LESSON 18

PROGRESS TEST
1. Fill each of the blanks with one suitable word or phrase.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

All the best bargains sold if we dont get to the market soon.
If you dont call me before 6 pm, I you are no longer interested.
Its high time clean about what you were doing last night.
If you socks up, youre going to fail the entrance test.
I wish my fathers advice because with hindsight he was
obviously wrong.
6. I wish I foot in this horrible city.
7. If Ive promised to do something for you, you can be sure out of
it.
8. Had your timely intervention, we could have lost a lot of
money.
9. Even if to pay for her ticket, she wouldnt have gone with me.
10. Its high time they minds on whether to sack her or not.
11. I told you what Tony said if Id known you were going to
gossip about it.
12. If I had known they werent really getting married, I time
preparing my speech.
13. If you had been in my shoes, said?
14. If only while the iron was hot! Its too late now.
2. Put the corresponding letter of the right word into the blank of each sentence.
Oxford is a city with such a mind-blowing reputation that many who come here
find themselves intimidated by the place and cant wait to leave, while others,
taking to it like a (1) to water, find themselves returning again and again.
The college lawns provide a gorgeous (2) to serious study, and in the right
light, on a sunny winters morning day, one feels as if one is (3) on air,
such is the sense of unreality. Oxford may like to (4) that it is at the
intellectual (5) of things, but in many ways it is no more than a sleepy
(6) where, to mix metaphors, transitory students, the (7) of their
generation, wait in the (8), allowing their talents to (9) before
moving off into the industrial or political (10). Much of this is a myth, of
course. Hardship and hard work are very much part and (11) of student
life. The (12) get through the three years hard (13) simply by
putting their shoulders to the (14) before going on to fairly average jobs.
Only for the tiny minority is Oxford the first (15) on the ladder to fame
and fortune.
1. a. fish
2. a. backdrop

b. duck
b. curtain

c. boat
c. scene

d. swimmer
d. screen

3. a. flying
4. a. pretend
5. a. wheel
6. a. backwater
7. a. froth
8. a. pavilion
9. a. flourish
10. a. peak
11. a. package
12. a. level-headed
13. a. a push
14. a. cart
15. a. step

b. gliding
b. act
b. engine
b. stream
b. cream
b. dressing-room
b. open
b. abattoir
b. section
b. hot-headed
b. pull
b wheel
b. position

c. floating
c. dissemble
c. spoke
c. tributary
c. fat
c. wings
c. spread
c. dead end
c. province
c. hot-blooded
c. grind
c. engine
c. elevation

d. swimming
d. produce
d. hub
d. watershed
d. caviar
d. foyer
d. float
d. fast lane
d. parcel
d.kind-hearted
d. roughage
d. boat
d. ascent

3. Fill each of the blanks with a suitable word or phrase.

1. So demand for tickets that they were all sold within
minutes.
2. Much like to help you with your homework, Im afraid Im
not allowed to.
3. The boys claimed theyd only kidnapped her dog laugh.
4. The soil is carefully sifted of archaeological interest is not
missed.
5. Just its summer doesnt mean you can stop studying.
6. I think shes toying of setting up her own business.
7. Far with what you say, I actually have quite strong
reservations.
8. Even his driving test some time ago, I still think he is too
young to drive.
9. I think my insecurity stems I was sent away to school
when I was only eight.
10. Bearing traffic at this time of day, I think we should leave
now.
4. Put the corresponding letter of the right word into the blank of each sentence.
1. Im in a bit of a as to what to wear to the wedding.
a. loss
b. quandary
c. problem
d. bewilderment
2. It seems our application has been refused
a. point-blank
b. bulls-eye
c. carte blanche
d. about face
3. It was a long dispute with neither side giving easily.
a. clearance
b. ground
c. inch
d. hand
4. The of the trouble was the decision to allow non-members into the club.
a. stem
b. mould
c. root
d. trigger
5. Van Gogh suffered from depression by overwork and ill health.
a. brought on
b. coming about
c. taken up
d. out through

6. The current crisis should as a warning not to be overconfident in the

markets.
a. link
b. serve
c. strike
d. intend
7. The shoplifter claimed she had every of putting the goods back.
a. purpose
b. aim
c. hope
d. intention
5. In most lines of the following text, there is one unnecessary word. It is either
grammatically incorrect or it does not fit in with the sense of the text. For each numbered
line 1-16, write the unnecessary word in the spaces. Some lines are correct. Indicate these
with a tick. The exercise begins with two examples.
There is a very outspoken group of people who want to ban
.
hunting wild animals. Their argument is such that killing animals
.such..
1. is cruel and unnecessary, while especially in those cases where

2. animals are hunted more for sport than for eating or for purposes

3. of such conservation. While there are others who find this total

4. opposition an example of blind prejudice, the majority of people

5. view the debate with somewhat mixed feelings such as the issue can

6. quickly become a moral minefield. Is hunting animals because of

7. they are pests, like foxes, less acceptable than killing them

8. for food? And where does fishing fit into the discussion? Not so that

9. much as those people who catch a few fish to eat or sell, but rather

10. those people who spend hour after hour immediately sitting on the

11. river bank with no intention of the killing or eating their catch.

12. On to a fish being caught, the sportsman weighs it, photographs it

13. if it is large enough and worth boasting about, and then returns it to

14. the water, often with so a nasty wound in its mouth from the

15. hook, in order that to be caught again another day. Should this pastime

16. of millions of people, bizarre even though it may be, also be banned?