General Training Reading

SECTION 1 — Questions 1–14

Read the text below and answer Questions 1–7.

Flats to Rent in Northport

A — Harbour View
Two-bedroom flat on the third floor of a converted warehouse, with a balcony overlooking the harbour. Fully furnished. Please note that there is no lift. No pets. £950 per month, plus bills. Available now.

B — Mill Lane
One-bedroom ground-floor flat with its own small garden at the back. Unfurnished. Pets are welcome: one cat or one small or medium-sized dog. Quiet residential street, ten minutes' walk from the town centre. £720 per month, plus bills. Available from 1 March.

C — Station Court
Compact studio flat, ideal for a single professional. Two minutes from the railway station. Furnished. The rent of £680 per month includes all bills: gas, electricity, water and internet. Minimum let of six months. Available from 1 April.

D — Elm Road
Spacious two-bedroom flat on the top floor of a block with a lift. The rent includes one space in the residents' underground car park. Unfurnished. Minimum let of twelve months. £1,050 per month, plus bills. Available from 15 April.

E — Castle Street
One-bedroom flat above a quiet bookshop in the old town. The kitchen and bathroom were completely renovated last year. Furnished. Short lets of one to three months are available, as well as longer lets. £750 per month, plus bills. Available from 1 May.

Questions 1–7

Look at the five flats, A–E, above.

For which flat are the following statements true?

Write the correct letter, A–E. You may use any letter more than once.

Read the text below and answer Questions 8–14.

Westford Council: Changes to Bin Collections

From Monday 2 June, we are changing the way we collect household waste. Please read this leaflet carefully and keep it for future reference.

General waste (black bin)
Your black bin will now be collected every two weeks instead of every week. This is because more than half of what is currently put in black bins could be recycled.

Recycling (blue bin)
Your blue bin will continue to be collected every week. You can put paper, cardboard, metal cans and plastic bottles in it. Please do not put glass in your blue bin any more. Glass should now be placed in the new green box, which will be collected once every four weeks.

Food waste (brown caddy)
Every household will receive a free brown food caddy during May. Food waste should be wrapped in newspaper or placed in a compostable bag before it goes in the caddy. Free rolls of compostable bags can be collected from any of the town's libraries.

Garden waste
Garden waste is not part of the standard service. If you would like your grass cuttings, leaves and branches to be collected, you can join our garden waste service for £45 a year. You can sign up on our website.

Collection times
Your collection day will stay the same. Please put your bins out by 7 a.m. on the day of collection, as crews may arrive early.

Large items
Large items, such as furniture and fridges, cannot be put in any bin. To arrange a special collection, please book by phone on 01632 960 431. There is a charge of £20 for up to three items.

Missed collections
If your bin has not been emptied, please report this on our website within three working days.

Questions 8–14

Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the text for each answer.

SECTION 2 — Questions 15–27

Read the text below and answer Questions 15–20.

The Grain Store Restaurant: Food Safety Rules for New Kitchen Staff

Welcome to the kitchen team. Food safety is everyone's responsibility, and these rules apply to all staff, whatever their role.

Personal hygiene
Wash your hands thoroughly when you arrive, after every break, and every time you have handled raw meat or fish. Long hair must be tied back, and a kitchen hat must be worn at all times. For safety reasons, you must not wear any jewellery in the kitchen apart from a plain wedding ring.

Illness
If you have been sick or had diarrhoea, you must not come to work. You can return only when you have had no symptoms for 48 hours. Please inform your manager by phoning the restaurant before your shift. A text message or email is not acceptable, because it may not be seen in time to arrange cover.

Preventing cross-contamination
We use colour-coded chopping boards and knives. Red is for raw meat, blue for raw fish, green for fruit and vegetables, and yellow for cooked meat. Never use the same board for different types of food, even if you have washed it.

Temperature checks
The temperature of every fridge and freezer is checked twice a day, at the start and end of service, and written in the temperature log by the shift supervisor. If you notice that a fridge feels warmer than usual at any other time, tell the supervisor immediately.

Allergies
If a customer asks whether a dish contains a particular ingredient, such as nuts or gluten, do not answer from memory. All questions about allergies must be passed to the chef in charge of the shift, who will check the recipe records.

Cuts and injuries
Any cut must be covered with one of the blue plasters from the kitchen first aid box. These are easy to see if one falls into food. All accidents, however minor, must be recorded in the accident book.

Questions 15–20

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?

Write

• TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
• FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
• NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Read the text below and answer Questions 21–27.

Hartwell Insurance: Applying for an Internal Vacancy

At Hartwell, we believe in developing our own people, and many of our managers started in junior roles with the company. All internal vacancies are advertised on the staff intranet every Friday. If you see a role that interests you, please follow the process below.

Before you apply, read the job description carefully and make sure that you meet all of the essential requirements. If you are unsure whether your experience is suitable, the HR team will be happy to advise you.

You must then discuss your intention to apply with your current manager. This is not to ask for permission, but because your manager may be asked to provide a reference, and it is important that they are not surprised by the request.

Applications are made using the online form, which asks for details of your current role and training. You should also attach a supporting statement of no more than two pages, explaining how your skills and experience match the requirements of the new role. Please do not attach a CV, as the information it contains is already held by HR.

If you are shortlisted, you will be invited to an interview. For some roles, particularly those that involve managing other staff, you may also be asked to give a short presentation. Details of the topic will be sent to you at least five working days before the interview.

All candidates who are interviewed but not offered the role will be offered feedback. We strongly encourage you to take up this offer, as many staff who are successful in later applications say that the feedback helped them.

If you are successful, you will not usually move straight into your new role. Instead, there is normally a handover period of four weeks, during which you complete your current work and help to train your replacement. After you start the new role, your progress will be discussed at a review meeting after three months.

Questions 21–27

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

Applying for an internal vacancy

Check that you meet the essential 211 word in the job description
↓
Tell your 221 word that you plan to apply, as they may need to write a 231 word
↓
Complete the online form and attach a 241 word (maximum two pages)
↓
Attend an interview (you may need to give a 251 word)
↓
If successful, complete a 261 word period of about four weeks
↓
Attend a review meeting after three 271 word in the new role

SECTION 3 — Questions 28–40

Read the text below and answer Questions 28–40.

Dry-stone walls

A Anyone who has walked in the hills of northern England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland will have seen them: long grey walls running across the fields and up the hillsides, sometimes for miles. These are dry-stone walls, so called because they are built without any mortar or cement to hold the stones together. Instead, a wall stays up because each stone is carefully chosen and placed. A typical wall has two outer faces of larger stones, which lean slightly inwards towards each other. The gap between them is packed tightly with small stones, known as hearting. At regular intervals, long "through stones" are laid across the full width of the wall to tie the two faces together, and the top is finished with a row of coping stones set on their edges. A well-built wall can stand for well over a century with very little repair.

B The technique is extremely old. In the west of Ireland, archaeologists have found the remains of stone field walls that are thought to be more than five thousand years old, buried beneath a thick layer of peat. However, most of the walls that can be seen in Britain today are much more recent. Many date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when large areas of open land that had previously been shared by local people were divided into separate fields with private owners. Teams of professional wallers were employed to build the new boundaries, and in some areas they built hundreds of miles of walls in just a few decades.

C Because walls were built from whatever stone was available nearby, they vary greatly from one area to another. In the limestone country of the Yorkshire Dales, walls are pale grey and made from fairly regular blocks. In parts of Wales, walls are built from thin, flat pieces of slate, laid in neat layers. In Cornwall, where the local granite is hard to cut, walls are often made from large rounded boulders, sometimes covered with earth and plants. Experienced wallers say that they can usually tell which part of the country a wall comes from simply by looking at the stone and the way it has been laid.

D Dry-stone walls are not only part of the landscape; they are also important for wildlife. The many gaps between the stones provide shelter for insects, spiders and small mammals such as mice and voles. Birds such as wheatears nest in holes in the walls, while lizards and snakes use the sun-warmed stones to warm themselves. The surfaces of old walls are often covered with mosses and lichens, some of which are rare. Because walls run continuously across the countryside, they also act as corridors along which small animals can move safely from one area to another.

E During the twentieth century, however, many walls fell into disrepair. As farming became more mechanised, fewer workers were employed on farms, and there was less time for the slow work of walling. Wire fences could be put up far more quickly and cheaply, so when a section of wall collapsed, many farmers simply replaced it with a fence or left it as a pile of stones. Frost, which forces stones apart as water in the gaps freezes and expands, and livestock rubbing against walls continued to cause damage, and with fewer skilled people to repair them, many walls gradually disappeared.

F In recent years, there have been encouraging signs of change. Organisations dedicated to the craft run training courses for beginners, and walling competitions at agricultural shows attract both competitors and large audiences. In some areas, farmers can apply for grants to repair walls on their land, because the walls are now recognised as an important part of the landscape that attracts visitors to the countryside. Nevertheless, repairs remain expensive. Even an experienced waller may complete only a few metres of wall in a day, and with many thousands of miles of walls still in need of attention, the task is enormous.

Questions 28–33

The text has six paragraphs, A–F.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, i–ix, next to Questions 28–33.

List of Headings

• i A reflection of local materials
• ii The rising cost of farm labour
• iii How the walls are constructed
• iv Signs of renewed interest
• v An ancient method and a later boom
• vi Laws that protect old walls
• vii A valuable habitat
• viii The best season for building
• ix Reasons for decline

Questions 34–36

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

• A the coping stones are very heavy.
• B each stone is selected and positioned with care.
• C the stones are cut into regular shapes.
• D the wall is built on deep foundations.

• A how old a wall is.
• B who originally built a wall.
• C which region a wall comes from.
• D whether a wall has been repaired.

• A Fences were faster and less expensive to put up.
• B Fences were better at keeping animals in.
• C Walls were damaged too often by frost.
• D Walls took up too much space in the fields.

Questions 37–40

Complete the summary using the list of words, A–H, below.

Write the correct letter, A–H, next to Questions 37–40.

The future of dry-stone walls

Interest in walling has increased in recent years. Beginners can now learn the craft on training 37Choose…ABCDEFGHSelect an answer, and contests held at agricultural shows are popular. Some farmers receive 38Choose…ABCDEFGHSelect an answer to help with the cost of repairs, because walls are seen as an important part of the 39Choose…ABCDEFGHSelect an answer that draws tourists. However, repairing walls is still costly, as the work is very 40Choose…ABCDEFGHSelect an answer .

• A courses
• B grants
• C landscape
• D slow
• E machines
• F fines
• G climate
• H dangerous