Part 5

Multiple-choice reading

You are going to read an article about a ceramics artist who makes traditional objects using forgotten techniques. For questions 31–36, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Hands in the clay

Rowan Fletcher has spent twenty years learning to make pots the way they were made a thousand years ago

Rowan Fletcher’s studio is at the bottom of a long garden in rural Wales. Inside, every surface is covered in clay dust, and the shelves hold hundreds of pots in various stages of completion — some finished and fired, others still pale and raw. Rowan has been working here for twenty-two years, and for most of that time the work has been a kind of research as much as a craft. ‘I’m not interested in making pretty things,’ he says without apology. ‘I’m interested in understanding how things were made, and why they looked the way they did.’

His particular focus is early medieval pottery, much of which was produced using methods that are no longer fully understood. Unlike later ceramics, which were typically thrown on a wheel, many early medieval pots were built by hand — coiled or pinched into shape — and fired at relatively low temperatures in simple pit kilns. The results were often irregular and rough-surfaced, and for a long time this was taken as evidence of limited skill. line 14‘That interpretation always bothered me,’ Rowan says. ‘Irregular doesn’t mean unskilled. It means the maker was working with different priorities.’

He began trying to replicate these techniques after studying fragments of pottery held in a museum collection in Oxford. ‘The more I looked, the more I could see decisions — choices about thickness, about surface texture, about the angle of the base. These were not accidents. They were a vocabulary.’ He taught himself to work without a wheel, to source and process local clay as medieval potters would have done, and to fire pots in kilns he built himself in the garden. The failures, he says, were instructive. ‘Each broken pot told me something about what the original makers had learned not to do.’

Rowan’s work has attracted the attention of archaeologists, several of whom have collaborated with him to test hypotheses about specific finds. line 29In one notable case, a technique he had developed independently was subsequently found to match the marks left on a collection of ninth-century fragments recently excavated in Lincolnshire. He is careful not to overstate the significance of this. ‘It tells us the technique was possible and was used. It doesn’t tell us it was the only way, or the most common way.’

He sells some of his work through a small gallery, but pricing it has always presented a difficulty. ‘How do you put a price on two weeks of research and failure that result in one pot?’ he asks. His response has been to price at a level that reflects the time involved, regardless of whether the market agrees. Some pots sell; some do not. He is, he says, at peace with this.

When I ask what draws him back to the studio every morning, Rowan picks up an unfinished bowl and turns it slowly in his hands. line 44‘It’s the connection,’ he says quietly. ‘Someone made something very like this fourteen hundred years ago. We don’t know their name, we don’t know anything about their life. But when I put my hands in this clay, something connects. I find that inexhaustible.’

Question 31In the first paragraph, Rowan suggests that his main motivation as a ceramics artist is

Question 32What does Rowan challenge in line 14?

Question 33What does Rowan mean when he says early pottery represented ‘a vocabulary’?

Question 34How does Rowan react to the discovery described in line 29?

Question 35What does Rowan’s approach to pricing his work reveal about him?

Question 36In line 44, the word ‘inexhaustible’ suggests that Rowan

Answer key — Part 5

31B‘I’m interested in understanding how things were made, and why they looked the way they did’ — his drive is investigative and historical, not aesthetic.

32B‘Irregular doesn’t mean unskilled. It means the maker was working with different priorities’ — he challenges the equation of irregularity with poor craftsmanship.

33C‘I could see decisions — choices about thickness, about surface texture, about the angle of the base. These were not accidents. They were a vocabulary.’ Each physical detail was an intentional choice.

34B‘It tells us the technique was possible and was used. It doesn’t tell us it was the only way, or the most common way’ — he is careful not to over-interpret the evidence.

35C‘How do you put a price on two weeks of research and failure?’ — he prices based on the time and effort of his process, not what the market will bear.

36C‘Something connects. I find that inexhaustible’ — the sense of connection across time never runs out for him; it is the source of his ongoing motivation.

Part 6

Gapped text

You are going to read an article about the restoration of a historic theatre. Six sentences have been removed. Choose from sentences A–G the one which fits each gap (37–42). There is one extra sentence you do not need to use.

Back to the boards

The Grand Pavilion Theatre has reopened after a decade-long restoration — but not without controversy

When the Grand Pavilion Theatre closed in 2014, it was described in the local press as ‘a temporary pause’. The reality, as the building’s new owners would discover, was rather more complicated. The roof had partially collapsed, the electrics were condemned, and the Victorian plasterwork — considered among the finest of its kind in the north of England — had been severely damaged by water. 37

The restoration project was led by a specialist architectural practice with experience in historic venues. Their first task was to stabilise the structure, a process that took fourteen months and revealed damage that had not been visible from ground level. 38 The discovery forced a significant rethink of the timeline and budget, neither of which has ever fully recovered.

The question of the interior design divided the project team from the beginning. Purists argued that every detail should be restored to its original 1887 appearance. Others believed that a working theatre needs practical compromises — improved acoustics, modern lighting rigs, disabled access — that are incompatible with strict historical fidelity. 39 The result is a building that is, in the words of one team member, ‘honest about its own history.’

The restored plasterwork drew particular attention when the theatre reopened. Master plasterer Cecilia Vance and her team spent eight months on the ceiling alone. 40 ‘We had fragments, we had photographs, we had contemporary accounts,’ Cecilia told me. ‘But there were sections where we had to make an informed judgement. I’m proud of the work. I’m also clear about what is original and what is ours.’

The theatre’s reopening was greeted with genuine enthusiasm by the local community, for whom the building carries considerable emotional weight. 41 A group of heritage campaigners has complained that certain interior changes represent an irreversible loss, and has called for a formal review of decisions made during the restoration.

The artistic director, appointed six months before reopening, is determinedly forward-looking. ‘This building has been dark for ten years,’ she says. 42 ‘The best thing we can do for its history is fill it with performances that people will remember. That’s what theatres are for.’

Sentences A – G (one is not used)

AThe solution reached was a pragmatic one, with original features preserved where possible and modern requirements accommodated elsewhere.

BNot everyone, however, has been satisfied with the outcome.

CIn some areas, the original moulds and pigments could be matched; in others, reconstruction required considerable creative interpretation.

DSeveral of the iron support structures beneath the stage had corroded to the point of failure.

EThe estimated cost of restoration, when the full extent of the damage was finally assessed, ran to nearly four million pounds.

FThe debate about what constitutes authentic restoration is one that the industry has yet to resolve.

GWhat concerns her now is not the past but the programme she is building for the next three seasons.

37Paragraph 1 — The damage was described. Choose the sentence that adds to the picture of the building’s condition.

38Paragraph 2 — Restoration began and hidden damage was found. Choose the sentence that specifies what was discovered.

39Paragraph 3 — There was disagreement between purists and pragmatists. Choose the sentence that describes how the dispute was resolved.

40Paragraph 4 — Cecilia Vance restored the plasterwork. Choose the sentence that describes the challenge this involved.

41Paragraph 5 — The reopening was welcomed by the community. Choose the sentence that introduces a contrasting response.

42Paragraph 6 — The artistic director looks forward rather than back. Choose the sentence that develops this idea.

Answer key — Part 6

37E‘The estimated cost… ran to nearly four million pounds’ — this rounds off the description of the damage by conveying its overall financial scale.

38D‘Several of the iron support structures beneath the stage had corroded to the point of failure’ — this is the specific hidden damage discovered once work began.

39A‘A pragmatic solution, with original features preserved where possible and modern requirements accommodated elsewhere’ — this describes the compromise between the two positions.

40C‘In some areas, the original moulds and pigments could be matched; in others, reconstruction required considerable creative interpretation’ — this describes the challenge Cecilia then elaborates on in her quote.

41B‘Not everyone, however, has been satisfied’ — this introduces the contrasting view of the heritage campaigners described in the rest of the paragraph.

42G‘What concerns her now is not the past but the programme she is building’ — this develops her forward-looking attitude. Sentence F is the extra sentence.

Part 7

Multiple matching

You are going to read an article in which four people discuss their experience of learning a musical instrument as adults. For questions 43–52, choose from the people (A–D). The people may be chosen more than once.

A · Helena

Took up the cello at 45

I started because my daughter plays, and I had always regretted never learning an instrument as a child. The physical side caught me completely off guard. I assumed that if I understood what I was supposed to do, my hands would follow. They didn’t. My teacher told me that adult learners often struggle more than children with the coordination aspects because they overthink — and she was absolutely right. I had to learn to stop analysing and just repeat things until the body understood. Progress was slow for the first year, almost imperceptibly so, and there were several evenings when I genuinely considered stopping. But at some point the relationship between effort and improvement shifted, and things that had seemed impossible became merely difficult. I now practise every morning before work. I will never be a serious musician, but that stopped mattering a long time ago. What matters is the hour of complete attention it requires, which I find unlike anything else in my day.

B · Marcus

Took up the piano at 38

I had a very specific goal: I wanted to be able to play one particular piece — a Schubert impromptu — well enough to perform it for my father on his eightieth birthday. I gave myself two years. My teacher was initially sceptical, which I found motivating. Having a concrete deadline focused everything: the practice sessions, the choice of what to work on, the way I thought about mistakes. I missed the deadline by four months, but I performed the piece at my father’s birthday dinner eight months after his eightieth. He cried. I have continued playing since, though without the same intensity. The lesson I took from the experience is that having a clear, ambitious, and slightly unrealistic goal is a remarkably effective way to learn anything. I now use the same approach in other areas of my life.

C · Ines

Took up the violin at 52

Everyone warned me about the noise. They were right — the early months of learning the violin are not pleasant for anyone within earshot, including yourself. I practised in the shed with the door closed, which my husband found amusing. What nobody warned me about was the effect on my mental health — and I mean that in an entirely positive sense. I work in a high-pressure environment and spend most of my day managing other people’s problems. The violin demanded my complete concentration in a way that left absolutely no room for anything else. It became, without my planning it, a form of meditation. I have also found that learning something difficult at this stage of life has changed how I think about competence generally. I am less impatient with beginners in my professional life than I used to be. I understand now what it feels like not to know how to do something.

D · Oliver

Took up the guitar at 60

I retired early and found, after a few months, that I had more unstructured time than I knew what to do with. A friend suggested guitar lessons, and I went along mainly for something to fill the hours. What I didn’t anticipate was how social the experience would become. My teacher ran group sessions alongside the individual lessons, and the group became a genuinely important part of my week. Most of us were in similar circumstances — retired or semi-retired, looking for structure and company as much as musical ability. We formed a small ensemble that plays, badly but enthusiastically, at a local community centre once a month. The performances are not the point; the rehearsals are. The preparation, the shared effort, and the running joke about how long it is taking us to learn the same three songs have become something I look forward to enormously. Learning the guitar turned out to be secondary to everything else it brought.

43Which person mentions that the experience changed their attitude towards people who are still learning something?

44Which person had a very specific, time-limited goal that shaped their entire approach to learning?

45Which person says the social benefits of learning turned out to be more important than the musical ones?

46Which person found that their analytical habits made learning harder rather than easier?

47Which person uses the learning strategy they applied to music in other parts of their life?

48Which person describes practising as a way of achieving mental quiet from a stressful job?

49Which person says that their teacher initially doubted they could reach their goal?

50Which person describes almost giving up during an early period of very little visible progress?

51Which person says they started learning primarily because of a family member?

52Which person values the daily practice mainly for the focused concentration it demands?

Answer key — Part 7

43CInes: ‘I am less impatient with beginners in my professional life than I used to be. I understand now what it feels like not to know how to do something.’

44BMarcus: ‘I wanted to be able to play one particular piece… well enough to perform it for my father on his eightieth birthday. I gave myself two years.’

45DOliver: ‘Learning the guitar turned out to be secondary to everything else it brought’ — the social and structural benefits outweighed the musical ones.

46AHelena: ‘adult learners often struggle… because they overthink… I had to learn to stop analysing and just repeat things until the body understood.’

47BMarcus: ‘I now use the same approach in other areas of my life’ — he applies the strategy of a clear, ambitious, slightly unrealistic goal elsewhere.

48CInes: ‘I work in a high-pressure environment… The violin demanded my complete concentration… It became, without my planning it, a form of meditation.’

49BMarcus: ‘My teacher was initially sceptical, which I found motivating.’

50AHelena: ‘Progress was slow for the first year, almost imperceptibly so, and there were several evenings when I genuinely considered stopping.’

51AHelena: ‘I started because my daughter plays, and I had always regretted never learning an instrument as a child.’

52AHelena: ‘What matters is the hour of complete attention it requires, which I find unlike anything else in my day.’