F.

5 English Mock Exam Paper II (2002-2003) Remarks

Section A
Questions not satisfactorily done include:
3. 46% only
In line 4, free-spenders is compared to tightwads. Tightwads are people who are very tight and
hates to spend with their money. In contrast, free-spenders are people who are very willing to
spend money, who dont care spending much money. So option C is the correct answer.
Many candidates choose option A which says free-spenders are people who have the freedom to
buy whatever they want. This is not correct as most people have the freedom to choose the items
they want to buy unless they are prisoners, no one will force people to buy the things they dont like.
5. 11% only
In line 19-20, it is said that tycoons are often so intent on work that they look upon vacations as a
nuisance. John Brooks Fuqua is used as an example to show that tycoons dont like vacations and
they try to cut short their holidays.
8. 20% only
on the same wavelength literally means having the same way of thinking, so option A is the best
answer.
10. 46%
In line 37-38, it is said that some top businessmen are quite frank about their addiction to power.
John is used an example to show his love for power even when he was a teenager.
13. 15% only
boils down to literally means can be summarized as or amounts to, so the best option is A.
14. 27% only
Referring to lines 53-54, tycoons are extremely competitive by nature. Because of this nature, they
like to compete in sports.
Section B
24. 25% only
espousing literally means supporting an idea, especially a political one, so option B is the right
answer.
25. 50%
In line 42-46, Michael Lee has bluntly rejected controlling tourism numbers by barbed wire, so it is
clear that barbed wire is used to restrict the number of tourists.
26. 14% only
When someone is in a quandary, it means that he is in a difficult situation and it is hard to
decide/choose what to do. Thus quandary best means dilemma.
27. 46%
In line 56-57, it is mentioned that these days tourists want to travel to new and unspoiled locations,
and Antarctica is given as an example which is being visited by many Americans these days.
28. 49%
In line 81-83, it is said that as occupancies rise, there is pressure from the industry on hotels and
resorts to increase room rates to increase profits. Thus the pressure refers to the tourist industrys
desire to increase profits.
29. 33% only
In line 86, it is mentioned that accommodation shortages are seen as an excuse for bumping up the
tariff, which means that it is used as an excuse for increasing hotel charges.
31. 40%
The new tourism marketing strategy focuses their market on a particular group of tourists (the ecotourists, big-spenders, etc) only, of course, the budget travelers who tend to spend less will not
welcome the change.

Section C
41. 34%
We always say at the supper, so D is the correct answer.
42. 33%
origin = where it was created/born , but
source = where it came from, so A is the correct answer.
43. 50%
Nouns after all, many and some must be plural, but country is singular, so it has to take every.
49. 12% only
crucified = died on the cross, a symbol of Christianity
It is better than option C nailed.
50. 28% only
a is used in front of the names of days when we are referring to one particular instance of that day.
E.g. The incident occurred on a Friday, not on a Saturday. (Examples of the same pattern can be
found in the next paragraph.)
56. 45%
really is used to emphasize the exact truth, meaning you are really unlucky.
Section D
This section was poorly done; some candidates got all answers wrong.
The structure of the article Is there a global language? is as follows:
Paragraph 1 builds up the argument for English as the global language. Paragraph 2 gives a
counter argument.
Paragraph 3 shows how even in the U.S. English is losing ground.
57. K English --- It is an official language --- It is the working language
58. C It is the working language --- And it is the dominant language
59. E Chinese --- And South Asian
60. I within 50 years Hindi Urdu Spanish and Arabic --- This change is coming Urdu,
Hindi, Arabic and Spanish
61. A Hold on a minute! (opens a paragraph informal way to introduce the opposing arguments)
--- What global language! (closes the paragraph informal way to conclude the opposing
arguments)
62. B in the U.S. 15 per cent speaks a language other than English --- these other languages
63. D In some parts --- In New York, for example --- in such a city
64. F Internet mainly English --- This is expected to change
65. G English science --- English science
66. J general conclusion
Section E
Questions unsatisfactorily performed are:
67. weekend
The clue lies within the advertisement.
68. leaving/departing (to depart from)
The future continuous tense is required here to express an activity that will be in progress at
that time in the future.
(Pattern: will + be + verb-ing)
departed/departure do not fit the tense nor the structure.
70. staying (to spend time at a particular place)
The future continuous tense is required here.
We say stay at a place.
71. share
The rooms are for two people they will need to use it together so they have to share a room.

75. On
on (prep) + a day (the next day)
Should be in capital letter (beginning of a sentence).
79. Sunday
The clue lies within the advertisement.
Should be in capital letter (proper noun).
81. time
The clue free time is given in the advertisement, but free time consists of 2 words, and it
cannot be a hyphenated word, so time is the only possible answer.
82. hesitate
do not hesitate to contact us is a common expression to be used at the end of the letter.
do not mind to contact us/ do not avoid to contact us are wrong/ chinglish expressions.
83. sincerely
Yours sincerely is used at the end of a letter when you have addressed it to someone by
their name.
Yours faithfully is used when you do not know how to address the person you are writing
to.
Section F
Candidates performed poorly in
85. In about 1920s was used instead of In the/around 1920s.
We say in about 20 years time, but not in about 1920s.
86. We say a game/a new policy was introduced into a country/a place, but not spread into or
brought into a country. Spread is followed by out and it means extend or distribute.
90. time limit is a common expression, time limitation or time restriction are incorrect.
91. at the end of the game, at the end of the lesson, at the beginning of are common
expressions.
92. We often say people are interested in doing something but not people are common in doing
something. Instead we say it is common to see people doing something. Thus the use of
common here is incorrect.
94. range/vary from to is a common expression. E.g. The scores obtained in this paper
range from 33 to 108. We dont say start from to . We say start at
95. who is a relative pronoun to connect the two clauses.
Everyone plays the game. Everyone seems to find the game exciting.
Everyone who plays the game seems to find it exciting.
97. The pattern used here is so that .
98. The pattern used here is find it (adj)
E.g. find it difficult to
find it annoying to
101. know when to stop is given as a clue in the next line.
103. loan sharks are people who lend money to people at extremely high interest.
104. ruin/destroy their lives is a common expression which means they will have no prospects.
affect/ kill their lives fail to bring out the desired meaning.
Section G
This section was poorly done. Lots of the mistakes were not spotted; instead the correct ones were
mistakenly altered. Some candidates put ticks at the end of all lines for the latter part of the article.
They scored no marks for those lines as marks would not be awarded for suspected guess work.
106. persuasive is used as an adj. to qualify the noun talk.
108. a/the is needed before responsibility as it is a countable noun.
109. believe is used in the active voice, so are is not necessary.
110. strict is used as an adj. to describe discipline.

113. others/other students plural nouns

115. at the (first) beginning (first) is repetitive in meaning
116. suspicion uncountable noun, no s
117. a student is (being) taking drugs a student is taking drugs himself, the sentence is in active
voice, so being is unnecessary.
118. in the form of counselling one type of help offered is counselling
120. is expelled (out) expel = drive out; there is no need to repeat the idea of out; expelled
from school
121. a correct line, but some candidates corrected the line as reported to their classmates. This is
wrong. We report our progress/our findings. We report to the police when we are on bail.
122. know present tense to be used
123. appeals to appeal + to; e.g. The WHO are appealing to the Guangdong government for
more information about the Sars.
124. fairness noun form to be used after a preposition
128. threaten verb form to be used in the parallel structure
chemicals reach HK
chemicals threaten our young people

General Recommendations
1. wide exposure to different text types
2. read instructions and examples esp. for new types of questions
3. be prepared for a wide variety of usage items
4. use English in everyday life