Advanced Material for the Gifted School year: 2019 - 2020

COUNTDOWN2020
FURTHER 01
(FOCUS ON READING)
PART ONE: USE OF ENGLISH
I. WORD CHOICE
Choose the word which best completes each sentence below.
1. I feel I’m in a _______ in my job right now – I need a change.
A. ridge B. rut C. ditch D. tunnel
2. _______, I haven’t seen Kathy these days.
A. Come to think of it B. To come to think of it
C. Coming to think to it D. Coming to think of it
3. _______ checks were carried out at customs.
A. sudden B. rare C. spot D. swoop
4. I wonder what _______ of wisdoms good old Professor Maxwell will cast before us in this morning lecture.
A. pearls B. gems C. jewels D. stones
5. The last candidate for the managerial position is a pretty unknown _______.
A. quality B. quantity C. quandary D. qualification
6. From my viewpoint, the changes to the education system have been to a good _______.
A. influence B. outcome C. upshot D. effect
7. It was _______ a victory that even Smith’s fans couldn’t believe it.
A. such surprising B. so surprising
B. too surprising D. surprising enough
8. We are all making _______ effort to increase production.
A. all-out B. altogether C. all-in D. all-together
9. He was in an extreme state of _______ when his wife left him.
A. calamity B. mishap C. distress D. trial
10. The threat of a gender strike can only be _______ through government intervention.
A. averted B. subverted C. converted D. diverted
11. Grandma says there wasn’t a _______ of truth in the story Grandpa told last night about the hero.
A. speck B. grain C. crumb D. dot
12. Tom has set his _______ on quitting the job and travels around the world.
A. heart B. brain C. head D. hands
13. To make himself _______, he spoke too loudly and slowly.
A. understand B. understood C. understanding D. to understand
14. The Oscar winning actress simply _______ charm and professionalism in her acceptance speech.
A. exuded B. excluded C. expunged D. extricated
15. “What’s that terrible noise downstairs?” – “It’s only Sam. He is always screaming _______ murder when we
take him to the dentist.”
A. red B. black C. yellow D. blue
II. PREPOSITION
Fill in each blank with an appropriate preposition.
1. They took the words out of context, but that’s _______ the point.
2. The property is going _______ a song because they need to sell it last.
3. The town’s only claim _______ fame is the castle.
III. SENTENCE TRANSFORMATION
Rewrite these sentences.

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 Advanced Material for the Gifted School year: 2019 - 2020

1. I once felt very lonely.

Gone __________________________________________
2. But for Jim’s greater speed, John would have won the gold medal.
All that stood ____________________________________
3. You have said exact the right thing. (NAIL)
4. He has done stupid things before, but this is really annoying. (BISCUIT)
5. When she left home, she had to do everything on her own. (FEND)
PART TWO: READING COMPREHENSION
I. Read the passage and do the task below.
The students’ problem
(A) The college and university accommodation crisis in Ireland has become ‘so chronic’ that students are being
forced to sleep rough, share a bed with strangers – or give up on studying altogether.
(B) The deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland, Kevin Donoghue, said the problem has become
particularly acute in Dublin. He told the Irish Mirror: “Students are so desperate, they’re not just paying through
the nose to share rooms – they’re paying to share a bed with complete strangers. It reached crisis point last year
and it’s only getting worse. “We’ve heard of students sleeping rough; on sofas, floors and in their cars and I have
to stress there’s no student in the country that hasn’t been touched by this crisis. “Commutes – which would once
have been considered ridiculous – are now normal, whether that’s by bus, train or car and those who drive often
end up sleeping in their car if they’ve an early start the next morning.”
(C) Worry is increasing over the problems facing Ireland's 200,000 students as the number increases over the
next 15 years. With 165,000 full-time students in Ireland – and that figure expected to increase to around 200,000
within the next 15 years –fears remain that there aren’t enough properties to accommodate current numbers.
(D) Mr. Donoghue added: “The lack of places to live is actually forcing school-leavers out of college altogether.
Either they don’t go in the first place or end up having to drop out because they can’t get a room and commuting
is just too expensive, stressful and difficult.”
(E) Claims have emerged from the country that some students have been forced to sleep in cars, or out on the
streets, because of the enormous increases to rent in the capital. Those who have been lucky enough to find a
place to live have had to do so ‘blind’ by paying for accommodation, months in advance, they haven’t even seen
just so they will have a roof over their head over the coming year.
(F) According to the Irish Independent, it’s the ‘Google effect’ which is to blame. As Google and other blue-chip
companies open offices in and around Dublin’s docklands area, which are ‘on the doorstep of the city’,
international professionals have been flocking to the area which will boast 2,600 more apartments, on 50 acres of
undeveloped land, over the next three to 10 years.
(G) Rent in the area soared by 15 per cent last year and a two-bedroom apartment overlooking the Grand Canal
costs €2,100 (£1,500) per month to rent. Another two-bedroom apartment at Hanover Dock costs €2,350 (almost
£1,700) with a three-bedroom penthouse – measuring some 136 square metres – sits at €4,500 (£3,200) per
month in rent.
(H) Ireland’s Higher Education Authority admitted this was the first time they had seen circumstances ‘so extreme’
and the Fianna Fáil party leader, Michael Martin, urged on the Government to intervene. He said: “It is very
worrying that all of the progress in opening up access to higher education in the last decade – particularly for the
working poor – is being derailed because of an entirely foreseeable accommodation crisis
Questions 1-8
This passage has eight paragraphs, A–H.
Choose the most suitable paragraph headings from the list of headings and write the correct letter, A–H, in boxes
1–8 on your answer sheet.
1. Cons of the commuting
2. Thing that students have to go through
3. Commutes have become common in Ireland nowadays

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 Advanced Material for the Gifted School year: 2019 - 2020

4. Danger of the overflow

5. Cause of the problems
6. Pricing data
7. Regression
8. Eyeless choice
Questions 9–14
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
In boxes 9–14 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
9. The accommodation problem in Ireland is especially bad in Dublin.
10. Commutes are considered ridiculous.
11. The number of students in Ireland is not likely to increase in the future.
12. Due to the opening of the new offices around Dublin, the number of local restaurants will go up significantly
over the next 3 to 10 years.
13. The rent price went up by 15% last year.
14. Michael Martin stated that crisis could have been omitted if the government reacted properly.
II. You are going to read an article containing reviews of recently-published books. For question 15 – 25,
choose from reviews (A – F). The review may be chosen MORE THAN ONCE.
Book Corner
A round-up of the latest fiction and non-fiction from Beth Young.

A
Reading a new novelist is a bit like asking a stranger out on a date. You never quite know if this is the start of a
beautiful relationship. You check the blurbs, the publicity photograph, and flick through the book to look for the
two essentials: entertainment and substance. Beginner's Greek by James Collins is certainly big on the latter,
weighing in at 400-plus pages. And the quotes on the back cover have the effect of a bunch of friends saying to
you, 'Go on, you'll get on brilliantly'. Early indications are that this blind date could lead to a deeper relationship.
Beginner's Greek is described by The New York Times as a "great big sunny lemon chiffon pie of a novel" about
romantic love amongst the American middle classes. It is indeed delicious.

B
In Manil Suri's second outing The Age of Shiva we have a broad-sweeping, epic novel with an unforgettable
heroine so wilful yet flawed that it calls to mind that other famous leading lady, Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the
Wind. The story begins at a firework party in Delhi where Meera falls disastrously in love. We follow her journey
to Bombay, marriage and obsessive motherhood, with occasional flashbacks to a childhood that was marred by
political turmoil. Mathematics professor, Suri, captures the fluidity of the role of women with a beautiful kind of
precision.

C
Devotees of playwright David Mamet, whose screen work includes Wag The Dog and the award-winning
Glengarry Glen Ross may be less than enamoured of Ira Nadel's new biography, David Mamet: A Life in the
Theatre. It may seem churlish to question the minutia of incidents that abound in this comprehensive tome, but
whilst Nadel is clearly striving for accuracy one feels there ought to have been more sifting, more mining for the
gold amongst the biographical trivia. In addition, Nadel's tone is somewhat dry and academic and seems at
odds with the brilliance of David Mamet's own writing. That said, the book offers a sound introduction to the life
and career of the man hailed as one of America's most outstanding writers.

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D
Can any Mother help me? Is the true story of a desperately lonely mother who, in 1935, appealed to other
women through the letters page of a women's magazine. Writing under a pseudonym, the woman known as
Ubique (meaning 'everywhere') little realised that she would be the trigger for the launch of a new and private
magazine that would last for the next fifty years. The Cooperative Correspondence Club was formed to offer
comfort and support to wives, often well-educated women, who craved stimulation beyond the drudgery of
family life. Jenna Bailey has done a superb job of organising and editing this compendium, adding her own
insightful commentary.
E
Subtitled, The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Jessie Child's debut historical biography, Henry
VIII's Last Victim, was the worthy winner of last year's Elizabeth Longford Prize. Henry Howard's victim status is
owing to the fact that he was the final person to be executed by King Henry VIII, a mere nine days before the
king himself expired. Although killed ostensibly for treason, the Earl of Surrey's only real crime it seems was
leading an unsuccessful army campaign in France. Only 29, he was also a distinguished poet with a fine literary
voice, a persona which refutes his reputation as the spoilt son of the Duke of Norfolk.
F
This is the 25th outing for T. Keneally but he's lost none of his writing powers. The Widow and Her Hero takes
real life events during the Second World War as its inspiration and builds a tale of love and intrigue. Grace looks
back on her life to recall her courtship with the hero of the title, the handsome Captain Leo Waterhouse. Leo is
tragically killed whilst on a secret mission but it is many years before Grace discovers the facts about his death.
Keneally made fans galore when Schindler's Ark was published and later made into the award-winning Steven
Spielberg film, Schindler's List. The Widow and Her Hero will bring him even more fans.
1) A story in which someone is unaware of the impact of their action. _____
2) A description of the opening scene. _____
4) An author who exemplifies source material with their own analysis. _____
5) A humorous comparison with a real-life situation. _____
6) A character who finds out the truth about a situation. _____
7) A hint that the author's future writing career will be positive. _____
8) A book that would be appreciated by people without much previous knowledge of the subject. _____
9) A book which has already won critical acclaim. _____
10) A book which includes too much factual detail. _____
11) A mention of the profession of the author _____

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