Moving House
This task can be completed by pencil and paper or online (wuith auto-marking).
In order to follow the same procedure as the resource trial and ensure the reliability of the difficulty estimates, we suggest you follow these instructions.
- Hand out the student sheets which should be turned upside down until you have finished reading the passage.
- Say: "This is a test of your listening skills. I will read the passage and then you will answer questions about it. Listen carefully."
- Read the introduction and passage. (Please note the suggested reading time of the text is 1 minutes and 10 seconds).
- Say: "Now turn over your sheet. Listen to each question and circle the best possible answer. Circle only one answer per question. If you wish to change your answer, cross out your first answer and circle your new answer."
- Read out each question and set of options with an approximately 10 second gap between each question.
- Except in the case of a significant interruption, read each part of the passage and each question and its options only once.
Listen to the story about shifting an old house from town out to an orchard.
When Mr and Mrs Fisher bought a kiwifruit orchard, it didn't have a house on it. Instead of building a new house on the orchard, they wanted to buy a big old house and move it there. It didn't take long to find one they liked. The house movers took only a few days to cut the house up into large pieces and load them on their trucks. Then the trucks travelled all night to the orchard. (By travelling at night, they didn't hold up other road users.) When the first part of the house arrived at the orchard, the sun was just up and shining on the tree tops. The house moved slowly through the orchard. Sometimes it had to be lifted over the kiwifruit vines. But at last it reached the place that had been made ready for it. Before long, the rest of the house was being shifted alongside, and a crane lifted all the heavy parts of the roof into place. The workers fastened all the parts of the house together. Mr Fisher had decided to finish off some of the work himself. He helped put one of the chimneys in. Eventually, after a lot of patching and painting, Mr and Mrs Fisher were very proud of their new "old" house.
Source: School Journal, Part 2, No. 3, Learning Media, 1995.
(Text abridged).
Moving House - Text was first published by Learning Media Limited on behalf of the Ministry of Education., © John Newman, 1992. Reproduced with permission.
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Y4 (10/2000) |
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a) |
To not delay day-time traffic |
easy |
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b) |
still had lots to do. |
easy |
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c) |
The crane driver |
easy |
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d) |
The workers |
difficult |
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e) |
patching and painting. |
moderate |