I'm afraid we will probably have a _____ future ahead with little comfort, shortages of food and clean water, and a threat of A.I.
My mother was ______ of making a cake when the front doorbell rang.
They’re definitely not going to call now, so we might _____ go to bed.
Thankfully we ______ another ticket as Jean didn’t turn up.
The Second World War was so terrible, _____ time a large number of families were separated.
The result is impossible to predict with any degree of _____.
She often appears not to care about her work, but appearances can be ______.
Nothing you say will make a _______ of difference to my decision.
If you continue to _____ debts at this rate, you will have to declare bankruptcy eventually.
It is the environmentalists’ political and economic pressure that has ______.
_____ Paul realize that he was on the wrong flight.
_____ with anticipation on the horizon, Dexter waited for his date to arrive.
_____ workers found accidentally while constructing a new subway line in London yielded new information about previous civilizations in the area could be well-documented.
David began to open the parcels. Inside the first _____.
It's essential that every student _____ the exam before attending the course.
Despite the fog, we were able to discern a _____ of cottages in the distance.
Are there any chances that Manchester City will be _____ with Manchester United?
It would be wise to play _____ your strength rather than draw attention to your weaknesses.
As they saw this wonder, each looked in _____ terror at the other, and dropping their eyes they prayed silently.
Now I associate public transport with one of the worst experiences of my life and the _____ of it is that I will never catch a bus again.
After winning "American Idol” in 2000, this farmwoman continued to _____ to success in the next two decades.
Widely reproduced in magazines and books, _____.
Two for the price of one; that's certainly great _____ for money!
She _____ fainted when she heard that her son had died.
We are pleased to announce that Keith Danish _____ replace Susan Williams as Operations Manager from 24th September.
Last Wednesday witnessed a _____ drop in raw oil price, which is really a big surprise.
When Nadine appeared at the party, she soon _____ at all her jokes.
Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.
HANDMADE HISTORY: THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the seventy-three scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry speak volumes. The tapestry narrates, in pictorial , William Duke of Normandy's invasion and conquest of England in AD 1066 when he defeated the Saxon forces of King Harold at Hastings. Historians believe that the work was created in England, probably around AD 1092, and that it was commissioned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, who ensured his fame by figuring in the tapestry's later scenes. Legends connecting it with William's wife Mathilda have been .
The Bayeux tapestry is not, speaking, a tapestry, in which designs are woven into the fabric, but rather a crewel form of embroidery, the pictures being made by stitching woolen threads into a background of plain linen. The threads, in of red, yellow, blue, and green, must have been jewel-bright, but have turned light brown with age. Moreover, one end of the now 20 inches (50 cm) broad and 231 feet (70 m) long cloth is missing.
You can view the Bayeux Tapestry in the William the Conqueror Centre, Bayeux, Normandy, France. An enduring of the times, it is as valuable a of evidence for the Norman Conquest as photographs or films are today.
Read the following passage and choose the best answer for each blank.
The symbol of Internet-era communications, the @ sign used in e-mail addresses to the word 'at', is actually a 500-year-old invention of Italian merchants, a Rome academic has revealed. Giorgio Stabile, a science professor at La Sapienza University, claims to have on the earliest known example of the symbol's use, as an indication of a measure of weight or volume. He says the sign represents an amphora, a measure of capacity based on the terracotta jars to transport grain and liquid in the ancient Mediterranean world.
The professor unearthed an ancient symbol in the of research for a visual history of the 20th century, to be published by the Treccani Encyclopedia. The first known instance of its use, he says, occurred in a letter written by a Florentine merchant on May 4, 1536. He says the sign made its along trade routes to northern Europe, where it came to represent 'at the price of’, its contemporary accountancy meaning.
Professor Stabile believes that Italian banks may possess even earlier documents the symbol lying forgotten in their archives. The oldest example could be great value. It could be used for publicity purposes and to enhance the prestige of the institution that owned it, he says. The race is on between the mercantile world and the banking world to see who has the oldest documentation of @.
Fill each of the following blanks with ONE suitable word.
Volcanic eruption has been a constant threat to our natural environment for milions of years, but seldom in recent times a volcano erupted with the ferocity of Krakatoa.
Krakatoa, is a volcanic island group in Indonesia, erupted on 27th August 1883. only was the explosion loud that it was heard as far away (more than 3000 km) as Perth in Australia, but it is also recognized as the loudest sound recorded.
Tens of thousands of people in the region were , many dying in the enormous tsunamis which the eruption produced - tsunamis which eventually reached South Africa and the English Channel.
The explosion also had a major effect on the world's weather system. The volcanic dust in the atmosphere reduced the of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface, reducing the global temperatures by more than one-degree centigrade. Only after five years had passed global temperatures begin to return to normal.
Fill each of the following blanks with ONE suitable word.
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
The citizens of major European countries think the of climate change such as severe floods and storms are already affecting them, according to a major new polling study. The research dispels the idea that global warming is widely seen as a future problem, and also shows strong support for action to tackle global warming, subsidies for clean energy and big financial penalties for nations that refuse to be part of the international climate deal signed in Paris in 2015 — US President Donald Trump has threatened.
There was also strong support for giving financial to developing nations to cope with the impacts of climate change. Renewable energy was viewed very positively in all nations, but fracking had little support, with just 20% of people seeing it positively in the UK, 15% in Germany, and 9% in France. Nuclear power was also unpopular: only 23% of those in France, it supplies the vast majority of electricity, have a favorable opinion.
Overwhelming majorities of people in the UK, Germany, France, and Norway said climate change was at partly caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. But only a third thought the vast majority of scientists agreed with this, despite about 97% of climate scientists doing so. "It is encouraging to see that most people in this very large study recognize that climate change is happening and that support for the need to tackle - it remains high the people we surveyed," said Prof Nick Pidgeon at Cardiff University, who led the international project. He said the firm backing of the public could be important in the light of Trump's opposition to climate action: " the recently shifting political mood in some countries, climate policy is now entering a critical phase. It is therefore even important that the public's clear support for the Paris agreement is carried by policymakers Europe and worldwide."
Read the following passage then choose the best answer to each question.
Speaking two languages has obvious practical benefits in an increasingly globalized world. But in recent years, scientists have begun to show that the advantages of bilingualism are even more fundamental than being able to converse with a wider range of people. Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even protecting against dementia in old age.
This view of bilingualism is remarkably different from the one through much of the 20th century. Researchers and educators used to consider that a second language was an interference that hindered a child's academic and intellectual development. They were not wrong: there is ample evidence that in a bilingual's brain both language systems are active even when only one language is being used, therefore creating situations in which one system obstructs the other. But this interference, researchers are finding out, isn't so much a handicap as an advantage. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, making the mind strengthen its cognitive muscles.
Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be better than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital boxes—one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle. In the first task, the children had to sort the shapes by colour, placing blue circles in the box marked with the blue square and red squares in the box marked with the red circle. Both groups did this with similar easiness. Next, the children were asked to sort by shape, which was more challenging because it required placing the images in a box marked with a different colour. The bilinguals were quicker at performing this task.
The evidence from such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain's executive function—a command system that directs the processes that we use for planning, solving problems and doing other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include avoiding distractions, switching attention from one thing to another and holding information in mind—like remembering a sequence of directions while driving. The main difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: an increased ability to monitor the environment. 'Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often—you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another," says Albert Costa, a researcher at the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain. 'This requires observing changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.' In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr Costa found that the bilingual speakers did them better and needed less brain activity, indicating that they were more efficient.
The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists directed by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and developed them later. Nobody ever doubted the power of language. But who could imagine that the words we hear and the sentences we speak might have such a big influence?
(Adapted from The New York Times, March 17, 2012)
Recent scientific studies have proved that bilingual people _____.
As opposed to the 20th century view, we now know that _____
In the first part of a study by Bialystok and Martin-Rhee, both mono and bilingual kids _____
In the second part of the study, which was more difficult, _____
According to the text, which one of the following tasks is NOT carried out by the brain's executive function?
According to Albert Costa, changing from one language to another all the time _____
Read the following passage and complete the tasks.
Musical Maladies
Norman M. Weinberger reviews the latest work of Oliver Sacks on music.
Music and the brain are both endlessly fascinating subjects, and as a neuroscientist specialising in auditory learning and memory, I find them especially intriguing. So I had high expectations of Musicophilia, the latest offering from neurologist and prolific author Oliver Sacks. And I confess to feeling a little guilty reporting that my reactions to the book are mixed.
Sacks himself is the best part of Musicophilia. He richly documents his own life in the book and reveals highly personal experiences. The photograph of him on the cover of the book which shows him wearing headphones, eyes closed, clearly enchanted as he listens to Alfred Brendel perform Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata makes a positive impression that is borne out by the contents of the book. Sacks’ voice throughout is steady and erudite but never pontifical. He is neither self-conscious nor self-promoting.
The preface gives a good idea of what the book will deliver. In it Sacks explains that he wants to convey the insights gleaned from the “enormous and rapidly growing body of work on the neural underpinnings of musical perception and imagery and the complex and often bizarre disorders to which these are prone". He also stresses the importance of “the simple art of observation” and “the richness of the human context.” He wants to combine “observation and description with the latest in technology,” he says, and to imaginatively enter into the experience of his patients and subjects. The reader can see that Sacks, who has been practicing neurology for 40 years, is torn between the "old-fashioned” path of observation and the new-fangled, high-tech approach: He knows that he needs to take heed of the latter, but his heart lies with the former.
The book consists mainly of detailed descriptions of cases, most of them involving patients whom Sacks has seen in his practice. Brief discussions of contemporary neuroscientific reports are sprinkled liberally throughout the text. Part I, “Haunted by Music,” begins with the strange case of Tony Cicoria, a nonmusical, middle-aged surgeon who was consumed by a love of music after being hit by lightning. He suddenly began to crave listening to piano music, which he had never cared for in the past. He started to play the piano and then to compose music, which arose spontaneously in his mind in a “torrent” of notes. How could this happen? Was the cause psychological? (He had had a near-death experience when the lightning struck him.) Or was it the direct result of a change in the auditory regions of his cerebral cortex? Electro-encephalography (EEG) showed his brain waves to be normal in the mid-1990s, just after his trauma and subsequent "conversion” to music. There are now more sensitive tests, but Cicoria has declined to undergo them; he does not want to delve into the causes of his musicality. What a shame!
Part II, “A Range of Musicality,” covers a wider variety of topics, but unfortunately, some of the chapters offer little or nothing that is new. For example, chapter 13, which is five pages long, merely notes that the blind often have better hearing than the sighted. The most interesting chapters are those that present the strangest cases. Chapter 8 is about “amusia,” an inability to hear sounds as music, and “dysharmonia,” a highly specific impairment of the ability to hear harmony, with the ability to understand melody left intact. Such specific “dissociations” are found throughout the cases Sacks recounts.
To Sacks’s credit, part III, “Memory, Movement and Music,” brings us into the underappreciated realm of music therapy. Chapter 16 explains how “melodic intonation therapy” is being used to help expressive aphasie patients (those unable to express their thoughts verbally following a stroke or other cerebral incident) once again become capable of fluent speech. In chapter 20, Sacks demonstrates the near-miraculous power of music to animate Parkinson’s patients and other people with severe movement disorders, even those who are frozen into odd postures. Scientists cannot yet explain how music achieves this effect.
To readers who are unfamiliar with neuroscience and music behavior, Musicophilia may be something of a revelation. But the book will not satisfy those seeking the causes and implications of the phenomena Sacks describes. For one thing, Sacks appears to be more at ease discussing patients than discussing experiments. And he tends to be rather uncritical in accepting scientific findings and theories.
It’s true that the causes of music-brain oddities remain poorly understood. However, Sacks could have done more to draw out some of the implications of the careful observations that he and other neurologists have made and of the treatments that have been successful. For example, he might have noted that the many specific dissociations among components of music comprehension, such as loss of the ability to perceive harmony but not melody, indicate that there is no music center in the brain. Because many people who read the book are likely to believe in the brain localisation of all mental functions, this was a missed educational opportunity.
Another conclusion one could draw is that there seem to be no "cures” for neurological problems involving music. A drug can alleviate a symptom in one patient and aggravate it in another, or can have both positive and negative effects in the same patient. Treatments mentioned seem to be almost exclusively antiepileptic medications, which “damp down” the excitability of the brain in general; their effectiveness varies widely.
Finally, in many of the cases described here the patient with music-brain symptoms is reported to have “normal” EEG results. Although Sacks recognises the existence of new technologies, among them far more sensitive ways to analyze brain waves than the standard neurological EEG test, he does not call for their use. In fact, although he exhibits the greatest compassion for patients, he conveys no sense of urgency about the pursuit of new avenues in the diagnosis and treatment of music-brain disorders. This absence echoes the hook’s preface, in which Sacks expresses fear that “the simple art of observation may be lost” if we rely too much on new technologies. He does call for both approaches, though, and we can only hope that the neuro logical community will respond.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
| YES | if the statement agrees with the views of the writer |
| NO | if the statement contradicts the views of the writer |
| NOT GIVEN | if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this |
It is difficult to give a well-reputable writer a less-than-favorable review.
Beethoven’s Pathétique Sonata is a good treatment for musical disorders.
Sacks believes technological methods is not important compared with observation when studying his patients.
It is difficult to understand why music therapy is undervalued.
Sacks should have more skepticism about other theories and findings.
Sacks is impatient to use new testing methods.
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F, below.
| A | show no music-brain disorders. |
| B | indicates that medication can have varied results. |
| C | is key for the neurological community to unravel the mysteries. |
| D | should not be used in isolation. |
| E | indicate that not everyone can receive good education. |
| F | show that music is not localised in the brain. |
The dissociations between harmony and melody
The study of treating musical disorders
The EEG scans of Sacks’s patients
Sacks believes testing based on new technologies
Read the newspaper article below about a former ballet dancer talking about the physical demands of the job. 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. Through endless tries at the usual exercises and frequent failures, ballet dancers develop the natural pathways in the brain necessary to control accurate, fast and smooth movement B. The ballet shoe offers some support, but the real strength is in the muscles, built up through training. C. As technology takes away activity from the lives of many, perhaps the ballet dancer's physicality is ever more difficult for most people to imagine. D. Ballet technique is certainly extreme but it is not, in itself, dangerous. E. The principle is identical in the gym - pushing yourself to the limit, but not beyond, will eventually bring the desired result. F. No one avoids this: it is ballet's great democratiser, the well-established members of the company working alongside the newest recruits. G. It takes at least a decade of high-quality, regular practice to become an expert in any physical discipline. |
Good preparation leads to success in ballet dancing
A former classical ballet dancer explains what ballet training actually involves.
What we ballet dancers do is instinctive, but instinct learnt through a decade of training. A dancer’s life is hard to understand, and easy to misinterpret. Many a poet and novelist has tried to do so, but even they have chosen to interpret all the hard work and physical discipline as obsessive. And so the idea persists that dancers spend every waking hour in pain, bodies at breaking point, their smiles a pretence.
As a former dancer in the Royal Ballet Company here in Britain, I would beg to question this.
With expert teaching and daily practice, its various demands are easily within the capacity of the healthy human body. Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to break bones or tear muscles to achieve ballet positions. It is simply a question of sufficient conditioning of the muscular system.
Over the course of my dancing life I worked my way through at least 10,000 ballet classes. I took my first at a school of dance at the age of seven and my last 36 years later at the Royal Opera House in London. In the years between, ballet class was the first thing I did every day. It starts at an early age, this daily ritual, because it has to.
But for a ballet dancer in particular, this lengthy period has to come before the effects of adolescence set in, while maximum flexibility can still be achieved.
Those first classes I took were remarkably similar to the last. In fact, taking into account the occasional new idea, ballet classes have changed little since 1820, when the details of ballet technique were first written down, and are easily recognised in any country. Starting with the left hand on the barre, the routine unrolls over some 75 minutes.
Even the leading dancers have to do it.
These classes serve two distinct purposes: they are the way we warm our bodies and the mechanism by which we improve basic technique. In class after class, we prove the old saying that ‘practice makes perfect’.
And it is also this daily repetition which enables us to strengthen the muscles required in jumping, spinning or lifting our legs to angles impossible to the average person.
The human body is designed to adapt to the demands we make of it, provided we make them carefully and over time.
In the same way, all those years of classes add up to a fit-for-purpose dancing machine. This level of physical fluency doesn’t hurt; it feels good.
But they should not be misled: there is a difference between hard work and hardship. Dancers have an everyday familiarity with the first. Hardship it isn’t.
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
The Minister attempted to the dispute, saying it was just a minor disagreement. (PLAY)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
The sprawling factory compound, all grey dormitories and warehouses, blends seamlessly into the outskirts of the Shenzhen megalopolis. (WEATHER)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
To the , most computer systems seem complex and difficult to understand. (INITIATIVE)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
Over time, the colors of the painting faded , barely noticeable to the casual observer. (PERCEIVE)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
They are on a(n) mission to gather all data, surveys and special reports to oppose the no-smoking ban in Ireland. (FACT)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
Hundreds of unemployed could be pushed back towards crime by the closure of job training programs. (PRISON)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
The new policy only serves to the inadequacy of help for the homeless. (ACCENT)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
The clerk's proposal was protested by the Administration Board and the share-holders. (FURY)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
Don't judge the matter by my opponent's statement, but wait till you have heard the other side. (LATERAL)
Complete the sentence by changing the form of the word in capitals.
The positive relationship between a business and a customer, often referred to as ‘’, is difficult to quantify financially. (GOOD)
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Andrew is the most generous person I have ever met. (MORE)
=> I’ve yet Andrew.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
The parents of that girl are furious about her expulsion. (ARMS)
=> That’s the girl about her expulsion.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
When I met my cousin from America for the first time, we really liked each other straight away. (HOUSE)
=> My cousin and I when we first met.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
I’m sure Jasmin didn’t misunderstand, Carol. (STICK)
=> Jasmin can’t , Carol.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
That’s the impressionist the audience didn’t like. (BADLY)
=> That’s the impressionist the audience.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
I decided right there and then to buy it and now I really regret it! (WHIM)
=> I and now I really regret it!
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Laura was faced by a lot of problems during her childhood. (CONTEND)
=> Laura had a during her childhood.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
“I’ve decided I really want to go on a cruise around the Med this summer,” says Molly. (HEART)
=> Molly says that on a cruise around the Med this summer.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Why didn’t you search everywhere for your wallet? Then you might have found it. (LOW)
=> If for your wallet, you might have found it.
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 EIGHT words, including the word given. Do NOT change the word given.
Mary felt entirely comfortable when her boss was around. (EASE)
=> Mary felt entirely her boss.