FREE CAE EXAM PROPOSAL SAMPLE 2015

Proposal on new facilities and servicies for the Sport Centre

Introduction

The aim of this proposal is to provide ideas for new facilities and services in our Sport and Leisure Centre. 

A brand-new cutting-edge Lab

It is of great necessity to adapt to the modern times. Our users need a place where they can have access to Internet and devices like smartphons and tablets. 

The implementation of this Lab and the adoption of the latest technology will also make possible credit card payment and acloud-based on-line services. To give an example, there will be virtual trainers and app for users to track their own training progress. 

New services: new courses

Other Sport Centres offer the service of Personal Trainers. But this service is very expensive and difficult to implement. As a more doable alternative, we suggest "Small group Martial Art classes". More and more people, in partucular, women are interested in achieving self defense skills in our community. We can offer, to give an example: Karate, taekwondo and ju-jitsu. These sports are also appealing to children, because they teach them discipline and self control.

Recommendatons

Recommendations can be easily summarised in two points:

1. Implementation of a new lab

2. Opening of new personalised/small group courses

These innovations will certainly, attract more people and bring financial benefit. At the same time, they will promote satisfaction among our members.

Sample sent by: Natasha

# Words: 230

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CPE 2015 REPORT SAMPLE FOR THE CPE CAMBRIDGE EXAM

Task

You belong to an international film club and have been asked to write the club´s annual report this year. This report is written for club members and has to include information about the main events held over the last twelve months, to present plans for activities in the coming year and to summarise the current financial position of the club in respect of money received and payments made.

Source: Task comes from the book "Objective Proficiency" by Annette Capel and Wendy Sharp.

Report on the film club

This aim of this report is to inform our international film club members about the events held throughout last year and the activities planned for the upcoming one. This report will also provide details on the financial position of the organisation.

1. Events of last year

Annual dinner. 
Before  the summer holidays, all the club members met for a farewell meal at a film-like decorated restaurant; which was a real success.

Thematic weekends. 
Arranged twice a month, these sessions featured Italian, science fiction and a series of Meryl Streep films. All of the club members were asked in advance about their favourite movies to ensure all preferences were catered for. 

2. Future plans

A talk by Sofia Coppola.

Being acquainted with the renowned director, the president of our club has invited the actress to attend one of our weekly meetings in May next year. She is due to talk about her latest film and to offer advice to future cinematographers among our fellow members. She has kindly agreed to being interviewed for June´s issue of the club´s magazine.

Video Library. 

All members will enjoy free access to a video library in the coming year. Library cards will be delivered during the first gathering and we will be able to rent up to five films for a maximum of two weeks. In addition, members are encouraged to shoot their own short films and documentaries and to donate  a copy to the Video Library.

3. Finances

Money received last year. 

32 new members were welcomed into our club last year. This signifies a grow of 30% and a positive increase on the club´s finances.

Payments made. 

New stationery material and purchase of the latest Hollywood films, were the two main expenses made last year. A complete chart with statistics can be found on our website. It is also available to be downloaded.

Sample sent by Patricia de Pastors

Words: 312.

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CAE Report sample for 2015 exam

Task Type: Report

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/makeover/makeover3.htm

Question
You have been asked to write a report for the World Information Organisation on the following topic:

What are the greatest threats to the environment in your country today? What are the solutions?

Write your report. (220-260 words)

Italy: the greatest environmental threats

Introduction

The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the most significant environmental threats in Italy, as well as to present ideas which may help improve the situation in the foreseeable future.

Air pollution

According to the latest statistics on air pollution in the Italian cities, the main problem is the massive use of wheel transport. This situation lies deep in the historical evolution of this country, where the development of road transport infrastructure has always been promoted. Taking into account the population density in Italy and the Italian passion for cars, it is indeed one of the major threats.

Soil pollution

There is an extensive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The Italians love food and possess a booming agriculture industry, however industrial emission and badly-threated industrial waste present a risk for the country and its beautiful landscapes.

Recommended solutions

The need for structural changes within the country is evident, and so the following ideas are suggested:

1.    Expand and improve public transport networks with environmentally friendly-vehicles, and timetables and prices attractive for workers and students.

2.    Tighten control over the use of pesticides and industrial emissions and provide strict monitoring to factories.

It is utterly important that the government takes these actions to protect the environment.

260 words.

Sent by Natasha (Italy)

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The Absurd

A time when puny Roberta Vinci—bless her!—derails the elephantine Serena on her route to the Grand Slam, the moment is rife for a discussion of the Absurd, which I deliberately capitalize. What a presence it has in our lives, both for the good, as for Vinci, and the bad, as for Williams.

This is also the time when Brian Kellow’s biography of Sue Mengers, “Can I Go Now?” hits the bookstores, to mixed reviews: pretty good in the Sunday Times, pretty bad in the daily one. What absurd grandeur that woman had! I wish Brian had consulted me about the admittedly not very prime time story about my lunch with Sue Mengers. This was during her prime time—and perhaps also mine—during a brief visit to Tinseltown, when she invited me to lunch. The object was to bring the one critic who was a nonbeliever in her star client, Barbra, into the church—or should I say temple?

I wish I had a transcript of our conversation. Sue deployed all of her charms and hegemony among Hollywood agents to entice me into having lunch with Streisand, panegyricizing about her wit, her smartness, her charm as she strove to effectuate a conversion of Saul-into-Paul magnitude. This proved no more likely to succeed than to convince Barbra of the need for a medial A in her name. But it was all worthy enough of at least a footnote in the bio.

Ah, yes, the Absurd. How it dogs us at every other step—to fully catalogue it would have added another labor to Hercules, surely the hardest. I am barely up to it, but at least I can advert to a few salient examples, and some worthy quotations from others.

For instance, I have always loved the name of an African head of state: Good Luck Jonathan, the first part of which he did not evince when it came to recovering the 300 abducted girls from his country. Well, as the song has it, maybe some other time. Or, for a nearer example, take the coiffure of Donald Trump, which in itself would be enough to make his presidency absurd. It is easily the worst since that of Anthony Burgess and Moe of the Three Stooges.

There had to be a philosophy of Absurdism, of which Albert Camus—“the absurd is the essential concept and the first truth” plus all his other writings—is the finest proponent. And how appropriate for the stage to have spawned he Theater of the Absurd. Here the chief proponent—Samuel Beckett having, however absurdly, declined having anything to do with it—there remains Eugene Ionesco, who at a lunch argued with me that his “Macbet” was superior to Shakespeare’s similarly titled play. Actually, Ionesco did very well by the Theater of the Absurd, “Rhinoceros” and “The Bald Soprano” being his most popular successes, although I prefer “Jacques or the Submission” and “The Chairs.”

But to revert to philosophy. I. M. Bochenski, in his book “Europaeische Philosophie der Gegenwart” (European Philosophy of the Present) has, as one of several epigraphs (I translate), “Modern Man, i.e., human beings since the Renaissance, is ripe for burial.” This attributed to Count Paul Yorck von Wartenburg, about whom there is regrettably nothing further in the book. Yet that is perhaps a bit too strong from someone unexposed to the works of America’s younger dramatists, and thus spared (to borrow a title from Carlo Emilio Gadda) the acquaintance with grief, or, if you prefer, the depth of the absurd.

It occurred to me to look up the entry Absurdism in the American Heritage Dictionary, and find, to my surprise, the following: “A philosophy, often translated into art forms, holding that humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe and that any search for order by them will bring them into direct conflict with the universe. “True absurdism is not less but more real than reality. (John Simon).”

What a remarkable quotation, if only I knew just where it came from and contextualize. Could this come under the heading of Jonathan Swift’s famous exclamation, “What genius I had then”?

Let me start with a humble but telling aspect of quotidian absurdity. Until fairly recently people had no problem with correctly pronouncing “groceries” as if it were spelled “grosseries.” Then along comes some idiot or bunch of idiots proudly mispronouncing it by false analogy as if it were spelled “grosheries.” This would be correct if the spelling were “grocieries,” with an I after the C softening it from an SS sound to an SH, as in word like “glacier,” where there is such an I. But not so in “groceries.” Yet so ubiquitous has this blooper become that people who know better don’t even notice it on television or elsewhere. But all it takes in our democratic society for one ignoramus to come up with such an absurdity and promptly the sheep will follow.

Or take the world of fashion. Almost anything you see on runways or in magazine and newspaper pictures is absurd: anorexic models wearing things that no woman in her right mind would want to touch with a ten-foot pole unless she was a six-foot pole herself. Some women realize how ridiculous and uncomfortable those gladrags would be on them; others know that they couldn’t afford them if they were foolish enough to want them. But on and on the parade goes, as long as there are gay men to design them and Anna Wintours to promote them.

And how about those absurd opera singers? Rabid opera fans or persons with underdeveloped sensibilities can tolerate an Isolde who could use a slimming potion more than a love one {“It is only the voice that matters,” they say) or a Lohengrin who could more suitably ride on an ox than be drawn by a swan--although there has lately been some improvement in the average avoirdupois, but still here are plenty of Stephanie Blythes unblythely around.

A rather different kind of absurdity are the wretches who keep buying lottery tickets hoping for the big prize, who, even if they win a pittance, will have spent much more for years on lottery tickets than their win amounts to.

Still, there is also the good, the positive absurd. Surrealism sometimes provides that. Take the piquant perversity of some of those clever Belgian painters, Magritte, Delvaux  and Ensor. Does it have something to do with the drama of a country and language split in two? So, too, perhaps with such rather less talented Spaniards, Miro and Dali, think Basques and Catalans. But then where are the Canadian equivalents?

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FREE CPE PROPOSAL 2015

You read the following in an international magazine :

Poverty exists in almost every country and the difference between the rich and the poor is growing all the time. What can we do about the situation ?

The magazine has asked people to send in ideas in the form of a proposal, suggesting ways of reducing poverty. You decide to send in a proposal

280-320 words

TIP: A proposal should have a title and subtitles. And of course ideas (recommendations/proposals) to solve a problem.

There is usually first: an introductory paragraph and a paragraph to explain the problem or current situation. Then follow the recommendations. There needs to be a conexion between the Current Situation paragraph and the Recommmendation paragraphs.

Proposal on economy inequality in the world

Introduction 

The aim of this proposal is to present ideas on how to tackle the problem of the international growing inequality between the rich and the poor.

Current situation 

The latest statistics show an earth-shattering gap between the rich and the poor with one fifth of the world’s population living beneath the poverty threshold . This gap can be accounted for the changes in the structure of the population and the labour market. The mentioned gap is very evident especially in three aspects: Education, work and income.

Education 

In view of the growing number of undereducated people emphasis should be put on education. All the children that will represent the new generation should  be given the chance to pursue studies in higher education. It is also of paramount importance that schools  equip all young people with the skills required to fit with the labour market . (TIP: Say how.) It is necessary for the Government, for example to provide all classrooms with internet and teach students to speak a foreign language.

Work 

Inequalities in the labour market is not to be forgotten. Policies to protect the unemployed should be implemented, (tip: give examples) take the example of Germany, where people receive help from the government when they lose their jobs and need to look for a new one.

To promote new working opportunities, the National Employment Agencies can work in close collaboration with businesses and  the Government should grant subventions to any companies  willing to create new jobs and thus help reducing the unemployment rate.

Income 

The widening income gap also suggest that measures should be put into effect . Unemployed people should be guaranteed welfare  benefits and also equality of salaries, this is to say for example that men and women who do the same job, should be paid the same amount of money.

Conclusion 
It is urgent to implement measures to reduce inequalities. Shall the ideas mention above be taken into consideration, it is my belief the poverty would decrese and there would be a marked improvement in the people’s lives.

340 words

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FREE CAE ESSAY SAMPLE 2015

Ref  http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/cae/students/writing/makeover/makeover1.htm

Your class has had a discussion about the negative effects of globalisation on local culture. You have made the notes below:

Effects of globalisation:

• the dominance of the western music/film industry.
• the loss of national identity.
• the undermining of values of a local culture.

Write an essay discussing TWO of the effects listed in your notes. You should explain which effect is more important, giving reasons in support of your answer.

The effects of globalisation

Undoubtedly, globalisation dominates our society in many aspects, such as the economy and culture. In a way or another, all nations are affected by this global phenomenon, sometimes in positive, but also in not so positive ways. The following essay aims to focus on the negative effects of globalisation on the local cultures.

To begin with an example of how globalisation has an impact on a country's culture, let's bring the topic of Music into discussion. There is a world wide expansion of western music, and countries have different reactions towards it. In France it is prohibited to  broadcast more than 20% of English songs. Maybe there is a national fear of losing their own identity. A second example regards the film industry. Films represent the western style of life, they are regarded as uter inocent fun, but it may be the case that they impose models of supposedly good/desirable lifestyle patterns.

There is a feeling that this slow and capillar penetration leads to the loss of national identity. Constant dropping wears away a stone, as the saying goes. One final exam concernes teenagers and the language they use. Is the use of anglicismos a threat to linguistic identity? The next step for us as a society is to reflect on the negative impacts that globalisation may have in our societies, and if they can in  long term have a bad impact in our national values system.

241 words

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16 Tips for Making the Most out of Tulane

One week down! For you freshmen, we hope you've enjoyed Fall Welcome and your first week of classes and that you are settling nicely into all things Tulane and NOLA. For everyone else, welcome back. 

This blog will focus on your future and what to make of your next four/three/two/one year(s). It's not just for freshmen either- these are 16 tips that will allow you to absolutely crush your experience here at Tulane, no matter what year you are here. After four years as a student here and eleven as somewhat unofficial mentor to my current students, I truly hope you take even just a few of these tips and run with them. I guarantee they'll take your Tulane experiences to the next level. Let's do it!

1) Spend at least one summer here in New Orleans. There is something different about New Orleans in the summer. Sure, its exceptionally hot, but you'll gain a completely different understanding for life outside of the standard Tulane world when you live here for a summer. There are absolutely epic festivals (see Running of the Bulls, White Linen Night, Red Dress Run) awesome summertime activities to participate in (everyone must go tubing at some point, not to mention summer is the best time for a swamp tour) and there are great ways to make new connections and friends around town. Join a Play NOLA sports league, play volleyball at Coconut Beach and hit up Pontchartrain Beach, set to finally reopen next summer. Another great aspect of spending a summer in New Orleans is you'll forge friendships with new people outside of your traditional social circles. It will open you up to new and amazing people you would not usually cross paths with. 

2) Take road trips. Because the average student comes to NOLA and Tulane from 900+ miles, you've got a totally new region of America right here at your fingertips to explore. This might go hand in hand with the tip above; there is so much to see just a road trip away! A few of my biggest suggestions would go to: Austin, TX (be sure to hit up Barton Springs!), Fairhope, AL, Pensacola, FL, Natchez, MS, Lafayette, LA, The Northshore (Manchac, Madisonville, etc), and Oak Alley Plantation. All of these spots are less than a half day drive away. You can read all my tips on great NOLA road trips here! 

3) Pick a service project you are passionate about and stick with it. Tulane is, in many regards, Community Service University. There are quite literally hundreds of ways to get active and engaged in the community around you. CACTUS alone has dozens of organizations you can link up with. My suggestion for you is to find one that you are passionate about, and stick with it for all four years. Match the service up with something that interests you so it keeps your attention. Love music? Roots of Music is calling your name. Do puppies capture your heart? TUSTEP will be your jam. Stay active in the service organization at least once a month. It can be linked to Tulane and your service here, or totally separate. Stick it it, make an impact, see it through till gradation; you will be so glad you did. The photo above is me with one of my youth runners in Youth Run NOLA. It's been something I have stuck with since Outreach Tulane years and years ago, and I am so glad I did. 

4) Learn New Orleans history. You're officially living in one of the oldest cities in America. In three years, we will celebrate our 300th birthday. This is a city worth knowing something about and you owe it to yourself to educate yourself a bit about this town, even just a little. Did you know we have more buildings on the National Historic Registry list than any other city in America? So get to know NOLA in all her glory. Read books and watch moves about New Orleans, and then go visit the paces they were filmed and written about. Read A Streetcar Named Desire, A Confederacy of Dunces, and The Awakening. Next time you binge watch a show, check out Treme on HBO. Watch Interview with the Vampire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Big Easy, The Pelican Brief, and sure, even 22 Jump Street. Learn our history, where we have been and where we will go. With the ten year anniversary of Katrina having just passed, go check out the Katrina 10 exhibit at the LBC or the Katrina museum at the Cabildo in Jackson Square. The best way to get to know NOLA? Follow Tulane professor Richard Campanella on Twitter. 

5) Go off the beaten path. At Tulane, is easy to get in the Boot/Palms/Boot/Palm/Boot/Palms/F&Ms circuit every single week. Once you are old enough to drink, of course, there's noting wrong with hitting up the standard places with the rest of Tulane. But... be a leader in your group of friends and suggest things off the beaten path. There are amazing music venues and tiny craft cocktail bars and all kinds of neat things in NOLA that you need to see. Here, I'll plan a week for you: Sunday go to Bacchanal (in above photo), Monday go see a Charmaine Neville at Snug Harbor, Tuesday tear yourself away from the Boot and go check out Rebirth Brass Band at the Maple Leaf. Wednesday in the spring, head down to Wednesdays at the Square. Thursday, Soul Rebels kill it at Le Bon Temps. Friday, pick a totally new neighborhood and explore. You get the idea. 

Part 2 of this blog is here.
Part 3 is here. 

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