Examination
MODERN ENGLISH LANGUAGE IV
TEST 1 Reading
Read the article below and be prepared to answer questions based solely on information within the text. You will have 20 minutesto read the text. You will then hand in the text and receive 16 short questions (worth 18 points) and 10 minutes in which to answer the questions. Any copying or talking during the test will result in your paper being taken away. In other words: if you are caught cheating, you will fail.
(3 Sample questions follow the article)
“On a cold day in April, a warm welcome for Camilla”
From an article by Euan Ferguson in The Observer, April 10, 2005
'It was a bright cold day in April, and...' ...and, well, yesterday the horror story ended there. The opening line from one of the more chilling works of modern times, 1984, continued famously, 'and clocks were striking 13'. Given the plethora of woeful obstacles so far to this wedding, some of the crabbier sections of the British media were obviously looking forward with lugubrious Schadenfreude to another cock-up or divine intervention. A broken heel? A head cracking missed kiss? Lightning? Frogs? Could the clocks really strike 13, and Diana rise from the grave?
What happened was that it continued being a bright cold day in April, a fairly perfect wedding day, and two people who loved each other got married for ever, in fairly perfect fashion. The bride didn't forget her husband's name, and the groom didn't wonder what love was, which must auger well: as perhaps should the sheer bloody weight of forces ranged against them since this wedding was announced, from the British press at full bay, to confused unconstitutional bureaucracy at its most maddening, to simple bad luck.
There had been a slightly shaky bridal hand at one point during the service, Camilla unsure of whether to clasp her husband's hand from above or below, and for a split second we must have wondered whether it would morph awkwardly into one of those complicated silly rapper handshakes. But the stutter was still, with an easy move from Charles, a smile from both and quick unspoken understanding. And, shortly afterwards, outside St George's Chapel, it began to look as if it had all been worth it: not just worth it for the personal lives of two people, but perhaps almost even worth it for the Windsors.
Camilla's rehabilitation, if she ever actually deserved to be in a place requiring of it, will be dated back to yesterday afternoon. As she mingled with the invited crowds outside, people's heads turned to follow her surprised to see in real action this lady from years of shadows, and noteful of the easy body language and the laughter. 'Thanks for coming,' she told Clare Christian, up from Dover. 'I'm so grateful people have made the effort.'
She looked, according to Miss Christian, 'relaxed and happy - and about time too'. Nearby, in the garden of the castle, she spoke also to warrant officer Shaun Mcvitie of the Colchester paras, who was more than impressed. 'She is actually rather beautiful, very elegant.'
Earlier, outside the Guildhall, as they drove away after the civil ceremony, I'm pretty sure I witnessed the first Camilla wave - certainly the first as Duchess of Cornwall, because she had only been that for about 18 seconds. Ivory-gloved, confident, backed with a beaming smile, her happiness actually got to me.
The vitriol heaped on this woman down the years, and recent weeks in particular, has managed the impossible: it has actually makes me want to start liking one of the royals.
Half an hour earlier, there were still misgivings. Things could go wrong. There was a grim grey cloud sweeping in from the west. The crowds weren't, in truth, desperately impressive. Jets screamed noisily overhead.
A scuffle broke out behind me. Five burly Thames cops battering through the crowd because they had recognised Peter Tatchell, whom they then subjected to lengthy questioning and searching. He had planned to hold up some posters which he had in a bag, he said. Well he wasn't allowed to, they replied. He wasn't even allowed to take the posters out of the bag.
'What's on the posters Peter?' I called across, and he smiled. 'Charles can get married twice, gays can't get married once.' Cameras flashed and mikes turned: he had made his point. But even this was all conducted in a friendly atmosphere.
'You're only doing your job,' he told them at one point. The crowds, for we CAN call them that, enjoyed what is annoyingly - but correctly - known as a carnival atmosphere, heart-shaped balloons lifting into the air.
There were enough young girls there - actually, there were throngs of them, many in joke tiaras and holiday hats - to banish the thought that this was just a turnout of die-hard last-century royalists, and the one protester I saw, with a banner about shame and immorality and how William should be king, was being politely ignored as if she was mildly mad, which actually she may have been because I am sure I saw her drooling.
And then, at 12.30pm, the sun still there, a school jazz band playing 'Congratulations', the prince's maroon custom-built Rolls drew up to the Guildhall and it all seemed to look like it could go right after all.
The couple, looking genuinely pleased to be there, made only one mistake, in not going up to talk to the band because I had them playing in my ear for an hour before and could have done with some trademark Windsor rudeness: a question to the saxophonist, for instance, about why he hadn't learned to play his instrument.
Within half an hour they were out again and off to the blessing: and enjoyed some of the best pomp and most beautiful music this country can do, which is saying a lot, and looked, in fact, as if they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
I don't know enough about the dress, the girls can do all this stuff so much better, but it certainly struck me, watching the back of it bounce and sway down the aisle to Handel's Water Music on the way to greet her new public, as an extremely tasteful and happy class act.
Outside, Camilla's new smile didn't falter despite the wind threatening to do laughable things to her Philip Treacy feather hat: her luck, their luck, helped at the last.
Obviously, those here in Windsor yesterday weren't anti-Camilla: and our quotes from one afternoon can't tell the mood of the whole country. But I wouldn't be surprised if that mood began to change - that's if it was ever allowed to by the press - because of warm hearts on a bright cold day in April.
QUESTIONS
Answer the following questions based solely on information given in the text. Use the spaces below the questions for your answers. Answer in full sentences.
NOTE: THESE ARE SLIGHTLY ADAPTED FROM THE ORIGINAL TEST
(e.g. Question 1 read “Where does the introductory quote to the article come from?” – both The Observor and 1984 [or “Orwell” or “an Orwell novel,” etc.] were fine; not in question 3) was without italics; other minor changes in diction for the sake of clarity)
1)From what novel is the article’s introductory quote taken?
2)What were many members of the media hoping to see at the wedding?
3)Name two mishaps or instances of “divine intervention” that the author says did not happen?
4)What unfortunate events took place at the wedding?
5)What might Camilla’s clumsy handshake have become?
6)For whom, aside from Charles and Camilla, was the wedding perhaps “worth it”?
7)18 seconds into her title as “Duchess of Cornwall,” Camilla provided her first royal ______.
8)What ironic effect has the “vitriol,” or hatred, “heaped on” Camilla had on the article’s author?
9)Name two things that could have gone wrong (ominous “misgivings” mentioned by the author).
10)What did protestor Peter Tatchell want to draw attention to as Charles re-married?
11)What advice did the author have for the neophyte saxophone player?
12)Which “English” composer’s music was played?
13)What did the wind threaten to do to Camilla?