You will hear five short extracts in which people are talking about being a judge in a talent show.
For each gap, choose from the list (A - F) what each speaker feels about the experience. Use the letters only once. There is one extra letter which you do not need to use.
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A. Keen to be invited back B. Sorry for upsetting one contestant C. Unsure whether the best act won D. Surprised by the other judges' dedication E. Critical of the way it was organized F. Pleased to have identified the winner early on |
Speaker 1: Speaker 2: Speaker 3: Speaker 4: Speaker 5: |
You will hear part of a radio interview with a woman called Susan who runs a city farm.
For each question, choose the correct answer.
Choose the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress.
Choose the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress.
Choose the word that differs from the rest in the position of the main stress.
Choose the word which has the underlined part pronounced differently from the others.
Choose the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from that of the others.
equation
question
digestion
suggestion
Choose the word which has the underlined part pronounced differently from the others.
exhalation
exuberant
execution
exhibition
Andy: I yearn for the prospect of England winning the World Cup. I think the whole country would really _____ afterwards.
Bob: I think I would pass out!
Young people are ambitious by nature, so they tend to set their _____ high on whatever they do.
We truly respected our father and always _____ by his rule.
The government decreed that the new laws _____ the following month after several discussions.
These two young artists _____ remarkable success in the coming competition as their current performance is superb.
A: Jane's very _____, but her sister is quite thick-skinned.
B: Oh, I wouldn't agree with that at all. It's the other way around!
Six novels a year, you say? He's certainly a _____ writer.
Tony seemed remarkably devoid of _____ sense and did the most ridiculous things.
Have you been ______ against tetanus in the last ten years?
______, he was poorly educated, which in large part accounted for his shyness.
My old home was a sight for ______ eyes after I’d been away for so long.
The company is said _____ victory over its rival through a smear campaign.
There is no doubt that this volume is _____ for those interested in the syntax of free word order.
In 1991, twenty ex-East German swimming coaches _____ admitted giving anabolic steroids to their former charges during the 1970s.
You have to study hard to _____ your classmates.
A: Yah, and joining contemporary art class is such a treat.
B: _____.
Son: Why don’t we buy a new car, Dad? This one is too old to go out with my friends.
Dad: _____ We don’t have much money.
This is the communicative exchange at an electric shop.
The shop assistant: This is my last portable CD player. I’ll let you have it for sixty dollars.
Steven: _____?
Mai: _____
Lan: I'm pretty busy right now. I'm doing my homework because I have an exam tomorrow.
Two close friends Tom and Kyle are talking about Kyle’s upcoming birthday.
Tom: Can I bring a friend to your birthday party?
Kyle: ______ The more the merrier.
Think of ONE word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences.
1. Teenage boys tend to drive wildly and often have _____.
2. The whole affair has been a chapter of _____ from start to finish.
3. - A: "I am so sorry that I backed into your car!"
- B: "That's OK, _____ will happen."
Answer:
Think of ONE word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences.
1. A small fire was burning to take the _____ off the room.
2. Can we get out of here? This creepy old house is sending a _____ down my spine!
3. I know you're upset with Sarah, but putting the _____ on her like this is a bit much, don't you think?
Answer:
Think of ONE word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences.
1. If it wasn't for the life jacket, I would have _____.
2. He nearly _____ before his friends rescued him.
3. Out in the field, we looked like a bunch of _____ rats.
Answer:
Think of ONE word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences.
1. The dog might look a bit _____, but actually, it's fairly harmless.
2. Even though they're both in their '80s, my grandparents still love each other something _____.
3. He threw a _____ look at me, so I wondered what I had done wrong.
Answer:
Think of ONE word only which can be used appropriately in all three sentences.
1. I _____ out of the room, but I knocked over a lamp, which crashed to the floor.
2. This morning, the cat _____ stealthily through the long grass.
3. She _____ up behind him and put her hands over his eyes.
Answer: .
Complete the text with the correct form of the word in brackets.
Innate talent: myth or fact?
Recent research has indicated that talent as an innate characteristic is purely a myth, and that there is nothing (MIRACLE) about someone excelling in their chosen area of expertise. What really matters is (DILIGENT) and what's become known as 'purposeful practice'; in other words, (EXPLICIT) trying to improve. Only by applying yourself and striving to be better each time you practise can you be any good at anything, be it playing chess or running a marathon. The increments in ability may be almost (PERCEIVE) but are most certainly there.
Such studies have also suggested that circumstance is as much a requirement to success as physical attributes (like fast muscle twitch in sprinters). The majority of long-distance runners, they claim, come from African countries because they do their training at high altitudes, which is beneficial when competing at lower ones, where increased oxygen levels are hugely (ENERGY).
While practice and the right conditions may appear to be (DISPENSE) to success, is there actually any truth in the idea that innate talent is a myth as studies like these have (SUPPOSE) proven? What may have been overlooked is who participated in the studies. It's (REASSURE) for researchers when they prove that musicians are able to sing a perfect 'A' note without hearing it first - but does the research bear (SCRUTINIZE)? Would it be possible to train someone professing to have no 'ear' for music to do the same?
Some later studies have claimed that professional sportspeople have no more physical advantage than anyone else. If that were true, how would c w would one explain why virtually all basketball players are (EXCEPT) tall? The results of nature versus nurture, it seems, are far from conclusive.
Read the passage below and fill in each blank with ONE suitable word.
The history of the cinema
In Britain, the cinema was, without a doubt, the most important form of public commercial entertainment of the twentieth century. Until its popularity was eclipsed in the 1950s by television, cinema enjoyed a period of some fifty years during which its appeal far exceeded of sport or indeed any other commercial activity.
The popularity of the cinema at that time is difficult to explain: it was accessible, glamorous, and cheap. At height, between 1920 and 1950, a very small sum of money could guarantee a good seat in the cinema. In the 1920s, the usual venue was a small, neighborhood hall. The audience was drawn from the local area, and could on some occasions be rather noisy. By the end of the 1930s, , the venue was more likely to be in one of the larger cinemas known as 'picture palaces', which were springing everywhere in city centers to accommodate audiences of over two thousand people. At these establishments, the audiences were expected to be well-behaved; the performances were organized just like military operations, with uniformed staff on to control the queues and usherettes to direct seating .
These large cinemas attracted a very mixed audience, although older people were less likely to be cinema-goers than adolescents. As might be expected, people in rural areas were immersed in the cinema than were people in towns, simply of the greater provision of cinemas in urban areas.
Read the text below and decide which answer best fits each blank.
In Vietnam, pink peach blossoms and golden ochna flowers are symbols of Spring. Ochnas bloom in southern Vietnam, while peach blossoms the North. These flowers are the symbols of the Lunar New Year.
In Vietnam's Northern Highlands, wild peach blossoms appear like magic as Spring approaches. Tiny buds appear between the rocks in the Dong Van Rock Highlands. Spring is the most beautiful season to visit Ha Giang. The roads from Quan Ba to Yen Minh, especially around Dong Van, Lung Cu, and Meo Vac, are pink clouds of peach trees. Known as mountain or Hmong peach blossoms, these trees grow on mountain peaks, down the hills, and amidst the rock fences that encircle small hamlets. They over tiny houses, spreading the magic of spring.
The mountain peach blossoms in Dong Van have five-pointed petals. The flowers are pink red, growing from slim and graceful branches. they look fragile, these peach trees can endure the severe mountain winds. Their pink flowers form a wonderful contrast to the surrounding dark stone walls and rocky gray mountains.
, the local Hmong people have turned the small spaces between spiky rocks into paddy fields. Muscular oxen and their masters grip the cliffs, the small bits of rich soil in order to survive. Corn and green mustard are two staple foods here and the main crops of the Hmong communities. Ears of corn are grilled to make mèn mén, a delicious dish, and used to brew liquor that is sold in the local markets. In these mountains, green mustard plants display bright golden blossoms in the springtime, further decorating the landscape.
You are going to read an article by a food writer about a kind of Asian food called 'soup dumplings'. 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.
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A. Admittedly, it has nothing to say about taste or texture, which is what people are often interested in. B. Consequently, there was no opportunity to learn about other people's recipes. C. Here, they made them a little bit smaller and slightly less sweet than in rival locations. D. I loved how practical, but at the same time completely useless his idea was. E. It was the perfect opportunity to put these theories to the test. F. Then I'd squeeze meat and do the same. G. Visiting restaurants, I'd often seen a sign on the wall boasting about these particular qualities in the dumplings on offer. |
In search of the perfect dumpling
My mum was an awful cook, and perhaps because of that, I was always interested in food. I got my first job as a washer-up aged fifteen, then I spent ten years as a chef in different parts of the world.
I came to Asia because I wanted to see Chinese and Japanese food first-hand. In 2005, I ended up with a job at a French restaurant in Shanghai; the city was really booming, and I was working up to seventy hours a week. So I started to write about Chinese restaurants instead. Soup dumplings were my starting point.
Soup dumplings originated back in the 7th century in Asia. The idea spread outwards from there, so today you can find something similar almost everywhere from Turkey eastwards. About 150 years ago, they arrived in the Shanghai area of China. In my experience, every region has its own variant on the standard ard soup dumpling. I thought I'd try and establish what the characteristics of the ideal Shanghai soup dumping are, then set out to measure those on offer in various c·l restaurants against that.
When you talk to people from Shanghai, however, they'll always argue about what makes a good soup dumpling. Some will say that the skin must be thin, others that there should be a lot of tasty meat in the filling, or that there must be plenty of soup. So clearly, the perfect dumpling wasn't going to be that easy to find.
Meanwhile, a friend had told me about a guide to restaurants 'prepared for the convenience of mathematicians, experimental scientists, engineers and explorers'. It was the pet project of an eccentric scientist who ate in hundreds of restaurants in New York and then created, by hand, a spreadsheet of them all, using symbols to show the ethnicity of the cuisine, what the place was like, etc. I thought I'd do the same for Shanghai soup dumplings.
I bought a digital scale and a pair of callipers on an internet auction site. With these two tools and a pair of scissors, I went from restaurant to restaurant sampling the soup dumplings. I'd take each one out individually, weigh it and then snip a hole in the side and pour the soup out and weigh that. Using my callipers, I'd then measure the thickness of the skin on the bottom of the dumpling.
I went to around fifty restaurants in all and wouldn't say the family-run places were any worse than the fancy ones with posh tablecloths and uniformed waiters. Hopefully, the guide I have produced will make you laugh and think. On the other hand, it is a list of fifty or so restaurants in Shanghai and it does attempt to put them in some sort of order for you. My next project is shallow-fried dumplings, which are cooked two-hundred at a time. They're a local speciality and incredibly popular.
Read the passage then choose the best answer to each question.
While most desert animals will drink water if confronted with it, for many of them the opportunity never comes. Yet all living things must have water, or they will expire. The herbivores find it in desert plants. The carnivores slave their thirst with the flesh and blood of living prey. One of the most remarkable adjustments, however, has been made by the tiny kangaroo rat, who not only lives without drinking but subsists on a diet of dry seeds containing about 5% free water. Like other animals, he has the ability to manufacture water in his body by a metabolic conversion of carbohydrates. But he is notable for the parsimony with which he conserves his small supply by every possible means, expending only minuscule amounts in his excreta and through evaporation from his respiratory tract.
An investigation into how the kangaroo rat can live without drinking water has involved various experiments with these small animals. Could kangaroo rats somehow store water in their bodies and slowly utilize these resources in the long periods when no free water is available from dew or rain? The simplest way to settle this question was to determine the total water content in the animals to see if it decreases as they are kept for long periods on a dry diet. If they slowly use up their water, the body should become increasingly dehydrated, and if they begin with a store of water, this should be evident from initial high water content. Results of such experiments with kangaroo rats on dry diets for more than 7 weeks showed that the rats maintained their body weight. There was no trend toward a decrease in water content during the long period of water deprivation. When the kangaroo rats were given free access to water, they did not drink water. They did nibble on small pieces of watermelon, but this did not change appreciably the water content in their bodies, which remained at 66.3% to 67.2% during this period.
This is very close to the water content of dry-fed animals (66.5%), and the availability of free water, therefore, did not lead to any 'storage' that could be meaningful as a water reserve. This makes it reasonable to conclude that the physiological storage of water is not a factor in the kangaroo rat's ability to live on dry food.
What is true about the kangaroo rats?
What happens to a kangaroo rat when he is given water?
What is the same between the dry-fed animals and kangaroo rats?
Choose the sentence that best combines this pair of sentences.
The doctor told you to cut down on how much you eat and start exercising. You should listen to him.
Choose the sentence that best combines this pair of sentences.
Your blood test results came back negative. However, I think it is a good idea for you to take one again, just to be sure.
Choose the sentence that best combines this pair of sentences.
The waitress had confused my order with the person at the next table's. Hence, he received my chicken while I got his turkey.
Choose the sentence that best combines this pair of sentences.
No one but the experts was able to realize that the painting was an imitation. It greatly resembled the original.
Choose the sentence that best combines this pair of sentences.
Anne Frank wrote a diary to tell how she spent more than two years in hiding from the Nazis in Holland. Sadly, she died before the war ended.
Choose the sentence CLOSEST in meaning to the sentence given.
Supposedly housing a copy of every book ever published in English, the British Library is a remarkable research facility.
Choose the sentence CLOSEST in meaning to the sentence given.
In the case of snakebite, if an antidote is given quickly enough after being bitten, the risk to the person of dying is very much reduced.
The rapidly expanding use of antidotes has made the risk of being killed through snakebites far lower than it used to be.
Choose the sentence that is CLOSEST in meaning to the sentence given.
I couldn't decide if I should go out with a jacket or not as the weather forecast had predicted that a very warm afternoon would follow the cold morning.
Choose the sentence that best combines this pair of sentences.
Bill was tired of the hectic lifestyle in the city. He quitted his job and moved to a far-flung place.
Choose the sentence CLOSEST in meaning to the sentence given.
Trying to run a few errands just before she went to the airport caused her to be a little late in picking up her husband there.