Practice 22

Cloze test
Passage 1
The ancient Chinese philosophers who considered feng (wind or air) and shui (water) to be the (1) ………. of mankind also
understood that these were not the only supportive elements flowing through the (2) ………. . They perceived a subtler (3)
………., calling it chi or ‘cosmic breath’. This life force is well-known to acupuncturists, who have (4) ………. elaborate maps of
the ‘meridians’ or channels it uses to flow through the body. Kung Fu masters believe that chi can be concentrated in the
human body, allowing someone to (5) ………. almost supernatural feats, such as the breaking of concrete blocks (6) ………. by
using the edge of their hand. A real feng shui master is able to (7) ………. the flow of chi in a site, and may advise changes to
the environment to (8) ………. health, wealth and good fortune.
1 A sustainers B providers C keepers D promoters
2 A background B location C outlook D landscape
3 A vigour B weight C energy D stimulus
4 A shown up B built up C put up D laid up
5 A perform B play C act D conduct
6 A barely B merely C hardly D slightly
7 A suspect B realise C sense D endure
8 A set about B come about C go about D bring about
Passage 2
Standardized shopping malls have become the new Main Streets of the USA according to one (1) ………. on the subject.
Along with antibiotics and personal computers, the shopping mall has been (2) ………. as one of the top 50 wonders that
have revolutionized the lives of people today. But shopping malls didn’t just happen out of the blue. The mall was originally
(3) ………. of as a community center where people would (4) ………. for shopping, cultural activity, and social interaction. It is
safe to (5) ………. that the mall has achieved and surpassed those early expectations.
The first enclosed mall was developed in a suburb of Minneapolis in 1956 and was designed to get the shopper out of
the harsh weather. The phenomenal growth and development of shopping centers was a natural (6) ………. of the migration
of population out from the cities and (7) ………. the growth of the use of the automobile. The success and impact of the
shopping mall may have something to do with their potential to (8) ………. community life.
1 A scholar B master C body D authority
2 A put forward B set up C picked up D brought out
3 A imagined B devised C conceived D formulated
4 A cluster B converge C group D rally
5 A say B tell C speak D remark
6 A sequel B upshot C follow-up D consequence
7 A corresponded B paralleled C correlated D equated
8 A raise B magnify C enhance D heighten
Gap fill
Reports of unusual animal behaviour prior (1) …………… the occurrence of earthquakes have been recorded in literature
dating as (1) …………… back as 1784. However, to (2) …………… , there has been very little in-depth scientific research into the
phenomenon. However, (3) …………… that a geophysical tool has not been designed which gives advance warning of an
impending earthquake, observations of animal behaviour might (4) …………… out to be a useful tool.
Animals and birds could act as geosensors. It is well known that the Earth’s electromagnetic field is used by birds and fish as
an aid to navigation and migration. Sharks (5) …………… use of low or high frequency electro-receptors to detect objects and
to communicate. Perhaps it is time to (6) …………… this sensitivity to good use?
Animals may have the means to understand the signal that says ‘leave this place’ or ‘fly-away now’ or (7) …………… is
necessary to survive the coming catastrophe. It comes (8) …………… no surprise, therefore, that animals have the potential to
act as accurate geosensors, to detect earthquakes before they occur.
Word form
Practice 22
1. There are a number of …………………….. activities now being offered at the school. (CURRICULUM)
2. People have always enjoyed the …………………….. effects of sea air. (BENEFIT)
3. Tony is a really …………………….. person. (OPINION)
4. The animal …………………….. really fascinates my young daughter. (KING)
5. Stefan was a …………………….. collector of gadgets throughout his life. (COMPEL)
6. It was rapidly becoming …………………….. that we would have to make changes to our plans. (APPEAR)
7. There have been a number of female …………………….. in the field of aircraft design. (INNOVATE)
8. There were a number of …………………….. built into the contract. (CONSTRAIN)
9. The …………………….. of fast food is increasing at a frightening rate. (CONSUME)
10. …………………….. seems to suit Ella - she's really happy with her home life. (DOMESTIC)
11. The side wall of the house had to be …………………….. . (STRONG)
12. I believe she had the …………………….. to have been seriously ill as a child. (FORTUNE)
13. The broken vase turned out to be totally …………………….. . (REPLACE)
14. She showed her deep …………………….. by slamming the door in our faces. (APPROVE)
15. The police tried to evict the three …………………….. from the building. (OCCUPY)
Passage 1
We are the only animal that chooses what it will look like. True, the chameleon changes colour – but not (1. WILL)
……………………. . Unlike us, it doesn’t get up in the morning and ask itself, ‘What shall I look like today?’, but we can and do.
Indeed, the (2. ANTIQUE) ……………………. of body decoration points to the conclusion that it is a key factor in our
development as the (3. DOMINATE) life-form on our planet. By (4. CUSTOM) ……………………. their physical appearance our
ancestors distanced themselves from the rest of the animal kingdom. Within each tribe this helped them to mark out
differences of role, status, and (5. KIN) ……………………. . Our ancestors (6. APPEAR) ……………………. developed extraordinary
techniques of body decoration for practical reasons. How to show where one tribe ends and another begins? How to (7.
LINE) ……………………. in a lasting way the significance of an individual becoming an adult member of society? (8. ARGUE)
……………………., without the expressive capabilities of such ‘body language’ we would have been (9. FINITE) …………………….
less successful as a species.
Passage 2
In mid-December, the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) swept into Sudan’s central Al Jazira state, known
as the country’s (1. BREAD) ……………………., with an (2. ULTIMATE) …………………….: “Enlist or die.”
Since then, the militia group has sought to use food as a weapon, (3. HOLD) ……………………. supplies from the hungry in a
bid to coerce men and boys to join its ranks, according to over three dozen witnesses.
The RSF has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of the country since a civil war broke out
between the two rival factions in April last year. Both forces have been accused of killing (4. CIVIL) ……………………. . CNN
reporting last year exposed an RSF-led campaign to (5. SLAVE) ……………………. men and women, and other atrocities by the
paramilitary group and its allied militias in Sudan’s western Darfur region – an area already scarred by what has been widely
described as the 21st century’s first genocide.
Now, a CNN investigation has found that almost 700 men and 65 children have been (6. FORCE) ……………………. recruited
by the RSF over the past three months in Jazira state alone. Many of the victims were identified by witnesses, (7. SURVIVE)
……………………., and family members. CNN cross-checked their names with residents from their communities to get details of
what happened in each case. The fighting has limited communications and restricted access to the media, making gathering
accounts like these (8. CREDIBLE) ……………………. challenging.
CNN was (9. DEPEND) ……………………. able to corroborate the identities of all 750 people swept up by the RSF press
gangs in Jazira. Of those, at least 600, including 50 boys under 18, joined the RSF in eastern Jazira, in many cases driven by
hunger, witness (10. TESTIFY) ……………………. revealed. Another 150, including 15 boys, were recruited in western Jazira.
Many of the men previously worked as farmers or traders.
The RSF campaign (11. FOLD) ……………………. in Sudan’s agricultural heartland during its peak cultivation and harvest
period, exacerbating food (12. SECURE) ……………………. in a country already on the brink of famine.
Practice 22
Reading comprehension
A. The prospect of a holiday is liable to persuade even the most downcast that life is worth living. Few events are
anticipated more eagerly, nor form the subject of more complex and enriching daydreams. They offer us perhaps our finest
chance to achieve happiness – outside of the constraints of work, of our struggle for survival and for status. The way we
choose to spend them embodies, if only unknowingly, an understanding of what life might ideally be about. However,
holidays almost always go wrong. The tragicomic disappointments of travel are a staple of office chat; the half-built hotel,
the sense of disorientation, the mid-afternoon despair, the dreary fellow travellers, the lethargy before ancient ruins.
B. I remember a trip to Barbados a few years ago. I looked forward to it for months. But on my first morning on the island, I
realised something at once obvious and surprising; that my body proved a temperamental partner. Asked to sit on a
deckchair so that the mind could savour the beach, the trees and the sun, it collapsed into difficulties; the ears complained
of an enervating wind, the skin of stickiness and the toes of sand lodged between them. Unfortunately, I had brought
something else that risked clouding my appreciation of my surroundings; my entire mind – not only the part that had
planned the journey and agreed to pay for it, but also the part committed to anxiety, boredom, self-disgust and financial
alarm. At home, as I had pored over the photographs of Barbados, I had felt oblivious to anything besides their contents. I
had simply been in the pictures; alone with their elements. But melancholy and regrets were my bedfellows on that
Caribbean isle, acting like panes of distorting glass between myself and the world.
C. There was a trip to a hotel in France a friend took with his wife. The setting was sublime, the room flawless - and yet they
managed to have a row which, for all the good the room and setting did them, meant that they might as well have stayed at
home. The row (it started with who had forgotten the key in the room and extended to cover the whole of the relationship
was a reminder of the rigid, unforgiving logic to which human moods seem subject - and which we ignore at our peril. Our
capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic or material goods seems critically dependent on first satisfying a more important
range of emotional or psychological needs, among them the need for understanding, for love, expression and respect.
D. It may be necessary to accept that the anticipation of travel is perhaps the best part about it. Our holidays are never as
satisfying as they are when they exist in an as-yet-unrealised form; in the shape of an airline ticket and a brochure. In the
great 19th-century novel, Against Nature, by JK Huysmans, the narrator goes on a few holidays which go wrong and then
decides never to leave home again. He has the itineraries of the major shipping companies framed and lines his bedroom
with them. He fills an aquarium with seaweed, buys a sail, some rigging and a pot of tar and, with these aids is able to
experience the most pleasant sides of a long sea voyage without the inconveniences such as sea-sickness, storms or
uncongenial fellow passengers. I continue to travel myself but there are times when I too feel there might be no finer
journeys than those provoked in the imagination by remaining at home slowly turning the pages of an airline timetable.
Which section
1. mentions a number of unanticipated problems faced by the writer? ……………
2. the possibility of the writer altering a previous pattern of behaviour? ……………
3. negative emotions being ever present? ……………
4. the fact the some conditions must be met for other aims to be achieved? ……………
5. the frequency of a certain topic being raised? ……………
6. the possibility that an unfulfilled objective may be more desirable? ……………
7. the writer finding it impossible to achieve his goal? ……………
8. the belief that the selection of a holiday is a product of an unconscious desire? ……………
Vocabulary
Fill in the blank with the following idioms
get my goat carried away fork out hefty
on a tight budget run wild dead set on in line with
a. Conservative ideas about women in the workplace really ……………………. .
b. I got a bit ……………………. when I went shopping and spent far too much money.
c. How much did you ……………………. for your new shoes?
d. The credit card bill was pretty ……………………. this month - I'll have to watch my step in future.
Practice 22
e. My sister was ……………………. when she was at college.
f. She let her imagination ……………………. when she painted her room.
g. I'm ……………………. going to university and getting my degree.
h. His ideas for expanding the company are very much ……………………. mine.
Create a collocation with a body part on the left and a noun on the right
elbow face foot shoulder the burden the bill the idea
stomach toe the line the music people aside
1. It is part of a manager's job to ……………………. of complaints made by guests.
2. Don't worry about paying for your hotel - I'm happy to ……………………. .
3. On his return to Canada, he finally ……………………. and told his wife about his debts.
4. At the resort, I always ……………………. on company policy, even if l disagreed with it.
5. Jenny couldn't really ……………………. of moving to a big city, so she turned the job down.
6. The woman ……………………. in the queue so she could get on the plane first.
Idioms with right
the right way round to serve someone right to be right under your nose as right as rain right on time
to make all the right noises to be within your rights by rights in the right the film rights
1. ……………………. you should be in bed at 9.00 pm.
2. I've had a cold but I'll be ……………………. when l've had a holiday.
3. I refused to apologise because I knew I was ……………………. .
4. The police never found the murder weapon, even though it was ……………………. .
5. His book has been very successful and it looks like he's all set to sell ……………………. too.
6. Helena turned up to the meeting ……………………. for a change.
7. You'd be well ……………………. to take that dress back to the shop - it's torn at the collar.
8. Dave ……………………. so l expect he'll be promoted ahead of me.
9, Turn it the other way, you can't read it if it isn't ……………………. .
10. It'll ……………………. Michelle ……………………. if no one ever speaks to her again!
Collocations
1. Dr Parr was a frequent / recurrent traveller to Dublin.
2. There has been a rise in the numbers of self-contained / independent travellers as opposed to those on packages.
3. Seasoned / Practised travellers know exactly how to get an upgrade on their bookings.
4. I’m fed up with reading about all these intrepid / heroic travellers going up the Amazon river in a canoe.
5. The hotel offers fatigued / weary travellers an excellent opportunity to recharge their batteries.
6. LuxVac is the resort for judicious / discerning travellers – ones who know how to appreciate the good things in life.
7. My father has always been more of a/an armchair/sofa traveller, much to my mother’s disgust!
8. Susie is the kind of inveterate / habitual traveller who will probably never settle down in one place.
9. The hotel touts lie in wait for unguarded / unwary travellers and then take them to unsuitable lodgings.
Listening
You hear a woman talking about her expectations of a round-the-world trip. How does the speaker say she felt when
planning her trip?
A. shocked by the potential cost B. happy to make compromises C. doubtful whether she could go
You hear a student talking about someone who has influenced him. What does he think is the most important factor in
becoming successful?
A. having a supportive family B. having academic qualifications C. having high expectations of yourself
You hear a radio newsreader talking about a new survey of young people. What does he say about young people’s
expectations now?
A. They continue to rise with their age. B. They are slightly more realistic than previously.
C. They are different to those of a previous generation.