Practice 3 [PDF]

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PRACTICE 3 (HP) PART I: GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY I. Choose the word or phrase that best fits each blank in the following sentences. 1. I would like passersby to be excited by the sculpture and to feel it has not a __________ value but a timeless feel to it. A. conclusive B. swindling C. twisting D. superficial 2. _________ recent incidents, we are asking our customers to take particular care of their personal belongings. A. Considering B. Bearing in mind C. After all D. In the light of 3. But most people will not assess the small print setting out changes to a(n) _________ and little understood institutional structure. A. ambiguous B. raucous C. intricate D. lively 4. Every time she is in a _________, she rings her father and asks for help. A. chance B. trouble C. difficulty D. fix 5. The world’s first boot camp for teenagers addicted to the Internet may be the _________ of things to come. A. draft B. formula C. character D. shape 6. Teachers aim to help children become _________ learners. A. autonomous B. withdrawn C. susceptible D. composed 7. Sam was born in the country and had a deep _________ with nature. A. credence B. stature C. guile D. affinity 8. When her tears had _________ their course, she felt calmer and more in control. A. run B. put C. take D. set 9. His emotional problems _________ from the attitudes he encountered as a child. A. flourish B. stem C. root D. spout 10. She _________ scorn on his plans to get rich quickly. A. threw B. splashed C. spread D. heaped 11. He quickly learned the _________ of the job. A. by and large B. fair and square C. ins and outs D. odds and ends 12. The picking of the fruit, _________, takes about a week. A. whose work they receive no money B. for which work they receive no money C. they receive no money for it D. as they receive no money for that work 13. She made _________ telling him exactly what she thought of him. A. the best of B. no bones about C. a splash D. a clean sweep of 14. My patience is beginning to _________. A. make waves B. hold water C. wear very thin D. stay afloat 15. For the first few months the babies looked so alike I couldn’t tell _________. A. who is whom B. which is which C. which from which D. whom with whom 16. _________ invisible to the unaided eye, ultraviolet light can be detected in a number of ways. A. Although is B. Despite C. Even though it D. Although 17. You can imagine how upset I was after the closure of the magazine. Since the first day on its staff I _________ it as my best job ever. A. have considered B. considered C. had considered D. was considered 18. The boss shouted at me as if _________. A. I had been the only one who were to blame B. I were the only one to be to blame C. nobody but I am to blame D. only I had been blamed 19. If I were you, I would regard their offer with considerable _________ because it seems too good to be true. A. suspicion B. doubt C. reservation D. disbelief 20. I love to do things for children because I get a _________ out of it. A. pass B. shoot C. kick D. move II. The passage below contains 10 mistakes. IDENTIFY and CORRECT them. Write your answers in the space provided in the column on the right.

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People appear to bear to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so

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inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical mature guiding their

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growth. No long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy –

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one plate, one knife, one spoon, one fork, for all of the five chairs. Soon they are capable of

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nothing that they have placed five knives, spoons, and forks on the table and, a bit later, that this

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amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastering addition, they move on to

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subtraction. It seems most reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island in

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birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she could enter a second-grade mathematics class

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without some serious problems of intellectual adjustment.

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Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has

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illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on that intellectual progress depends. Children were

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observed as they slow grasped or, as the case might be, bumped into – concepts that adults take

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for granted, as they refuse, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours

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from a short stout glass into a tall thin one.

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III. Fill each blank with a suitable preposition. a. Environmental groups are locked (1) _______ argument with the council (2) _______ the proposed new bypass through parts of Charmy Wood. b. My new hiking boots will be great once I’ve broken them (3) _______. c. We were taken out for a meal (4) _______ the company’s expense. d. Let’s kick (5) _______ this session by introducing ourselves, shall we? e. I don’t want to turn down work, but I’ve got far too much (6) _______ my plate. f. She’s worked very hard at her tennis and she’s progressing (7) _______ leaps and bounds. g. ‘This will cause all sorts of problems.’ - ‘I know. It is a recipe (8) _______ disaster.’ h. I believe the apartment for sale is now (9) _______ offer. i. (10) _______ balance, I think the government’s doing a reasonable job. IV. Write the correct FORM of each bracketed word in the numbered spaces provided. A successful failure If there is one historical figure that has been regarded as a failure during his lifetime by so many biographers and yet is remembered by secondary school history students as a (1) (LEGEND) _____ explorer and campaigner, it is David Livingstone. As an explorer, he erred (2) (DISASTER) _____ in thinking that that the Zambezi river was navigable and he misidentified the source of the Nile. In addition, by the time he died, his campaign against the East African slave trade had had (3) (DISAPPOINT) _____ little success. He was not much better as a husband or father, either, leaving his family behind for years as he trampled thousands of miles over (4) (HOSPITALITY) _____ rugged African terrain. Despite his mistakes and the fact that his behaviour was often less than ( 5) (EXAMPLE) _____ he deserved more recognition than he has been given by experts. Indeed, there were values he (6) (BODY) _____ that have held him in

high esteem in some circles. He found the (7) (TREAT) _____ of the blacks ensnared in the booming African slave trade so (8) (TASTE) _____ that he fought (9) (TIRE) _____ to stamp it out. His attempts may have failed during his active campaign but in the year after his death, the Sultan of Zanzibar signed a treaty with Britain guaranteeing the ( 10) (ABOLISH) _____ of the East African slave trade, an agreement Livingstone had dreamed of. 1. 6.

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2. 7.

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3. 8.

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4. 9.

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5. 10.

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PART II: READING I. Choose the word that best fits each of the blanks in the following passage. Why people laugh Sunday May 4th will be World Laughter Day. Dr Madan Kataria, who introduced this annual event, says we need more laughter in our lives to (1) _____ the global rise of stress and loneliness. But surely that strange sound that we make periodically can’t be the (2) _____ to such problems. If an alien were to land on our planet and (3) _____ a stroll among a crowd of earthlings, it would hear a lot of ‘ha-ha’ noises. It might wonder what (4) _____ this strange habit served. If we ask ourselves what (5) _____ a good laugh, the obvious answer is that it is a response to something funny. (6) _____ one scientist, Robert Provine, says humour has surprisingly little to (7) _____ with that. Instead, it lies at the (8) _____ of such issues as the perception of self and the evolution of language and social behaviour. Provine realised that you cannot capture (9) _____ laughter in the lab because as soon as you (10) _____ it under scrutiny, it vanishes. So, instead, he gathered data (11) _____ hanging around groups of people, noting when they laughed. He collected 1,200 laugh episodes – and episode being (12) _____ as the comment immediately preceding the laughter and the laughter itself. His analysis of this data (13) _____ some important facts about laughter. “It’s a message we send to other people – it (14) _____ disappears when we’re by ourselves,” he says. “And it’s not a choice. Ask someone to laugh and they’ll either try to (15) _____ a laugh or say they can’t do it on command.” 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

A. struggle A. way A. make A. reason A. results A. However A. go A. root A. complete A. place A. in A. defended A. revealed A. absolutely A. offer

B. combat B. answer B. get B. purpose B. leads B. Therefore B. bring B. stem B. authentic B. lay B. for B. decided B. investigated B. constantly B. pretend

C. threaten C. end C. walk C. idea C. prompts C. As C. do C. head C. contemporary C. stand C. down C. defined C. displayed C. undoubtedly C. fake

D. contest D. response D. take D. meaning D. concludes D. But D. set D. back D. current D. keep D. by D. depicted D. declared D. virtually D. imagine

II. Fill each blank with ONE suitable word. Write your answers in the numbered blanks provided below the passage. Among all the abilities with (1) _____ an individual may be endowed, musical talent appears (2) _____ in life. Very young children can exhibit musical precocity (3) _____ different reasons. Some develop exceptional (4) _____ as a result of a well-designed instructional regime, such as the Suzuki method for the violin. Some have the good fortune to be born into a musical (5) _____ in a household filled with music. In a number of interesting cases, musical talent is part of an

otherwise disabling condition such as autism or mental retardation. A musically gifted child has an inborn talent; ( 6) _____, the extent to which the talent is expressed (7) _____ will depend upon the environment in which the child lives. Musically gifted children master (8) _____ an early age the principal elements of music, including pitch and rhythm. Pitch – or melody – is more central in certain cultures, for example, in Eastern societies that make use of tiny quarter – tone intervals. Rhythm, sounds produced at certain auditory frequencies and grouped according to a prescribed (9) _____, is emphasized in sub-Saharan Africa, (10) _____ the rhythmic ratios can be very complex. 1. 6.

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2. 7.

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3. 8.

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4. 9.

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5. 10.

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III. In this part of the test, you are going to read a short text, then answer the questions following each text by choosing the best answer to each question A,B,C or D. Those brilliant autumn leaves As trees across the northern areas of the globe turn gold and crimson, scientists are debating exactly what these colors are for. The scientists do agree on one thing: the colours are for something. That represents a major shift in thinking. For decades, textbooks claimed that autumn colours were just a by-product of dying leaves. ‘I had always assumed that autumn leaves were waste baskets,’ said Dr. David Wilkinson, an evolutionary ecologist at Liverpool John Moores University in England. ‘That's what I was told as a student.’ During spring and summer, leaves get their green cast from chlorophyll, the pigment that plays a major role in capturing sunlight. But the leaves also contain other pigments whose colours are masked during the growing season. In autumn, trees break down their chlorophyll and draw some of the components back into their tissues. Conventional wisdom regards autumn colours as the product of the remaining pigments, which are finally unmasked. Evolutionary biologists and plant physiologists offer two different explanations for why natural selection has made autumn colours so widespread. Dr. William Hamilton, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, proposed that bright autumn leaves contain a message: they warn insects to leave them alone. Dr. Hamilton's 'leaf signal' hypothesis grew out of earlier work he had done on the extravagant plumage of birds. He proposed it served as an advertisement from males to females, indicating they had desirable genes. As females evolved a preference for those displays, males evolved more extravagant feathers as they competed for mates. In the case of trees, Dr. Hamilton proposed that the visual message was sent to insects. In the autumn, aphids and other insects choose trees where they will lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch the next spring, the larvae feed on the tree, often with devastating results. A tree can ward off these pests with poisons. Dr. Hamilton speculated that trees with strong defences might be able to protect themselves even further by letting egg-laying insects know what was in store for their eggs. By producing brilliant autumn colours, the trees advertised their lethality. As insects evolved to avoid the brightest leaves, natural selection favoured trees that could become even brighter. ‘It was a beautiful idea,’ said Marco Archetti, a former student of Dr. Hamilton who is now at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Dr. Hamilton had Mr. Archetti turn the hypothesis into a mathematical model. The model showed that warning signals could indeed drive the evolution of bright leaves - at least in theory. Another student, Sam Brown, tested the leaf-signal hypothesis against real data about trees and insects. ‘It was a first stab to see what was out there,’ said Dr. Brown, now an evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas. The leaf-signal hypothesis has also drawn criticism, most recently from Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. H. Martin Schaefer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Dr. Wilkinson and other critics point to a number of details about aphids and trees that do not fit Dr. Hamilton's hypothesis. Dr. William Hoch, a plant physiologist at the University of Wisconsin, argues that bright leaves appear on trees that have no insects to warn off. ‘If you are up here in the north of Wisconsin, by the time the leaves change, all the insects that feed on foliage are gone,’ Dr. Hoch said. In their article, Dr. Schaefer and Dr. Wilkinson argue that a much more plausible explanation for autumn colours can be found in the research of Dr. Hoch and other plant physiologists. Their recent work suggests that autumn colours serve mainly as a sunscreen. Dr. Hamilton's former students argue that the leaf-signal hypothesis is still worth investigating. Dr. Brown believes that leaves might be able to protect themselves both from sunlight and from insects. Dr. Brown and Dr. Archetti also argue

that supporters of the sunscreen hypothesis have yet to explain why some trees have bright colours and some do not. 'This is a basic question in evolution that they seem to ignore,’ Dr. Archetti said. ‘I don't think it's a huge concern,’ Dr. Hoch replied. ‘There's natural variation for every characteristic.’ Dr. Hamilton's students and their critics agree that the debate has been useful, because it has given them a deeper reverence for this time of year. 'People sometimes say that science makes the world less interesting and awesome by just explaining things away,' Dr. Wilkinson said. 'But with autumn leaves, the more you know about them, the more amazed you are.' 1. What is stated about the colours of autumn leaves in the first two paragraphs? A. There has previously been no disagreement about what causes them. B. The process that results in them has never been fully understood. C. Different colours from those that were previously the norm have started to appear. D. Debate about the purpose of them has gone on for a long time. 2. The writer says that Dr Hamilton's work has focused on A. the different purposes of different colours. B. the use of colour for opposite purposes. C. the possibility that birds and insects have influenced each other's behaviour. D. the increased survival rates of certain kinds of tree. 3. Dr Hamilton has suggested that there is a connection between A. the colours of autumn leaves and the behaviour of insects. B. the development of brighter leaves and the reduced numbers of certain types of insect. C. the survival of trees and the proximity of insects to them. D. the brightness of leaves and the development of other defence mechanisms in trees. 4. The phrase ‘ward off’ in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to A. comply B. occupy C. avoid

D. illuminate

5. What is said about the work done by former students of Dr Hamilton? A. Neither of them was able to achieve what they set out to do. B. Mr Archetti felt some regret about the outcome of the work he did. C. Both of them initiated the idea of doing the work. D. Dr Brown did not expect to draw any firm conclusions from his work. 6. Critics of Dr Hamilton's theory have expressed the view that A. it is impossible to generalize about the purpose of the colours of autumn leaves. B. his theory is based on a misunderstanding about insect behaviour. C. the colours of autumn leaves have a different protective function. D. his theory can only be applied to certain kinds of insect. 7. The word ‘serve’ in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to A. investigate B. ignore C. refrain

D. perform

8. In the debate between the two groups of people investigating the subject, it has been suggested that A. something regarded as a key point by one side is in fact not important. B. further research will prove that Dr Hamilton's theory is the correct one. C. both sides may in fact be completely wrong. D. the two sides should collaborate. 9. The word ‘awesome’ in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to A. trivial B. average C. wondrous 10. All the people involved in research on the subject of autumn leaves feel that

D. autumnal

A. it highlights the mystery of the natural world. B. it is one of the most complex areas they have ever investigated. C. it concerns a phenomenon that ordinary people would like an explanation for. D. it shows how interesting an area previously thought to be dull can be. IV. The following text has seven sections, A-G. Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-x, in blanks 1-7. List of Headings

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E Section F Section G

i

The instructions for old dances survive

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Inspired by foreign examples

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Found in a number of countries and districts

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An enthusiastic response from certain people

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Spectators join in the dancing

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How the street event came about

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From the height of popularity to a fall from fashion

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A surprise public entertainment

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Young people invent their own clog dances

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Clog dancing isn't so easy

............................................ ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ ............................................ Clog dancing’s big street revival

A

The streets of Newcastle, in the north-east of England, have begun to echo with a sound that has not been heard for about a century. A sharp, rhythmic knocking can be heard among the Saturday crowds in one of the city's busiest intersections. It sounds a little like dozens of horses galloping along the street, but there are none in sight. In fact, it's the noise of a hundred people dancing in wooden shoes, or clogs. The shoppers are about to be ambushed by the UK's biggest clog dance event. The hundred volunteers have been coached to perform a mass routine. For ten minutes, the dancers bring the city centre to a standstill. There are people clogging on oil drums and between the tables of pavement cafés. A screaming, five-man team cuts through the onlookers and begins leaping over swords that look highly dangerous. Then, as swiftly as they appeared, the cloggers melt back into the crowd, leaving the slightly stunned spectators to go about their business.

B

This strange manifestation is the brainchild of conductor Charles Hazlewood, whose conversion to clog dancing came through an encounter with a folk band, The Unthanks. ‘Rachel and Becky Unthank came to develop some ideas in my studio,’ Hazlewood says. ‘Suddenly, they got up and began to mark out the rhythm with their feet - it was an extraordinary blur of shuffles, clicks and clacks that was an entirely new music for me. I thought, “Whatever this is, I want more of it”.’ Hazlewood was inspired to travel to Newcastle to make a television programme, Come Clog Dancing, in which he and a hundred other people learn to clog in a fortnight. Yet when he first went out recruiting, local people seemed unaware of their heritage. ‘We went out on to the streets, looking for volunteers, but nobody seemed to know anything about clog dancing; or if they did, they thought it originated in the Netherlands.’

C

The roots of clog dancing go back several hundred years, and lie in traditional dances of the Dutch, Native Americans and African-Americans, in which the dancer strikes the ground with their heel or toes, to produce a rhythm that's audible to everyone around. In England, clogging is believed to have first developed in the mid-19th century in the cotton mills of Lancashire, in the north-west, where workers created a dance that imitated the sound of the machinery. The style quickly spread and developed a number of regional variations. In Northumberland, it became a recreation for miners, who danced solo or to the accompaniment of a fiddle. ‘The Northumberland style is very distinct from Lancashire clogging,’ says Laura Connolly, a virtuoso dancer who worked with Hazlewood on the programme. ‘Northumbrian dancing is quite neat and precise with almost no upper-body movement, whereas the Lancastrian style is more flamboyant.’

D

Whatever the region, clogging remains very much a minority pursuit. Yet at the turn of the 20th century, clogging was a fully-fledged youth craze. Two famous comic film actors, Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin, both began their careers as cloggers. But the dance almost completely died out with the passing of the industrial age. ‘People danced in clogs because they were cheap, hardwearing and easily repaired,’ Connolly says. ‘Yet eventually clogs became associated with poverty and people were almost ashamed to wear them.’

E

Fortunately, the key steps of the dances were preserved and handed down in a series of little blue books, often named after their inventors. ‘It means that we still know what Mrs Willis's Rag or Ivy Sands's Hornpipe were like,’ Connolly says. ‘It's my dream that one day there'll be a little blue book called Laura Connolly's Jig.’

F

Her biggest challenge to date was to teach Hazlewood and 100 other beginners a routine sufficiently accomplished to perform on television, from scratch, in less than two weeks. ‘I started people off with something simple,’ she says. ‘It's a basic shuffle that most people can pick up.’ Once Hazlewood had absorbed the basics, Connolly encouraged him to develop a short solo featuring more complex steps - though he nearly came to grief attempting a tricky manoeuvre known as Charlie Chaplin Clicks, so named as it was the signature move of Chaplin's film character the Little Tramp. ‘To be honest, I never quite got those right,’ Hazlewood says with a laugh. ‘We came up with a slightly easier version, which Laura thought we should call Charlie Hazlewood Clicks. The thing about clogs is that they're all surface: there's no grip and they're slightly curved so you stand in a slightly peculiar way. The potential to fall over is enormous.’ On the day, Hazlewood managed to pull off a decent solo, clicks and all. ‘I wasn't convinced, until the moment I did it, that I was going to get it right,’ he admits. ‘But in the end, clog dancing is not so very different from conducting. Both require you to communicate a beat - only I had to learn how to express it with my feet, rather than my hands. But it's a good feeling.’

G

‘People forget that clogging was originally a street dance,’ Connolly says. ‘It was competitive, it was popular, and now young people are beginning to rediscover it for themselves. As soon as we finished in Newcastle, I had kids coming up to me saying, “Clog dancing's cool - I want to do that!”’

Complete the summary below Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each answer. Write your answers in blanks 8-10. (4.5p.) A clog dancing event in Newcastle First the city's shoppers hear a sound that seems to be created by a large number of ( 8) ________, and then over a hundred people wearing clogs appear and dance. Most dance on the pavement, some on oil drums. One group uses ( 9) ________ as part of its dance. The event was organised by Charles Hazlewood, a ( 10) ________. He was introduced to clog dancing by a folk band working with him in his studio. 1. 6.

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2. 7.

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3. 8.

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4. 9.

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5. 10.

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PART III: WRITING I. Finish each of the following sentences in such a way that it means the same as the sentence printed before it.

1. Trudy was quite relieved when she found out the truth. It was something............................................................................................................................................... 2. I know this reporter’s background well and he’s 100% honest. This reporter, ................................................................................................................................................... 3. I’m afraid that I think he shouldn’t marry her. I can’t................................................................................................................................................................ 4. Although the papers claim that they are going to get divorced, they are not. Contrary ........................................................................................................................................................... 5. I have been told that you have been late for work every day this week. It has been brought ........................................................................................................................................... II. Rewrite the sentences below in such a way that their meanings stay the same. You must use the words in capital without changing their forms. 1. What the lecturer said was not very clear at times. (LACK) There ............................................................................................................ in what the lecturer said at times. 2. The careful preparation for the event ensured it was a memorable day for everyone who attended. (WHICH) The care .................................................................... event ensured it was a memorable day for everyone. 3. His fake arrogance only hid his genuine insecurity. (LAY) Behind ............................................................................................................................................. insecurity. 4. The sales director told his staff nothing about the new marketing post. (DARK) The sales director ............................................................................................. about the new marketing post. 5. Is it possible to walk from the hotel to the city center? (WITHIN) Is the city center ?