CAE PRACTICE TESTS PLUS TEST 1 PAPER 1 READING PART 2

CAE PRACTICE TESTS PLUS

TEST 1 PAPER  1 READING

PART 2

PART 2

You are going to read extract from a newspaper article. Six paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (7-12). There is one extra paragraph which do need to use.

On a wing and a woof Michael Cassell’s close encounter with a paragliding puppy inspires a desire to try out the sport.
I love dogs, but a dog’s place is at your feet, not flying above your head. I was holidaying on the Cote d’Azure in France, and couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing. I think it was some form of terrier, although it was hard to tell because it wore goggles and a little bandana and was moving at the same speed as it passed over the house.
7
I kept my eye on the pair and saw them land on the beach, where they received warm applause from early bathers. I’m sure they were breaking every rule in the book and if the police had intervened I imagine the dog at least could have lost his licence.
8
Paragliding, by contrast, relies entirely on thermic air and the skill of its pilot; to take the skies on such a lightweight contraption is to soar free and silently in the arms of mother nature. The sport has spawned more than 650 clubs across France, and fans travel from across Europe to enjoy the mix of wild scenery and placid weather that the country offers. The most popular regions are the Alps, the Pyrenees and Corsica, and there are plenty of paragliding schools in those regions that will get beginners off the ground in two or three days.
9
The Cote d’Azure, however, is not in itself natural paragliding country, and we have found ourselves under the flight path of a growing number of enthusiasts because of the jagged ridge of red rock that towers three hundred metres above sea level behind our house – the best jumping off spot for miles around
10
It’s a forty-five-minute climb from the beach to this ridge-top and although the gliders weigh around 7kg, there are a harness and helmet and boots and other bits and pieces to carry as well. I calculate that each flight lasts about four minutes and some of the keenest fans trudge past my gate three or four times a day. I tucked in behind one group to watch them get ready for the jump.
11
The reality, of course, is that with proper training and preparation paragliding is a very safe sport: there are accidents, but most are rarely that serious and usually occur on launching or landing. This group, however, knew their stuff. To forsake a long run and lift off for a virtual leap into space takes experience and supreme confidence.
12
I’m not a natural-born daredevil and wouldn’t myself have found that experience thrilling. But I am nevertheless sorely tempted to have a go – maybe on a gently sloping hillside. “You’ll need a medical certificate at your age,” declared one of the group, instantly extinguishing the flame of adventure. But then if puppies can paraglide why shouldn’t an old dog like me?

 

A	But this is no place for beginners. There are no gentle, grass-covered slopes to run down – the rocks are vertical and unyielding and anyone who leaps off them could easily get into difficulties unless they know what they are doing.	E	The biggest surprise was that they were not all strong, strapping young men, intent upon ticking off another item on some checklist of “dangerous things to do before I die”. Of the six preparing tu jump, three were women and the average age appeared to be somewhere in the mid-thirties.
B	For the more courageous, the pleasures of advanced thermalling await, but if you are of a more timid disposition and want to hold someone’s hand, you can take a tandem of course; if you are a dog, the experience must be like sticking your head out of the car window and letting the wind beat your ears round the back of your head.	F	The puppy was paragliding – a tiny, intrepid recruit to the sport that has taken off big time across the country. The creature was not on its own, thank goodness, but on a machine piloted by a young man who greeted me cheerily as they swooped beyond the end of the terrace and dived down the hillside.
C	Not all of these untrained novices reach the beach, however. In recent days, one paraglider has landed on a neighbor’s pool terrace, wrecking several terracotta pots and a previously unblemished flight record.	G	There was one nasty moment when one of the women leapt and, instead of instantly catching the air beneath her canopy, plunged alarmingly down the face of the cliff; but within seconds she had caught an updraft, was whooping gleefully and on her way.
D	Despite such unexpected intrusion on my privacy, I’ve decided that paragliding, with or without the canine companion, is immensely superior to microlight flying, in which the airborne are propelled by a motor so clamorous and noisy that any idea of soaring serenely through the heavens is seen lost.

ANSWER KEY