PRACTICE TEST 71 FOR GIFTED STUDENTS GRADE 9- 2022

Part 1: Choose the best answer.

1. His English was roughly ______ with my Greek, so communication was rather difficult!
A. levelled B. on a par C. equal D. in tune
2. Well, I’m sorry, that’s all I can offer you. ______ .
A. Take it or forget it B. Get it or forget it
C. Take it or leave it D. Leave it or take it
3. He promised me an Oxford dictionary and to my great joy, he ______ his word.
A. stood by  B. stuck at  C. went back on  D. held onto
4. The police are ______ certain who the culprit is.
A. in some ways B. more or less
C. here and there D. by and by
5. Employees who have a ______ are encouraged to discuss it with the management.
A. hindrance B. grievance C. disadvantage D. disturbance
6. Although the patient received intensive treatment, there was no ______ improvement in her condition.
A. decipherable B. legible C. discernible D. intelligible
7. The prospect of picking up any survivors are now______
A. thin B. narrow C. slim D. restricted
8. His happy–go–lucky attitude means that on the field he exhibits a ______ disregard for the rules.
A. required B. glaring C. permissible D. flagrant
9. He was selected to play despite a string of ______ performances.
A. satisfactory B. reasonable C. outstanding D. mediocre
10. Even the best medicines are not ______ .
A. infallible B. unfailing C. fail-proof D. falsified
11. I’m in a bit of a ______ as to what to wear to the party.
A. loss B. quandary C. problem D. trouble
12. His new play is not only interesting but also unique. It is really off the beaten _____ .
A. track B. road C. path D. route
13. Without written evidence, we don’t have a ______ on.
A. leg to stand B. foot to stand C. leg to lean D. foot to lean
14. Now’s a ______ time to tell me you’re going out this evening - I’ve spent the whole day preparing
supper for you.
A. suitable B. reasonable C. right D. fine
15. She hasn’t had an accident yet but she’s had a number of ______ shaves.
A. narrow B. near C. close D. tiny
16. As you are the strongest in the group, you can take the ______ .
A. lead B. head C. part D. way
17. Although she had never used a word-proceesor before, she soon got the ______ of it.
A. feel B. touch C. move D. hang
18. I overslept this morning and caught the last bus to school by the skin of my ______ .
A. mouth B. leg C. neck D. teeth
19. The sky got very dark and soon it began to ______ down.
A. roar B. bath C. bucket D. soar
20. If you want a flat in the centre of the city, you have to pay through the ______ for it.
A. teeth B. back of your head C. nose D. arm
Part 2
There are 10 errors in the following passage. Find and correct them.
Line
1 A great majority of adults in the industrial world – in fact, about 90 per cent – will be married
some time in their lives. Of those who do not, some may choose to remain single, but others
will have no choice. An alarming number who marry will divorce, but this is because marriage
itself has lost its attraction – instead people give up particular relationships and try back. For
5 example, of four out of ten American marriages that possibly end up divorce, 80 per cent are
preludes to further unions. Every society has its own definition of what a perfect marriage it
should be. In the Western world, it seems that a husband and wife have a perfect marriage if
they love each other, have no other sex partner, display trust, loyalty and intimacy, confide in
each other, show mutual respect, are willing to listen to their partner’s concern and agree on
10 their children’s up- bringing. However, from time to time the balance of social expectations
shifts. For example, a study carried out in 1986 showed that 74 per cent of American couples
rating ‘equality in the relationship’ an important component of marriage. We can be fair sure
that their great-grandparents (and particularly their great-grandfathers) did not place the same
 value in this.
Line:………………………….. Line:…………………………..
Line:………………………….. Line:…………………………..
Line:………………………….. Line:…………………………..
Line:………………………….. Line:…………………………..
Line:………………………….. Line:…………………………..
Part 3
Fill in each blank with the correct form of one of the verbs, and one of the particles in the box.
Some words can be used more than once.

try go put carry stick get do look hold againstdown

over around out on up
1. At school, Luis got into a lot of trouble for something I did, and now he ______ it ______ me.
2. When I was in New York, I was able to ______ ______ several old friends I hadn’t seen for years.
3. The car’s in quite good condition but you can ______ it ______ before you make any decision to buy.
4. If I could ______ it ______ again, I’d do it differently.
5. The price of gas is expected to ______ ______ to $1 a gallon within a month.
6. Stop worrying about it. Don’t let this failure ______ you ______.
7. If you ______ ______ working so hard, you’ll make yourself ill.
8. The light suddenly ______ ______, and I couldn’t see a thing.
9. Do you have to go already? Can’t you ______ ______ for a few minutes?
10. You’d better ______ ______ your cigarette because smoking isn’t allowed in here.

Part 4
Give the correct form of the words in brackets.
The advances made by humans have made us the dominant species on our planet. However, several
eminent scientists are concerned that we have become too successful, that our way of life is putting an ( 1.
PRECEDE) strain on the Earth's ecosystems and threatening our future as a species. We are confronting
environmental problems that are more taxing than ever before, some of them seemingly (2. SOLVE). Many
of the Earth's crises are (3. PERSIST) and inexorably linked. Pollution is an obvious example of this
affecting our air, water and soil.
The air is polluted by (4. EMIT) produced by cars and industry. Through acid rain and greenhouse gases
these same exhaust fumes can have a devastating impact on our climate. Climate change is (5. ARGUE)
the greatest environmental challenge facing our planet with increased storms, floods, drought and species
losses predicted. This will inevitably have a negative impact on (6. DIVERSIFY) and thus our ecosystem.
The soil is contaminated by factories and power stations which can leave heavy metals in the soil. Other
human activities such as the (7. DEVELOP) of land and the clearing of trees also take their toll on the
quality of our soil; deforestation has been shown to cause soil (8. ERODE). Certain farming practices can
also pollute the land though the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. This contamination in turn affects
our rivers and waterways and damages life there. The chemicals enter our food chain, moving from fish to
mammals to us. Our crops are also grown on land that is far from (9. SPOIL). Affected species include the
polar bear, so not even the Arctic is immune.
Reducing waste and clearing up pollution costs money. Yet it is our quest for wealth that generates so
much of the refuse. There is an urgent need to find a way of life that is less damaging to the Earth. This is
not easy, but it is vital, because pollution is (10. PERVADE) and often life-threatening.

Part 5:
Read the text below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each space.
Earth is the only place we know of in the universe that can support human life. (1)_______ human
activities are making the planet less fit to live on. As the western world (2) _______ on consuming two-
thirds of the world's resources while half of the world's population do so (3) _______ to stay alive we are
rapidly destroying the (4) _______ resource we have by which all people can survive and prosper.
Everywhere fertile soil is (5) _______ built on or washed into the sea. Renewable resources are exploited
so much that they will never be able to recover (6) _______ We discharge pollutants into the atmosphere
without any thought of the consequences. As a (7) _______ the planet's ability to support people is being
(8) _______at the very time when rising human numbers and consumption are (9) _______ increasingly
heavy demands on it.
The Earth's (10) _______ resources are there for us to use. We need food, water, air, energy,
medicines, warmth, shelter and minerals to keep us fed, comfortable, healthy and active. If we are sensible
in how we use the resources they will last indefinitely. But if we use them wastefully and excessively they
will soon run out and everyone will suffer.
1. A. Although B. Still C. Yet D. Despite
2. A. continues B. repeats C. carries D. follows
3. A. already B. just C. for D. entirely
4. A. alone B. individual C. lone D. only
5. A. sooner B. neither C. either D. rather
6. A. quite B. greatly C. utterly D. completely
7. A. development B. result C. reaction D. product
8. A. stopped B. narrowed C. reduced D. cut
9. A. doing B. having C. taking D. making
10. A. natural B. real C. living D. genuine
Part 6:
Energy is one of the (1) _______ that many people are interested in. It is not an unfamiliar word. It is heard,
said, discussed day after day. It is close to everyone’s (2) _______ life. You turn on the lamp and it is (3)
_______ that gives you light. You turn on a TV and it is energy that gives you pictures and sound. You ride
a motorcycle and it is energy that gives you (4) _______. You cook your meals and it is energy that gives
you heat to boil rice.
The problem is that the (5) _______ for energy is rising and that the price of energy is getting higher
and higher. The supply of energy on earth is limited. It cannot provide us all forever. The (6) _______ of
energy in the future is inevitable. Therefore, saving energy is a must if we want to (7) _______ to live in a
safe and sound world.
If we save energy, the environmentwill be (8) _______ polluted and our health will be better and we
will live a more meaningful life and more happily. Perhaps the best solutionto the problem of energy is a (9)
_______ of clean energy coming from the sun: solar energy. This kind of energy is easily available, free,
and inexhaustible. Furthermore, it does not cause (10) _______.
Part 7:
Read the following passage and choose the best answers:
They are just four, five and six years old right now, but already they are making criminologists
nervous. They are growing up, too frequently, in abusive or broken homes, with little adult supervision and
few positive role models. Left to themselves, they spend much of their time hanging out on the streets or
soaking up violent TV shows. By the year 2005 they will be teenagers–a group that tends to be, in the view
of Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, “temporary sociopaths–impulsive and immature.”
If they also have easy access to guns and drugs, they can be extremely dangerous.
For all the heartening news offered by recent crime statistics, there is an ominous flip side. While
the crime rate is dropping for adults, it is soaring for teens. Between 1990 and 1994, the rate at which
adults age 25 and older committed homicides declined 22%; yet the rate jumped 16% for youths between
14 and 17, the age group that in the early ’90s supplanted 18- to 24-year-olds as the most crime-prone.
And that is precisely the age group that will be booming in the next decade. There are currently 39 million
children under 10 in the U.S., more than at any time since the 1950s. “This is the calm before the crime
storm,” says Fox. “So long as we fool ourselves in thinking that we’re winning the war against crime, we
may be blindsided by this bloodbath of teenage violence that is lurking in the future.”
Demographics don’t have to be destiny, but other social trends do little to contradict the dire
predictions. Nearly all the factors that contribute to youth crime–single-parent households, child abuse,
deteriorating inner-city schools–are getting worse. At the same time, government is becoming less, not
more, interested in spending money to help break the cycle of poverty and crime. All of which has led John
J. DiIulio Jr., a professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton, to warn about a new generation of
“super predators,” youngsters who are coming of age in actual and “moral poverty,” without “the benefit of
parents, teachers, coaches and clergy to teach them right or wrong and show them unconditional love.”
Predicting a generation’s future crime patterns is, of course, risky; especially when outside factors
(Will crack use be up or down? Will gun laws be tightened?) remain unpredictable. Michael Tonry, a
professor of law and public policy at the University of Minnesota, argues that the demographic doomsayers
are unduly alarmist. “There will be a slightly larger number of people relative to the overall population who
are at high risk for doing bad things, so that’s going to have some effect,” he concedes. “But it’s not going
to be an apocalyptic effect.” Norval Morris, professor of law and criminology at the University of Chicago,
finds DiIulio’s notion of super predators too simplistic: “The human animal in young males is quite a violent
animal all over the world. The people who put forth the theory of moral poverty lack a sense of history and
comparative criminology.”
Yet other students of the inner city are more pessimistic. “All the basic elements that spawn
teenage crime are still in place, and in many cases the indicators are worse,” says Jonathan Kozol, author
of Amazing Grace, an examination of poverty in the South Bronx. “There’s a dramatic increase of children
in foster care, and that’s a very high-risk group of kids. We’re not creating new jobs, and we’re not
improving education to suit poor people for the jobs that exist.”
 Can anything defuse the demographic time bomb? Fox urges “reinvesting in children”: improving
schools, creating after-school programs and providing other alternatives to gangs and drugs. DiIulio, a law-
and-order conservative, advocates tougher prosecution and wants to strengthen religious institutions to
instill better values. Yet he opposes the Gingrich-led effort to make deep cuts in social programs. “A failure
to maintain existing welfare and health commitment for kids,” he says, “is to guarantee that the next wave
of juvenile predators will be even worse than we’re dealing with today.” DiIulio urges fellow conservatives to
think of Medicaid not as a health-care program but as “an anticrime policy.” 
(Source: Time Magazine)

1. Young children are making criminologists nervous because

A. they are committing too much crime. 
B. they are impulsive and immature. 
C. they may grow up to be criminals.
D. they have no role models.
2. The general crime rate in the US is
A. increasing B. decreasing C. not changing D. difficult to predict
3. The age group which commits the highest rate of crime is
A. 14 – 17. B. 18 – 24.  C. 24 +. D. the old
4. James Fox believes that the improvement in crime figures could
A. make us complacent in the fight against crime.
B. result in an increase in teenage violence. 
C. make us become fooled and blindsided.
D. result in a decrease in teenage violence.
5. According to paragraph 3, the government
A. cutting down on the budget.
B. is doing everything it can to solve the problem.
C. is not interested in solving the problem.
D. is not doing enough to solve the problem.
6. In comparison with James Fox, Michael Tonry is
A. more pessimistic. B. less pessimistic. 
C. equally pessimistic. D. indifferent
7. Jonathan Kozol believes that
A. there is no solution to the problem.
B. employment and education are not the answer.
C. employment and education can improve the situation.
D. people can solve the problem by improving schools.
8. Professor DiIulio thinks that spending on social programs
A. should continue as it is B. should be decreased.
C. is irrelevant to crime rates. D. is a better solution to the problem.
9. The word ‘lurking” in the paragraph 2 can be best replaced by
A. happening B. hiding C. impending D. looming
10. The sentence “This is the calm before the crime storm.” means:
A. There will be population booming in in the next decade.
B. The age group committing crime most in the next decade is now under 10.
C. The age group 14 – 17 will commit the most crimes in the next decade.
D. People will be successful in dealing with the war against crime in the next decade.
Part 8:
TRY IT AND SEE
In the social sciences, it is often supposed that there can be no such
thing as a controlled experiment. Think again.
A     In the scientific pecking order, social scientists are usually looked down on by their peers in the natural
sciences. Natural scientists do experiments to test their theories or, if they cannot, they try to look for
natural phenomena that can act in lieu of experiments. Social scientists, it is widely thought, do not subject
their own hypotheses to any such rigorous treatment. Worse, they peddle their untested hypotheses to
governments and try to get them turned into policies.
B     Governments require sellers of new medicines to demonstrate their safety and effectiveness. The
accepted gold standard of evidence is a randomized control trial, in which a new drug is compared with the
best existing therapy (or with a placebo, if no treatment is available). Patients are assigned to one arm or
the other of such a study at random, ensuring that the only difference between the two groups is the new
treatment. The best studies also ensure that neither patient nor physician knows which patient is allocated
to which therapy. Drug trials must also include enough patients to make it unlikely that chance alone may
determine the result.
C     But few education programs or social initiatives are evaluated in carefully conducted studies prior to
their introduction. A case in point is the 'whole-language' approach to reading, which swept much of the
English-speaking world in the 1970s and 1980s. The whole-language theory holds that children learn to
read best by absorbing contextual clues from texts, not by breaking individual words into their component
parts and reassembling them (a method known as phonics). Unfortunately, the educational theorists who
pushed the whole-language notion so successfully did not wait for evidence from controlled randomized
trials before advancing their claims. Had they done so, they might have concluded, as did an analysis of 52
randomized studies carried out by the US National Reading Panel in 2000, that effective reading instruction
requires phonics.
D     To avoid the widespread adoption of misguided ideas, the sensible thing is to experiment first and
make policy later. This is the idea behind a trial of restorative justice which is taking place in the English
courts. The experiment will include criminals who plead guilty to robbery. Those who agree to participate
will be assigned randomly either to sentencing as normal or to participation in a conference in which the
offender comes face-to-face with his victim and discusses how he may make emotional and material
restitution. The purpose of the trial is to assess whether such restorative justice limits re-offending. If it
does, it might be adopted more widely.
E     The idea of experimental evidence is not quite as new to the social sciences as sneering natural
scientists might believe. In fact, randomized trials and systematic reviews of evidence were introduced into
the social sciences long before they became common in medicine. An apparent example of random
allocation is a study carried out in 1927 of how to persuade people to vote in elections. And randomized
trials in social work were begun in the 1930s and 1940s. But enthusiasm later waned. This loss of interest
can be attributed, at least in part, to the fact that early experiments produced little evidence of positive
outcomes. Others suggest that much of the opposition to experimental evaluation stems from a common
philosophical malaise among social scientists, who doubt the validity of the natural sciences, and therefore
reject the potential of knowledge derived from controlled experiments. A more pragmatic factor limiting the
growth of evidence-based education and social services may be limitations on the funds available for
research.
F     Nevertheless, some 11,000 experimental studies are known in the social sciences (compared with
over 250,000 in the medical literature). Randomized trials have been used to evaluate the effectiveness of
driver-education programs, job training schemes, classroom size, psychological counseling for post-
traumatic stress disorder and increased investment in public housing. And where they are carried out, they
seem to have a healthy dampening effect on otherwise rosy interpretations of the observations.
G     The problem for policymakers is often not too few data, but what to make of multiple and conflicting
studies. This is where a body called the Campbell Collaboration comes into its own. This independent non-
profit organization is designed to evaluate existing studies, in a process known as a systematic review.
This means attempting to identify every relevant trial of a given question (including studies that have never
been published), choosing the best ones using clearly defined criteria for quality, and combining the results
in a statistically valid way. An equivalent body, the Cochrane Collaboration, has produced more than 1,004
such reviews in medical fields. The hope is that rigorous review standards will allow Campbell, like
Cochrane, to become a trusted and authoritative source of information.

Questions 1-6: The following reading passage has seven paragraphs A-G.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings below.
List of Headings

i     Why some early social science methods lost popularity

ii    The cost implications of research
iii    Looking ahead to an unbiased assessment of research
iv    A range of social issues that have been usefully studied
v     An example of a poor decision that was made too quickly
vi    What happens when the figures are wrong
vii   One area of research that is rigorously carried out
viii  The changing nature of medical trials
ix    An investigative study that may lead to a new system
x    Why some scientists' theories are considered second-rate
Example     Paragraph   A            Answer:  x
1.     Paragraph B      ……………
2.     Paragraph C      ……………
3.     Paragraph D      ……………
4.     Paragraph E    …………… 
5.    Paragraph F    …………… 
6.     Paragraph G  ……………
Questions 7-10: Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Fighting Crime
Some criminals in England are agreeing to take part in a trial designed to help reduce their chances
of (7)....................... .  The idea is that while one group of randomly selected criminals undergoes the
usual (8).......................  the other group will discuss the possibility of making some repayment for the crime
by meeting the (9) ....................... . It is yet to be seen whether this system, known
as (10) ....................... will work.

Part 9:
A. Rewrite the following sentences in such a way that it is as similar as possible in meaning to the original
sentence. Do Not change the form of the given word.

1.The minister seems to be excellent at yielding awkward questions (FLAIR)

……………………………………………………………………………………………
2. There will be no progress until we have fully understood the problem. (FULL)
 Not until there is ………………...........................……………………be any progress.
3. We were elated by the birth of our first grandchild (MOON)
……………………………………………………………………………………………

4. This house is very different from the little flat we used to live in (CRY)
……………………………………………………………………………………………
5. That wasn’t what I meant at all. You’ve completely misunderstood me as usual (STICK)
 That wasn’t what I meant at all. You’ve………………………………………………
B. For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the original
one, using the word given.
1. Going to and fro with al the cases is what I can’t stand about holidays
 It’s all……………………………………………………………………………..…..
2. The village shop is now being managed by a national supermarket chain.
 A national supermarket chain has taken..........................................................................
3. This door is an emergency exit and must never be locked for any reason.
→ On ............................................................... be locked because it is an emergency exit.
4. Yolanda’s family persuaded her to enter the competition.
→ Yolanda was talked......................................................... the competition by her family.
5. Just thinking about entering the university makes him so happy.
→ The very………………………………………………………….makes him so happy.