Learning for fun – A2 English Reading Test

1   The correct answer is B: Sally does her hobby (playing the violin) with people in her family: ‘All three of my children are learning to play instruments too, so now we can practise with each other!’. A is incorrect as Paula doesn’t mention whom she does her hobby with. C is also incorrect as Kim didn’t actually cook with her mum, but she loved watching her in the kitchen when she was a child.

2   The correct answer is C: Kim started classes after getting some good advice ‘after [she] moved to a new city’ and ‘didn’t have anything to do in the evenings’. She got the advice from ‘one of her colleagues’. A is incorrect because she was receiving positive feedback rather than advice when ‘everyone she showed [her pictures] to said they were great’. B is also incorrect because Sally’s husband only bought her a violin as a present because she was having ‘a hard time’. Though her husband did something nice while she was having a difficult time, he wasn’t advising her to play the violin.

3   The correct answer is B: Sally began her hobby (‘I started learning with a teacher again’) after feeling unhappy at work (‘I was having a hard time in my job’). A and C are incorrect. Paula says she is a full-time nurse and Kim says she moved to a new city because of her job but neither of them say they are unhappy at work.

4   The correct answer is A: Paula has ‘been interested in photography since [she] was a child’. She decided to do a course after her last holiday in India so she had been doing her hobby for a long time before starting classes. B is incorrect because Sally started learning the violin but didn’t do it for long. C is also incorrect because Kim says, ‘I never learned how to cook myself’ though she loved watching her mum cook when she was a child.

5   The correct answer is C: Kim has made new friends at her classes: ‘The other students on the course are around my age, and sometimes we go to restaurants together, or even the cinema’. A and B are incorrect. Neither Paula nor Sally mention making friends.

6   The correct answer is A: Paula felt worried before starting her classes: ‘At first, I was afraid I might not be good enough. After all, it was my first time as a student for ten years!’ B is incorrect. Sally implies that she felt worried because she was having a hard time in her job rather than at her classes. C is also incorrect because Kim doesn’t say she felt worried before trying a class at the local college.

7   The correct answer is B: Sally first had classes in her hobby as a child: ‘When I was still at school, I started learning the violin’. A is incorrect as Paula has been interested in photography since she was a child, but she didn’t start taking lessons until she was an adult. C is also incorrect because Kim didn’t take cooking classes until she joined a class at the local college.