, or a member of the team might be injured or taken ill, or a rockfall or avalanche entails
a change of route. (20) ___. Basically, it acts as a reference point so you don’t lose your way,
either literally or metaphorically.
When things go so wrong that you need a change in plan, don’t take it solely upon yourself
to make the change. (21) ___. This way, it gets discussed from all angles. You need the team
to see how best to revise the plan to suit the new situation.
Naturally, you can’t do everything yourself. You need to be able to rely on your team.
(22) ___. Everyone is expected to act according to the plan and not “do their own thing”. But
this doesn’t mean that the team members should act like robots. They need to be flexible, to
react appropriately to unplanned developments. After all, there’s no point following a plan that’s
leading to failure.
And there are many reasons why a plan can fail. The plan can’t cover every detail, no
matter how hard you try. It’s unrealistic to think otherwise. (23) ___. A safe return is imperative.
The plan that successfully gets everyone to the top of the mountain but doesn’t get them back
is a failure.
However, while the team leader needs to ensure the plan is as good as can be, he must
not neglect the members of the team. When you see photos of people on a mountain peak, you
can be sure that they probably wouldn’t have been able to get there without a detailed plan.
(24) ___. Therefore, at every stage in the planning process, you need to focus not just on the
details of the plan but particularly on the people who will carry it out.
Here are the sentences:
A I t is essential to involve everyone in dealing with the problem.
B A s they say, we need to expect the unexpected.
C However, you must always keep the final aim in mind, and be careful how you define it.
D With it, you can monitor that you’re keeping up with deadlines and that you’re where you’re
meant to be at this point.
E T his is when it is crucial to have a detailed plan to refer to.
F A fter all, it is a dangerous exercise and your team members’ lives are at stake.
G With a plan, there’s a much reduced need for the leader to tell everyone what to do.
H However, they can ruin the best of plans.
I And you also need to prepare yourself mentally.
Here are the supposed correct answers:
0 I
19 F
20 E
21 A
22 G
23 C
24 H
What I did was:
19 C
23 F
So, basically I replaced 19 and 23 which is for some reason considered incorrect. I am seriously thinking of filing a complaint about this as I feel my version makes as much sense as the "correct" version of the text. What do you think?
The whole educational system and institutions in Croatia are messed up at the moment, there's been a lot of controversy about these exams lately and a lot of people are agreeing that the composers of these tests are incompetent and that the tests are too difficult or "unclear" (for lack of a better word, sorry, English is not my mother tongue).
So here is the task:
You are going to read an article about planning a mountaineering expedition.
Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one
which best fits each gap (19-24). Mark your answer on the answer sheet.
There are two letters which you do not need.
There is an example at the beginning (0).
Naturally, you need to prepare yourself physically, so you can be confident that you will
not let either yourself or the rest of the team down. (0) ___. You have to be positive, but not
overconfident. However, no matter how mentally and physically ready you are, you must not
set foot on the mountain without a plan.
When leading an expedition to conquer a high mountain, it is essential to plan well in
advance. (19) ___. The greater the detail, the lower the possibility that something is left out,
which might make the difference between life and death. And you should aim not only to
ensure that everything will go all right but also to cover situations when things go wrong.
And you can be sure that things will go wrong. There can be a sudden change in the
weather, or a member of the team might be injured or taken ill, or a rockfall or avalanche entails
a change of route. (20) ___. Basically, it acts as a reference point so you don’t lose your way,
either literally or metaphorically.
When things go so wrong that you need a change in plan, don’t take it solely upon yourself
to make the change. (21) ___. This way, it gets discussed from all angles. You need the team
to see how best to revise the plan to suit the new situation.
Naturally, you can’t do everything yourself. You need to be able to rely on your team.
(22) ___. Everyone is expected to act according to the plan and not “do their own thing”. But
this doesn’t mean that the team members should act like robots. They need to be flexible, to
react appropriately to unplanned developments. After all, there’s no point following a plan that’s
leading to failure.
And there are many reasons why a plan can fail. The plan can’t cover every detail, no
matter how hard you try. It’s unrealistic to think otherwise. (23) ___. A safe return is imperative.
The plan that successfully gets everyone to the top of the mountain but doesn’t get them back
is a failure.
However, while the team leader needs to ensure the plan is as good as can be, he must
not neglect the members of the team. When you see photos of people on a mountain peak, you
can be sure that they probably wouldn’t have been able to get there without a detailed plan.
(24) ___. Therefore, at every stage in the planning process, you need to focus not just on the
details of the plan but particularly on the people who will carry it out.
Here are the sentences:
A I t is essential to involve everyone in dealing with the problem.
B A s they say, we need to expect the unexpected.
C However, you must always keep the final aim in mind, and be careful how you define it.
D With it, you can monitor that you’re keeping up with deadlines and that you’re where you’re
meant to be at this point.
E T his is when it is crucial to have a detailed plan to refer to.
F A fter all, it is a dangerous exercise and your team members’ lives are at stake.
G With a plan, there’s a much reduced need for the leader to tell everyone what to do.
H However, they can ruin the best of plans.
I And you also need to prepare yourself mentally.
Here are the supposed correct answers:
0 I
19 F
20 E
21 A
22 G
23 C
24 H
What I did was:
19 C
23 F
So, basically I replaced 19 and 23 which is for some reason considered incorrect. I am seriously thinking of filing a complaint about this as I feel my version makes as much sense as the "correct" version of the text. What do you think?
Top answer
Their answers are better. The "however" in C is not supported in your version.
- Their answers are better.
- The "however" in C is not supported in your version.
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5 Answers
0
Their answers are better. The "however" in C is not supported in your version.
00
That may be, but wouldn't you agree that F fits in so much better (it makes A LOT more sense) than C at 23?
I mean it is supported by both the previous and next the sentence and this is exactly the part that I find misleading and unfair.
Here, you can compare:
"The plan can’t cover every de
I mean it is supported by both the previous and next the sentence and this is exactly the part that I find misleading and unfair.
Here, you can compare:
"The plan can’t cover every de
00
It is difficult, perhaps unfair, and too murky for me to spend time talking about. I took it without looking at your answers and arrived at
19 B
20 E
21 A
22 G
23 C
24 F
I originally had 19F but was stumped at 24, so I had to change 19 to B.
19 B
20 E
21 A
22 G
23 C
24 F
I originally had 19F but was stumped at 24, so I had to change 19 to B.
00
00
This is a difficult variation on the standard multiple-choice test. Multiple-choice tests can be very tricky - American students have been tearing their hair out for generations over them. They continue to be very popular because they can be quickly machine-graded, and they test how well you function under a time limit. The sticking point with multiple-choice tests is that you have to pick the
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