Practice Paper 1 Dear Dad, We have just received your postcard. We are glad that you have reached Hong Kong safely. My meet-the-parents meeting is this Thursday, but you will not be around to attend it. Mum says she will be going for it, though. You also will not be here to wish Melissa Happy Birthday when she turns eight this Friday, but since her birthday party is on Sunday, you will still be able to celebrate her birthday with her. Although you have only been gone for a few days, we miss you dearly. Mum wants me to remind you to eat your meals regularly she is afraid that you will suffer because she is not there to cook for you! Take care and see you soon. Love, Lena It was a Monday afternoon and Alisa and her best friend, Caroline, were at the shopping mall. The girls were looking at some hair accessories which were on sale. Alisa picked up a bright purple blouse, held it up against herself, and examined her reflection in the mirror. She decided she would look pretty wearing it, and without a second thought, slipped it into her bag. Caroline saw that her friend was trying to steal the item, and was shocked. She put out her hand to stop her friend from putting the blouse into her bag. It s only a blouse that costs five dollars, Alisa protested. Besides, it s a weekday afternoon and nobody will see me. Why don t you get something too? Here, try this clip. She selected a light blue clip from the display and held it against Caroline s hair. Caroline s mother had taught her that it was wrong to steal things, but the hair clip did look rather nice. She looked around, and realised that Alisa was right. Quickly, Caroline put the clip into her pocket. Come on, let s go and watch a movie, said Caroline, who was feeling uneasy and wanted to leave the store immediately. The girls were almost out of the door when an alarm sounded, and a security guard approached them. They were taken to a small office where their bags and pockets were searched. The blouse and the clip were discovered and Caroline burst out into tears and admitted that they had not been paid for. The manager was furious and wanted to call the police, but changed his mind because the girls were still in primary school. He decided to give them a second chance, 1
and called their parents instead. Their parents came down and paid for the blouse and the clip. They reprimanded the two girls, and as a punishment, the girls had to write an apology letter to the store manager. Practice Paper 2 Dear Mr Edwin Tan, I would like to request for the booking of a function room on Friday, 8 August for a birthday party. In addition to the booking, I would like to rent a television set and a karaoke system. I would like to know how I can make payment for the rental of the equipment, and if it would be possible for me to rent more chairs for the function. Thank you. Yours Sincerely, Chris The bell rang, signalling the end of the long dreary school day. Brandon and I immediately jumped out of our seats, eager to get home so that we could test out the new computer game Brandon s mother had bought for him. We were about to leave the classroom when suddenly, screams of Fire, fire! rang out. Mr Chen, our Science teacher, stepped out into the corridor to investigate. Flames were coming out from the printing room! Immediately, he told the prefects to line us up and lead us to the school field. He then took a fire extinguisher from the wall and hurried over to the printing room. There was much chaos as everyone was trying to get out of the building, and the staircases were packed with panicking students. Brandon and I decided that it would be interesting watching Mr Chen put out the fire, so we followed him. In the printing room, Mr Chen was operating the fire extinguisher expertly, and the fire was nearly put out. Two frightened boys were crouching in the corner, watching Mr Chen as he battled the flames. Finally, the fire was completely extinguished. However, all the papers in the room were burnt to ashes, and the printers had been damaged by the heat. Mr Chen motioned angrily to the two boys to follow him, and turned around. He noticed the two of us standing in the corner and scolded us for not obeying instructions, and told us to join our classmates in the field. 2 About half an hour later, the principal informed us that nobody had been injured,
and that we could go home. He also told us that two mischievous boys had seen their test papers in the printing room, and not wanting to sit for the test, they decided to get rid of the test papers by setting them on fire. They were punished by having to serve detention every day for a month, and their parents would have to pay for the damages caused by the fire. Practice Paper 3 Relocation of Just Boutique. Dear customers, With effect from 9 September, we will be shifting to our new premises at #02-123, Southpoint Centre. Southpoint Centre is located just opposite Marina MRT Station, and it is more accessible than our current location. Should you have any enquiries about the new location, please feel free to contact Valerie of Just Boutique at 6665 8014. We hope that you will give us your continued support. See you at our new shop! Harold and his classmates were at the zoo on a school excursion. His teacher had brought them to look at snakes, and was currently giving them a lecture about reptiles. Listening to his teacher drone on, Harold started to feel bored and restless. Deciding that the Miss See would not notice, he slowly inched his way out of the Snakes Hut. Just as he had reached the exit, a hand clamped down on his shoulder and he spun around in fright. Hey, where do you think you re going without us? asked his best friend, Leonard, who had walked out of the exhibit with another of their close friends, Gary. Why did you scare me like that? Anyway, I m off to see the lions, said Harold. His two friends agreed that they would rather look at the majestic beasts than scaly creatures, so they headed towards the Lions Den. When they reached the lions enclosure, Leonard decided to climb over the divider to have a closer look. He was having some problems getting up the slippery wall, and he kept sliding back to the ground. On seeing this, Gary and Harold decided to give him some support by cheering him on. At this point in time, Leonard s actions had already been noticed by some tourists. One of them had gone to fetch a zookeeper, who was walking angrily towards the boys. Leonard was leaning forward in a dangerous position when a bar of chocolate slipped out of his pocket and fell into the enclosure. Immediately, one of the lions gave 3
a loud roar, and pounced onto the fallen snack. Leonard turned as white as a sheet, and scrambled down the wall. Boy! What are you doing! Do you realise that you could have fallen in? asked the zookeeper. Shaken, Leonard could only nod dumbly. The zookeeper took the three boys to join the rest of their class, and told Miss See what had happened. Miss See scolded the three boys for wandering off without her permission, and they were made to stand next to her for the rest of the trip. Practice Paper 4 To the manager of Excellent Electric Dear Sir/Madam, Complaint about Fax Machine I am writing to express my extreme displeasure regarding the fax machine which I had purchased from your company. I had bought the FAX 4576, but on the invoice, your salesperson had printed that the model I bought was the FAX 4567, and so the wrong model was delivered to my house instead. As I needed a fax machine urgently, I decided to accept the delivery and asked the deliveryman, Matthew, to install the machine for me. Matthew said that he did not know how to install fax machines because he was only the deliveryman. When I told him that the salesperson at your Bishan outlet said that the fax machine would be installed for me when it was delivered, he insisted rudely that he could not install the machine. I then asked Matthew for my free gift, a digital clock. Matthew told me, rather impolitely that there was no free gift for me, and suggested that perhaps the free gift came only with the FAX 4576. He left abruptly after telling me that, saying that he was busy. I am very upset with the service I have received from your employees. I would appreciate it if you could look into the matter. I hope that the correct model of the fax machine can be delivered to me, and installed properly. I also would like my free gift to be delivered along with the fax machine. I will, of course, return the FAX 4567 upon delivery of the FAX 4576. Thank you. Yours Faithfully, Miss Chong 4
It was my classmate Eric s eleventh birthday, and we had gone out to celebrate by going to the arcade, having a sumptuous dinner, and finally watching a movie at the cinema. The movie had ended later than usual, so it was nearly eleven at night when we left the cinema. Unfortunately, when I reached the bus stop, I saw the last bus leaving the stop. I ran after the bus, and tried shouting and waving my arms to get the attention of the bus driver, but to no avail. I thought of taking a taxi home, but I had already spent all my money on entertainment that day. I took out my handphone from my pocket, intending to call my father to ask if he could fetch me home, but I realised that the battery was flat as I had forgotten to charge my phone the previous day. Shrugging my shoulders, I started off in the direction of my home. By the time I reached my doorstep, I could hear our clock chiming twelve. I unlocked the front door, and pushed it open slowly to prevent it from creaking. It was all quiet inside, and I thought that I was safe. Heaving a sigh of relief, I started for my room. Stop right there, young man! my father said. He had been sitting on the couch in the dark waiting for me to come home. He was very angry with me because I had missed my 10 pm curfew. He also scolded me for not remembering to charge my handphone, saying that it was an important communication tool, and that in an emergency, he wanted to be able to contact me. As it was late, he told me to go up to bed immediately, and warned me not to come home late again. Practice Paper 5 Dear Cecilia, As I will be away next week on a business trip, you will have to do the laundry for the family. Here are instructions on how to use the washing machine: - Load a maximum of 4 kg of clothing into the machine, and add one level scoop of washing powder into the drawer marked 1. - Add half a scoop of fabric softener into the drawer marked 2. If the amount of clothes is less than 2 kg, press 1 to start the wash cycle. Press 2 if the load is between 2 and 3 kg, and 3 if the load is between 3 to 4 kg. Charles sometimes dirties his school uniform while playing soccer, and if he brings home heavily-soiled clothes, they will have to be soaked overnight before being washed in the machine. If there are any coloured clothes, separate them from the 5
white clothes and wash them in two different cycles. Remember to take out the clothes from the machine as soon as the wash cycle is done! Love, Mum It started drizzling while Mrs Chan was walking home from the supermarket. She quickened his pace and heaved a sigh of relief when she managed to get under the shelter of his block of flats before the light shower turned into a downpour. She got into the lift and went up to the sixth floor. When she got out of the lift, she looked out at the cloud-covered grey sky, and was glad that she had decided to come home instead of going with to the park for a walk. As Mrs Chan s house was the last along the corridor, she had to walk past all the units on her level before she would reach home. She was nearly home when she heard a loud thud from the unit next to hers. Mrs Chan remembered that Mrs Yeo, who lived with her husband in that flat, was pregnant and she hurried over to check if anything untoward had happened to her. Peering in from the corridor window, Mrs Chan saw Mrs Yeo lying unconscious on the floor. She started yelling through the window to see if she could wake Mrs Yeo, or get the attention of Mr Yeo, but to no avail. Seeing that she could not do anything by standing at the window, Mrs Chan ran home to enlist the help of her son. Mrs Chan s son, Melvin, managed to contact Mr Yeo on his handphone. Mr Yeo had gone out to chat with his friends at a nearby void deck, and upon receiving the call he hastened home. An ambulance was called, and Mrs Yeo was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately for her, she had only suffered a couple of bruises from the fall, although the doctor wanted to keep her in the hospital for a few days for observation. When Mrs Yeo regained consciousness, she told Mrs Chan that she had slipped and hit her head against the table. She thanked Mrs Chan for her prompt actions. From that day onwards, the Mrs Yeo and Mrs Chan became good friends. Practice Paper 6 Dear Sharon, It has been one month since I have shifted into my new house, and I would like to invite you to my housewarming party held on Saturday 7 September at 2 pm. It will be the Saturday before the school holidays, so I hope that you will be free to attend it. The party will be held at my new house, Blk 345 Tampines East Road #12-34. My 6
mother will be ordering a buffet, so I would appreciate it if you could confirm your attendance by Wednesday 4 September because she needs to contact the caterer by Thursday. There is a pool in my condominium, and we can go swimming in it after we have eaten, so bring your bikini along! We can also watch The Littles, which is one of my favourite shows. I really hope you can come and take a look at my new house. I am anticipating your favourable reply! Love, Nancy Boom! The loud clap of thunder woke me up instantly from my dreams. I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. I glanced over at the clock on my desk to find out what time it was, but all I saw was 12:00 blinking in bright red. The storm had probably tripped the power while I was asleep, and reset my electronic alarm clock. Sighing, I got out of bed and walked out to the living room. To my horror, the clock on the wall said that it was already eight o clock, and I had to sit for my Chinese examination at eight-thirty! I looked out at the pouring rain and groaned there was no way I would be able to get ready and walk to school in the downpour, and still reach there before the examination started. I ran back to my room and got dressed as quickly as I could, but by the time I was ready, it was already 8:15 am. I grabbed an umbrella from the stand, slammed the gate shut, and rushed down the stairs two at a time. I struggled to open the umbrella, but it appeared to be stuck, and I was nearly going to cry in exasperation. Danny! Are you going to school? I ll send you there. I looked up from the umbrella, and saw my parents, who had just come back from the market. Gratefully, I accepted my father s offer. When I reached the school gates, it was already 8:35 am and I dashed up to my classroom. I relaxed a little when I saw two of my classmates outside the class. They had been caught in the rain, and were also late for the examination. As the rain had been extraordinarily heavy that morning, the principal had decided to start the examination at 9 am instead of 8:30 am. I was relieved to find that I was not late for the examination, but I also made a mental note to use a battery-operated alarm clock to wake me up for my next examination! 7