Passage 1:

(1)_____ to legend, Julius Caesar wept before a statue of Alexander the Great because by t
he time he was Caesar’s age, he had conquered (2)_____ world. Caesar was sure he would
never (3)_____ up. For the ambitious (and insecure) scholar, reading the early work of the e
conomic historian Robert Higgs might evoke a similar feeling. Higgs had a productive, disting
uished career as a scholar that would (4)_____ been the envy of almost any observer—and t
hat’s just (5)_____ what he did before publishing his classic Crisis and Leviathan at the age
of 43 in 1987. Higgs’s work on the economic history of the American South and African Amer
ican economic achievement, most of (6)_____ he did in the 1970s and early 1980s, stands o
ut and still holds (7)_____ more than four and a half decades later.

Higgs’s training as an economist meant he wasn’t an economic historian, but it also did mea
n he was merely an economic historian. He was an economic historian, italicized all the (8)_
____ through, with scholarly output scattered across both discipline’s journals. Higgs is just a
t home in the pages of the Journal of American History or Agricultural History (9)_____ he is
in the Journal of Political Economy and the American Economic Review. He was part of the
generation of so-called “New Economic Historians” who explored the rough paths broken by
Douglass C. North, Robert W. Fogel, and others (cf. Higgs 2016). They turned these paths in
to highways using neoclassical economic theory to formulate testable hypotheses, which the
y tested by combining historical data with state-of-the-art econometric techniques. They (10)
_____ to be known as “cliometricians,” a portmanteau of “econometrician” and Clio, the Gree
k muse of history.

1. According 2. the 3. measure 4. have 5. including 6. which 7. up 8. way 9. as

10. came
Passage 2:
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are used as a (1)_____ source for cell therapy, and its appl
ication is (2)_____ in various diseases. On the (3)_____hand, reliable methods to evaluate t
he quality and therapeutic properties of MSC are limited, because molecular mechanisms es
sential (4)_____ the establishment of stemness in MSCs are largely unknown. In this study,
we determined that TWIST1, (5)_____ is an important transcription factor for mesenchymal ti
ssue development and cancer metastasis, regulated cell proliferation and expression of stem
ness-associated transcription factors in MSCs, and (6)_____ function was conserved in mice
and humans. Furthermore, we found that the transmembrane protein LRRC15 is closely (7)_
_____ with the expression of TWIST1 and (8)_____ can be expected to be TWIST1-regulate
d stemness of MSCs. The LRRC15-positive MSC populations in human and mouse bone ma
rrow tissues clearly expressed stemness-associated transcription factors and therapeutic cyt
okines, and showed better therapeutic effect in bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis model
mice. (9)_____ study provides evidence illustrating the important role of TWIST1 in the MSC
stemness, and the utility of the LRRC15 protein as a marker to estimate stem (10)_____ qua
lity in MSCs before cell transplantation.

1. main/primary/major/principal 2. expanding other 3. other 4. for/to 5. which 6. its 7. co

rrelated 8. there 9. The/This 10. cell
Passage 3:
The process of creating a mechanism for predicting earthquakes is identical (1)_____ that of
creating a perpetual motion machine. Everybody knows that it is impossible to create perpet
ual motion machines, (2)_____ some scientists with fanatic persistence continue to invent dif
ferent kinds of cunning mechanisms, (3)_____ , as they selflessly believe, will help them to b
ypass fundamental laws of thermodynamics and glorify their names (4)_____ the end of cent
uries. (5)_____ seems that the construction of perpetual mobility and the question of earthqu
ake forecasting have (6)_____ closed for a long time. (7)_____, in serious scientific magazin
es, articles of geophysicists appear now and then, where they present their developments w
hich allegedly lead to the possibility of earthquake forecasting. We have already written abou
t (8)_____ works and their authors and even wondered who these knights-geophysicists are,
tirelessly tilting at windmills? Are they really generous, romantic souls who spend their (9)__
___ for a phantom victory over an underground element, or calculating cheaters, living on sci
entific grants, paid to them from taxpayers' pockets? We represent a small critical review of
(10)_____ such paper where Don Quixotes from geophysics on the basis of ionosphere ano
malies analysis is trying once again to convince us of the possibility of earthquakes forecasti
ng.

1. to 2. but/yet 3. which 4. until/till 5. It 6. been 7. Yet/However/Nevertheless/Nonetheles

s 8. such 9. life/lifetime 10. one
Passage 4:
(1)_____ since its birth, applied linguistics (2)_____ borrowed many different concepts and
methods from other disciplines including, and way (3)_____, linguistics. (4)_____ we own ve
ry few theoretical concepts and analytical methods of our own, and the disciplines (5)_____
which we have borrowed concepts and methods (6)_____ relatively little attention to what w
e as applied linguists have done in (7)_____return. ‘Applied’ is often taken as synonymous w
ith atheoretical, (8)_____ of lower scientific value. Many applied linguists would not mind that
because our primary interest is in policy and practice concerning language and how to solve
real-world problems in which language is a central issue (Brumfit 1995). (9)_____the other h
and, many applied linguists would like to think that what we do (10)_____, or should be, ‘the
oretical’; we are offering new thinking and new ways of looking at everyday linguistic practice
s in society, not just practical solutions.

1. Ever 2. has 3. beyond 4. Yet/Nonetheless/Nevertheless/However 5. from 6. pay/give

7. return/response 8. therefore 9. On 10. is
Passage 5:
Team-Based Learning (1)_____ around active, experiential learning and draws on constructi
vist learning theory. (2)_____ individual preparation and problem-solving in small teams, the
method allows students to construct new knowledge and new “mental frameworks built (3)__
____ previous knowledge”. Several studies and comprehensive reviews note TBL’s docume
nted effectiveness in promoting increased knowledge acquisition, (4)_____ these articles als
o note that further or more rigorous research is needed to fully interrogate the reasons and c
onditions for these effects. (5)_____ major claim for TBL’s effectiveness centres around muc
h-improved student engagement in TBL classes compared (6)_____ other pedagogies. Key f
actors in this engagement identified by authors (7)_____ TBL’s learner-centred ‘flipped class
room’ structure, regular assessments, and group accountability, with one study finding that st
udents reported moderate to high levels of cognitive engagement across the various TBL act
ivities, with (8)_____ highest levels of engagement during collaborative activities. Other impo
rtant effects of TBL identified in the literature include increased student confidence and enha
nced development of transferable skills including critical thinking and teamwork skills. Finally,
studies focussing on instructor experience note a striking increase (9)_____ instructor satisf
action (10)_____ teaching using TBL. Liu & Beaujean note, in their 2017 meta-analysis, that
the use of TBL also necessitates the use of several other effective, evidence-based teaching
methods and pedagogical techniques such as active and collaborative learning.

1. revolves/centres 2. By/Through/Via 3. upon/on/around 4. although/though 5. Another

6. to/with 7. contain/include 8. The 9. in 10. while/when

Passage 6:
We are accustomed to thinking of learning as good (1)_____ and of itself. But as environme
ntal educator David Orr reminds us, our education up till now has in (2)_____ ways created
a monster.

If today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116 square miles of rainforest, or about
an acre a second. We will lose another 72 square miles (3)_____ encroaching deserts, as a
result of human mismanagement and overpopulation. We will lose 40 to 100 species, and (4)
_____ one knows whether the number is 40 or 100. Today the human population will increas
e (5)_____ 250,000. And today we will add 2,700 tons of chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosph
ere and 15 million tons of carbon. Tonight the Earth will be a little hotter, its waters more acid
ic, and the fabric of life more threadbare. The truth is that many things on which your future h
ealth and prosperity (6)_____ are in dire jeopardy: climate stability, the resilience and produc
tivity of natural systems, the beauty of the natural world, and biological diversity.

It is (7)_____ noting that this is not the work of ignorant people. It is, rather, largely the result
of work by people with BAs, BSs, LLBs, MBAs, and PhDs. Elie Wiesel made a similar point t
o the Global Forum in Moscow last winter when he said that the designers and perpetrators
of the Holocaust (8)_____ the heirs of Kant and Goethe. In most respects the Germans were
the best educated people on Earth, but (9)____ education did not (10)______ as an adequat
e barrier to barbarity. What was wrong with their education? In Wiesel’s words: "It emphasis
ed theories over values, concepts rather than human beings, abstraction in favour of conscio
usness, answers instead of questions, ideology and efficiency rather than conscience."

1. in 2. some/several/many/numerous 3. to 4. no 5. by 6. depend/hinge/turn 7. worth 8.

were 9. their 10. serve/act/function
Passage 7:
Research on bias and fairness in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) has gr
own exponentially in (1)_____ years. (2)_____ of the work from this field has centred on neg
ative impacts that biassed ML and AI could have on people (3)_____ various social identities,
especially racial minorities. For (4)_____, decision-making algorithms have been shown to h
ave significant negative racial biases in areas like healthcare, criminal sentencing, autonomo
us vehicles, hate-speech censorship and detection, search engines, and facial recognition te
chnologies.

One area that remains under-researched, however, is automatic speech recognition (ASR).
ASR is ‘the process and the related technology for converting [a] speech signal into its corre
sponding sequence of words or other linguistic entities by (5)_____ of algorithms implement
ed in a device, a computer, or computer clusters’. ASRs are most widely known for virtual as
sistants such as Amazon’s Alexa. Yet, ASRs have many (6)_____ applications beyond virtua
l assistants that are becoming ubiquitous in daily life.

While strides are being made in exposing racial biases in natural language processing (NLP),
only a few studies have begun to prod ASRs for racial biases. A groundbreaking study on A
SR performance with racialized varieties found that ASRs from Google, Apple, Amazon, Micr
osoft, and IBM performed significantly (7)_____ on the speech of Black Americans than Whit
e Americans. Further, it was also found that widely tapped speech corpora (8)_____ to devel
op and evaluate speech recognition systems displayed a woeful lack of representation of Afri
can American Language (AAL). Other important works have come to similar conclusions abo
ut ASRs and the speech of African Americans.

(9)_____ biases in ASR performance have begun to display negative effects on African Ame
rican speakers. Mengesha et al. (2021) investigated the behavioural and psychological cons
equences of ASR errors for African American participants and found that ASR failures hinder
ed participants in accomplishing goals and (10)_____ them experience emotions consistent
with those experienced during discrimination in human interaction. Such findings document t
he likely experience of many African American speakers facing biassed ASR systems in thei
r everyday lives.

1. recent 2. Much/Most/Plenty 3. of 4. one/instance/example 5. dint/means/virtue 6.

other 7. worse 8. used 9. Such 10. made
Passage 8:
Between 2009 and 2011, a (1)_____ convicted sexual offender in his early twenties was spe
nding (2)_____ of his time online persuading young girls and boys to produce and share with
him sexual images and videos. To maximise his success, he would deceive and manipulate
his victims by cycling through numerous different personas—a teenage boy, a young woman,
a modelling agent, for example—(3)______ trying to find the best fit for the person he was t
alking to.
Online anonymity is a significant hurdle in policing online sexual abuse, and cases like (4)__
___ are sadly common. As (5)_____, law enforcement agencies draw (6)______ expertise fr
om a range of disciplines for support, including forensic linguistics. (7)_____ that this sort of
online abuse occurs almost exclusively through language, linguists are in a unique position t
o assist police investigations by describing how language functions in various online criminal
contexts as well (8)_____ helping identify anonymous offenders through their language.

In the case mentioned (9)_____ , the online abuse was enabled by multiple online identities.
The man adopted 17 different personas. To understand how online abuse works, it’s importa
nt to consider two questions: First, what strategies did the offender use in the attempt to obta
in images from victims? Second, did the 17 personas’ strategies vary, or were they (10)____
__ consistent, with similar, noticeable patterns in the language used?

1. now 2. much/most 3. seemingly/apparently 4. this 5. such 6. on/upon 7. Given 8. as 9.

above 10. linguistically

Word Formation
1. A mammoth find
A mammoth, named Jenya after the eleven-year-old who made the (1)_______ find, is thoug
ht to be the most perfectly preserved animal of its kind. The last great mammoth was (2)___
__ in 1901, so this finding has caused great excitement among (3)_____. Jenya’s remains w
ere excavated from the Siberian permafrost and taken to St Petersburg for (4)_____. Tests s
how that it was fifteen years old, two metres tall and weighed 500 kilos, which is (5)_____ s
maller than other mammoth finds. What probably killed Jenya was not his size, but a missing
left tusk that rendered him (6)_____ for fights with other mammoths or human (7)_____, who
were settling the Siberian marshes and swamps 20000-30000 years ago. So Jenya’s death
might have been the result of a (8)_____ with an Ice Age man. Zoologists now believe mam
moths were driven to (9)_____ by humans as well as by the changing (10)_____.

earthen extinct acclimatise front zoo

inconsiderate fit headhunt astonishment analytical

1. astonishing 2. unearthed 3. zoologists 4. analysis 5. considerably 6. unfit 7. hunters/h

unter-gatherers 8. confrontation 9. extinction 10. climate
2. Searching for a King
You wouldn’t expect to find a (1)_____ king under a city car park, yet, astonishingly, this was
where (2)_____ found Richard III, an English king who died in 1485. Always a (3)_____ figur
e, Richard was (4)_____ as a villain and murderer by Shakespeare. The accuracy of this (5)
______ is debatable, but the fact that he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field is (6)____
_. The exact (7)_____ of his body after the battle was a (8)______ but with the discovery of
a skeleton in Leicester, people speculated about whether these were the remains of the kind.
The skeleton exhibited similar injuries to those recorded after the battle and scientists carrie
d out carbon dating, which placed the skeleton in the fifteenth century. Analyses of DNA fro
m living (9)_____ of the king put the identity of the skeleton beyond doubt. The evidence wa
s (10)_____, and the last missing king of England was found.

where controvert mortal mystification descent

inconclusionary archaic disputes deadening portrait

1. dead 2. archaeologists 3. controversial 4. immortalised 5. portrayal 6. indisputable/un
disputed 7. whereabouts 8. mystery 9. descendants 10. conclusive

Word Form sentences:

1. There’s no ______ (CENTURY) in worrying; things will eventually get better, you kno
w.
2. He found that running long distances was not his ______ (FORTIFICATION) , but ac
celerating.
3. Four cats were reclaimed, 406 cats were rehomed and 18 were _____ (EUTHANASI
A) to end their suffering from illnesses.
4. This time around, both the U.S. and German economies are _____ (FLAT) , while tha
t of Japan continues its slow, downward spiral.
5. An amount standing to the credit of a joint account constitutes a debt which is owed b
y the bank to the depositors jointly and _____ (SEVERAL).
6. You’ll soon become accustomed to the endless Washington _____ (MERRY) of parti
es and socialising.
7. In sports commentaries, fairness and ______ (PART) to both sides is vital, but spont
aneity and enthusiasm are valued by those watching or listening.
8. Experience, qualifications and constant quality control are the company policy giving
_____ (EXCEPTIONALLY) results on the finished product, which is then ready for del
ivery to any country in the world, although they may not be completely accurate.
9. One does not have to be a(n) _______ (PANTHEISM) to be a rationalist, empiricist o
r sceptic. Not believing in any religion does not qualify anyone to become a man of re
ason.
10. Bird species include ______ (PROXIMITY) 100 endemics with the greatest variety on
the large islands of Halmahera and Seram, with there being probably even more.
11. His comedy stylings were considered slightly edgier than many of his _____ (TEMPO
RARILY), yet he was still mainstream enough to appear on television.
12. It's all a smokescreen, a _______ (DIVERT) tactic to take the focus off of certain que
stions those who failed this country that day don't want aired.
13. He tries to tell Rose that he's been ______ (ONEROUSNESS) because the real robb
er has been apprehended, but she did not believe he was really acquitted of his char
ges.
14. To our mums, seeing us cracking a smile while we seem to be texting with someone i
s a ______ (TALE) sign of having a lover.
15. These are the last of Russia's original 13 plutonium-producing plants slated for ____
__ (MANTLE).
 16. Thanks to its amazing rock drilling capabilities, the ______ (TERRAIN) version of this
absolute beast of a car is expected to attract immediate interest among users of direc
tional equipment, believes Levings.
17. Is such an idea even comprehensible to men and women who live without the consta
nt presence of the _______ (NUMEN) or divine at our shoulder?
18. The bad news is as each day ticks on the funding ______ (LOCALITY) of over 1 billio
n per year gets taxpayers less and less road for their money.
19. At best, they receive a few _____ (QUIZZING) stares, a couple of thumbs-up signs a
nd a desperate waving of white flags. And at worst, they receive nothing that could a
mount to any indication of proper comprehension from the audience.
20. There are 18 varieties of ______ (HEIRESS) tomatoes, fennel, cipollini onions, eggpl
ant, peppers, several pear trees and a couple apple trees, most of which are rather r
are today.
21. Here's what the problem with the strategy of pointless talking was: North Korea was
not satisfied with _______ (CAT) manoeuvres, but more direct actions.
22. Luckily we like ______ (DEVIL), feisty dames who laugh in the face of disapproval an
d adversity, with little consideration for any such things.
23. In recent months, the airline has been forced to ______ (CANNIBALISTIC) its existin
g fleet to provide spare parts due to a dearth of available material.
24. We Scots are not, at the best of times, over-endowed with a sunny disposition and a
______ (HAPPY) attitude to life, but more practical, realistic views of life.
25. lt is often said that a good caricature looks more like a person than the person thems
elves. As it happens, this notion, _______ (INTUITION) though it may sound, is actua
lly supported by research.
26. We code each new face we encounter not in absolute terms, but in several ways it dif
fers remarkably from the mean. ln other words, we ______ (ACCENT) what is most i
mportant for recognition and largely ignore what is not.
27. The harbour is studded with all kinds of watercraft, from the stupendous ______ (IRO
N) battleships to the tiny pleasure boat.
28. You infuse energy and romance in long-standing relationships and _____ (JUVENIL
E) them.
29. _______ (SYNTHETIC) is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert li
ght energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be releas
ed to fuel the organism's activities.
30. Tolkien's sword and sorcery epics were turned into the Oscar-winning _____ (BLOC
K) films and recently voted Britain's favourite read.

1. percentage 2. forte 3. euthanised 4. flatlining (flat- 5. severally 6. merry-go-round

lining)

7. impartiality 8. exceptionabl 9. atheist 10. approximately 11. contemporaries 12. diversionary

e

13. exonerated 14. telltale 15. dismantlement 16. all-terrain 17. numinous 18. allocation

19. quizzical 20. heirloom 21. cat-and-mouse 22. devil-may-care 23. cannibalise 24. happy-go-lucky

25. counter-intuitiv 26. accentuate 27. iron-clad/cast-iron 28. rejuvenate 29. photosynthesis 30. blockbuster
e (counterintuitive)