9 E R 1

Education Bureau
Territory-wide System Assessment 2018
Secondary 3 English Language
Reading
Question Booklet

Instructions:

1. There are 16 pages in this Question Booklet.

2. Time allowed is 35 minutes.
3. Do not write anything in this Question Booklet.
4. Answer all questions in the Answer Booklet provided.

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 Part 1
You have to write an article for the English magazine. Your teacher has given you a page of
an online news site that deals with interesting but short stories as an example.
Read the stories and answer the questions.
Online News Site

Short BUT Interesting Tidbits

The poverty rate in Hong Kong has risen again. Out of the 7.35 million people in Hong Kong, at least 1.4
million of them live below the poverty line. Nearly half a million of them are elderly.

The poverty line is measured at half of the average monthly household income. It is also based on
household size.

Poverty Line
16000
14000
12000
10000
HK$ 8000
6000 Poverty Line
4000
2000
0
Single Two person Three person Elderly
household household household couple

The government has announced some

measures to help the poor. Each household
living below the poverty line will receive a
rental and food allowance with a travel
subsidy.

In addition, each elderly person above the

age of 60 will receive a medicine allowance
as well as an increase in their rental
allowance.

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-2 2
 Short BUT Interesting Tidbits continued…
Sales records were broken in the Asian art world yesterday. At the sales held by Smiths & Sapphire, a
rare black and blue diamond had everyone buzzing.

The diamond is unique because it is uncut, very large

and has a strange colouring.

It was sold to an Asian collector for HK$700.9 million.

Uncut diamonds can be kept in one piece or cut into

smaller pieces. If it is cut into pieces, it could make the
collector even more money.

A shipwreck found in Hong Kong had millions of dollars’ worth of gold, rare ceramics, pottery and
other historical items still onboard.

The ship was discovered by the husband and wife team, Tom and Mary Smith, who work at the Hong
Kong Academic University.

The location of the wreck is under 24-hour police guard. It has also been kept secret to avoid any
problems with thieves and visitors.

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-3 3 Go on to the next page

 Choose the best answer and blacken the circle in the Answer Booklet.

1. The population of Hong Kong is ____________________ million.

A. 1.4
B. 7.35
C. 0.5
D. 60

2. In the chart, the household earning the most money is the _____________________.
A. single person household
B. two person household
C. three person household
D. elderly couple

3. In the chart, the single person household earns $_______________.

A. 4,000
B. 5,000
C. 9,000
D. 15,000

4. The poverty line is based on income and ___________________.

A. rental allowances
B. government measures
C. household size
D. food allowances

5. The government measures will include a ______________ allowance just for elderly people.
A. food
B. rental
C. medicine
D. travel

6. The diamond was sold ________________.

A. at a sale
B. in pieces
C. by a collector
D. by Mr. Smith

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 7. The diamond ‘had everyone buzzing’. This means people ___________.
A. were very unhappy
B. sounded like insects
C. were extremely excited
D. started imitating bees

8. The best meaning that corresponds to the word ‘unique’ in the story is ________________.
1. (adj.) having no equal skills 2. (adj.) limited to a given class, situation or area

Bob was unique when he The koala is a species unique to Australia.

played basketball.

3. (adj.) the only one of its kind 4. (adj.) limited to a single outcome or result

It was a unique painting found These types of problems have unique

shortly after the artist died. solutions.

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

9. The diamond ________________________ and _____________________.

A. can change colour / be cut up into small pieces
B. must be kept in one piece / will change colour
C. can be cut into small pieces / may make the collector even more money
D. is very small / has a strange colouring

10. A ‘shipwreck’ is a ship that ___________________.

A. has been damaged
B. has not been located
C. has nothing onboard
D. belongs to the university

11. The shipwreck and what it contains is ______________________.

A. not valuable
B. only suitable for visiting
C. a problem for the police
D. extremely valuable

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-5 5 Go on to the next page

 12. The shipwreck was discovered by __________________.
A. the police
B. thieves
C. visitors
D. a husband and wife team

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-6 6
 Part 2
You are going to visit the Hong Kong Museum and do a report on dinosaurs. Your English
teacher has given you a poem to help you get started.
Read the poem and answer the questions.

I Tried to Find a Dinosaur

I tried to find a dinosaur.

I started in my yard.

I dug and dug for days and days.

The work was long and hard.

I dug through dirt and mud and muck.

I dug through rocks and soil.

My arms grew sore. My legs grew weak

from all the sweat and toil.

I shoveled tons of gravel out.

I moved a bunch of stones,

until, at last, to my surprise,

I found some fossil bones.

I put the bones together in

my bedroom on the floor.

When I was done, those bones had formed

a half a dinosaur.

My parents weren't too happy when

I told them of my goal.

I found a half a dinosaur,

but then they found the hole.

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-7 7 Go on to the next page

 Choose the best answer and blacken the circle in the Answer Booklet.

Stanza One
1. The poet is trying to find a dinosaur. This means he is trying to find __________________.
A. rocks
B. soil
C. a skeleton
D. a live animal

2. The rhyming words in the first stanza are _________________.

A. dinosaur and yard
B. yard and hard
C. days and days
D. dug and dug

Stanzas One and Two

3. In stanza one the poet writes the work was ‘long and hard’. The words that show this in
stanza two are ___________.
A. dirt and mud
B. rocks and soil
C. sweat and toil
D. arms and grew

Stanzas Two and Three

4. The words that describe the work the boy did are ____________________.
A. dug, shoveled and gravel
B. sweat, moved and stones
C. toil, found and bones
D. shoveled, dug and moved

Stanzas Three and Four

5. The boy actually found ___________.
A. lots of different dinosaurs
B. bones on the floor of his bedroom
C. an incomplete dinosaur
D. a bunch of stones

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 Stanza Five
6. In stanza five the word that rhymes with ‘goal’ is __________________.
A. half
B. when
C. found
D. hole

7. In the poem, the boy wants to find a dinosaur because he ________________.

A. was asked to by his parents
B. is interested in dinosaurs
C. wants to be infamous
D. is bored at home

8. The poem is called ‘I Tried to Find a Dinosaur’. It could also be called ________________.
A. I Made My Parents Angry
B. I Found Some Bones
C. My Yard Now Has A Hole
D. all of the above

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-9 9 Go on to the next page

 Part 3
You are preparing to write an article about World Pet Day. Your English teacher has given
you two pages from the blog about World Pet Day in Hong Kong and a report on pet
ownership in Hong Kong to help you.
Read the blog pages and report and answer the questions.
Blog Pages

www.worldpetdayinhongkong.com.hk

To celebrate World Pet Day, we are going to be looking at some strange pets belonging to people
around the world. All of these animals are dangerous. Most of us wouldn’t even consider them to be
pets; we would think of them as wild animals.

HEATHER the Hippo belongs to Mary and

Peter Snowfeldt of South Africa. They found
the baby hippo on the banks of a river near
their home. The calf had been swept away
from its mother. The Snowfeldts have
raised Heather and she has grown into a
large adult hippo who is visited by other
hippos living in the area. The hippopotamus
is the deadliest animal in Africa.

BABY is a bison. Bison once

roamed the plains of
America. They are
sometimes called buffalo,
even though they are a
different species. Baby was
adopted by a lonely
cowboy. He follows his
owner to the local bar for a
drink like a loyal dog.

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 www.worldpetdayinhongkong.com.hk

KAL, the lynx. A lynx looks a lot like a cat

but is really quite different. Kal was
adopted by a Russian family. Marie, the
daughter, played with Kal as though he
really was a kitten and he became a
member of the family. Kal is not a baby
anymore but a fully grown hunter who
behaves more like a dog than a cat.

LARRY is a llama. Llamas are known to spit

and smell bad! When Larry was young he
was injured. His keeper took him inside her
home to better care for him. When it was
time to go back to the zoo he was unable to
adjust and is now a permanent house
guest.

CAPPY is a capybara. A capybara is a

rodent, so just think of it as a big rat
that can do tricks and loves to swim.
His owner fell in love with the breed
when she was on holiday in Venezuela.
When she got home, she got Cappy
who has an adorable personality and is
very smart.

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-11 11 Go on to the next page

 Report

Pet Ownership In Hong Kong Report

Pet ownership is on the increase in Hong Kong and around the world. In Hong Kong the number of
pet owners has increased, but compared to other places, pet ownership is still quite low.
A number of factors affect pet ownership in Hong Kong.

FACTORS AFFECTING PET

OWNERSHIP IN HONG
KONG

• Flat size
• Pet size
• Outdated laws about pet
ownership
• Ban on pets in some
residential buildings
• Pets are banned on public
transport
• Pets are banned from most
city parks

Cat Ownership Around The World

Hong Kong only has 41 ‘pet gardens’
80000000
where dogs are allowed off the leash.
70000000
Number of Cats Owned

60000000
Many laws need to be updated or do
not exist in Hong Kong, especially
50000000
when compared to other cities which
40000000 are animal-friendly.
30000000

20000000

10000000

0
USA Brazil Mainland Japan UK Australia Hong Kong
China
Places

-v-

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 Choose the best answer and blacken the circle in the Answer Booklet.
Blog Pages

1. World Pet Day is celebrating ____________________.

A. only wild animals
B. very dangerous animals
C. all kinds of pets
D. the Snowfeldt family of South Africa

2. Heather the Hippo was found _______________________.

A. when she was a baby
B. with other hippos
C. in the river
D. with her mother

3. Baby the Bison ______________________.

A. drinks with a dog
B. is a different species of buffalo
C. barks like a dog
D. belongs to a cowboy

4. A baby lynx looks like ___________________.

A. a fully grown hunter
B. a kitten
C. a Russian dog
D. Marie

5. Larry the Llama became a permanent house guest because he _______________________.

A. spat and smelled bad
B. was too young to live at the zoo
C. was always injured at the zoo
D. was used to living with his keeper

6. Cappy the Capybara is _______________________.

A. a clever animal
B. able to swim
C. like a large rat
D. all of the above

2018-TSA-ENG-9ER1(Q)-13 13 Go on to the next page

 7. The animals mentioned in the blog are ________________.
A. not dangerous
B. bought from the zoo
C. not common everyday pets
D. all living in the wild

8. These are only two pages of the blog. The rest of the blog will be about ________________.
A. World Pet Day events
B. where you can get a llama in Hong Kong
C. what to do if you don’t like animals
D. how to keep a lynx in a Hong Kong flat

9. People who own strange pets ______________________.

A. need special skills
B. must understand their animals
C. must have the space for the animals
D. all of the above

Pet Ownership in Hong Kong Report

10. Compared with other places, the number of people in Hong Kong who own pets is ________.
A. too large to count
B. the same
C. very small
D. not enough to be counted

11. Look at the word ‘factors’. Which meaning corresponds to the word in the section?
1. (n) one of two or more numbers 2. (n) any substances necessary for a process
that when multiplied together
produce a product The chemical factors needed for the recipe to
work were not known.
6 and 3 are factors of 18.

3. (n) business organisations that lend 4. (n) one of the things contributing to a result
money or buy and collect accounts
Poverty is only one of the factors in the
The factors bought the accounts crime that he committed.
belonging to the bankrupt firms.

A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4

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 12. If people live in a building where pets are ‘banned’, it means that they __________________.
A. can have as many pets as they like
B. are only allowed to keep pets in non-residential buildings
C. can only have a small pet
D. are not allowed to have any pets at all

13. According to the chart ‘Dog Ownership Around The World’, the place with the largest
number of dog owners is ____________.
A. Brazil
B. the USA
C. Mainland China
D. Australia

14. The number of dog owners in Mainland China is more than in ______________ but less than
in ______________.
A. the USA / the UK
B. Brazil / Australia
C. Brazil / Japan
D. Hong Kong / the USA

15. Look at the chart ‘Cat Ownership Around The World’. The number of people who own cats
in Mainland China makes it the ___________________ cat owning place in the chart.
A. largest
B. smallest
C. second largest
D. fourth largest

16. If a dog is allowed ‘off the leash’, it means the animal is _________________.
A. allowed to walk freely
B. not allowed to walk at all
C. supposed to be carried
D. locked up in the pet garden

END OF PAPER

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Sources of materials used in this paper will be acknowledged in the Territory-wide System
Assessment Report on the Basic Competencies of Students in Chinese Language, English Language
and Mathematics published by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority at a later
stage.

©Education Bureau, HKSAR 2018

Prepared by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority
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