Prospectus: Undergraduates

Applying for a place

Written test for MML admissions

• Description
• Specimen

Description

This written test will be taken by applicants, in the College by which they are being interviewed, while they are in Cambridge for their interviews. (Applicants with disabilities or special learning needs are asked to inform the College so that they can take the test in an appropriate form). There is no expectation that applicants will have practised this kind of exercise before. The test has been designed so that anyone who has already practised it will not be at any great advantage. The test forms just one small part of the overall assessment of applicants (based on your written application, your school/college record, interviews, etc.): even if you do not do particularly well at this written test, it is perfectly possible for you still to be offered a place.

Applicants are asked to read a brief passage in English (300-350 words) and then to answer two or three questions about it. They will write their answer in a target language that they are studying at A-level (A2) or equivalent and that they are applying to study at Cambridge University. The questions will contain an element of comprehension but will also invite applicants to add ideas of their own. In other words, the exercise is a combination of comprehension and free composition. The purpose is to see how applicants write in the foreign language: i.e. it assesses their grammar, their accuracy, their ability to express ideas, and their vocabulary, though they are not expected to know the exact foreign-language term for each English term in the passage.

Specimen

You have 45 minutes to complete this exercise.

Please read carefully the following passage and then write a single short essay which answers all the questions below. Please make your essay a total of 200-250 words long, no more and no less. Please answer in ONE of the modern languages that you are applying to study here, i.e. in a language that you are studying or have studied at A-level (A2) or equivalent. If you are studying at A-level (A2) or equivalent both of the languages that you wish to study here, then you're free to choose which of those two languages to write in.

The purpose of the exercise is for us to see how you write in the foreign language, to assess your grammar, your accuracy, your ability to express ideas, and your vocabulary, though we don't expect you to know the exact foreign-language term for each English term in the passage.

The Life of the Jazz Musician Louis Armstrong

Born on 4th August 1901, in New Orleans, raised in the city's poorest, roughest quarter, Louis Armstrong was not a likely candidate for world fame. But against all the odds he not only survived but thrived. He learned the fundamentals of music at school, and by his mid-teens he was able to supplement his income from work as a labourer by playing his trumpet in the city's bars. "Little Louis" (the first of the many nicknames he was known by) had a gift for making friends who could protect and defend him. From 1930 to 1947 Armstrong was at the helm of many big bands, performing a repertory consisting mainly of popular songs but also of novelties. He introduced or popularized an astonishing number of songs. He was often presented with new material to record at short notice, which was more of a problem to the band than to him; Armstrong had a famous ability to make a song his own after a few runthroughs or even to read and play it convincingly at first sight. Some of his later hits included "What a wonderful world" and "Hello Dolly". Armstrong also wrote several songs himself. In 1932 he made his first foray abroad: a three-month tour of England. He toured first with a band made up of black musicians of various nationalities, including some Americans, and then at the helm of some of Britain's best white jazz players. Reception ranged from enthusiasm from jazz musicians and fans to bewilderment and even booing. After some further performing in England, Armstrong (accompanied by Alpha Smith, who later became his third wife) took what was to be the longest vacation of his life, from April to October 1934. In an interview earlier that year, he pointed out that he'd had very little time off during the past ten years. He now rented an apartment in Paris and spent his time sightseeing and hanging out with the city's many resident and visiting musicians, including Django Reinhardt, who had been attracted to jazz after hearing one of Armstrong's records.

(adapted from The Oxford Companion to Jazz, OUP, 2000)

Please answer all the following questions in a single essay of 200-250 words. Remember: Don't write in English!

• What is being said here about Louis Armstrong?
• What kind or kinds of music do you like or dislike? Say why.