Читання – це сприйняття і розуміння письмового тексту. Метою читання може бути розуміння деталей, вилучення суті, пошук спеціальної інформації та аргументації і т.ін.

Компетенція в читанні – це здатність вилучати й обробляти потрібну інформацію з графічно зафіксованого тексту.

За допомогою нижченаведеної таблиці ви можете швидко визначити свій приблизний рівень сформованості компетенції в читанні, оскільки вона містить вимоги, які пред’являються студентам, що вивчали англійську мову з викладачем або самостійно.

Тепер, коли ви вже приблизно знаєте свій рівень сформованості компетенції в читанні, вам буде цікаво перевірити себе за допомогою тесту.

Якщо ви хочете, щоб одержаний результат був точним, виконайте тест лише один раз. У ході виконання тесту не користуйтеся словником!

Ми пропонуємо вам тест множинного вибору, який складається з 39 завдань чотирьох рівнів складності. Першому рівню складності відповідають завдання 1-4, другому – 5-15, третьому – 16-25, четвертому 26-39.

Якщо ви безпомилково виконуєте завдання 1-4 (перша частина тесту), це означає, що рівень сформованості вашої компетенції в читанні може бути вищим за інтродуктивний (А1), тому вам потрібно виконати завдання з другої частини тесту. За умови правильного виконання завдань 5-15, ви можете вважати, що рівень сформованості вашої компетенції в читанні може бути вищим за рубіжний (В1), і ви маєте право приступати до виконання завдань третьої частини тесту. Якщо пропуски у завданнях 16-25 також заповнені правильними відповідями, можливо рівень сформованості вашої компетенції в читанні вищий за просунутий (В2), тому не вагайтеся і виконуйте завдання 26-39 з четвертої частини тесту.

Пам’ятайте, що ви маєте право зробити лише одну помилку в кожній частині тесту. Якщо ви робите більше помилок, це означає, що рівень сформованості вашої компетенції в читанні на шкалу нижче.

Part One: Breakthrough (A1)

Reading Passage 1

Bats In The Ball Park

A Florida bat colony gets a new home

It's a pretty sure bet that where there's a baseball team, there are bats. But this spring the New York Mets found themselves with nearly 30,000 bats to spare. These bats aren't made of wood or aluminium – they are alive and flapping! The team's spring-training stadium in Port St. Lucie, Florida, was home to a colony of Brazilian free-tailed bats. Last month a special "bat house" opened near the stadium. Its builders hope the bats will move in and leave the Mets alone.

Time out! How did thousands of furry bats end up in a baseball stadium? Throughout Florida, new buildings are replacing the forests where bats usually live. "Bats are being forced to live closer and closer to people," says University of Florida wildlife expert Ken Gioeli.

Too close, say the Mets. The team was fed up with its winged fans. Not only were the bats giving people the creeps, but they were also leaving a giant mess. In one night, 30,000 bats can produce several inches of droppings, which are called guano. The health department's officials were worried.

The bats had to go. But killing bats is illegal in Florida. They are a protected species. So one night while the bats were out, special screening was put up to keep them from returning to the stadium. Result: a lot of homeless bats.

Now that Gioeli's specially designed bat house is open, many of those bats will soon have a home. That's good news for the bats and for local farmers too. Not only do bats eat pesky insects, but the guano from the new bat house can be used as fertilizer to help crops grow. Says Gioeli: "It's very rich in nutrients."

1. Why are people working so hard to protect the bats? Use details from the story to support your answer.

Reading Passage 2

A Spooky Friend

Who's afraid of the big black bat? People who don't know what helpful creatures bats can be.

The sun slips below the horizon. A brisk wind blows leaves around your feet. Suddenly a vampire bat swoops down to suck your blood!

O.K., catch your breath. Scary stories about the many species of bats have been around for centuries. In real life, bats hardly ever hurt people. The furry flying mammals are among nature's best environmentalists.

How Bats Help Us     Bats eat bugs. They help farmers by feasting on insect pests that ruin crops. The 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats that roost near San Antonio, Texas, gobble up 250 tons of insects every night! Bats also snack on flies and mosquitoes that can get in your food or ruin a backyard barbecue.

Bats are also the Johnny Cactus-seeds of the desert. They transfer pollen from cactus to cactus and spread the seeds around. Birds and other desert animals depend on cactus plants for food.

Bats Are Scared Of You!     Actually bats, not people, should be afraid. Today 20 species of bats are on, or may soon be on, the endangered-species list.

People who are afraid of bats have burned them out of caves or buried them inside mines or under city construction sites. "They think every bat is a vampire bat, and they kill all they can find," says Thomas Kunz, a Boston University biologist.
The good news is that some people are working hard to protect bats. A group called Bat Conservation International has built more than 100 iron gates to cover the fronts of caves and mine shafts. These gates let bats in but keep out people who would harm them.

Some of bats' best friends live in Austin, Texas. People there are proud of the 1 million bats that fly out from under the Congress Avenue Bridge at sunset. The bats make up the largest bat colony in any city in the world.

So don't freak out if you happen to spot a bat. The scariest things about them are the tales people tell.

2. According to the article, what are three things bats do to help humans?

Reading Passage 3

Turkeys 'R' Us

Mission: To help end hunger for people in their community and across America

Every year since Thanksgiving 1996, Danny and Betsy Nally persuade folks to donate turkeys and money to feed the hungry. As the founders of Turkeys 'R' Us, Danny, 12, and Betsy, 10, have collected more than 6,000 frozen birds in what has now become a year-round tradition. TFK recently talked turkey with the two siblings to find out what makes them tick.

TFK: You created Turkeys 'R' Us back when you were 8. What made you do this?

Danny: I was watching the news one night. The Greater Boston Food Bank was on. They were short about 5,000 turkeys. My sister and I felt that was really wrong. We went around the neighbourhood collecting turkeys. The first year we got 36, the next year 360, the year after that 1,000 and last year 1,800.

TFK: What's it like to work with your brother?

Betsy: It's really nice. It's nice that I have a brother who would include me in this project. We've worked together and have put in a lot of time and effort into it.

TFK: How many turkeys do you personally handle?

Danny: We don't handle a ton of turkeys; maybe 300. Money makes up much of the donations. We buy the turkeys with the donations.

TFK: How do you manage to get so many turkeys?

Danny: We have some great people who help us. One person kept coming back with more turkeys that her company donated. They set up a website for us. They've been a great help.

TFK: What is your goal?

Danny: Our yearly goal is to get about 4,000 turkeys. Our big goal is to end hunger. We want to take it one step at a time.

TFK: Why do you think this project has been such a success?

Danny: A lot of people really want to help others, but they really need a way to do it. We started this, and people feel they can help others and it's really easy for them to do.

Betsy: I thought we could go many places with this project. We work really hard.

TFK: What's the best part?

Betsy: Bringing the turkeys down to the food bank because then you know you've got all these turkeys to put on people's plates and they'll have something to be thankful for. I'll keep doing this until we end hunger.

TFK: How do you like to have your turkey prepared?

Danny: I never thought about that. I kind of get sick of turkeys after a while.

3. Using information from the article, fill in the gaps.

4. According to the article, what did Danny mean when he said, "We want to take it one step at a time?

Першу частину тесту також можна виконати в мережі Інтернет:

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/e4topic.cfm?TopicID=99.4

PART TWO: THRESHOLD (B1)

Read this short article taken from a newspaper and answer the six questions below.

Reading Passage 1

A couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on the west coast came across a rare loggerhead turtle as they strolled along the beach one evening. The turtle is only the second to be found in British waters since 1993. John and Rachel Martin saw the 35cm turtle being battered by waves, put it in a large baking tin and called the local aquarium. Jane Matthews, manager of the aquarium, says that originally the turtle, a female, was thought to be in good enough condition for immediate release, but experts now think it should be given more time to recover. The turtle will be released into the sea again, but the date for this has been postponed until the creature has grown stronger. Meanwhile, the number of visitors to the usually quiet aquarium has almost doubled as people queue to see the temporary exhibit in its specially converted tank.

5. How many turtles other than this one have been found near Britain in recent years?

6. What were John and Rachel Martin doing when they found the turtle?

7. What will happen to the turtle when it is stronger?

8. Why is there so much interest in the turtle?

9. Which word in the story means the opposite of permanent?

10. Which word in the story means the same as put off?

Reading Passage 2

A small town had a city dump where people could leave their own garbage. A lot of people used to load their garbage cans into the backs of their cars and take them to the dump to get rid of them, instead of waiting for them to be collected from their homes or offices.

One evening the owner of a store in this town put his garbage cans in his van and drove to the dump. He had just left his garbage there, when a young man arrived in a very old, beat-up car, turned around, drove backwards down the hill where the garbage was piled and unloaded his.

While he was doing this, the engine of the car died. He tried to start it again several times, but he wasn’t successful, so he finally said to the driver of a van, "Could you please give my car a push?"

"Which way?", the man answered.

11. How could a person get rid of his garbage in the small town?

12. How did the owner of the store get rid of his garbage?

13. Why couldn’t the young man drive away after he left his garbage?

14. What did the young man want the driver of the van to do?

15. What words in the story mean the same as:

PART THREE: VANTAGE (B2)

Read each of the five passages and choose the correct answers to go in the gaps.

Reading Passage 1

Researches suggest that there are creatures that do not know what light means at the bottom of the sea. They don't have either eyes or ears; they can only feel. There is no day or night for them. There are no winters, no summers, no sun, no moon, and no stars. It is as if a child spent its life in darkness in bed, with nothing to see or hear. How different our own life is! Sight shows us the ground beneath our feet and the heavens above us - the sun, moon, and stars, shooting stars, lightning, and the sunset. It shows us day and night. We are able to hear voices, the sound of the sea, and music. We feel, we taste, we smell. How fortunate we are!

16. Judging from the passage, we can say that this story is mainly about …

17. We discover that the sea creatures in the story …

18. In the passage a child in darkness is likened to …..

Reading Passage 2

It was a man who lived before the time of Christopher Columbus that was the world's first great traveller. His name was Marco Polo. With his father and his uncle, he travelled from Italy to China, crossing mountains and deserts to get there. In China a king called Kublai Khan was pleased to see the Polos and had them live near to him. They stayed for twenty-three years. Kublai Khan sent Marco to other countries to do business for him. When Marco finally returned to Italy, he wrote all about his adventures in a book, which was read by Columbus and many other people, who also became interested in travelling to strange countries.

19. This story is mainly about …..

20. The reason that Marco Polo is called great is not that …..

21. We know from the story that after he turned back, …..

Reading Passage 3

The poetic expressiveness and creativity of Japanese women poets of the Manyoshu era is generally regarded as a manifestation of the freedom and relatively high political and economic status women of that era enjoyed. During the Heian period (A.D. 794-1185) which followed, Japanese women became increasingly relegated to domestic roles under the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism, which excluded women from the political and economic arenas. Yet, since poetry of the period came to be defined solely as short lyrical poetry, known as waka, and became the prevailing means of expressing love, women continued to excel in and play a central role in the development of classical Japanese poetry. Moreover, while official Japanese documents were written in Chinese, the phoenetic alphabet kana was used for poetry. Also referred to as onna moji ("women's letters"), kana was not deemed sufficiently sophisticated for use by Japanese men, who continued to write Chinese poetry, increasingly for expressing religious ideas and as an intellectual pastime. Chinese poetry ultimately yielded, then, to waka as the mainstream of Japanese poetry.

22. Based on the passage, mainstream Japanese poetry of the Heian period can best be described as …..

23. Which of the following statements about kana finds the LEAST support in the passage?

24. The author's primary purpose in the passage is to …..

Reading Passage 4

Erosion is regarded not merely as the physical removal of soil by water and wind, but rather as the deterioration of all the component parts of the habitat in which man and his crops and livestock have to exist. Since there is no conclusive evidence for any major climatic change in historic times to explain this deterioration, we must conclude that the eroding of the total environment has been due primarily to thoughtless destruction of the vegetative cover. This has led to deterioration of the microclimate above and below the surface, generally in the direction of a general drying out of the soil which has exposed it to erosive action of wind and rainfall of high intensity or frequency, and to the loss of organic matter in the soil, thus reducing its capacity to resist erosion by conserving the water that falls on the surface. If everything possible is done within the total environment to conserve the naturally planted or cultivated vegetation, this will also ensure optimal conservation of soil and water.

25. It is argued in the passage that the impoverishment of the world's habitat …..

26. The definition of erosion given in this passage …..

27. It is pointed out in the passage that the loss of organic matter in the soil …..

Тест також можна виконати в мережі Інтернет:

http://www.testyourenglish.net/english-online/cloze-reading/paragraf1.html

http://www.testyourenglish.net/english-online/cloze-reading/paragraf2.html

http://www.testyourenglish.net/english-online/cloze-reading/paragraf5.html

http://www.testyourenglish.net/english-online/cloze-reading/readingpassage-7.html

PART FOUR: EFFECTIVE OPERATIONAL PROFICIENCY (C1)

Read each of the five passages, then choose the correct answers to go in the gaps.

Reading Passage 1

Except for the education of very young children, there was no coeducation in ancient Rome: boys were given one kind of education, girls another. This is not to imply that Roman women were less learned than Roman men; on the contrary, they had more time for education, and they made the most of it. Many contemporary male commentators considered Roman women far better informed than the men; some complained that learned women were likely to be ostentatious about their knowledge.

Perhaps one reason why the women were so well taught is that once they reached their teen they did not get a formal education, but were given individual instruction in the homes instead. Both boys and girls of well-to-do families attended elementary classes where a litterateur instructed them in reading, writing, and arithmetic. At twelve or thirteen, the girls returned home for special tutoring.

28. The passage suggests that formal education was not as effective as …..

29. The passage indicates that some Roman men felt that women displayed their learning with …..

30. Compared to Roman girls, Roman boys were at a disadvantage as students because they …..

Reading Passage 2

The spider is one of Nature's most successful wanderers. Found all over the world, it is able to travel huge distances. When a traveling spider approaches a stream or river, it uses a unique method of locomotion. Rolling over on its back, the spider shoots out a glue-tipped glob of web material attached to a line, gradually paying out more and more line as the wind carries the "anchor." If the arrowing line strikes a secure target on the favoured side of the water, the spider then climbs a bush and walks over the bridge. Another method of locomotion is even more dramatic. The spider again spins out a sticky line ending in a swollen tip. If the line is kept short and the spider does not attach itself firmly to an anchoring bush or rock, the wind will carry the creature far away to an unknown destination. Such sailing spiders have been scraped off the superstructures of ship several hundred miles away from the nearest land.

31. As used in this passage, "locomotion" most nearly means …..

32. The author feels that it is especially dramatic that the spider …..

33. From the way "superstructures" is used in the last sentence, it is probable that such ship parts are to be found …..

Reading Passage 3

It was 1900 and there was no weather forecaster on television or weather-service jet plane monitoring a tropical storm. But there was a weather observer in Galveston, Texas – Isaac Cline. When he visited the beach soon after dawn on Saturday, September 8, 1900, he noticed that the wind had maintained a constant northerly direction through the night and the tide level had continued to rise steadily. Because he understood the significance of these concurrent conditions, several thousand lives were saved later that day and night. Yet, even Cline underestimated the total force of nature's coming onslaught, a storm that would go down in history because it took 7,200 lives. Cline himself nearly perished.

Realizing that his meteorological instruments were warning of the approach of a hurricane that would bring with it a storm wave of dangerous proportions, Cline rode up and down the beaches on horseback warning people of the impending danger. He urged residents near the beaches to move to higher ground near the center of the city and advised summer visitors still in Galveston to take the first train for Houston. But, sadly enough, many failed to heed his warning.

34. The passage is mainly concerned with …..

35. In the second paragraph, "meteorological instruments" are best defined as instruments that measure …..

36. It can be inferred that Cline thought the greatest danger during the storm would be …..

Reading Passage 4

The use of coal and oil by electric power companies creates some very serious environmental problems. One of these problems is nitrogen oxide. When you burn the oxygen out of the air, you are left with nitrogen. Nitrogen, when exposed to air at high temperature, forms nitrogen oxide. It comes out of the power-plant stack, gets mixed with moisture in the air to make various acids, and these get inhaled.

When coal and oil are burned, they give off impurities that contribute to air pollution. They all have a certain percentage of sulphur. Sulphur oxides come out of the stacks and form acids, which are irritant to the mucous membrane, and thus a public health problem. Another pollutant is mercury. Combustion of coal and oil is responsible for about one-third of the mercury that gets into our environment annually.

To get clean air, we can invest money in a stack chemical-process plant to clean the waste gases that result from the combustion of coal and oil. Such plants are now being experimented with, but utility companies are reluctant to install expensive stack cleanup systems that they are not sure will work. Solutions will be developed to handle the problem. They will be expensive, and their use might raise the cost of power to the public ten to twenty percent.

37. According to the passage, why may the cost of power go up?

38. According to the passage, what does nitrogen need to form nitrogen oxide?

39. What does the passage say coal and oil are being used for?

Тест також можна виконати в мережі Інтернет:

http://www.lavc.cc.ca.us/math/samples/english/reading/index.html

Ключі до першої частини тесту:

Ключі до другої частини тесту:

Ключі до третьої частини тесту:

Ключі до четвертої частини тесту:

Англійська мова

http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Fountain/2131/readingact.html

http://www.nexus.edu.au/Schools/FECHS/esl.1.htm

http://www.comenius.com/fable

http://www.soon.org.uk/content.htm

http://www.eslwonderland.com/links/reading_writing.htm

 Французька мова

http://www.ortholud.com/exercices_de_lecture_page_1.html

http://www.ortholud.com/exercices_de_lecture_page_2.html

http://www.ortholud.fr/lecture/lecture_en_rond_2/index.php

http://www.podcastfrancaisfacile.com/

 Німецька мова

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2404/Kafkaaufgabe.htm

http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/