Lexico-Grammar Part 1: For Questions 1-20, Choose The Correct Answer A, B, C or D To Each of The Following Questions [PDF]

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3/8/2021 LEXICO-GRAMMAR Part 1: For questions 1-20, choose the correct answer A, B, C or D to each of the following questions. 1. Egypt is a fantastic country for tourists. It’s absolutely ______ in history. A. soaked B. drenched C. steeped D. saturated 2. I wanted to talk, but she was determined to sweep the matter under the ______. A. cupboard B. table C. carpet D. bed 3. The newspaper story was based on an interview which had been done off the ______. A. script B. record C. key 4. Before you make a decision you should ______ all the issues involved. A. weigh through B. weigh out C. weigh up 5. I’m afraid that cycling is off the ______ until the weather improves.

D. tape D. weigh down

A. record B. card C. track D. menu 6. I read some pretty ______ news about the economy today. A. challenging B. jumpy C. disconcerting D. cutting 7. He spent too much on his credit card, and now he can’t ______ the minimum payments. A. keep on B. keep in C. keep to 8. Her condition is improving, but she's not out of the ______. A. dark B. cupboard C. woods 9. Some electric cars have a ______ of 150 kilometres.

D. keep up

A. run B. distance C. range 10. ______, I’d like to say how much I’ve enjoyed our meeting. A. Finally B. At last C. Eventually 11. I’d give up my job ______ if only I could find a better one.

D. scope

D. fire

D. After all

A. at one swoop B. at the drop of a hat C. on the dot D. on the spur of the moment 12. The hotel, though obviously grand in its day, appeared rather neglected and ____ when we checked in. A. tumble-down B. downcast C. down-and-out D. run-down 13. If you’d like to take a seat in the waiting room till the doctor can see you, you’ll find plenty of magazines to ___. A. refer to B. browse through C. look over D. stare at 14. I’d say let’s meet on Saturday, but I’m none ______ sure what’s happening at the weekend. A. so B. very C. that D. too 15. Since we had only one day left, we decided to make an ______ effort to finish the run in record time. A. all-in B. all-out C. overall D. all-round 16. As he was caught ______ an offensive weapon, he was immediately a suspect. A. in possession of B. on ownership of C. with handling with D. out of control with 17. We might just as well have stayed at home ______ the enjoyment we had. A. on account of B. as far as C. for all D. concerning 18. You should only make serious accusations like that if they have a sound ______ in fact. A. basis B. foothold C. framework D. principle 19. He hadn’t prepared a speech; he just made a few remarks ______. A. off the cuff B. at first sight C. up his sleeve D. out of the back of his neck 20. Martin needs to get a ______ on his finances if he’s not to face serious difficulties with the bank. A. grasp B. clutch C. grip D. clasp

Part 2: For questions 1-10, write the correct form of each bracketed word in the numbered space provided in the column on the right. Sultan Abdul Hamid II was the last of the great rulers of the Ottoman house of Osman. As the immediate (1. SUCCEED) to two sultans who had been deposed, he came to the throne a very nervous man. He considered security at his palaces to be far too lax, and set about building a new (2. PENETRATE) palace from scratch. To this end, he secured the services of a dozen architects and (3. MISSION) each to build just one twelfth of the palace, working in complete (4. IGNORE) of the progress of the other eleven. In effect, the Sultan built himself the world's most elaborate and (5. EXTEND) prison. Every room was connected to a secret (6. GROUND) passage and many of the rooms were booby-trapped: at the flick of a switch, cupboards would fly open and (7. MECHANIC) controlled revolvers would fire. The Sultan employed thousands of spies and secret agents; the ones he considered most (8. WORTH) being the hundreds of caged parrots which were hung on street corners and trained to squawk if they saw a stranger. Another of his many (9. PECULIAR) was that he always carried a pearlhandled revolver. No-one dared put their hands in their pockets in his presence - to do so would have been an invitation for him to take a pot shot. When one of his daughters once (10. PLAY) gave him a shove from behind, he spun round and shot her before realizing who it was.

1. _______successor___________ 2. _____impenetrable_________ 3. __missionaries_____________ 4. ______ignorance___________ 5. _______extensive___________ 6. ___underground___________ 7. ____mechanically__________ 8. ______worthy____________ 9. ______peculiarity__________

10. ____playfully____________

READING Part 1: For questions 1-10, fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. ON THE OTHER HAND? We left-handed people lack collective pride. We just try to get by, in our clumsy way. We make (1) __no____ demands and we avoid a fuss. I used to say whenever someone watched me sign my name and remarked that he or she was also left-handed: "You and me and Leonardo da Vinci!" That was a weak joke, but it contained my often unconscious desire to (2) ___belong___ to Left Pride, a social movement that doesn't (3) ___yet?___ exist but I hope may one day come. There are many false stories about the left-handed in circulation: for example, a few decades ago someone wrote that Picasso was left-handed, and others kept (4) ___repeating___ it, but the proof is all to the contrary. The great genius Einstein is often still claimed as one of (5) ___ours___, also without proof. And sadly, there is also no truth in the myth that the left-handed (6) __tend____ to be smarter and more creative. Despite the amount of research that has been carried out, researchers in the field are still in two (7) __minds?____ about what we mean by lefthanded. Apparently a third of those who write with their left hand throw a ball with their right. However, those using their right hand for (8) ___writing___ rarely throw with their left. A difficult skill that becomes crucial at a (9) ___most___ impressionable age, writing defines what you will call yourself. I have never used scissors, baseball bat, hockey stick or computer mouse with anything but my right; even so, I think I'm left-handed as (10) ___does___ everyone else. Part 2: For questions 1-10, read the following passage and do the tasks that follow. THE ROBOTS ARE COMING What is the current state of play in Artificial Intelligence? Paragraph A Can robots advance so far that they become the ultimate threat to our existence? Some scientists say no, and dismiss the very idea of Artificial Intelligence. The human brain, they argue, is the most complicated system ever created, and any machine designed to reproduce human thought is bound to fail. Physicist Roger Penrose of Oxford University

and others believe that machines are physically incapable of human thought. Colin McGinn of Rutgers University backs this up when he says that Artificial Intelligence ‘is like sheep trying to do complicated psychoanalysis. They just don’t have the conceptual equipment they need in their limited brains’. Paragraph B Artificial Intelligence, or Al, is different from most technologies in that scientists still understand very little about how intelligence works. Physicists have a good understanding of Newtonian mechanics and the quantum theory of atoms and molecules, whereas the basic laws of intelligence remain a mystery. But a sizable number of mathematicians and computer scientists, who are specialists in the area, are optimistic about the possibilities. To them it is only a matter of time before a thinking machine walks out of the laboratory. Over the years, various problems have impeded all efforts to create robots. To attack these difficulties, researchers tried to use the ‘topdown approach’, using a computer in an attempt to program all the essential rules onto a single disc. By inserting this into a machine, it would then become self-aware and attain human-like intelligence. Paragraph C In the 1950s and 1960s great progress was made, but the shortcomings of these prototype robots soon became clear. They were huge and took hours to navigate across a room. Meanwhile, a fruit fly, with a brain containing only a fraction of the computing power, can effortlessly navigate in three dimensions. Our brains, like the fruit fly’s, unconsciously recognize what we see by performing countless calculations. This unconscious awareness of patterns is exactly what computers are missing. The second problem is robots’ lack of common sense. Humans know that water is wet and that mothers are older than their daughters. But there is no mathematics that can

express these truths. Children learn the intuitive laws of biology and physics by interacting with the real world. Robots know only what has been programmed into them. Paragraph D Because of the limitations of the top-down approach to Artificial Intelligence, attempts have been made to use a ‘bottom-up’ approach instead – that is, to try to imitate evolution and the way a baby learns. Rodney Brooks was the director of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence laboratory, famous for its lumbering ‘top- down’ walking robots. He changed the course of research when he explored the unorthodox idea of tiny ‘insectoid’ robots that learned to walk by bumping into things instead of computing mathematically the precise position of their feet. Today many of the descendants of Brooks’ insectoid robots are on Mars gathering data for NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration), running across the dusty landscape of the planet. For all their successes in mimicking the behavior of insects, however, robots using neural networks have performed miserably when their programmers have tried to duplicate in them the behavior of higher organisms such as mammals. MIT’s Marvin Minsky summarises the problems of Al: ‘The history of Al is sort of funny because the first real accomplishments were beautiful things, like a machine that could do well in a maths course. But then we started to try to make machines that could answer questions about simple children’s stories. There’s no machine today that can do that.’ Paragraph E There are people who believe that eventually there will be a combination between the top- down and bottom-up, which may provide the key to Artificial Intelligence. As adults, we blend the two approaches. It has been suggested that our emotions represent the quality that most distinguishes us as human, that it is impossible for machines ever to have emotions. Computer expert Hans Moravec thinks that in the future robots will be programmed with emotions such as fear to protect themselves so that they can signal to humans when their batteries are running low, for example. Emotions are vital in decision-making. People who have suffered a certain kind of brain injury lose the ability to experience emotions and become unable to make decisions. Without emotions to guide them, they debate endlessly over their options. Moravec points out that as robots become more intelligent and are able to make choices, they could likewise become paralysed with indecision. To aid them, robots of the future might need to have emotions hardwired into their brains. Paragraph F There is no universal consensus as to whether machines can be conscious, or even, in human terms, what consciousness means. Minsky suggests the thinking process in our brain is not localised but spread out, with different centres competing with one another at any given time. Consciousness may then be viewed as a sequence of thoughts and images issuing from these different, smaller ‘minds’, each one competing for our attention. Robots might eventually attain a ‘silicon consciousness’. Robots, in fact, might one day embody an architecture for thinking and processing information that is different from ours – but also indistinguishable. If that happens, the question of whether they really ‘understand’ becomes largely irrelevant. A robot that has perfect mastery of syntax, for all practical purposes, understands what is being said. The reading passage has six paragraphs, A-F. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 61-67. You may use any letter more than once. 1. An insect that proves the superiority of natural intelligence over Artificial Intelligence C 2. Robots being able to benefit from their mistakes D 3. Many researchers not being put off believing that Artificial Intelligence will eventually be developed B 4. An innovative approach that is having limited success D 5. The possibility of creating Artificial Intelligence being doubted by some academics A 6. No generally accepted agreement of what our brains do F 7. Robots not being able to extend the intelligence in the same way as humans C Look at the following people (Questions 68-70) and the list of statements below. Match each person with the correct statement A-E. Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 68-70.

8. 9. 10. A. B. C. D.

Colin McGinn D Marvin Minsky C Hans Moravec A

Artificial Intelligence may require something equivalent to feelings in order to succeed. Different kinds of people use different parts of the brain. Tests involving fiction have defeated Artificial Intelligence so far. People have intellectual capacities which do not exist in computers.

E. People have no reason to be frightened of robots. Part 3: For questions 1-5, you are going to read an extract from an article. Five paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-F the one which fits each gap (71-75). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use. A REALISTIC VIEW One of the most memorable scenes from Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now shows a beach landing by US troops under heavy fire. As the camera pans around, we catch a glimpse of Coppola himself, directing another film crew, shouting ‘Don’t look at the camera!’ as the actors stream past. 1

D

The image, and especially the moving image, has a power that text and spoken word has not; the power of immediate impact. Whereas before Vietnam, casualties of war would be reported in dry figures, now the viewer could see the corpses strewn on the battlefield. The images of the Vietnam War undoubtedly played a part in creating the anti-war movement back in the States, and the eventual ceasefire. 2 F And because the camera is ever-present, the other mass media, especially newspapers, are being forced to take steps to compete. No longer is it enough to collect various stories and patch together an article; the modern-day journalist is expected to provide an eyewitness account of the front lines of a battle, must live among the combatants and duck under the live bullets and avoid the explosions along with them. 3

A

It has also led to an extremely alarming rise in the numbers of casualties, including fatalities, among members of the press. This reached such a level during the Bosnian War that staff from different media networks banded together, refusing to send more than one camera crew into the field at a time and pooling all the footage obtained. 4 B This means good pictures, certainly, and the gritty scenes that keep the viewer hooked. However, if every news show has the same pictures, why should the viewers watch one show over another? What a news show wants are the exclusive pictures; to be the only channel that shows this shot, that angle, these exciting sequences. 5 E Journalists are often deeply ambitious, driven people, insatiable in their chase for the big story that will make their name, their career. They know very well that news does not get any bigger than war news, and so when a conflict breaks out, they flock to the scene, itching to get into the heat of the action. So when the US invaded Afghanistan, it was not just troops that went over the border. Journalists, cameramen, photographers, all went along for the ride, penetrating areas of the country shunned even by the US military, all in search of that elusive goal, the exclusive, whether in the form of an article, a photograph or a video clip. The missing paragraphs A. It leads to rather incongruous scenes. Enemies exchanging gunfire along a city street, hugging the walls of buildings. Behind them, similarly crouched, is a cameraman aiming lens instead of gun; a reporter clutching a microphone in a white-knuckled fist is hiding behind him, babbling commentary to a live audience.

B. However, sensible measures such as these are not good enough for the networks. The images thus obtained may be real, may show the situation as it is happening on the ground, but what a news show wants above all else is not the truth, especially. It wants good TV. C. They come with their notebooks open and pens poised, their cameras loaded, ready to snap or roll. They are the war correspondents, veterans of Bosnia, Somalia and Kosovo, battle-scarred and hardened, more ready for combat than most of the soldiers they stop to interview. D. Why was the mistake not taken out of the final cut? Because it fitted perfectly. The Vietnam War was the first war to be properly televised, and scenes from it were part and parcel of the average American’s experience of the war. So the scene in the film looks authentic precisely because it has a film crew on the sidelines, shooting the soldiers going into action. E. At every opportunity, the networks will be putting pressure on their staff to capture the fresh, the new, to venture deeper and deeper into the battlefield in search of that award-winning scoop. And, if the truth be known, they rarely find themselves running particularly short of volunteers. F. So it has become expected that every war be accompanied by a visual commentary, and this has necessitated the sending of camera crews into war zones to capture the moments on celluloid (or now, video). A war is no longer a real war unless it is televised. Part 4: For questions 1-10, read an extract from an article on language and choose the answer A, B, C or D which you think fits best according to the text. Write your answers in the corresponding numbered boxes provided. AN UNLIKELY MUSE A new wave of music and arts projects has emerged, focusing on someone who may seem for some a dubious source of inspiration. Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines, is currently becoming the subject of musicals, song cycles and shows on a worldwide arena. When the Marcos regime collapsed in 1986, and Imelda and her husband Ferdinand were exiled in Hawaii, they carried with them allegations of embezzlement, corruption and human rights abuses. Imelda had spent the last twenty years living off a seemingly endless supply of funds, living an exotic and glamorous lifestyle and rubbing shoulders

with powerful figures worldwide. In 1972, when the superstar couple’s popularity was fading and they were at risk of losing their power, Ferdinand Marcos instated martial, leading to an era of chaos and plunder, and what is described by some as the second most corrupt regime of the twentieth century. Ferdinand and Imelda fled in 1986 to escape the People’s Power Revolution, Imelda leaving behind some 2000 pairs of shoes. After her husband died in Hawaii due to ill health, Imelda stood trial in the United States on behalf of her husband. Following that, she returned to the Philippines to face seventy more counts of corruption and tax evasion. She has now returned to congress in the Philippines, her make-up and gowns as flawless as ever. So what makes Imelda Marcos such an appealing muse? Undoubtedly, Imelda Marcos’s resolute character which has withstood exile, legal battles and the wrath of her enemies makes her an appealing heroine, but film-maker Fenton Bailey attributes her iconicity to her sense of glamour and style, and her role as a cultural trend-setter. And like so many women who let nothing come between them and their goals, she has gained a certain iconic status, particularly among homosexuals, not unlike that of Judy Garland and Lady Gaga. And now the story of Imelda Marcos can be seen in the format of a musical, an artistic genre which is quite befitting for this flamboyant, entertaining figure of beauty and glamour. ‘Imelda – A new musical’ has played in Los Angeles and New York. The artistic director of the musical, Tim Dang, realises that the musical glosses over the darker aspects of the Marcos regime, but wanted to portray Imelda as a person with all her faults on display, leaving the audience to come to a verdict. However, despite the glitz of the show, reviews were mixed, stating the ‘the serio-comic spoof... had a vacuum at its centre’. The story of Imelda Marcos has also been immortalised as a song cycle, ‘Here Lies Love’ written by David Byrne and Norman Cook, in which Imelda comes across as both a hero and villain. Their reasoning was to try to understand the story of how people can attain positions of such power and greed. They were also inspired by

Imelda’s love of dancing and clubbing, and how her own style of music could be incorporated into their own. Byrne adds that their story is not black and white – the couple were very popular at first, and Imelda headed a lot of public works in the Philippines and added much to the nation’s sense of culture and identity. At the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, a tour named ‘La Vida Imelda’ led by Carlos Sedran describes the life of Imelda Marcos, the cold war and martial law, while also portraying the glamour of the Imelda lifestyle. He describes it as an eternal story, in which her extravagance can be seen as either distasteful or in some ways estimable. There is a danger that these new art forms airbrush out the atrocity which accompanied the ostentation and glamour. It was a time when democracy was suppressed, political enemies disappeared, and billions of dollars which could have helped the poverty-stricken country were spent on the Marcos’s extravagant lifestyle. However, the artists involved are keen to make clear that the regime also resulted in great leaps forward in the country’s culture, architecture and infrastructure. The Marcos legacy remains in the form of hospitals, Heart and Lung Centres, Folk Art theatres and homes for children and the elderly, notwithstanding that the Marcos couple set their war-ravaged, poverty-stricken land onto the world stage. 1. Why are Imelda’s shoes mentioned in the second paragraph? A. To illustrate how little she cared for her personal possessions B. To illustrate her love of fashion and beauty C. To indicate how quickly she had to flee the country D. To illustrate the extravagance of her lifestyle 2. What aspect of Imelda’s character is emphasised in paragraph 3? A. her flamboyance B. her beauty C. her doggedness D. her forbearance 3. Why is Imelda compared with Judy Garland and Lady Gaga? A. Due to her status as a gay icon B. Due to her ambition and drive C. Because she has created new fashions D. Because she has triumphed over legal battles 4. The phrase “rubbing shoulders” in the second paragraph mostly means ______. A. hobnobbing B. abetting C. fostering 5. Why was the musical of Imelda’s life criticised?

D. conferring

A. Because it did not portray Imelda’s faults B. Because the show was too shallow C. Because it was too glamorous and showy D. Because it was both serious and comedic 6. What was it about Imelda’s story that interested David Byrne and Norman Cooke? A. The ongoing themes of power, greed and music B. The fact that the story had both a clear hero and villain C. The reasoning why people such as Imelda become who they are D. The fact that her musical taste was similar to theirs 7. The word ‘incorporated in the sixth paragraph is closest in meaning to _____. A. inverted B. infused C. integrated D. interbred 8. According to Carlos Sedran, how do people respond to Imelda’s expensive lifestyle? B. It evokes both positive and negative A. Most people are shocked by it. feelings. C. People want to be like her. D. People realise why she did it. 9. The word ‘atrocity in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to _____. A. complexity B. indignity C. mendacity D. barbarity 10. Which of the following is not mentioned in the text as something Imelda Marcos did for the Philippines? A. She made health services available to the people. B. She gave the country a cultural identity. C. She reduced the levels of poverty for Filipino people. D. She drew the world’s attention to the country.

Part 5: For questions 1-10, you are going to read an article about the effects of tourism on local people. Choose from the people (A–E). The people may be chosen more than once. LIVING WITH TOURISM Five people describe how tourism has affected their home town. A. Leonor Sousa It can’t be denied that tourism has attracted investment, which has certainly raised living standards here, but the cost in other respects has been extremely high (8). Take the effect on the environment, for instance. When my parents were young this used to be an area of fields and woods, but now everything is covered in concrete (5). The tourists themselves aren’t responsible for this; it’s the construction companies, property developers and estate agents who are to blame because they’re the ones making all the money. They’re all based in the big cities and bring in their own people, so they hardly create any employment at all for local residents. B. Yusuf Demir When I was growing up in my home town there was a path I used to walk along to go to school, and last summer I went to see if it was still there. It was, but the view from it had changed completely. Now there is a vast shopping mall, with a cinema and cafés alongside. I don’t actually mind that, because it means there are lots more things to do, and I also like the fact that it has a really international atmosphere. It’s good for local people to meet visitors from other parts of the world, try new kinds of food and hear about different ways of living.(6) C. Matt Walker Tourism has changed this town so much, even in the years since I was at junior school. In those days, there was a football pitch near the harbour where we would kick a ball around, but it’s gone now, which is a pity (1) In the harbour itself luxury yachts owned by people from richer parts of the country have replaced the fishing boats, to the extent that there is now no sign of what used to be the main source of income and employment locally (4). In the evenings, the town is certainly a lot livelier, but sometimes people start doing things they would never think of doing back in their own home towns, and then the police have to be called. (7) D. Trisha Chandra I was just a child when tourism first took off here, and those incredibly ugly houses were built for summer visitors. The residents really should have protested about that. It was all the fault of the town council, who only ever thought (3) in the short term and seemed to give planning permission to anyone who applied to build anything. Nowadays, there’s talk of ecological tourism, but that’s just a way of making people feel less guilty about the harm they are doing by making a few insignificant changes, such as re-using towels in their hotel rooms.(10) E. Daniela Navarro I know some of the new hotels and holiday apartment blocks are unattractive, and that the bars, restaurants and nightclubs that cater for tourists have changed the nature of the town, but without them, unemployment – particularly among the young – would be far worse than it currently is (2). That, though, is as far as the economic benefits to the town go, as the only ones making any real money out of all this are the big tour operators and the owners of hotel chains, none of whom are actually based in this country (9). Also, very few tourists learn our language. I know it must be difficult for them because most of them are quite old, but it means there’s little communication between us and them.

Which person ______

Your Answers

misses a place they used to go to as a child?

1.

states that tourism provides a considerable number of jobs for local people?

2.

wishes local people had opposed the construction of certain holiday homes?

3.

claims that tourism has destroyed a traditional industry?

4.

blames the tourist industry for spoiling the local countryside?

5.

feels that the presence of people from other cultures benefits the local

6.

C E D C A

community? criticises the behaviour of tourists in their town?

7.

says the town is wealthier than it was before it became a tourist resort?

8.

believes that most of the profits from the local tourist industry go abroad?

9.

is not convinced that so-called green tourism actually benefits the environment?

10.

B C A E D

The graph shows the proportion of the population aged 65 and over between 1940 and 2040 in three different countries. Write a report comparing and contrasting the data. You should write at least 150 words in 20 minutes

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