brooch
swoop
moot
sooth
stern
dearth
hearth
Is it really the first time _____ first class?
He says he’s been to _____ restaurant in town.
In such a flight ______ that we had no choice but to radio for help.
There is a rumor that the company I work for is going to _____ with National Bank.
John: "Our teacher, Mr. Jones, is not very flexible. He always requires us to submit his assignments on time."
Jack: "_____. He should know that we have to learn many subjects."
Fill in the blank with an appropriate form of one of the words given to make a meaningful passage.
A JOB WITH RISKS
Have you ever been to the cinema and wondered in (0) (AMAZE) amazement how film stars manage to perform dangerous acts like jumping off buildings or driving at great speed? They don’t, of course. The real (PERFORM) are usually stuntmen or women, who can earn a very good living by standing in for the stars when necessary. The work is (INCREDIBLE) demanding and, before qualifying for this job, they have to (PROOF) their ability in six sports including skiing, riding and (GYM) . They are usually the (SUNG) heroes of a movie, taking the gunshots, the punches, or falling off bridges or the tops of buildings.
Naturally, (SAFE) and timing are important and everything is planned down to the (TINY) detail. In a scene which involves a complicated series of actions, there is no time for careless mistakes. A stunt man or woman often has only one chance of getting things right, (LIKE) film stars, who can always film a scene (REPEAT) until it gains the director's approval.
Whatever the stunt, they’re risky but never (RECK) , as they’re equipped with as much safety training as they are with adrenaline. Of course, the actor still gets all the glory; they, however, definitely get to claim all the guts!
Read the text and choose the best answer to fill in the blanks.
GERARD MERCATOR: THE MAN WHO MAPPED THE PLANET
When Gerard Mercator was born in 1512, the geography of the globe still remained a mystery. It was unclear whether America was part of Asia if there was a vast of the sea at the top of the world or if Australia was connected to Antarctica.
Mercator's childhood was spent chiefly in Rupelmonde, a Flemish trading town on the river, and it was here that his geographical imagination was by the ships which passed to and from the rest of the world. Alongside imagination, he developed two very different skills. The first was the ability to gather, and co-ordinate the geographical information provided by explorers and sailors who frequented the margins of the known. He also had to be able to imagine himself from the heavens, to achieve the visionary of gods in the skies, down on the world. The main reason why Mercator's name is familiar to us is because of the Mercator Preiection: the solution he to represent the spheroidal surface of the globe on a two-dimensional plane. It is less well known that Mercator was the first man to conceive of mapping the surface of the planet or that he the idea of multiple maps being presented in bound books, to which he gave the name 'Atlas'.
It is difficult for us now to be surprised by maps, so many are there, and of such detail and coverage, but we should bear in mind that Mercator lived at a time when such knowledge was far from . He was the man who altered our worldview forever.
Fill each of the following blanks with ONE suitable word.
When he was made four years ago, John Spencer set up his own business dealing in and second-hand books. "I didn't expect to lose my job," he said. "It happened very suddenly and I knew it would be difficult to find another one. I'd always been interested in books; so that seemed a good to choose. I run the business from home and send and books by post so I don't need my own premises. Sometimes I travel to book fairs and sometimes I have a stall in the market. It was a bit frightening at first, being , but I've got used to it now and I really appreciate the feeling of independence I get from "be my own boss". John got some advice from his bank manager about the financial of his business and also took a small loan to buy stock. After only two years the business was making a profit. The secret of success, according to John, is to in a certain area (detective fiction and cooker in his case) so that you always have the book the serious collector is looking for. John posts books to his consumers and then waits for them to send . At first, he wasn't sure whether people would pay up promptly. In fact, this hasn't been the problem I thought it might be. Most customers are very and it's only the occasional one that causes problems.
Read the text below and look carefully at each sentence. Find errors at each sentence and correct them (there may be more than one error in each sentence).
If there is no mistake, write "x" in both blanks.
(1) A feminist is a person, usually a woman, who believes that women should be regarded as equally to men. (2) She, or he, deplores discrimination against women in the home, place of work or anywhere, and her principle enemy is the male chauvinist, who believes that men are naturally super. (3) Tired of being referred to as "the weaker sex", women are becoming more and more militancy and are winning the age-old battle of the sexes. (4) They are sick to death of sexy jokes which poke fun at women. (5) They are no longer content to be regarded as second-class citizens in terms of economic, political, and social status. (6) They criticize beauty contests and the use of glamour female models in advertisements which they describe as the exploit of female beauty, since women in these situations were represented as mere sex objects. (7) We are no longer in the male-dominate societies of the past. (8) Let us hope, moreover, that the revolution stops before we have a boring world in which sex doesn't make much difference. (9) We already have unisex hairdressers and fashions. (10) What next?
Mistake(s) in sentence (1):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (2):
Error: => Correction:
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (3):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (4):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (5):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (6):
Error: => Correction:
Error: => Correction:
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (7):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (8):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (9):
Error: => Correction:
Mistake(s) in sentence (10):
Error: => Correction:
Read the following passage then choose the best answer to each question below.
Many trees in the Brackham area were brought down in the terrible storms that March. The town itself lost two great lime trees from the former market square. The disappearance of such prominent features had altered the appearance of the town centre entirely, to the annoyance of its more conservative inhabitants.
Among the annoyed, under more normal circumstances, would have been Chief Inspector Douglas Pelham, head of the local police force. But at the height of that week's storm, when the wind brought down even the mature walnut tree in his garden, Pelham had in fact been in no fit state to notice. A large and healthy man, he had for the first time in his life been seriously ill with an attack of bronchitis.
When he first complained of an aching head and tightness in his chest, his wife, Molly, had tried to persuade him to go to the doctor. Convinced that the police force could not do without him, he had, as usual, ignored her and attempted to carry on working. Predictably, though he wouldn't have listened to anyone who tried to tell him so, this had the effect of fogging his memory and shortening his temper.
It was only when his colleague, Sergeant Lloyd, took the initiative and drove him to the doctor's door that he finally gave in. By that time, he didn't have the strength left to argue with her. In no time at all, she was taking him along to the chemist's to get his prescribed antibiotics and then home to his unsurprised wife who sent him straight to bed.
When Molly told him, on the Thursday morning, that the walnut tree had been brought down during the night, Pelham hadn't been able to take it in. On Thursday evening, he had asked weakly about damage to the house, groaned thankfully when he heard there was none, and pulled the sheets over his head.
It wasn't until Saturday, when the antibiotics took effect, his temperature dropped and he got up, that he realised with a shock that the loss of the walnut tree had made a permanent difference to the appearance of the living-room. The Pelhams' large house stood in a sizeable garden. It had not come cheap, but even so Pelham had no regrets about buying it. The leafy garden had created an impression of privacy. Now, though, the storm had changed his outlook.
Previously, the view from the living-room had featured the handsome walnut tree. This had not darkened the room because there was also a window on the opposite wall, but it had provided interesting patterns of light and shade that disguised the true state of the worn furniture that the family had brought with them from their previous house.
With the tree gone, the room seemed cruelly bright, its worn furnishings exposed in all their shabbiness. And the view from the window didn't bear looking at. The tall house next door, previously hidden by the tree, was now there, dominating the outlook with its unattractive purple bricks and external pipes. It seemed to have a great many upstairs windows, all of them watching the Pelhams' every movement."Doesn't it look terrible?" Pelham croaked to his wife. But Molly, standing in the doorway, sounded more pleased than dismayed. 'That's what I've been telling you ever since we came here. We have to buy a new sofa, whatever it costs.'
Why were some people in Brackham annoyed after the storm?
In the third paragraph, what do we learn about Chief Inspector Pelham's general attitude to his work?
Who does 'her' in paragraph 4 refer to?
What aspect of the Pelhams' furniture does "shabbiness" in paragraph 8 describe?
As a result of the storm, the Pelhams' living-room _____
Why did Molly sound pleased by her husband's comment?
From what we learn of Inspector Pelham, he could best be described as _____
Read the following passage and choose which of the headings from A - I match the blanks. There are two extra headings, which do not match any of the paragraphs.
A. An aid to achievement
B. Failure to prove them
C. A way to send people to sleep
D. Losing the battle
E. Questioning a widespread belief
F. Results which support a theory
G. Not widely researched
H. A partly explained theory
I. Behaviour that spreads quickly
YAWNING
1.
When one person yawns in a room, other people begin to yawn. Yawning is contagious, and once you start there is almost nothing you can do to stop. Of course, the big question is: why do we yawn at all? What possible advantage can there be in keeping our mouths wide open for several seconds? Is it a need for oxygen? Too much carbon dioxide in the blood? Time for bed?
2.
It is none of these according to Robert Provine to an American psychologist. Provine first became curious about yawning when he realised that nobody had really studied this extremely common aspect of behavior. "Most scientists are looking for the deep and obscure," Provine says. "I Iook for the significance of everyday behavior that people have neglected." With this in mind, he and several other psychologists decided to find out when, why and how we yawn.
3.
Conventional wisdom has long held that we yawn in order to wake up our weary brains with a refreshing burst of oxygen. Assuming that this is true, Provine reasoned, then people who are running low on oxygen - or high on carbon dioxide - should yawn more often than normal. To find out if this was the case, Provine first had to try to make people yawn more.
4.
In his laboratory, Provine gathered together a group of students and told them to think about yawning while they breathed in mixtures of air that were either high in oxygen, high in carbon dioxide or completely normal. Although the gases made the students breathe faster, none of the different gases altered the students' rate of yawning, which held steady at about 24 yawns an hour. Exercise, which also speeds up breathing, made no difference to the yawning rate either.
5.
Whatever the reason for yawning, there is no doubt that it is refreshing. According to Ronald Baenninger, another psychologist who is interested in the subject, this feeling is not caused by oxygen coining into the body. The cause, he believes, may lie in the blood: yawning sends an extra supply of blood to the brain. We do not know exactly what the blood does when it reaches the brain, but Baenninger believes it does help to refresh it.
6.
Baenninger believes, therefore, that we yawn in order to make our brains ready for some new action. To test this theory, he asked people to wear bands around their wrists as they went about their normal routines. These bands were sensitive to increased movement by the people wearing them. The bands contained a button which the people were told to press every time they yawned. After collecting data for two weeks, Baenninger found that within 15 minutes of yawning his subjects were normally engaged in some more lively form of activity.
7.
There are indeed plenty of indications from everyday life to suggest that yawning helps the brain to get ready for something big. Olympic athletes yawn before a race, students yawn before an exam nation, and violinists yawn before a concert. It is not that the athletes, students or violinists are bored; they are simply working to get to a level at which they are well and truly ready for the main event.
8.
We yawn when there is nothing actually happening but when we do not want to lose our level of readiness: says BaenningerWhy we yawn before going to bed, though, remains a mystery. Baenninger suggests that it may be that we struggle to stay awake and alert. but sleep simply wins out in the end.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Bill changed his ways when he came out of prison. (leaf)
=> Bill has .....
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
As a result of the bad weather, there may be delay to some international flights. (subject)
=> Due to the bad weather ..... possible delay.
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Immediately after winning the race, Sandy began training for the next one. (had)
=> No sooner .....
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
He was extremely happy because he won that scholarship. (MOON)
=> Had ..........
Complete the second sentence using the word given so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Don't make a fuss over such trivial things. (MOUNTAIN)
=> Don't ..........
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.
Can I speak to someone about my problem?
=> Would it ...........?
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.
They will not announce the decision formally.
=> No formal ............
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.
The noise made by the children didn't prevent the baby from sleeping soundly.
=> Whatever .............
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.
It shouldn't have surprised me that my children didn't like the new, cheaper ice-cream.
=> I might ............
Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning to the first.
I left without saying goodbye as I didn't want to disturb the meeting.
=> Rather ............