ΥΠΟΥΡΓΕΙΟ ΠΑΙΔΕΙΑΣ, ΑΘΛΗΤΙΣΜΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΝΕΟΛΑΙΑΣ

⚠️ ΣΗΜΑΝΤΙΚΗ ΣΗΜΕΙΩΣΗ — AI Generated

Αυτό το δοκιμαστικό δοκίμιο δημιουργήθηκε από τεχνητή νοημοσύνη (AI) του Σπασίκλα, με βάση τον επίσημο Πίνακα Προδιαγραφών 2026 του Υπουργείου Παιδείας και τα παρελθόντα θέματα Παγκυπρίων Εξετάσεων. Παρότι έγινε προσπάθεια για ακρίβεια, μπορεί να περιέχει λάθη ή ανακρίβειες. Δεν είναι επίσημο δοκίμιο. Χρησιμοποιήστε το ως βοηθητικό υλικό εξάσκησης, όχι ως μοναδική πηγή προετοιμασίας.

Έλεγξε τις απαντήσεις με τον/την καθηγητή/τριά σου ή με τα επίσημα παλαιότερα θέματα.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SPORT AND YOUTH

ΠΑΓΚΥΠΡΙΕΣ ΕΞΕΤΑΣΕΙΣ 2026 — PANCYPRIAN EXAMINATIONS 2026

ΜΑΘΗΜΑ: ΑΓΓΛΙΚΑ (006) — SUBJECT: ENGLISH (006)

ΔΟΚΙΜΑΣΤΙΚΟ — MOCK PAPER — Σπασίκλας

Διάρκεια / Duration: 3 ώρες (180 minutes) Επίπεδο / Level: B2 (CEFR) Σύνολο μονάδων / Total marks: 100

Κατανομή Μονάδων / Mark Distribution (per official spec sheet)

Οδηγίες για τους εξεταζομένους / Instructions for candidates

1. Read each question carefully before answering.
2. Write all answers in English in the answer booklet provided.
3. You may write in pen (blue or black) only. Pencil is permitted for rough work.
4. Dictionaries, electronic devices and mobile phones are not allowed.
5. Manage your time wisely. Suggested allocation:

• Listening: 30 minutes (including playback)
• Reading + Working with Text: 70 minutes
• Writing: 75 minutes
• Review: 5 minutes

6. The Listening section will be played twice. (In this mock: audio not included — transcript provided at the start of Part A.)

PART A — LISTENING (30 marks)

Note for mock users: Audio is not included in this written mock. The transcripts below would normally be read aloud by the examiner or played from a recording. Read each transcript once silently, then answer the questions, then re-read once more before finalising your answers (simulating the two playbacks).

A1. Announcement (8 marks)

Listen to an announcement at an international airport and answer questions 1–4.

Transcript A1 (for mock use only — would normally be heard, not seen)

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is a passenger information announcement from Skyline Airways. Passengers travelling on flight SK 442 to Amsterdam, scheduled to depart at 14:30, are kindly informed that the flight has been delayed due to adverse weather conditions at the destination airport. The new estimated departure time is 17:15. Passengers holding boarding passes for this flight are invited to collect a meal voucher from the Skyline service desk, located opposite Gate 14. Passengers with onward connections from Amsterdam are kindly asked to speak with a member of staff so that alternative arrangements can be made. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this delay may cause. Boarding will commence approximately forty-five minutes before the new departure time. Thank you for your patience and for choosing Skyline Airways.”

Questions (2 marks each):

1. What is the original scheduled departure time of flight SK 442?
2. Give one reason for the delay mentioned in the announcement.
3. Where exactly can affected passengers collect a meal voucher?
4. What are passengers with onward connections specifically advised to do?

A2. Radio interview (12 marks)

Listen to a radio interview with a marine biologist and complete the notes below by writing ONE or TWO words in each gap.

Transcript A2

Host: Good morning, and welcome to Science Today. With me in the studio is Dr Elena Constantinou, a marine biologist who has spent the last decade studying coral reefs in the eastern Mediterranean. Elena, thank you for joining us.

Dr Constantinou: Thank you for having me.

Host: Let’s start with the basics. How healthy are the reefs around Cyprus today?

Dr Constantinou: Honestly, the picture is mixed. The reefs at depths of more than thirty metres are generally in fairly good condition, but those in shallower water — say, under fifteen metres — have suffered noticeably over the last five years. The main reason is rising sea-surface temperatures, which cause what we call coral bleaching.

Host: And what exactly happens when a coral bleaches?

Dr Constantinou: The coral expels the tiny algae that live inside its tissues. Those algae give the coral both its colour and most of its food, so without them the coral turns white and slowly starves. If the water cools again within a few weeks, the coral can recover — but if the heat persists, it dies.

Host: Is there anything ordinary citizens can do to help?

Dr Constantinou: Three things, really. First, when you go to the beach, use only reef-safe sunscreen — most regular sunscreens contain chemicals that are toxic to coral. Second, avoid buying souvenirs made from coral or seashells. And third, support local clean-up projects; even one Saturday morning per month makes a measurable difference.

Host: Dr Constantinou, thank you for your time.

Dr Constantinou: My pleasure.

Complete the notes (2 marks each):

A3. Short lecture extract (10 marks)

Listen to an extract from a university lecture on language learning and choose the best answer (A, B or C) for each question.

Transcript A3

“Good morning, everyone. Today I want to challenge a very popular idea: the so-called ‘critical period’ for learning languages. Many of you have probably heard that if you don’t start learning a foreign language before the age of about twelve, you will never sound like a native speaker. Now, the evidence on pronunciation is, admittedly, fairly strong: adult learners do tend to retain a foreign accent, even after decades of immersion. However — and this is the crucial point — pronunciation is only one small part of language ability. When it comes to vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing, adult learners actually have several clear advantages over children. They learn faster in the early stages, they can use explicit grammar rules, and they bring a much wider general knowledge to every text they read. A recent large-scale study from MIT, which analysed data from nearly seven hundred thousand learners, found that the ability to achieve a high level of grammatical proficiency declines only after the late teens — not at age twelve, as was previously thought. So my message today is simple: if you are eighteen, twenty-five, or fifty, and you want to learn a new language, don’t be discouraged by the myth of the critical period. You may always have an accent — but accent is not the same as fluency.”

Choose the best answer (2 marks each):

11. The lecturer’s main aim is to:

• A. defend the traditional idea of a critical period.
• B. argue against a widely held belief about age and language learning.
• C. explain why children are better language learners than adults.

12. According to the lecturer, adult learners typically struggle most with:

• A. grammar.
• B. vocabulary.
• C. pronunciation.

13. Compared with children, adult learners are said to:

• A. progress more slowly at the beginning.
• B. progress more quickly at the beginning.
• C. progress at exactly the same rate.

14. The MIT study analysed data from approximately:

• A. 70,000 learners.
• B. 700,000 learners.
• C. 7,000,000 learners.

15. According to the study, grammatical ability begins to decline:

• A. around age 12.
• B. in the late teens.
• C. only after age 50.

PART B — READING (25 marks)

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow.

Why We Still Read Paper Books

[Adapted, original prose composed for this mock paper.]

When the first commercial e-readers appeared in the late 2000s, many commentators confidently predicted the death of the printed book. The arguments seemed unanswerable. E-readers were lighter than a single paperback yet could hold thousands of titles. They were searchable, instantly updatable, and — most importantly — much cheaper to produce and distribute. Within a decade, it was said, paper books would join the cassette tape and the floppy disk in the museum of obsolete media.

Almost twenty years later, that prediction has aged badly. Although e-book sales did rise rapidly during the early 2010s, they reached a plateau around 2014 and have stayed there ever since. Printed books, meanwhile, have made a quiet but steady recovery. In several major markets, including the United Kingdom and Germany, sales of physical books are now higher than they were before the e-reader was invented. Independent bookshops, long thought to be doomed, have been opening rather than closing for the past five years.

Why has this happened? Researchers point to several converging factors. The first is purely physical. Studies in reading comprehension consistently show that, for complex or unfamiliar material, readers retain more from a printed page than from a screen. The reasons are not fully understood, but the leading hypothesis involves what cognitive scientists call “spatial memory”: on paper, we unconsciously remember where on the page a particular idea appeared, and this helps us anchor and recall it later. On a uniform screen, that anchoring is much weaker.

A second factor is screen fatigue. The average European teenager now spends more than seven hours a day looking at a screen of some kind. For many young readers, opening a paper book has become, paradoxically, a form of digital detox — a small act of resistance against the constant pull of notifications.

A third factor is what one might call the social life of the book. A physical book is visible. It can be displayed on a shelf, lent to a friend, given as a gift, signed by its author. It signals taste, interest and identity in a way that a file on a device simply cannot. Sociologists have begun to describe the home library as a kind of “slow social media” — a curated public statement, but one that does not demand engagement every five seconds.

None of this means that e-readers are disappearing. They remain extremely popular for travel, for reference works, and for readers with visual impairments who benefit from adjustable fonts. But the confident prediction that paper would vanish has been replaced by something more interesting: a stable coexistence, in which each format serves the purposes it is genuinely best suited to. The printed book, it turns out, was not a transitional technology. It was, and remains, an unusually well-designed tool — one that the digital age has refined rather than replaced.

[Word count: approx. 470 words]

B1. Reading Comprehension (16 marks — 2 marks each)

Answer the following questions in complete sentences, using your own words where possible.

16. What did commentators predict would happen to paper books when e-readers first appeared?

17. According to the text, what happened to e-book sales after their initial rise?

18. What does the text say about printed-book sales in the UK and Germany today?

19. Explain in your own words what “spatial memory” means in the context of reading.

20. Why does the writer describe reading a paper book as a “form of digital detox”?

21. What does the writer mean by calling the home library “slow social media”? Give two characteristics mentioned in the text.

22. Identify two situations in which the text says e-readers remain particularly useful.

23. According to the writer’s conclusion, what is the relationship between paper and digital books today?

B2. Vocabulary in Context (9 marks — 1.5 marks each)

Find a word or short phrase in the text that means the same as the following. The relevant paragraph is given in brackets.

24. completely certain and impossible to disagree with (para. 1) 25. levelled off; stopped rising (para. 2) 26. thought to be facing certain failure (para. 2) 27. coming together (para. 3) 28. a small action against something more powerful (para. 4) 29. carefully chosen and arranged (para. 5) 30. existing together peacefully (para. 6)

PART C — WORKING WITH TEXT (15 marks)

C1. Note-taking (6 marks)

Read the text in Part B again. Complete the following set of study notes by writing no more than three words in each gap (1 mark each).

Topic: Why printed books have survived the e-reader

• Initial prediction (late 2000s): paper books would become (31) ____________.
• E-book sales plateaued around the year (32) ____________.
• In the UK and Germany, printed book sales are now (33) ____________ than before e-readers.
• Comprehension advantage of paper is linked to (34) ____________ memory.
• Average EU teenager’s daily screen time: more than (35) ____________ hours.
• Paper books still useful for displaying, lending, gift-giving and (36) ____________ by the author.

C2. Processing Text — Summary writing (9 marks)

In 80–100 words, summarise the three main reasons the writer gives for the survival of the printed book. Use your own words as far as possible. Do not include personal opinions.

Marks: Content 5 / Language 3 / Length and form 1

PART D — WRITING (30 marks)

Choose ONE of the following two tasks. Write between 220 and 260 words. Pay attention to organisation, vocabulary range, grammatical accuracy and task fulfilment.

Task D1 — Formal essay

“Schools should require every student to spend at least one hour a week reading a printed book of their own choice, with no electronic device permitted during that time.”

Write an essay for your school magazine in which you state to what extent you agree or disagree with this proposal. Support your view with at least two clear reasons and relevant examples. Use a formal register.

Task D2 — Formal letter / email

You recently visited a public library in another European city while on a school trip, and you were impressed by its design, services and atmosphere. You feel your own town’s library could learn from it.

Write a formal letter to the Director of your municipal library in which you:

• briefly describe the library you visited,
• identify two specific features you would like to see introduced locally,
• explain how each feature would benefit young readers in your community.

Begin: Dear Director, … End with an appropriate formal closing.

Marking criteria (both tasks):

END OF EXAMINATION

Check that you have answered all questions in Parts A, B and C, and one task in Part D.

ANSWER KEY & MARKING GUIDANCE

For teacher / self-assessment use. Σπασίκλας mock paper, 2026.

Part A — Listening (30 marks)

A1. Announcement (8 marks)

A2. Radio interview — gap fill (12 marks)

A3. Lecture — multiple choice (10 marks)

Part B — Reading (25 marks)

B1. Comprehension (16 marks — 2 each)

Award full marks for accurate content expressed clearly; deduct 0.5 for minor language errors that do not obscure meaning. Award zero for direct copying of long stretches from the text except where unavoidable (proper nouns, technical terms).

B2. Vocabulary in context (9 marks — 1.5 each)

Part C — Working with Text (15 marks)

C1. Note-taking (6 marks — 1 each)

C2. Summary (9 marks)

Indicative model answer (95 words):

The writer gives three main reasons for the survival of printed books. First, readers retain more information from paper than from screens, especially for difficult texts, because paper helps the brain remember where on a page an idea appeared. Second, in an age when teenagers spend over seven hours a day on screens, a paper book offers a welcome break from constant notifications. Third, a physical book is socially visible: it can be displayed, lent or given as a gift, signalling its owner’s taste and identity in ways a digital file cannot.

Marking: Content 5 (must include all three reasons clearly) / Language 3 (accuracy, paraphrasing) / Length and form 1 (within 80–100 words, no opinions).

Part D — Writing (30 marks)

Sample response — Task D1 (formal essay, 246 words)

In recent years, much has been written about the decline of reading among teenagers. The proposal that schools should require students to spend at least one weekly hour reading a printed book, with no electronic device in sight, is therefore worth taking seriously. In my view, it is a sensible idea, although it must be implemented with care.

The first reason in its favour is cognitive. A growing body of research suggests that we understand and remember complex material better when we read it on paper than on a screen. A single uninterrupted hour each week would give students the kind of sustained, deep attention that short bursts of scrolling can never produce. Even reluctant readers may notice the difference within a school term.

The second reason is emotional. Most students today are almost permanently connected to their phones, often with no choice in the matter. A protected hour without devices is not only good for concentration; it is also good for mental health. It models the idea that being unreachable, even briefly, is acceptable and even pleasant.

That said, the policy will fail if it is treated as a punishment. Students must be free to choose the book themselves, including novels, biographies, comics or popular science. Teachers should read alongside the class, not police them.

Implemented in this spirit, one hour a week of quiet, chosen reading could easily become the most valued lesson of the timetable.

Sample response — Task D2 (formal letter, 244 words)

Dear Director,

I am writing to share some observations from a recent school visit to the Central Public Library in Utrecht, the Netherlands. I was deeply impressed by the way the library serves young people, and I would like to suggest two features that, in my view, would significantly benefit our own community.

The first feature was a dedicated Teen Zone on the second floor: a bright, comfortable space with informal seating, a small café counter, and shelves curated specifically for readers aged 13–19. Crucially, talking was permitted at a normal volume. The atmosphere felt welcoming rather than intimidating, and many of my classmates remarked that it was the first library in which they actually wanted to stay. A similar space in our own library would, I believe, transform young people’s relationship with reading: a library that feels like a living room is far more likely to be used than one that feels like an examination hall.

The second feature was a free weekly “Homework Club” staffed by university student volunteers, who helped younger pupils with mathematics, English and study skills. This service was particularly valuable for students whose families cannot afford private tutoring. Introducing such a programme locally would directly support educational equality in our town.

I would be very glad to discuss these ideas in more detail at your convenience.

Yours faithfully,

[Candidate’s name]

Generic writing-band descriptors (for marker reference)

Total mark summary

ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΞΕΤΑΣΗΣ — END OF EXAMINATION

Σπασίκλας — Mock 2026 — English (006)