Read the text and decide which answer best fits each gap.
Everyone's an artist
Every year, the village of Pettineo celebrates its unique arts festival. For a few days each summer, artists from all over Europe gather at this village near the north coast of Sicily to the creative atmosphere. During their stay, the artists get together with the local people to paint a one-kilometre long picture that runs the length of the high street. the painting is done, each visiting artist joins a local family for a big lunch and, the meal, the family receives the of the painting that the artist has painted. As a result, few villagers are rich, almost every home has at least one painting by a well-known European artist. Visitors to the village are eagerly invited into homes to see these paintings.
The festival was the idea of Antonio Presti, a local businessman who it up several years ago. Since then, Pettineo has become a sort of domestic art museum in any visitor can ring a doorbell, go into a house and a painting. In addition to this exhibition of paintings in people's homes, for those who have time to spare, there is an opportunity to wander through the display of the huge sculptures in the village square.
(Adapted from Cambridge FCE)
Read the text and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only ONE word in each gap.
VANCOUVER
Vancouver in western Canada is named after Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy. However, Captain Vancouver was not the first European visit the area. The coast had already been explored by the Spanish. Captain Vancouver did spend many days there, even though he was warmly welcomed by the local people and the scenery amazed him and everyone else was travelling with him.
The scenery still amazes visitors to the city of Vancouver today. First-time visitors who are search of breathtaking views usually directed to a beach which is about ten minutes from the city center. There, looking out over the sailing boats racing across the blue water, visitors see Vancouver's towering skyline backed by the magnificent Coast Mountains. Then they sigh and say, "It's beautiful that I want to stay forever!"
You can't blame them. The city is regularly picked by international travel associations as one of the world's best tourist destinations. They are only confirming what the two million residents and eight million tourists visiting Greater Vancouver single year already know: there is simply no other place on earth quite like it. It's not just the gorgeous setting where mountains meet the sea that appeals to people, but Vancouver's wide range of sporting, cultural and entertainment facilities.
(Adapted from Cambridge FCE)
Read the text and use the word given in capitals at each gap to form a word that fits in each gap.
Remembering your dreams
A team of scientists, who have studied the subject of dreams, have come up with some interesting conclusions. First of all, everybody, without exception, has them. Secondly, dreams can be of practical value, acting as a (REMIND) of things of (IMPORTANT) that we need to do in our waking lives. If you dream of the punishment you may receive for not handing your homework (PUNCTUAL) , for example, this may help you to do it on time. Indeed, things we are (ANXIETY) about in our daily lives often feature in our dreams.
But it is hard to make sense of your dreams if you lack the ability to remember them in the first place. One (RECOMMEND) is that you should keep a diary and pen by your bed, so you can write down your dreams as soon as they occur. You should concentrate on three aspects. Firstly, record the strongest motion in your dream, whether it is fear, (ANGRY) or whatever. Then write down anything strange or (USUAL) that happened and the names of people who made an appearance in your dream. This way, according to the experts, you will have a (RELY) and meaningful dream record, which will make for fascinating reading.
(Adapted from Cambridge FCE)
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.
"Don't sit in front of the computer for too long," our teacher told us. (warned)
=> Our teacher in front of the computer for too long.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.
The only shoes I could find to fit me were in black leather. (ANY)
=> I could fitted me, apart from some in black leather.
Complete the second sentence, using the word given so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence. Do NOT change the word given in brackets in any way.
George spent hours tidying up his room. (TOOK)
=> It up his room.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.
In my opinion, Ali is clearly going to be very successful. (doubt)
=> I that Ali is going to be very successful.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.
They say the ice in Antarctica is getting thinner all the time. (said)
=> The ice in Antarctica getting thinner all the time.
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.
Stephen didn't realize that the city center was a bus ride away. (necessary)
=> What Stephen failed to realize to catch a bus to the city center.
You are going to read a magazine article about a woman called Clare Hall who used to train racehorses in Britain. Choose the answer which you think fits best according to the text.
A change of lifestyle
An allergy made Clare Hall give up her job training racehorses, but she has now created a new career for herself as a best-selling author. Jane Henman interviews her.
In the large field which would normally contain horses, there are three big dogs running wildly around. As I talk to Clare Hall and her husband, Daniel, he says, 'I'm not allowing Clare to have anything larger than those dogs.' It's said with a smile, but persuading one of Britain's most successful racehorse trainers to give up her work can't have been easy. Clare explains her situation: 'I'd been ill for some time, and then I discovered that I had actually developed an allergy to horses. Giving up training horses after so long was a horrible decision to take. But it wasn't as if I needed the money anymore. And at least it allowed me to try writing on a full-time basis — I'd been scribbling away in my free time for years!'
Clare was brought up on a small farm. Her father couldn't afford to hire any farmworkers so Clare was expected to take her share of the workload. 'One of my earliest jobs was to carry the lamp for my father when he went to feed the pigs at night. I remember feeling really grown up the day I was allowed to feed them on my own.' Sometimes Clare accompanied her father to the fields on her pony: 'I was little then and not confident on a horse. My father used to run alongside shouting, "Up, down, up, down."' As soon as she could, Clare got a weekend job at the local racing stables to be with the horses. Then, after leaving school, she worked at the stables full-time. Her parents were always supportive: 'They were there if I needed them, but thankfully they took a back seat,' she says.
Clare's career as a trainer is legendary. She was not afraid of upsetting people and had a reputation for being outspoken. 'I have endless patience with horses — they respond to kindness and are prepared to work just as hard as you are — but I've no time for people who are in horse-racing purely for financial gain. The old, established trainers were helpful, but some of the rich newcomers were really spiteful and resented my success. I had my battles. But when everyone knew I was leaving, I was quite taken aback by the number of people who said, "Clare — you can't go!"'
Since giving up racehorse training, Clare has made a new career as a novelist. She writes laboriously in longhand at the dining-room table. 'Writing is a challenge but also very isolating,' Clare says. 'When I started, I had all the feelings I used to get before an important race — fear, apprehension, but that all disappears when you win or you're published!'
Clare's son Tim has now taken over her training business, keeping eighty of her horses. Despite the fact that Tim's only been doing this for two years, Clare announces proudly that he's already had several winners. 'But racehorse owners have high expectations. Keeping them happy is not an easy task,' she says. 'It is something you really have to work at and I just hope he can cope.' She sometimes visits Tim's stables — not just to see the horses, but to see her granddaughter, who is also crazy about horses. 'Tim and his family come over here every Sunday and we talk about everything except horses, as I feel he needs a break from that,' she says.
Clare says she is trying to put her life in horse-racing behind her, but in the next breath, she's talking about a young horse at Tim's stables. There are compensations in her new lifestyle, however, such as more time to relax. 'My books are selling and I'm having golf lessons three times a week,' she says, smiling. 'We do need to sort things out better, though, so we have time to take holidays, and enjoy our hard-earned money!' However, as hard as she tries, there is obviously a huge gap in Clare's life that has yet to be filled.
(Adapted from Cambridge FCE)
What do we learn about Clare in the first paragraph?
What does Clare mean by 'they took a back seat' in the second paragraph?
How did Clare feel at the end of her career as a trainer?
According to Clare, horse training resembles writing in terms of _____.
What is Clare's attitude to her son?
In the final paragraph, the writer suggests that Clare ______.
You are going to read an extract from a magazine article about underwater exploration. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A - G the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
A. Here, on the ocean floor, is a huge area of underwater volcanoes, their chimneys all blowing out black smoke.
B. Here I am on the bottom of the sea, and no one else on this planet has ever before seen them.
C. No one's tested it yet, but I don't think it would be a very pleasant journey.
D. He then talked me through the emergency procedures; including what to do if the pilot had a heart attack!
E. They are used to these conditions, which mean we can't stand up or move and we must stay inside until someone opens the door from the outside.
F. This pours out at a rate of one metre per second and at a temperature of 350 degrees.
G. After that, as you get really deep, it's near freezing point so you need a sweater thick socks, gloves and a woolly hat.
In hot water
Rachel Mills is a scientist who spends as much time as she can at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Rachel Mills teaches and does research into marine geochemistry, which means she studies the chemical processes happening in the sea. She is a lecturer at the Oceanography Centre at Southampton University. When she isn’t teaching, she lowers herself into a steel vehicle, a vessel for underwater exploration the size of a small car, and dives three kilometres down into the Atlantic Ocean to study underwater volcanoes.
'Inside', she says, 'space is so limited that I can reach out and touch the two pilots. A dive can last for 16 hours - three hours to reach the ocean floor, ten hours gathering samples of rock and water and then three hours to get back up to the surface again.'
'If anything happens, and you have a problem and have to get to the top quickly, you can hit a panic button. The outside drops away leaving a small circular escape vessel that gets released, and it's like letting go of a ping-pong ball in the bath - it goes rapidly to the surface.
'I didn't know how I was going to react the first time I climbed into the vehicle. It was on the deck of a ship and I got in with an instructor. They were testing me to see how I would react to being in such a small place.'
Now Rachel has made six dives. Last year she dived with a Russian crew. 'We went to a site which was a five-day sail west of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic. It is where the Atlantic Ocean comes alive. The Russian team were dropping off some scientific equipment there to discover the effect of a multi-national programme that would make a hole 150 metres through a volcano.'
When she isn't at sea, Rachel is in her office at the Oceanography Centre, Southampton. 'Two-thirds of my salary comes from teaching, which I love, but I do it so I can get on with my research into the "black smokers". This is just another name for underwater volcanoes - water comes out of the rock and turns into what looks like black smoke. '
'The only time I've been frightened is when I first went down with the Americans. We were towing equipment on a 50-metre rope when suddenly there was an explosion. There was this immense bang as the shock waves hit our vehicle and I thought, "I'm going to die." We stared at each other in silence, waiting. When it didn't happen, we couldn't believe it. The relief was incredible - we were still alive!'
'It's such an adventure diving down to the deepest part of the ocean. Every time I look out of the porthole and see those chimneys, there is such a sense of wonder. I had studied the black smokers for three years for my Ph.D. When I got down there and saw them for real, it was such an amazing feeling.'
You are going to read about four people with their rail experiences. Choose the section that contains the information in each question. The sections may be chosen more than once.
On the rails
Five celebrities tell Andrew Morgan their favourite memories of railway journeys.
Andrea Thompson - Newsreader
I fell in love with the south of France a long time ago and try to get back there as often as I can. There's a local train from Cannes along the coast which crosses the border with Italy. It takes you past some of the most amazing seascapes. It never matters what the weather is like, or what time of the year it is, it is always enchanting. Out of the other window are some of the best back gardens and residences in the whole of France. You feel like someone peeping into the property of the rich and famous. The travellers themselves are always lively because there is an interesting mix of tourists and locals, all with different itineraries but all admirers of the breathtaking journey.
Rod Simpson - Explorer
I have enjoyed so many rail journeys through the years, but if I had to pick a favourite it would be the Nile Valley Express, which runs across the desert of northern Sudan. The one misfortune in my youth, growing up in South Africa, was missing out on a family train journey from Cape Town to the Kruger National Park. I was regarded as being too young and troublesome and was sent off to an aunt. When I came to live in England as a teenager, I still hadn't travelled by train. London Waterloo was the first real station I ever saw and its great glass dome filled me with wonder.
Betty Cooper - Novelist
I am indebted to one train in particular: the Blue Train, which took my husband and me on our honeymoon across France to catch a boat to Egypt. It was on the train that my husband gave me a pink dress, which I thought was absolutely wonderful. Someone happened to mention that pink was good for the brain, and I've never stopped wearing the colour since. What I remember about the journey itself, however, is how lovely it was to travel through France and then by boat up the Nile to Luxor. It was, without a doubt, the perfect way to wind down after all the wedding preparations.
Jennifer Dickens - Actress
I imagine most people's favourite impressions of trains and railways are formed when they are young children, but that's not my case. I was brought up in Singapore and Cyprus, where I saw very few trains, let alone travelled on them. It wasn't until I was a teenager that trains began to dominate my life. I made a film which featured a railway in Yorkshire. Most of the filming took place on an old, disused stretch of the line which had been lovingly maintained by volunteers. That's where my passion for steam trains began. When we weren't filming, we took every opportunity to have a ride on the train, and, when I went back last year, it was as if time had stood still. Everything was the same, even the gas lights on the station platform!
Which person enjoyed the company of fellow passengers?
Which person welcomed a chance to relax on the trip?
Which person was never disappointed by the journey?
Which person has a reason for feeling grateful to one special train?
Which person travelled on a railway which is no longer in regular service for work?
Which person regretted not going on a particular train trip?
Which person used to travel on the railway whenever possible?
Which person learned interesting piece of information on a train journey?
Which person took a train which travelled from one country to another?
Which person was once considered not old enough to travel by train?