General Test 8

Task 1
You are working in a very busy office. A particular piece of office equipment is not working
properly. Write a letter to the manager. In your letter, say

 what is happening with the equipment

 how this may affect your work
 your suggestions

Dear Mr. Phil,

I am writing to make a report on a serious problem of our main printer in level 2, which has a direct
impact on my work.

That is the only printer used to print important marketing materials such as the company’s leaflets,
brochures and flyers due to its high quality of color and incredible speed. However, there is
something wrong with the device that whenever I try to print a document, it suddenly shuts down
and takes long time to restart. [SUGGESTED] The problem could be due to the malfunction of the
ink cartridge, since all papers are fully loaded, and I have already checked the wireless connection –
everything appears to work properly. While I have no ideas on how to handle this issue, another
concern in my mind is that we already arranged a meeting with Optus Company at 3.00pm today. I
need to prepare all these abovementioned documents and hand on to them before presenting our
products.

This inconvenient situation has strongly influences on my work since the lack of advertising papers
enable may make our customers to think that we are unprofessional and unprepared. Failure to
make a good first impression with clients can cause lots of trouble in selling our goods for them our
future transactions with them.

Due to the emergency of this matter, I would like to suggest that we should ask the printer supply
company to send a technician to fix the printer immediately by 2:00 PM this Thursday. Another
instant solution to sort this problem out is that I can go out for printing these documents with my
own budget and then I will do reimbursement later.

I highly appreciate your swift instructions and support.

Your faithful, Yours Sincerely,
QN

Task Achievement 6.0

This response is a little bit forced since it does
not appear to be a problem that prompt a
person to a letter of complaint. Normally we
write a letter of complaint when we (1) want to
show that we are very serious about the
problem, since writing is a very strong weapon
that can counteract the problem (2) we still

Coherence Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Overall
have a lot of time to wait for the response.
I think it’s better if you somehow ‘reinvent’ the
story – it doesn’t have to be an emergency. If it
was an emergency, no one would ever think of
sending a letter and wait for response!
[SUGGESTED IDEA]: One of the AC doesn’t
work , and it’s summer, so the scorching
heat outside hinders us from working well
=> It makes more sense to write a letter for
this.
7.0
6.0
Since the story that you chose is a little bit
limited in terms of vocabulary, not many
collocations are shown.
7.0
6.5
 Think about a story that is both
realistic and easy for you to add in
collocations.
Task 2
Some companies and organisations require their employees to wear uniform. What are the
advantages and disadvantages of wearing uniform?
It is a fact that some companies have their own dress code for their staff. Together with its apparent
distinct benefits, the uniform requirement also has downsides to employees. From my individual
perspective, the potential advantages far outweigh the possible disadvantages.
Undoubtedly, uniform stands for team spirit and makes every team member feel that they belong to
a huge family. instill a strong sense of community and unity among members of staff. Having the
same dress code contributes to gain greater commitment to their jobs and foster team collaboration
thereby maximizing work productivity and progress. Furthermore, wearing uniform means that
every worker is equal regardless of ages, sexes and positions. White-collar or blue-collar workers
are likely indifferent regarding appearance if they are in the same clothes. This can be a hidden sign
to encourage employees in lower position to become more self-confident and devoted to their
professions. It is not mention that, company uniform helps us earn save a relative amount of money
spent for buying clothes, and save time to choose what to put on every day.
On the flip side, it is sometimes believed that uniform is monotonous and unfashionable. For some
people who desire to catch the latest trend of fashion, uniform is something they really want to get
rid of. Additionally, wearing same clothes stops hinders staff from expressing their unique
personalities and styles. However, in these cases, the drawbacks of using uniform turn into
advantageous advantages since it can help to reduce jealousness jealousy and discrimination of
their colleges who cannot afford fashion and brand clothing products and accessories.
In conclusion, wearing uniform bring heaps of a wide array of benefits to either employees or
employers. These advantages overshadow any its disadvantages.

Task Response 7.0

Coherence Cohesion 7.0
Lexical Resource 7.0 (almost 6)
harsh examiners may consider some of the
inappropriacies in terms of word choice and
word use an evidence of a band 6 essay.
Grammatical range and accuracy 7.0 (almost 6)
some minor errors (contribute to Ving, turn
into + N, “any its advantages etc.) may cause
harm to your scores! Harsh examiners may
even give this a 6.
Overall 7.0
 Be careful with word choice and
grammar!