I.

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

Exercise 1: Choose the best answer to fill in the blank

1. Last year ABBA made a ______________ of several million crowns.

A. win                   B. gain                  C. profit                D. salary

2. Even though I didn’t want my son to leave home, since he was 21 there was nothing I could do to
_______ it.

A. hinder               B. prevent              C. resist                 D. cease

3. You’ll have to use the stairs, I’m afraid. The lift is out of _______.

A. function            B. work                 C. order                 D. function

4. Have you seen a mug anywhere, Roy? We seem to be one ______________.

A. missed              B. less                   C. deficient            D. short

5. We got a very good ___________ in the newspaper this morning. They must have liked the play.

A. critic                 B. article                C. praise                D. write-up

6. I’m afraid I really couldn’t eat any more. I’m ___________.

A. full up               B. fed up               C. filled up             D. famished

7. One day I’m going to find a/an ____________ of land somewhere in the country and build a house on
it.

A. area                  B. plot                   C. ground              D. patch

8. The position of monarch is not something that is chosen by the people. It is ______________.

A. inherit                B. generated           C. hereditary          D. passed over

9. Don’t tell Anne about Paul and Jane breaking up – you know what a/an __________ she is; it will be all
over the town in no time.

A. talker                 B. liar                    C. gossip               D. scavenger

10. I can’t eat this meat; it’s too ___________.

A. strong               B. soggy                C. tough                D. bad

11. David’s married Elizabeth Green? No, I don’t believe it! You’re pulling my __________!

A. leg                    B. hair                   C. head                  D. arm

12. The accused man was proved innocent and was __________.
A. liberated            B. excused             C. interned             D. acquitted

13. It __________ rains whenever I go out without my umbrella.

A. continually        B. invariably C. typically            D. infallibly

14. Don’t waste your time telling Janet a joke; she’s totally ___________ of a sense of humour.

A. deficient            B. missing              C. devoid              D. lacking

15. The photocopier in our office needs a complete ______. These copies are terrible.

A. maintenance      B. repair                C. overhaul            D. renovation

16. A prominent member of the Cabinet was __________ as correspondent in the divorce case.

A. cited                 B. included            C. accused            D. linked

17. The travel agency sent us a detailed ________ of our journey to India.

A. docket              B. agenda              C. itinerary             D. documentation

18. Since our train leaves at 10:30, it is ____________ that everyone is at the station no later than 10:15.

A. imperative         B. urgent                C. desired              D. inescapable

19. After travelling all day, he was completely ___________.

A. done in              B. done up             C. broken down    D. used up

20. Technology is advancing so rapidly nowadays that computers and other machines seem to be
________ after a very short time.

A. antiquated         B. irreparable         C. disused             D. obsolete

Exercise 2: There are ten mistakes in the following passage. Find the mistakes and correct them.

The main sources of energy in the world are fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels are non-
renewable - this mean that nature cannot recreate them as fast as people using them up today. Sometimes
in the future, all of them will run out and we will need other renewable sources of energy. Some
renewable energy sources are being available now. One of them is water, what has been used to create
energy for thousands of years. Today, hydro-or water power, generate by huge dams, is a major source of
electric in many parts of the world. But hydropower has its own costs. When dams are built, the area
above them is flooded, even for miles. In some places, people lose their homes as well as the rich soil river
in which they once growed their crops. In other places, wonderful wild landscapes buried forever under
new, artificial lakes. Below the dams, the natural habitats of fish and wildlife in the river
valley are destroyed as the course of the river is changed.

Exercise 3: Fill in each blank with one suitable particle or preposition.

1. Don’t tell me you like his taste _________ clothes! He looks terrible!
2. Although we were all rather irritated by the situation at the time, we laughed ___________ it
afterwards.

3. The national debt has been decreased ________ $10 billion this year.

4. Her latest novel is coming ________ in paperback soon.

5. I wish you’d lay ___________ telling me what to do all the time.

6. I’d better turn ______ early. I didn’t sleep well last night.

7. He has a talent for getting the most complicated ideas _________.

8. For the last twenty years, he has been laying _________ 15%of his salary for his old age.

9. He had a bad time in the army but he has put it _________ him now.

10. Joan threw books and papers __________ the room whilst trying to find her passport and her cheque
book.

 Exercise 4: Fill in each blank with the suitable form of the word in capital.

It’s noisy in space!

 PRIOR

Inside the International Space Station, it is so noisy that the astronauts cannot hear one REDUCE
another. As a result, United States and Russian engineers have launched a
HEALTH
(1)__________ repair programme which they hope will lead to the (2)__________ of the
station’s 72-decibel roar: the equivalent of standing beside a busy motorway. ‘It is not a SPEAK
(3)__________ situation,’ said Mike Engle, a (4)__________ for the engineering team.
‘Apart from astronauts losing sleep, there is a danger one of them will (5)__________ a HEAR
colleague’s instruction and press an incorrect button!’ (6)__________, most of the noise IRONY
comes from the equipment needed to keep them (7)__________. ‘The coolers are the
worst,’ Mr Engle explained. ‘But without them, the station would become (8)__________ LIFE
hot! When we put together the station we faced a choice. We could either spend extra
 BEAR
years (9)__________ that the station would be totally quiet, or we could get on and build
the thing. Now it’s assembled, we are doing our best to (10)__________ it down. SURE

 QUIET

Exercise 5: Read the text and fill in each blank with one suitable word.

Exploring the Arctic Ocean

A huge international project to explore the Arctic Ocean has begun. It is expected to discover thousands
of new species of marine animals, many of which have been completely cut (1)____________ from the rest
of the world for thousands of years. Scientists claim that the study of the unknown depths of the Arctic
Ocean, perhaps the (2)__________ understood ocean on earth, is now urgent (3)__________ of the
growing threat (4)________ its unique marine life posed by global warming. Climatologists estimate that
 the Arctic summer has increased by five days every decade for the (5)_________ forty years, and that a
totally ice-free Arctic summer will soon occur.

The Arctic Ocean is unusual as much of it is capped with ice and there is land all around it. ‘It is as
(6)___________ the Arctic Ocean is inside a box which has a lid of ice on the top. There’s (7) _________
other place in the world like it,’ says chief scientist Ron O’Dor. A particular focus planned for the project
he is undertaking will be the Canada Basin, an underwater hole 3,800 metres deep where life has
remained isolated (8)____________ millennia.

This Arctic exploration project is part of the Census of Marine Life, a collaboration of more than 300
scientists from 53 countries, (9)___________ aim is to address our ignorance of what lives in the sea.
Since the Census began several years ago, more than 500 new species of fish have been identified.
However, scientists believe (10)____________ could be ten times as many yet to be discovered.

 Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct
answer to each of the following questions.

VEGETARIANISM

Until recently, vegetarianism was fairly uncommon in Britain, and it is still considered strange by some.
But since the 1960s its popularity has increased greatly, to the (1) ___that high street stores stock a
hugevariety of products for vegetarians. The reasons people give for not eating meat are numerous.
Perhaps (2) ___vegetarians do it for moral reasons, arguing that it is wrong to kill.  The opposing point of
view is that it is natural for us to kill for food, and that we have evolved to do so. Still, there are societies
where eating meat is not allowed because it is (3) __their religion. There are other good reasons to give up
meat, one of which is the inefficiency of livestock farming. A single field of soya bean plants can actually
produce 200 times as much protein as the number of cattle which could be raised on the same area of
land, so a vegetarian world might be a world without hunger. (4)_____it is, in theory, cheaper to eat only
vegetables, vegetarianism is most popular in richer countries such as Germany and Britain, where many
people exclude meat for health reasons. In these countries, at least, it (5)______to be a matter of choice
rather than necessity

Question 1: A. extent B. distance C. length D. measure

Question 2: A. lots B. much C. almost D. most

Question 3: A. opposite B. against C. beside D. across

Question 4: A. Although B. Since C. Despite D. Therefore

Question 5: A. finishes off B. goes through C. comes up D. turns out

 Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct
answer to each of the following questions.

Early autos

                   1 America's passion for the automobile developed rather quickly in the beginning of the
twentieth century. At the turn off that century, there were few automobiles, or horseless carriages, as
they were called at the time, and those that existed were considered frivolous playthings of the rich. 5
A They were rather fragile machines that sputtered and smoked and broke down often; they were
expensive toys that could not be counted on to get one where one needed to go; they could only be
afforded by the wealthy class, who could afford both the expensive upkeep and the inherent delays that
resulted from the use of a machine that tended to break down time and again. 5 B These early
automobiles required repairs so frequently both because their engineering was at an immature stage and
because roads were unpaved and often in poor condition. These horrendous road conditions forced
drivers to use their automobiles on grooved, rutted, and bumpy roads. 5 C Then, when breakdowns
occurred, there were no services such as roadside gas stations or tow trucks to assist drivers needing
help in their predicament. 5 D Drivers of horse-drawn carriages considered the horseless mode of
transportation foolhardy, preferring instead to rely on their four-legged "engines," which they
considered a tremendously more dependable and cost-effective means of getting around.

              2 Automobiles in the beginning of the twentieth century were quite unlike today's models.
Many of them were electric cars, even though the electric models had quite a limited range and needed
to be recharged frequently at electric charging stations; many others were powered by steam, though it
was often required that drivers of steam cars be certified steam engineers due to the dangers inherent in
operating a steam-powered machine. The early automobiles also lacked much emphasis on body design;
in fact, they were often little more than benches on wheels, though by the end of the first decade of the
century they had progressed to leather-upholstered chairs or sofas on thin wheels that absorbed little of
the incessant pounding associated with the movement of these machines.

              3  In spite of the rather rough and undeveloped nature of these early horseless carriages,
something about them grabbed people's imagination, and their use increased rapidly, though not always
smoothly. In the first decade of the last century, roads were shared by the horse-drawn and horseless
variety of carriages, a situation that was rife with problems and required strict measures to control the
incidents and accidents that resulted when two such different modes of transportation were used in close
proximity. New York City, for example, banned horseless vehicles from Central Park early in the
century because they had been involved in so many accidents, often causing injury or death; then, in
1904, New York state felt that it was necessary to control automobile traffic by placing speed limits of 20
miles per hour in open areas, 15 miles per hour in villages, and 10 miles per hour in cities or areas of
congestion. However, the measures taken were less a means of limiting use of the automobile and more a
way of controlling the effects of an invention whose use increased dramatically in a relatively short
period of time. Under 5,000 automobiles were sold in the United States for a total cost of approximately
$5 million in 1900, while considerably more cars, 181,000, were sold for $215 million in 1910, and by the
middle of the 1920s, automobile manufacturing had become the top industry in the United States and
accounted for 6 percent of the manufacturing in the country.
1. Based on the information in paragraph 1, who would have been most likely to own a car In 1900?

A. A skilled laborer B. A successful investor

C. A scholarship student D. A rural farmer

2. The word "frivolous” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to

A trivial B delicate C essential D natural

3. It is indicated in paragraph 1 that it was necessary to repair early autos because of

A. elaborate engines B. the lack of roads

C. the immature drivers D. the rough roads

4 The author refers to four-legged "engines" in paragraph 1 in order to indicate that

A. early autos had little more than an engine and wheels

B. it was foolish to travel on a four-legged animal
C. horses were an effective mode of transportation
D. automobile engines were evaluated in terms of their horsepower

5. Look at the four squares [..] that Indicate where the following sentence could be added to paragraph 1.

These horrendous road conditions forced drivers to use their automobiles on grooved, rutted, and bumpy roads.

Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [..] to add the sentence to the passage.

6. The phrase "many others" in paragraph 2 refers to

A. automobiles in the beginning of the twentieth century

B. today’s models

C. electric models

D. electric charging stations

7. It is stated in paragraph 2 that the owners of steam-powered cars

A. sometimes had to demonstrate knowledge of steam engineering

B. had to hire drivers to operate their cars

C. often had to take their automobiles to charging stations

D. were often in danger because of the limited range of their automobiles

8 Why does the author mention "benches on wheels" in paragraph 2?

A. to show how remarkably automobile design had progressed

B. to show that car designs of the time were neither complex nor comfortable
C. to indicate that early automobiles had upholstered chairs or sofas

D. to emphasize how the early automobiles were designed to absorb the pounding of the machine on the road

9. The word "incessant” in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

A. heavy B. bothersome C. jolting D. continual

10. The phrase "rife with" ¡n paragraph 3 could be replaced by

A. full of B. surrounded by

C. dangerous due to D. occurring as a result of

11. It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that the government of New York state believed that

A. all horseless vehicles should be banned from all public parks

B. strict speed limits should be placed on horse-drawn carriages

C. horseless and horse-drawn vehicles should not travel on the same roads

D. it was safer for cars to travel faster where there was less traffic and there were fewer people

12. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in
paragraph 3? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A It was necessary to take a measured approach in dealing with inventions such as the automobile.

B The various laws were needed because the use of automobiles grew so fast.

C The dramatic look of the automobile changed considerably over a short period of time.

D It was important to lawmakers to discover the causes of the problems relating to automobiles.

13. According to paragraph 3, it is NOT true that

A the total cost of the automobiles sold in the United States in 1900 was around $5 million

B sales of cars increased by more than 175, 000 from 1900 to 1910

C automobile manufacturing was the top U.S. industry in 1920

D automobile manufacturing represented more than 5 percent of total U.S. manufacturing by 1925