Politécnico Grancolombiano Name: Sebastián Camilo Casas Arévalo

Language Department Date: 20/08/2019

Diagnostic test level 3

I. LISTENING
Listen to these interesting facts about Ed Sheeran and take notes on at least 3 different facts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoRES051bwE

II. SPEAKING
Use your notes to record a 1-minute talk about 3 interesting things you learn about him. You have 2 minutes to
prepare your talk.

III. READING
Read the following text about part of Ed’s life and complete the paragraphs by choosing the sentence (1-4) that
fits in each space (A-D).

Ed Sheeran’s Life Story: How a Bullied Ginger Boy Became Britain’s Biggest Music
Success

Ever wonder how Ed Sheeran’s life story goes like? Well, he – like many of us – didn’t have it easy. Dealing with his fair
share of struggles from bullying, to inner battles, insecurity and shame, to becoming an award-winning singer,
________________________ A

Edward Christopher Sheeran was born in February 1991 in Halifax, England. He had one older brother and his parents
were running an art consultancy at the time.
While he struggled with socializing in school, he had an interest in music from a very young age. He became part of a
church choir at 4 and soon started playing the guitar. At 11 he was already writing songs, which was inspired by a
backstage chat with Damien Rice. __________________________B
Ed Sheeran was bullied every day at school, mainly for his stutter and oversized glasses.

As a kid, he had a surgery that went wrong and left him with a lazy eye and severe speech problems. Whenever he tried
speaking up in class, his mouth would freeze and no word would come out. Other kids were mocking him about this.
Soon, he stopped participating and raising his hand at all.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case when it came to singing and making music. He enjoyed singing in the local church and
shares that playing the guitar in his room was the only time he felt in control.

His big leap was in 2010, and while it wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and everything Ed Sheeran had done
so far, social media made the success of the boy happen faster. He was posting his videos online, and one of them was
noticed by the rapper Example, who liked his style so much that he invited him to tour together.
______________________ C. Soon the media started paying attention to the ginger boy with the guitar and the amazing
voice, and some big names and newspapers started mentioning him. That allowed Ed Sheeran to start dreaming bigger.
He knew that if he wanted to see progress, he had to move to America.

He began sending out his music to anyone he could reach out to but received no answers. Until one day, while on the
show of a local radio host, he was brought to the stage. Terrified, he started playing. 12 minutes later, he got a standing
ovation.

Ed Sheeran’s life story is one of the modern inspiring tales that can bring back the hope in the starving artist and the
unpopular kid. He likes to remember the fact that one of the coolest kids from his school later ended up being his
plumber. ____________________D.

1. That’s why he believes in being yourself rather than following the crowd or hiding your differences.
2. Not only was his love for music obvious, but also his talent started being noticed by others around him.
3. That helped him grow his online presence more and more, and people across the world started tuning in to his
YouTube videos.
4. Ed Sheeran’s story shows how the artist learned to embrace his uniqueness and overcame his challenges in order
to bring us one of the most beautiful voices of our time.
WRITING

Now, write a 120-word text about your life and comment how it has been similar or totally different from Ed
Sheeran’s.

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