APTIS READING TEST 3

PART 1

Choose the right word to complete the text.

Dear family,

How are things? Remember that I said / told / asked you I had enrolled in a school
of arts?

Well, I had my first class yesterday and it was a big / great / large experience.

Our teacher is very patient and incredibly talented. I’m looking / waiting /
watching forward to our next lesson.

In the meantime, I’m practicing some of the techniques I’ve learnt. I could /
should /might not be an artist, but painting helps me relax after college and I have
made / done / caught some new friends. But I miss you all! Hope to see you soon

Love,

Gareth

PART 2

Order the sentences to make a story. The first one has been done for you.

Marie Curie

A. Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867.

B. But she couldn’t attend the University of Warsaw, so she agreed with her sister
that they would help each other pay for their studies

C. After graduating, she married Peter Curie, and they started to experiment with
radioactivity.

D. So, for years Marie worked as a tutor to pay for her sister’s studies, and then
her sister helped Marie enroll in the Sorbonne.

E. These experiments granted her the Nobel Prize, becoming the first woman to
win it.

F. There she graduated in physics and mathematics.

G. She was an exemplary student who excelled at school.

1. __A__ 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 5. _____ 6. _____ 7. _____

PART 3

Read the text and complete the gaps with words from the list. The first one is
done for you. There are more words than you need.

Hotel Rainbow is experiencing a delicate situation, with 90% of its

___________________ on strike for better conditions and the hotel itself facing severe
______________________ problems. However, the manager, Mr Smith, is optimistic
about the outlook of the company and says that they are __________________ no
effort to solve their problems. He is also __________________ that the hotel will not
give in to the demands of employees unless an effort is made from both sides to
___________________ this crisis. In a recent TV interview, he advocated for a
consensual solution: ‘We will ___________________ to solve this conflict one way or
another, but the only way to attain a satisfactory solution for both
___________________ is by negotiation’.

overcome adamant succeed staff

wasting
economic manage economical parties
sparing

PART 4

Read the text and match each heading to a paragraph. There is one extra
paragraph you don’t need.

Headings

A. The beginning of a long civil strife

B. Betrayal, death, and sorrow
C. The rise of a new regime
D. Destitute despite aristocrat origins
E. A point of no return
F. A common misconception
G. What the term meant at the time
H. back home, power raises suspicion and distrust
I. A great soldier, a bad ruler

Julius Caesar

1. ______ Julius Caesar is often described as an emperor when, in fact, it was his
nephew-grandson and successor Octavio Augustus who first held this title. Julius
Caesar was a Roman consul (pontifex maximum) and dictator who ruled during
the Republican period, which ended with his death, thus marking the beginning of
the Imperial government.

2. ______ Caesar cam form an impoverished, albeit noble family whose wealth had
diminished over time. He grew up in Suburra, one of the most cosmopolitan and
populated neighbourhoods in Rome, and a hotbed for crime. His crave for
restoring the good name of his family, and his lack of funds pushed him to seek a
rapid rise in the cursus honorum, the Roman political career, from military tribune
to consul and eventually, dictator.

3. ______ In Ancient Rome, tough, dictators did not obtain control by force. They
were magistrates granted absolute power by the Senate to deal with a military
emergency or undertake specific duties. The rest of magistrates had to submit to
their authority, or Imperium. The dictatorship was temporary: it ended once the
crisis was over or after a term of six months. Caesar was appointed dictator for a
one-year term, then for a ten-year term, and eventually, for life.

4. ______ Caesar had made a fortune after his eight-year campaign in Gaul, and
gained great popularity among his soldiers. The Senate of Pompey, the first
consul in Rome, saw him as a menace. Hence he was ordered to dismantle his
army before entering Italian soil. Caesar disobeyed this command, and on
January 11 AC 49, he crossed the Rubicon, the natural frontier between Gaul and
Italy while pronouncing the famous words Alea Iata Est (the die is cast). This
fateful decision would change the faith of an entire nation.

5. ______ Rubicon is a short torrential river which flows into the Adriatic Sea.
However, by crossing this modest river, Caesar became a public enemy. The
senate was so fearful of Caesar that appointed Pompey to lead the army against
him and his faithful legionnaires, who were making their way to Rome at a brisk
pace. But unwilling to fight Caesar in Rome, Pompey fled to southern Italy, where
he intended to wait for Caesar and his troops. By doing so, he left the city
defenseless and initiated a long, drawn-out war with Caesar and this with Pompey
and Rome itself.

6. ______ Caesar pursued Pompey and the rest of his adversaries. Some died,
others gave in and submitted to him. The war extended for five long years. Only
Pompey was still offering resistance. He had sailed to Egypt in search of
protection from his ally Ptolemy, the Egyptian ruler. However, he was
assassinated by three of the king’s advisers who expected to gain Caesar’s
favour. Instead, he took offense and ordered the execution of the traitors for their
despicable act.

7. ______ Upon coming back to Rome, Caesar was welcomed as a hero. Victorious
and no political rivals left, he took over control of the Senate. Now he was a sole
consul, a dictator with supreme power, the mighty lord of Rome, a fearsome and
threatening figure for his enemies, who had qualms about his true intentions.
Would he acquiesce to being a dictator, or did he secretly aspire to become a
king?

8. ______ Rome had always taken pride in having overthrown monarchy; therefore,
when Caesar’s power was at its height, a group of senators conspired to plan his
assassination. On March 15 BC, they awaited Caesar in the great hall of the
Theatre of Pompey and stabbed him to death. They thought they were saving the
republic. Nevertheless, after Caesar’s death, his heir Octavio, a seemingly
harmless young man, defeated his uncle’s assassins and established the
Imperium. He added the name of Caesar to his own and from then on, all the
future emperors would take the name of Caesar. The same word from which
modern terms like Kaiser and Tsar derive.

KEY

PART 1

told, great, looking, might, made

PART 2

1A, 2G, 3B, 4D, 5F, 6C, 7E

PART 3

staff, economic, sparing, adamant, overcome, manage, parties

PART 4

1F, 2D, 3G, 4E, 5A, 6B, 7H, 8C