For each question, choose the correct answer..
Jack Calder
Violin player Jack Calder plays in the Australian band, Ocean Blue.
Jack Calder started playing the violin when he was ten. ‘My music teacher played and one day he asked if anyone wanted to learn. Some girls put up their hands and so did I. I didn’t have a violin, but my uncle said I could use his. The lessons were really hard at first, but playing the violin soon became important to me.’
After leaving school, Jack moved to Melbourne. For a time, he preferred listening to music to playing it. The rock music he listened to sounded very different from violin music, so he bought an electric violin, and started putting the things he liked about rock music into the music he played on his violin.
A year later, Jack met a small group of Melbourne musicians. ‘We all thought about music in the same way and started Ocean Blue together. A year later, we were playing lots of concerts, and our music was selling well. But we didn’t want this to make us different people. We didn’t want to stop being friends.’
Jack meets many people who think playing the violin is an unusual career, but he doesn’t agree with them. ‘I think it’s the best thing in the world. I guess I’m lucky that way. The internet has changed music, but when I walk into a violin shop it’s like entering another world – one where time has stopped. Someone has looked after these beautiful old instruments that are two or three hundred years old. I think that’s amazing.’
1 What do we learn about Jack in the first paragraph?
A He was the only person at school to play the violin.
B He learned to play on an instrument that he borrowed.
C He enjoyed playing the violin as soon as he started learning.
2 What is the writer doing in the second paragraph?
A explaining why Jack thought some music was easy to play
B saying why only a few people liked the music Jack played
C describing how Jack changed the kind of music he played
3 What does Jack say about Ocean Blue?
A Nobody in the band liked travelling far to play in a concert.
B The band members were interested in different kinds of music.
C Everyone wanted to stay friends when the band became successful.
4 Why does Jack think he is lucky?
A He meets lots of people.
B He loves what he does.
C He has an unusual career.
5 Jack thinks it is a good idea
A to keep some things that people used in the past.
B to make more music available on the internet.
C to teach more people to play an instrument.
Answer
1 The correct answer is B: Jack Calder didn’t have a violin, but he learned to play this instrument by borrowing his uncle’s: ‘my uncle said I could use his’. A is incorrect as some ‘girls (and Jack) put up their hands’ when their music teacher asked if anyone wanted to learn to play the violin. C is also incorrect because Jack said ‘the lessons were really hard at first’, so he didn’t enjoy playing the violin as soon as he started.
2 The correct answer is C: This is correct because it’s the only option that reflects the main idea of the second paragraph. Jack ‘bought an electric violin’ so he could use ‘the things he liked about rock music’ when he played his violin. A is incorrect as Jack isn’t explaining that rock music was easy to play. B is also incorrect because other people’s opinions about the music Jack played aren’t mentioned in the second paragraph.
3 The correct answer is C: In the third paragraph, Jack says the members of his band (Ocean Blue) wanted to stay friends when the band became successful. Though their ‘music was selling well’ (they became successful) the band didn’t want to stop being friends. A is incorrect. The band ‘were playing lots of concerts’, but Jack doesn’t say anything about travelling far to play the concerts. B is also incorrect because the band members weren’t interested in different kinds of music as they ‘all thought about music in the same way’.
4 The correct answer is B: Jack is lucky because he thinks ‘it’s (playing the violin) the best thing in the world’. This is another way of saying that he loves what he does. A is incorrect because he doesn’t say he is lucky he meets many people. C is also incorrect as lots of people think Jack has an unusual career, but Jack doesn’t agree with them.
5 The correct answer is A: Jack thinks it is a good idea ‘to keep some things (beautiful old instruments) that people used in the past (instruments that are two or three hundred years old).’ B is incorrect as Jack only says that the internet ‘has changed music’. He doesn’t say he wants more music available on the internet. C is also incorrect because ‘Jack meets many people’, but he doesn’t say that more people should learn to play an instrument.
Related Posts
- Rebecca Miles – wildlife presenter – A2 English Reading Test
- Joe Brown: being a writer – A2 English Reading Test
- We want to be stars! – A2 English Reading Test
- Buddy, the Red Panda – A2 English Reading Test
- Peter Minor and his ideas factory! – A2 English Reading Test
- Juan Sala – underwater scientist and film-maker! – A2 English Reading Test