STARTERS

Society Between Two Poles Apart   Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of Education General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1984 For Science and Arts Candidates Special Course-English Time Allowed: 3 Hours. 12. Read the following passage (text), then answer the questions: We may view society as a spectrum with the innovators, the planners and the managers at one end, and the ill-educated and the drifters on the other. The majority of us come in somewhere between the two extremes. The planners and the managers are acutely aware of the possibilities of change; the drifters are those who find the world too much for them and accept, passively or resentfully, whatever comes along. The better educated a man is, the more likely it is he belongs to the planners rather than to the drifters, simply because he is able to understand and cope with the forces at work in society. Man has very largely mastered his environment. He has gained control over immense forces of natu...

Modern Civilisation & Man   ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT Ministry of Education General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1983 For Science and Arts Candidates English-Special Course Time Allowed: 3 Hours 11. Read the following passage and then answer the questions below using your own words as far as possible: As modern civilisation has made life more and more demanding, man, in his turn, is becoming more and more materialistic. This has led art to recede from the focus of attention of most people, particularly that it has gained in complexity owing to the fact that life itself is getting more complex. Consequently, it has become difficult for the vast majority of people to appreciate art. In the past, when classical or romantic art prevailed, it was easy for anybody to understand what he sees. The mastery of a painter, for instance, lay in his ability to depict details so as to reproduce life exactly as it is. Everybody appreciated the genius of Leonardo da Vi...

Better Chances   ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT Ministry of Education General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1982 For Science and Arts Candidates English-Special Course Time Allowed: 3 Hours 10. Read the following passage (text), and then answer the questions: A clever person is used to mean a person who would exert efforts to achieve a legitimate aim. Hence, a clever pupil is a bright one who makes the best of his educational chances. A clever lawyer is one who handles the law so as to prove that his client is in the right. A clever doctor gives the right diagnosis for his patients' ailments and prescribes the right medicine for them. This is perfectly feasible in a simple society which will allow a good number of people to do their best to succeed in their pursuits or better their life conditions. But in a society that has grown in complexity so that only the fittest can survive, the term has taken a new meaning. If two persons have one chance, the cleverer of ...

Al Haraneya Village Al Haraneya Village [Giza, Egypt] ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT Ministry of Education General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1981 English-Special Course Time Allowed: 3 Hours 9. Read the following passage (text), and then answer the questions. Use your own words as far as possible. One may wonder why the little pieces of tapestry made by the youths of small Egyptian villages like Haraneya are sold at such high prices. To some people's eyes, they may look too primitive to be worth the money charged for them. But those who know better realise that beauty of those works of art lies exactly in their being 'primitive'. As a matter of fact they are more than primitive, for the artists are left to express themselves according to their own vision. Isn't that the essence of all art? A modern painter does nothing but let himself go to put on canvas a visualised reflection of what goes on deep inside him. It is said that a painter who tries to give int...

GCSE PREVIOUS EXAMS-EGYPT 1984                                                     ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT  Ministry of Education General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1984 First Foreign Language-English Science Section (Both Branches) Second Paper Time Allowed: 2 Hours. Comprehension 8. Read the following passage (text), and then choose the correct answer: My car was stolen the other day. I had left it in one of the side-streets for half an hour, but when I returned it was gone. I was surprised that it had been taken because there were plenty of faster, more up-to-date models in the street; but perhaps I was the only person foolish enough to leave my door unlocked. I never entered a police station and I was slightly nervous and ill at ease. However, the people there were so nice and ill at ease. Howeve...

GCSE PREVIOUS EXAMS-EGYPT 1984                                                     ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT Ministry of Education. General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, 1984 First Foreign Language English First Paper-For Science and Arts Candidates Time Allowed: 2 Hours Comprehension 7. Read the following passage (text), and then answer the questions: Have you ever noticed how busy the roads in Cairo are especially in the rush hours? Every year more and more cars are using them. These cars do a lot of harm. Not only do they disrupt the traffic but they also cause pollution. Almost every family has a car. Some families have more than one car. No wonder you see so many traffic jams all over the city. Perhaps the worst jams are at the city centre. These long lines of cars crawling into Cairo waste time and mon...