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Test 1
The most popular national amusement in Burma is the pwe. This entertainment
may consist 1……acting, singing, 2 ........ , clowning or even puppetry. These
3… .....are performed outdoors -most often on moonlit nights. They usually last all
night for several nights in succession. The audience sits on reed mats to watch the
show. The pwes are free, and more often than not are given by a wealthy individual
for the entertainment of his friends and 4…......... else who cares to attend. The pwe
plays are usually legendary tales about princes and princesses and almost always
have a happy 5… ......... Actors wear old-time court costumes and proclaim long
speeches, but there is always a down to relieve any boredom. Judging by the
laughter the clowns provoke, they are found really funny.

Test 2

A lost tribe of Stone Age people known as the Tasaday was discovered in the
tropical rain 1…… in the Philippines in the 1970s. The 2… ....consisted of 24
people, with completely unique customs and language. They displayed no
aggressive tendencies, either to outsiders or each other. They reached decisions at
informal 3………. at which men and 4… .......... spoke equally. Age alone
commanded respect. They lived a nomadic existence, and knew nothing of
farming. Living mostly on wild potatoes, fruits and bamboo shoots, the Tasaday
derived some protein from crabs and small fish. Monkey meat was considered a
delicacy to be brought out only on special5… ..............Although they appeared in
good health, they practised no medicine, and confessed to leaving the sick to die.

Test 3

Sir Isaac Newton was drinking tea under the apple 1… .... in his garden one
summer afternoon in 1665 when an 2… ..........fell from an overhanging branch, hit
him on the head and immediately provided the inspiration for his law of 3……… .
According to the story.that is how it happened, anyway. It may indeed be true, but
no one knows for certain. Even the famed British astronomer Sir Harold Spencer
Jones, who stated in 1944 that the 3 ........ was probably true, later changed his
mind, noting that ‘one cannot be sure either way.' 4the ............ of Newton's Apple
first appears in Voltaire's Elements de la Philosophic de Newton, published in
1738, long after the great Englishman had died and 73 years from the time the
disputed apple fell.
Test 4

For hundreds of thousands of years, human civilizations tended to barter for goods,
trading shells and precious stones for food and other important commodities. For
the first evidence of money as currency, we need to go back 5,000 years to where
modern-day Iraq now sits, to find ‘the shekel’. Though this was the first form of
1… ..........., it was not money as we know and understand it today. It actually
represented a certain weight of barley, a kind of plant, equivalent to 2…… or
silver. Eventually, the 3.............became a coin currency in its own right. In much
the same way, Britain’s 4… ......is called ‘the pound’, because it was originally
equivalent to a pound of silver. The ancient Greeks and Romans used gold and
silver 5… ..... as currency, with the Latin ‘denarius’ ultimately giving birth to
‘dinar’ in various countries including Jordan and Algeria, and providing the ‘d’
that served as an abbreviation for the British penny before decimalization in 1971.
It also gives us the word for money in Spanish and Portuguese – ‘dinero’ and
‘dinhero’. The first ever banknotes were issued in 7th -century China, though it
took another 1,000 years before the idea of paper money was adopted in Europe,
by Sweden’s Stockholms Banco in 1661.

Test 5

British scientists have begun studying a rare meteorite to reveal more about the
history of Mars. The rock, named ‘Tissint’ after the Moroccan area where it
crashed in July 2011, was recovered from the ground just five months later – not
enough time to be too contaminated. “The 1… ........ sample is probably the
2… ................important meteorite to have landed on the Earth in the last 100
years,” says Dr. Caroline Smith, curator of meteorites at the Natural History
Museum in London. An analysis of the 3 ............. revealed its Martian origin. It
would have been removed from Mars when an asteroid struck the planet, staying in
space as debris before being attracted by the 4……’s gravity. Of the 41,000
officially recognized meteorites, 61 come from Mars and the 5.......... rock is only
the fifth that was witnessed falling. Dr. Tony Irving of Washington University,
who performed some initial analysis on the sample, does not think there is much
chance of finding fossilized life within it. But the British team could reveal
whether minerals have been affected by water or contain elements such as carbon.
Smith says “We’re not looking for microbes, but we’re looking for the chemical
and environmental signatures to indicate whether Mars, at some point in its past,
may have provided a suitable environment for life to exist.”

Test 6
Although many community newspapers are justifiably proud of their hard-hitting
local editorials, perhaps half of all community papers carry no editorials at all.
Publishers who refuse to editorialize often claim that editorial harassing is resented
in small 1................. Others are fearful of alienating readers and advertisers. Still
others say they do not have enough 2 ……. to develop polished, well-researched 3
…………on a regular basis. Many publishers are leaders in the commercial and
political lives of their towns, and are so much a part of the local power structure
that their editorials would not be persuasive anyway. Those who editorialize assert
that editorials and opinion columns give identity to their 4.......... and leadership to
their communities. Indeed, some of the most inspired writing the US has produced
– the ‘Crisis’ essays of Tom Paine, the Federalist Papers explaining and defending
the Constitution, the stirring commentary of William Allen White of Kansas – first
saw the light of day as editorial or column material in a community 5 …….. .
Courageous hometown editors regularly win Pulitzer Prizes and other professional
honours for crusading editorials on local issues.

Test 7

The son of a gifted musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first musical

experiences were hearing his very talented sister, Nannerl, at her lessons. His own
gifts soon surpassed hers, and proud of their accomplishments, their 1 ..........gave
up his career to promote their talents before the astounded royalty of Europe.
Despite extensive tours, 2… ........composed and studied continually, but by 1772,
no longer an excellent child, he had to settle for the realities of the 3 ……
residence in Salzburg, where his social status was somewhere between the servants
and the cooks. Never satisfied with the 4… ......... family and convinced of his own
musical superiority, Mozart attempted to obtain a respected position in the
government. However, failing to do so, he was left to become his own employer.
Arriving in Vienna 5… ........ 1781, he married Constanze Weber and started to give
concerts, publish music and receive commissions, particularly for operas. Over the
next ten years, he 6… ......over 200 works and strengthened his reputation, but had
to give piano lessons and borrow money to maintain the lifestyle he desired.

Test 8

Originally grown in China, rice has a 1… ......of qualities that made it attractive to
early farmers. It yielded more than other early domesticated grains like wheat and
barley. The low moisture content of its seed allowed for easy drying and long
storage, and the 1… ......... s resisted bruising and were easily transported.
2… ....cultivation gradually spread from eastern Asia, very likely facilitated
Central Asia into Western Europe. For the ancient Greeks, it was an expensive
import, not a dietary staple. When first introduced in Britain, 3…… was valued as
a medicine. Rice reached the Americas by the 1650s, most likely on trade ships, by
African slaves, and it turned into a major cash crop in the Carolinas within a
century. Soon rice was being grown widely in the southern United States and
South America. Today, rice is a dietary staple for about half of the 5… ....... ’s
population. Developed into more than 8,000 varieties, including geneticallyengineered
varieties, it is traded as a commodity on local and world markets.
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