B2 Reading Practice Test 1

Kerem had been working in Usta Rıfat's tiny clock repair shop for almost eight months, yet he had not been allowed to touch a single watch that mattered. Every morning, the old man handed him a cloth and a bottle of oil and told him to clean the tools. Every afternoon, Kerem watched customers come and go through the narrow door, carrying family heirlooms that ticked unevenly, stuttered or had simply fallen silent. One rainy Thursday, a woman brought in a silver pocket watch that had belonged to her grandfather. Usta Rıfat examined it under his lamp, murmured something about a damaged balance spring, and left to collect a part from a supplier two streets away. "Don't touch it," he said, buttoning his coat. "I mean it." For a while Kerem obeyed. But the watch lay open on the bench, and the problem looked so obvious that he began to wonder why the master made such a fuss. Surely, he thought, a steady hand and a pair of tweezers were all that was needed. Hardly daring to breathe, he lifted the spring, and in a single careless second it jumped out of position and vanished into the dust on the floor. When Usta Rıfat returned, Kerem confessed at once, expecting to be sent home for good. The old man said nothing. He knelt down, switched on a small torch and, after ten silent minutes, found the spring wedged between two floorboards. Then he handed Kerem a magnifying glass. "Look at how thin it is," he said. "Thinner than your hair. If you had listened to me, you would never have lost it. But since you have, you may as well learn how to put it right." For the next three hours, the master guided him through the repair, stopping him whenever his fingers moved too quickly. "Slower," he kept saying. "The watch will not run any faster just because you are in a hurry." By evening the pocket watch was ticking again, a soft, regular sound that Kerem found strangely moving. He wished he had not been so impatient that morning, but he also felt, for the first time, that he had earned his place in the shop. "Tomorrow," said Usta Rıfat, hanging up his coat, "you may clean the tools again. But this time you will know what they are for."

At first sight, an octopus seems an unlikely candidate for the title of the ocean's cleverest animal. It has no bones, it lives for only a few years, and it is, by all accounts, rather solitary. Yet scientists who study these creatures keep arriving at the same conclusion: octopuses are remarkably intelligent, and they achieved it by a route completely different from our own. The most obvious difference lies in the nervous system. An octopus has roughly five hundred million neurons, a number comparable to that of a dog, but around two thirds of them are located not in the brain but in the arms. This means that each arm can, to a large extent, taste, touch and make decisions independently. Researchers have observed arms exploring a crevice on their own while the animal's eyes were fixed on something else entirely. Evidence of problem-solving is abundant. Captive octopuses have learned to unscrew jars from the inside, and some have become notorious for escaping from their tanks at night, slipping through gaps barely wider than their eyes and, according to several aquarium staff, occasionally helping themselves to the fish in neighbouring tanks. In 2009, researchers in Indonesia filmed veined octopuses collecting discarded coconut shells, carrying them across the seabed, and assembling them into a shelter when needed. Many scientists regard this as a genuine example of tool use in an invertebrate. What makes all this puzzling is that octopuses do not seem to need such intelligence in the way that monkeys or dolphins do. They do not live in groups, and they rarely meet their parents, since most species die shortly after their eggs hatch. Learning from elders, which is so central to other clever animals, is therefore almost impossible. One popular explanation is that a soft body without a shell forces an octopus to rely on its wits to survive among predators; another suggests that a varied diet of crabs, shellfish and fish demands flexible hunting methods. Whatever the cause, the octopus challenges a comfortable assumption, namely that complex thinking must resemble our own. Its ancestors separated from ours more than five hundred million years ago, so its intelligence evolved independently. In that sense, meeting an octopus may be the closest we will ever come to encountering a different kind of mind.

Subject: Kraków exchange – important arrangements and final reminders Dear students and parents, Thank you to everyone who attended last Tuesday's information evening. As promised, I am writing to summarise what was agreed and to answer the questions that came up afterwards. Departure and return. The group will leave the school car park at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, 14 March, to catch the morning flight from İzmir. Please arrive by 5:00 so that we can check passports before boarding the coach. We are due to return on Saturday, 21 March, at around 9:00 p.m. Parents are asked to be there to collect their children, since the coach will not be able to wait. Host families. Each of you will stay with a Polish student from our partner school and their family. It would be wise to bring a small present from Turkey, such as sweets or a decorative item; nothing expensive is expected. If you have any allergies or dietary requirements, please let me know by Friday 27 February at the latest, so that I can inform the host families. Anyone who does not provide this information in time will have to take responsibility for it themselves. Money and costs. The flights and accommodation are covered by the exchange grant. However, you will need to bring spending money for meals out, souvenirs and local transport. We recommend about 150 euros per student. Should you spend less, you are welcome to keep what remains. What to pack. The weather in Kraków can still be cold in March, so bring a warm coat and waterproof shoes. A power adaptor will also be necessary, as the sockets differ from ours. Please remember that mobile phones may be used as normal, but the school will not be liable for lost or damaged devices. Behaviour. We ask all participants to treat their hosts with consideration, to keep to agreed times and to respect the local rules. You are not only visitors but also ambassadors for our school. Finally, if anything changes in your plans, do not hesitate to contact me directly at the school office, or on the number below in an emergency. Kind regards, Ms Elif Kaya Exchange Coordinator