Exam practice

The four sayings look at work from different sides. Fuller’s reminds us that every skill feels impossible at the beginning: the first day of learning to type or to play the madal is slow and clumsy, but with practice it becomes easy, so the start is not the time to give up. Conway’s says we should not wait for a perfect moment to start something of our own: a young person in Nepal could start a small business at any time if the idea is good. Aristotle’s says that work is a means, not an end: we work so that we can enjoy free time with our families and do what we love. The last saying tells us to work hard without boasting; when we succeed, people will notice anyway. Together they say: start now, keep going through the hard part, don’t brag, and remember what the work is for.

• a.In the fable, the ant is working: collecting grain and carrying it home to store for the winter. The grasshopper is relaxing: sitting in the sun, singing and playing, with no thought for the future.
• b.When winter comes, the ant is comfortable, with plenty of food in her store. The grasshopper has nothing to eat: he is cold and hungry and has to beg the ant for food.

• a.diligence → industry (hard, steady work)
• b.temptations → enticements
• c.objections → expostulations
• d.modifications → amendments
• e.regret → qualm (without any qualm: with no feeling of guilt)
• f.humorous → hilarious

Obliged is left over: it isn’t needed.

h → b → c → g → e → i → a → d → f

1. h. The Ramsays were perfectly respectable people.
2. b. Tom left his wife and his office.
3. c. When his money was spent, he borrowed from friends and spent it on luxuries.
4. g. Tom promised to make a fresh start.
5. e. Tom bought a motor-car and some very nice jewelry (with the money George gave him).
6. i. Tom never settled down (and George washed his hands of him).
7. a. Tom began to blackmail his brother for money.
8. d. George continued to pay for his brother’s expenses (“George paid”).
9. f. Tom took the help of Cronshaw to cheat his brother, and left for Monte Carlo.

You may also see d placed straight after c, since Tom “depended on his brother George” for luxuries from early on. After a fits the story better: once Tom began blackmailing him, “George paid”.

A black sheep is the one member who brings shame on a respectable family. Tom is called that because, while the other Ramsays were respectable, he gave up his job, left his wife and two children, lived only for pleasure, borrowed money he never paid back, blackmailed his own brother and even cheated a man (or pretended to), so that he nearly went to prison.

According to Tom, serving drinks behind a bar or driving a taxi was a perfectly decent occupation. He took these jobs only to embarrass George, a respectable lawyer, and offered to give them up for a couple of hundred pounds. (Before he gave up work, Tom had been in business, a career the family thought respectable.)

He was deeply unhappy because of his brother Tom, who had caused trouble again. In the full story we learn the reason: Tom had just inherited a fortune from a rich old woman he was engaged to, while George, who had worked hard all his life, could look forward only to a modest retirement. George felt it was not fair.

He suddenly announced that he didn’t like work and wasn’t suited to marriage. He wanted to enjoy himself, so he left his office and his wife and went to enjoy life in the capitals of Europe.

He borrowed money from his friends. He was so charming that it was very hard to refuse him a loan, and he made a steady income this way. For the luxuries he loved, he depended on his brother George.

Cronshaw claimed that Tom had cheated him and threatened to take Tom to court, which could have sent him to prison. To save his only brother, George paid five hundred pounds to settle the matter. As soon as they had cashed George’s cheque, Tom and Cronshaw went off together to Monte Carlo and spent a happy month there. The “victim” and the “cheat” had been working together to get George’s money.

Tom’s broken promises. Once or twice George believed Tom’s promises to change and gave him large sums for a fresh start, but Tom spent the money on a motor-car and some very nice jewelry. After that George understood that Tom would never change, and he washed his hands of him.

The moral is that hard work is rewarded and idleness is punished: we should work and plan for the future while we can, as the ant stores food in summer, instead of spending all our time on pleasure, like the grasshopper, who has nothing when winter comes. (Maugham’s story turns this moral upside down: in his ending, the idle Tom becomes rich by luck.)

A summary is short (about a third of the text or less), in your own words, in the present or past tense throughout, with only the main events in order and no details or quotations.

The narrator, who learned the fable of the ant and the grasshopper as a child, sees George Ramsay looking gloomy in a restaurant and guesses that his brother Tom has caused trouble again. Tom, the black sheep of a respectable family, had left his job, his wife and his children to enjoy himself in Europe. When his money ran out, he borrowed from friends and depended on George for luxuries. George twice gave him money for a fresh start, but Tom spent it on a car and jewelry. When George refused to help any more, Tom blackmailed him by working as a barman and a taxi driver. Finally, a man called Cronshaw threatened to take Tom to court for cheating him; George paid five hundred pounds to settle the case, and Tom and Cronshaw went off together to Monte Carlo with the money.

I would give myself a 6. I do my homework every day and I am usually ready for tests, so I am more of an ant than a grasshopper. But I also like to play football in the evening and watch films on Saturday, and sometimes I leave revision until the night before an exam, which is a grasshopper’s habit. I don’t want to be a 10: George worked all the time and was still unhappy. I would like to reach 7 or 8 by planning my study better, while keeping time for my friends and my hobbies.

doubt (DOWT), pneumonia (nyoo-MOH-nee-a), receipt (re-SEET), chalk (CHAWK), feign (FAYN), bouquet (boo-KAY), light (LITE), resign (re-ZINE), gnaw (NAW), heir (AIR), buffet (BUF-ay), pseudo (SOO-doh), knave (NAYV), knight (NITE), solemn (SOL-um), island (EYE-land), wriggle (RIG-l), built (BILT), archeology (ar-kee-OL-o-jee), neighbor (NAY-ber).

In Conversation I, Maya asks Indu where she usually has her photograph taken, and Indu says she usually has it taken at a photo studio on New Road, in Kathmandu. In Conversation II, Rojina asks Sandesh whether he got his car washed yesterday, and he says of course he did: he got it washed at Raghu’s. Notice the pattern: have/get + it (or my car) + past participle, and the tense in have/get: usually have (a habit), got (yesterday). In a question: Where do you have it taken? Did you get it washed?

• a.A: Where do you usually have your hair cut? B: I usually have it cut at New Look Salon.
• b.A: Did you get your shoes mended? B: Yes, I got them mended at Modern Shoe Centre last week.
• c.A: Where did you have your bicycle repaired? B: I had it repaired at A to Z Repair Centre. They did it in an hour.
• d.A: Who sews your dresses? B: I always get my dresses sewn at Laxmi Tailor. She’s very good.
• e.A: Have you had your eyes checked recently? B: Yes, I had them checked at Bhadgaon Optical Centre last month.
• f.A: Where are you going to get your teeth scaled? B: I’m going to have them scaled at KMC Dental House on Friday.

• veterinary’s (the vet’s): We have our dog vaccinated (or our cow treated) at the vet’s.
• mechanic’s: We get our car serviced (or the brakes fixed) at the mechanic’s.
• dry cleaner’s: We have our suits and woolen coats dry-cleaned at the dry cleaner’s.
• translator’s: We get our documents translated (a certificate into English, for example) at the translator’s.
• fortune teller’s: Some people have their palms read (or their fortune told) at the fortune teller’s.
• beautician’s: We have our eyebrows shaped (or our hair styled, our nails done) at the beautician’s.

Match the verb to the subject (gets, has with Phoolmaya, Santosh or Biraj; make with I or They; was made with I, were made with They), then choose the ending that fits the pattern: a past participle (repaired) after a thing, a base form (write, wash, dig, send) after have/make + person, to + verb after gets + person or was/were made.

• Phoolmaya had my shoes repaired last Sunday.
• I will have Suman write a letter tomorrow.
• They make me wash my clothes.
• Santosh gets his brother to type the document.
• Biraj gets her to play with him all the time.
• Phoolmaya has Suman send her the mail.
• They make his brother dig the field.
• I was made to dance at the party.
• They were made to type the document.
• I was made to smoke against my will. (A bad thing to be made to do: here made shows force.)
• Santosh will have his brother send her the mail.
• Biraj has Suman wash my clothes.

Other sentences are possible if they follow the same patterns.

• a.make (Did they make you give…: base form after make; have is also possible)
• b.get (or have: get the old one fixed)
• c.am having (or will have, am getting: a plan for tomorrow)
• d.got (to write follows, so get)
• e.has (or gets: has her hair dried)
• f.makes (makes me clean: base form)
• g.got (to fix follows, so get)
• h.had (or got: had the problems solved by the teacher)

• a.She will have her sister light the lamp. (or She will get her sister to light the lamp.)
• b.I am going to have my teeth filled (by the dentist).
• c.Will you have your hair cut (by the barber)?
• d.I can’t design my house myself, so I am going to have it designed by an architect.
• e.The girl had her moped repaired (by her mechanic). (or The girl had her mechanic repair her moped.)
• f.The landlady has the grass cut by the gardener. (or The landlady has the gardener cut the grass.)

• a.to carry (get + person + to)
• b.wash (have + person + base form)
• c.to dance (get + person + to)
• d.to turn on (was made + to)
• e.bought (get + thing + past participle)
• f.to watch (get + person + to)
• g.do (make + person + base form)
• h.laugh (made + us + base form)
• i.cut (had + it + past participle; cut is also the past participle)
• j.made (base form attend follows, and the past is needed; got would need to attend)
• k.overhaul (made + person + base form)
• l.fetch (had + person + base form)
• m.to remember (were made + to)

• a.It is a bar chart (a vertical bar graph, or column chart).
• b.It shows the average daily attendance of students in each month from September to December: on an average day, about 24 students came in September, 27 in October, 21 in November and 17 in December.

Steady and constant are adjectives, used with a verb: remained steady, stayed constant.

Paragraph plan: (1) what the chart shows; (2) the rise to the highest point; (3) the falls after it, with numbers; (4) an overall sentence. Use the past tense: these months are over.

The bar chart illustrates the average daily attendance of students from September to December.

According to the chart, about 24 students came to school on an average day in September. The number rose slightly to 27 in October, the highest of the four months. After that, attendance fell sharply to about 21 in November, a drop of six students. It went down again in December, to about 17, the lowest figure. While October saw an increase of three students, November and December declined by six and four respectively.

Overall, attendance decreased by about seven students over the four months, after a peak in October. December’s average was only about two thirds of October’s.

• a.I see a peaceful forest scene: horses, a mother and her young ones, standing in a shallow stream and drinking, with tall trees, sunbeams and wild flowers all around. They look calm and in no hurry.
• b.Animals live in the present: they eat when hungry, rest when tired and don’t worry about tomorrow or about money. Humans plan and worry: we work for wages, follow clocks and timetables, and think about the future, so we are often too busy to rest or to enjoy what is around us. But humans can also do what animals can’t: notice beauty on purpose, make art and music, and choose how to spend their time.

• a.stare – iv
• b.beneath – v
• c.woods – i
• d.enrich – ii
• e.glance – iii

Because it is full of care: we are so busy with work and worries that we have no time to stand and stare, to stop and enjoy the beauty of nature and the world around us.

They stand beneath the boughs of trees and stare calmly for as long as they like, with no hurry and no worry.

They hide their nuts in the grass, storing food for later. (Like the ant in the fable, they plan ahead, yet the poet would like us to have time to watch them.)

Beauty, pictured as a woman, glances at us, dances with her feet, and smiles: the smile begins in her eyes and then spreads to enrich her mouth. It is a magic we can only see if we have time to turn and wait.

If we look carefully, human life is poor: full of care and so busy that we have no time to enjoy the simple beauty all around us, the trees, the animals, the streams and the smile of beauty, which are free for anyone who stops to look.

I don’t have much leisure on school days, but I try to use it well. In the evening, after my homework, I play badminton with my friends in our tole for half an hour, and then I help my grandmother water her flowers. On Saturdays I go cycling with my cousin to the hills above our town, where we sit and look at the rice fields and the mountains to the north. I also love reading adventure stories and drawing birds. I try not to spend all my free time on my phone, because then the time goes and I don’t remember anything of it. My leisure activities make me fresh, so I study better afterwards.

• a.He is probably a receptionist or mechanic at a garage (a car repair workshop), talking to a customer who has called. The man standing behind him may be one of the mechanics.
• b.He is probably talking about repairing or servicing the customer’s car: what needs to be done, when to bring it in and how much it will cost.

• a.Mrs Hobbs
• b.full service (it was last checked about a year ago)
• c.Friday morning
• d.serious problem (they might need to order new parts)
• e.charged (a lot to change the windscreen cleaner liquid)
• f.cost anything extra (the check on the brake pads is part of the price)
• g.good team

• a.She wants to get her car serviced.
• b.About a year ago.
• c.On Thursday, at around 9 a.m.
• d.About three hours, unless there is a serious problem.
• e.The oil level seems to be dropping, so she thinks there might be a leak.
• f.The rear brake light on the left side is broken. The mechanic says they will fix it.

• Can I get my phone’s screen replaced here? It cracked when I dropped it.
• What’s wrong with it? Is it the battery or the charging port?
• How long will it take? Can I have it repaired by tomorrow?
• How much will it cost? Is the repair covered by the warranty?
• Will you use an original part?
• Will I lose my photos and contacts? Should I back them up first?
• Can I get a receipt for the repair?
• If the same problem comes back, will you fix it free of charge?

• a.She is being helped with the housework. (by someone is left out)
• b.He was sent a parcel by the mail-order company. / A parcel was sent to him by the mail-order company.
• c.I was sent an invitation by my friend. / An invitation was sent to me by my friend.
• d.The letter has been given to the minister by the secretary. / The minister has been given the letter by the secretary.
• e.He had already been fined for a parking offense by the traffic police officer.
• f.Elizabeth was given that beautiful ring by John. / That beautiful ring was given to Elizabeth by John.
• g.She has been sent flowers by her students. / Flowers have been sent to her by her students.
• h.The message must be given to the right person (by him). / The right person must be given the message.
• i.Our students are taught English and French (by us). / English and French are taught to our students.
• j.Flowers were bought for the bride. (The bride was bought flowers is possible but less usual.)
• k.The tourists were shown the sights of Pokhara by the guide. / The sights of Pokhara were shown to the tourists by the guide.
• l.She is paid an excellent salary. / An excellent salary is paid to her.

1. is believed (people believe it now)
2. will be visited (in the next few years)
3. has been constructed (from six years ago until now)
4. has not been completely finished (not … yet: present perfect)
5. will be completed (by the end of the month)
6. can be booked (modal + be + past participle)
7. was bought (equipment is uncountable, so was; has been bought is also correct)
8. was financed (or has been financed)
9. were given (or have been given: grants is plural)
10. have been invited (or are invited: the ceremony is still to come)

Paragraph 1: what work and leisure are. Paragraph 2: how they differ and how they are alike. Paragraph 3: the benefits of each. Paragraph 4: balance, and your conclusion.

Work and Leisure

Work is what we do to earn a living or to complete our duties, like a farmer plowing his field, a nurse caring for patients or a student studying for exams. Leisure is the free time we have when work is over, to rest and to do what we enjoy.

The two are different in purpose. We work because we must; in our leisure we do what we choose. Work follows a timetable and has goals to meet, while leisure is relaxed. Yet they are alike in some ways: both can bring joy, and both need energy. A hobby such as gardening or playing music can be as hard as a job, and for lucky people, work itself is a pleasure.

Both bring benefits. Work gives us money, skills and respect, and it helps our families and our country. Leisure refreshes the body and mind, lets us spend time with family and friends, and gives us space to think and to notice the beauty around us.

The secret is balance. Too much work makes life dull and tiring, and too much leisure makes it empty. As Aristotle said, we work so that we can enjoy our leisure.

• a.False (she has the water carried by a porter: someone else does it)
• b.True
• c.False (only in the busy season)
• d.True (from December, for a month)
• e.True (she rests and watches the mountain, so she isn’t “working only to work”)

• a.replaced (have + thing + past participle)
• b.read (make + person + base form)
• c.to teach (get + person + to)
• d.to wait (was/were made + to)
• e.stitched (get + thing + past participle)

• a.The road to the temple is being repaired by the municipality.
• b.The report will be sent (by Bhim) tomorrow.
• c.Pramila’s bicycle has been stolen.
• d.More trees should be planted along the river.
• e.Amrit was given a certificate by the principal. / A certificate was given to Amrit by the principal.

The table shows the number of visitors to a small museum from January to April. In January about 1,200 people visited. The number rose slightly to 1,250 in February and then jumped to 2,400 in March, almost double, the highest of the four months. However, in April it plummeted to only 900, the lowest figure. Overall, the number of visitors went up for three months and then fell sharply, ending lower than where it started.

How I Balance Study and Leisure
Balancing study and leisure is not easy, but I have found a routine that works for me. On school days I study for two hours after I get home, with a short break in the middle, and I don’t touch my phone until my homework is finished. After that, I spend an hour playing football or helping my mother in our kitchen garden. On Saturdays I study in the morning and keep the afternoon free for my friends, a film or a walk to the river. Before exams I study more, but I still sleep eight hours, because a tired brain forgets everything. I have learned that rest makes my study better, not worse: I am neither an ant nor a grasshopper, but a little of both.