The authorities _____ action to stop illegal purchases of wild animals and their associated products effectively. However, they didn’t do so.
Gardeners must know _____ in order to grow roses successfully.
Employees cannot be discriminated _____ race under any circumstances.
The new prime minister _____ his commitment to free health care for the elderly.
When you're ready to _____ to your former friend, a simple apology might be the best place to start.
Many children in state schools have expressed frustration at having to _____ with values they don’t share.
Making mistakes is all _____ of growing up.
Only if the teacher has given permission _____ allowed to leave the room.
Kathy _____ comes up with a solution when everyone else is at a loss.
My new pullover _____ to half of its previous size when I washed it.
Round and round _____.
_____ discovered the software bug that was causing the system to crash.
Many craters on the Earth's surface were probably formed by very large meteorites _____.
_______, we have been travelling to work by bus since last week.
The project is currently underway, and the results will be available in due _____.
According to the forecast, it will be mostly cloudy, with _____ of rain in the north.
Prices at Greek hotels are still affordable, but in Switzerland they are _____.
After years of research, scholars have finally _____ this anonymous play to Christopher Marlowe.
Six novels a year, you say? He's certainly a _____ writer.
He _____ unexpected resistance when he proposed the new policy changes.
There is no doubt that this volume is _____ for those interested in the syntax of free word order.
The wardrobe was so large that we had to ______ it to get it down the stairs.
The highway accident led to a terrible _____ of over 50 vehicles and 100 casualties including deaths.
If a diamond is heated without oxygen, it will turn to graphite, a form of _____ that is used as a lubricant.
At first, the managing director insisted that he was right and everyone else was mistaken, but in the end was forced to _____.
In 1991, twenty ex-East German swimming coaches _____ admitted giving anabolic steroids to their former charges during the 1970s.
Have you been ______ against tetanus in the last ten years?
Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.
THE KANGAROO GENERATION
The French have a name for them - le generation kangaroo - because kangaroos carry their offspring around in a pouch for months after birth. They are the 20-somethings who have realised that living at home with their parents is to struggling to be independent. A few years ago, anyone approaching 30 still under the parental roof would have been an object of concern, if not ridicule. Today it is fast becoming the norm. To a certain , this shift is due to economic pressures; prices in Western Europe have soared, making mortgage payments out of for most young people on starting salaries. And why pay a fortune to rent a bedsit when relatively luxurious accommodation is available rent-free? These days, parents also seem more willing to continue to perform chores like cooking, washing and ironing. Of course, some mums and dads were unprepared for the burden of to go on so long. The previous generation, who often married young, generally that once their children left for university, their years of freedom would begin. They are now finding that times have changed and there is a possibility that their kids will want to stick around indefinitely.
Read the following passage and mark the letter on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
HE KNOWS TOO MUCH
Dick Sterling put the phone down. His hands were trembling. He was furious with himself for failing to persuade his boss in Delhi, Keith Lennox, to support him and was disgusted at the mixture of veiled threats and vague promises Lennox had made. "He knows too much" - the words still rang in his ears. He wondered, not for the last time, just what it was that Vish, the officer manager of the factory, knew. How could it be so important that the company's position in India could be threatened by it? It simply didn't make sense. Dick glanced at his watch. Four o'clock. He called for his driver, Gopal, and asked to be driven home. He'd had enough for the day.
Dick sat gloomily in the back of the car, going over in his mind the events which had led up to the present crisis. How had he got himself into this impossible situation? It should never have happened, yet somehow, looking back, it seemed inevitable. Perhaps he was beginning to believe in fate?
He had arrived three years earlier to take over as general manager of Trakton's factory in Madras. India was, of course, only one of the many countries in which Trakton operated. Dick had been transferred to Madras from Nigeria in fact, after a series of other overseas appointments. Each of the overseas factories had a general manager appointed from headquarters to oversee the management of the local workforce. In India, this had worked particularly well. The Indian staff was highly-trained and efficient. They were also generally easy to work with; the company's enlightened industrial relations policy had made sure of that. Salaries were higher than the average; there was a good pension scheme and generous health insurance benefits. Trakton boasted that it had not lost a day in strikes for over fifteen years.
Dick had found his senior Indian colleagues particularly good to work with. They knew their jobs inside out and were clearly committed to the company. Many of them had been with Trakton for the whole of their working lives, starting in the factory and working their way up to become managers. They were a good team.
The only exceptions had been Visvanathan, or "Vish" as he was known, the office manager, and his wife Molly. Molly was in charge of the Personnel Department. For reasons Dick had only gradually understood, Vish and Molly were regarded by the rest of the senior staff as somehow "special". They behaved as if they had special privileges and expected other staff to defer to them. Dick slowly realized that they controlled other staff members through a combination of threats and promises. Given their positions, they could make life very difficult for anyone who opposed them. Likewise, they could make life easy for those who did what they wanted.
Dick knew that this sort of behaviour happened to varying degrees in every culture and didn't think much of it. Indeed, in the first few weeks after his arrival, both Vish and Molly had been all smiles and helpfulness. They had invited Dick and his wife Sally to dinner too. Their newly-built house was in the fashionable, up-and-coming Kalakshetra Colony, close to the sea. Dick had been suitably impressed by the expensively-furnished house, which was full of the most modern household equipment. He had half-wondered, innocently, whether Vish had had to borrow money to pay for it all.
What was Dick's reaction to his conversation with Lennox?
When he was in his car, Dick thought that _____.
Before Dick took charge of the Madras factory, _____.
What is meant by "enlightened" in paragraph 3?
A lot of the bosses at Trakton _____.
What does the word "those" in paragraph 5 refer to?
How did Dick feel about the way Vish and Molly treated the other employees?
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
Read the passage and do the following tasks.
LET’S NOT LOSE ANY SLEEP
A great deal of anxiety is being expressed over children not getting enough sleep. Teachers and parents worry that sleep-deprived children will be too tired to perform well at school, and irritable at home. Meanwhile scientists worry that kids are becoming obese, and according to recent research, sleep-deprived children are twice as likely to be so. As just one example of sleep anxiety, a recent British survey of two thousand families warned of an ‘epidemic’ of sleeplessness among children aged five to fifteen. It claimed that two-thirds of them are being turned into ‘zombies’ by late-night viewing and smartphone use, and it warned of the consequences for their waistlines. The survey was carried out for the UK hotel chain Travelodge – the self-styled ‘retailer of sleep’ – and it was not even published in a peer-reviewed journal. Yet it still found its way into the mainstream media.
The story of an epidemic of sleep-deprived zombie children is neat and appealing, but it quickly falls apart. There is little evidence that children are sleeping less than before. And the link between sleep deprivation and obesity has been greatly exaggerated. Sleepy children are not a new concern. In 1884, the British Medical Journal reported that the influential psychiatrist James Crichton-Browne had testified to the British parliament: ‘I have encountered many lamentable instances of derangement of health, resulting from enforced evening study in the case of young children, with the nervous excitement and loss of sleep which it so often induces.’ He clearly saw homework as the culprit. His words were ignored but he did not give up. In 1908, in his presidential address to the Child Study Society, Crichton-Browne bemoaned that ‘the evil of insufficient sleep in children is widespread’.
He was responding to a talk by educational pioneer Alice Ravenhill, who described her long investigation into the sleep of six thousand elementary school children. She found that children aged between three and five years slept for ten hours, forty-five minutes a night, on average, while for thirteen-year-olds it was eight hours (both of which are pretty much the same today). This, she said, was not enough. Having ‘consulted the best authorities’, she advocated thirteen hours’ sleep for the younger group and eleven hours for the older. Soon afterwards, in 1913, Lewis Terman and Adeline Hocking from Stanford University, California, reported similar sleep durations among US school children. They found an average of eleven hours for six-year-olds and nine hours for thirteen-year-olds.
Fast forward to today, and little has changed. A survey of 11,500 children by Peter Blair and colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK, found that six-year-olds sleep 11.3 hours on average, while ten-year-olds sleep 10.5 hours (Sleep, vol 35, p 353).
Although there were wide variations among the children, they concluded that ‘compared with earlier studies, the younger children … slept for a shorter period’. Nevertheless, both these values are greater than those from 1908 and similar to Terman and Hocking’s results in 1913.
Yet another study, by a team at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, looked at records going back to 1897 and found that children’s average sleep time has been steadily declining for the past century – though only at a rate of 43 seconds per year, or one hour and twenty minutes in total. Intriguingly, the team also found that children consistently slept for about thirty-seven minutes less than health professionals thought best at the time, and that the blame was invariably put on children being ‘overtaxed by the stimulation of modern living’. This suggests that sleep recommendations start with the assumption that children don’t get enough sleep, rather than an empirical assessment of how much they actually need.
Several studies have reported that children who sleep less are fatter. One, for example, found that seven-year-olds sleeping less than ten hours a night are twice as likely to be obese than longer sleepers (International Journal of Obesity, vol 26, p 710). That sounds alarming, but ‘twice as likely’ obscures the fact that the absolute numbers are small. Only around ten per cent of the shorter sleepers are obese, compared with five per cent for those sleeping over ten hours. Put differently, the vast majority of short sleepers are not obese. What is more, there is only about thirty minutes’ difference in the sleep of obese children versus those of normal weight.
If short sleep does cause obesity, then the effect is moderate at best, amounting to the accumulation of less than half a kilogram of extra fat per year as a result of hundreds of hours of accumulated ‘lost sleep’. I estimate that rather than sleeping for an extra hour or more, obese children could obtain the same effect with only ten minutes of extra exercise each day.
In the first paragraph, the writer is _____.
The writer uses inverted commas in the first paragraph to indicate that he is _____.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the text?
Crichton-Browne wrote an article published in the British Medical Journal.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the text?
Crichton-Browne advocated giving children less homework.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the text?
The government eventually acted on Crichton-Browne’s recommendations.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the text?
Ravenhill’s findings correlated well with those of US researchers.
Does the following statement agree with the information given in the text?
Researchers in Australia set out to challenge Blair’s findings.
You are going to read a magazine article about marathon running. Eight 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. He argues that after 16-20 miles, you have to slow down, and running gets really hard.
B. After a quick top-up of water and a rest, most go home and make a full recovery.
C. When it comes to marathon running, however, the experts are divided.
D. In spite of this, marathon running is bad for your health.
E. She started by running to the shops, wearing an anorak and carrying her shopping bag.
F. Within a couple of months, however, she was managing two or three miles.
G. This is because running halves your risk of getting heart disease.
MARATHON RUNNING - A RECIPE FOR HEALTH?
If ever there was living proof that marathon running keeps you fit, Jenny Wood Allen from Dundee is it. (0) E She was 71 and she did not even have proper training shoes then.
At first, she could only run to the end of her avenue, which is about three-quarters of a mile. She had problems getting back and had to either take a bus or ask somebody for a lift.
Scientifically speaking, human beings are perfectly tuned for jumping and running, walking long distances. One of them, Professor Craig Sharp says that if you are reasonably fit, you can probably run for two hours at a medium pace and feel OK. At this point, your muscles run out of glycogen - the best source of energy we have.
This means you start using fat for energy, and your body has to work harder to transform fat into energy. This happens at a time when you are starting to feel exhausted. All this is proof - he believes - that the body isn't designed for long-distance running.
Other specialists have a very different opinion. Dr. Percy Brown believes that if you train sensibly and prepare several months in advance, it could even help you live longer.
He believes the only problem you may have when running a marathon is exhaustion or a small injury caused by falling or tripping over things. Only 1 in 1,000 actually makes it to hospital.
Another problem may be post-race exhaustion. Surveys show most runners are much more likely to catch colds or develop chest infections in the week after running a race. But this weakening effect on the system is short-lived. There is no evidence of lasting disease or an increased risk of illness.
At 87, Jenny Wood Allen will be doing the London marathon for the 13th time this Sunday. And she plans to go on taking part for many years to come.
(Adapted from Cambridge FCE)
Fill each of the following blanks with ONE suitable word.
THE IDEAL CITY TREE
Scientists in the United States are trying to develop a tree that will be ideal city environment. They say that in many cities the air is so with poisons that the plain, old-fashioned tree doomed to disappear.
The ideal city tree must shallow roots. Roots that go too far get in the way of underground pipes. It must have short branches. Branches that reach too high interfere overhead lines. The new city tree must bear fruit on people's heads as it might be a danger them.
importantly, the ideal tree for the city must be tough. It must fight diseases. And it must be able to reduce effects of air pollution.
Fill each of the following blanks with ONE suitable word.
along the way, Black Friday made the giant leap from congested streets and crowded stores to fevered shoppers fist-fighting over parking spaces and pepper-spraying each other as they tussle the last Tickle Me Elmo. When did Black Friday become the frenzy, over-the-top shopping event it is today?
That would be in the 2000s when Black Friday was officially designated the biggest shopping day of the year. Until then, that had gone to the Saturday before Christmas. Yet as more and more retailers started touting "can't miss" post-Thanksgiving sales and the Black Friday discounts grew deeper and deeper, American consumers could no longer the pull of this magical shopping day.
Retailers may spend an year planning their Black Friday sales. They use the day as an opportunity to offer rock- prices on overstock inventory and to offer doorbusters and discounts on seasonal items, such as holiday decorations and typical holiday gifts. Retailers also offer significant discounts on big-ticket items and top-selling brands of TVs, smart devices, and other electronics, luring customers in the hope that inside, they will purchase higher-margin goods. The contents of Black Friday advertisements are often so anticipated that retailers go to great to ensure that they don't leak out publically beforehand.
Complete the passage by changing the form of the word in capitals.
People are often put off meditation by what they see as its many mystical associations. Yet meditation is a (STRAIGHT) technique which merely involves sitting and resting the mind. In addition to its simplicity, meditation offers powerful help in the battle against stress. Hundreds of studies have shown that meditation, when (TAKE) in a principled way, can reduce hypertension which is related to stress in the body. Research has proved that certain types of meditation can substantially decrease key stress symptoms such as anxiety and irritability. In fact, those who practice meditation with any regularity see their doctors less and spend, on average, seventy percent fewer days in hospital. They are said to have more stamina, a happier (DISPOSE) and even enjoy better relationships.
When you learn to meditate, your teacher will give you a personal "mantra" or word which you use every time you practice the technique and which is (SUPPOSE) chosen according to your needs. (INITIATE) classes are taught individually but subsequent classes usually consist of a group of students and take place over a period of about four days. The aim is to learn how to slip into a deeper state of consciousness for twenty minutes a day. The rewards speak for themselves.
Fill in the blank with an appropriate form of one of the words given to make a meaningful passage.
The "big five" personality traits
Many (PSYCHOLOGY) investigating the human personality believe that there are just five core personality traits.
Extraversion: People who are high in extroversion are sociable and tend to gain energy in social situations. People who are low in extroversion tend to be more reserved and have to expend energy in social settings.
(AGREE): This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust and kindness. They are (AFFECTION) and tend to be more cooperative while those low in this trait are often more conceited and even manipulative.
Conscientiousness: People with high levels of conscientiousness are usually thoughtful with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviours. They tend to be diligent and mindful of details.
(NEUROTIC): Individuals high in this attribute tend to be pessimistic and anxious. They experience mood swings and sadness.
Openness: People with high levels of this trait tend to be more (DARE) and creative. People low in this trait are often much more traditional and may struggle with abstract thinking.
(Adapted from Reactivate)
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
The local authorities made the museum suitable for the public hall after the war. (KEYED)
=> It was ..........
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Jack was so nervous that his mind couldn't function properly. (STRAIGHT)
=> Such ..........
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
If the local people were more responsible for their environment, certain species would not become nearly extinct. (EDGE)
=> Were the local people ....................
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Apparently, a lot of employees will be made redundant when the 21st Century Fox is taken over. (HEAP)
=> Apparently, many an ...........
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Peter was in trouble with his boss because he didn't finish an important project by the deadline. (HOT)
=> Peter was in ..........
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first one, using the word in brackets. You must use between THREE and SIX words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Ensure you have an alternative plan should the first one fail. (PEAR-SHAPED)
=> In , have a backup ready.
Complete the second sentence in each pair so that it has a similar meaning to the first one. You must use between THREE and SIX words, including the word given. DO NOT change this given word.
What happened confirmed the truth of Jack’s prediction. (BORNE)
=> Jack’s prediction by subsequent events.
Complete the second sentence in each pair so that it has a similar meaning to the first one. You must use between THREE and SIX words, including the word given. DO NOT change this given word.
There's no way that you’re staying out all night with your friends, I’m afraid. (QUESTION)
=> Your staying out all night with your friends , I’m afraid.
Complete the second sentence in each pair so that it has a similar meaning to the first one. You must use between THREE and SIX words, including the word given. DO NOT change this given word.
They remain close friends despite having had many arguments. (FALL)
=> Frequently as remain close friends.
Complete the second sentence in each pair so that it has a similar meaning to the first one. You must use between THREE and SIX words, including the word given. DO NOT change this given word.
Besides mapping the mountain ranges, there were many other reasons for the trip. (TO)
=> There simply mapping the mountain ranges.