PRACTICE TEST 41

SECTION B. LEXICO- GRAMMAR (50 points)

Part 1. Choose the best option A, B, C, or D to complete the following sentences and write your answers in the
corresponding numbered boxes. (20 points)
1. “What can you see from your apartment?”
A. such a way that it overlooks B. so a way that it overlooks
C. such a way that it will overlook D. so a way that it overlooks
2. “My car broke down on the highway.” “Did you ________ take your car home for you?”
A. call a tow truck to B. call for a truck to tow
C. call for a tow truck to D. call for a tow truck to attempt
3. In the book on the bookshelf, you will find over 500 home ________ for many common ailments.
A. curators B. medicines C. remedies D. reliefs
4. His invasive answers ________ me until I eventually realized why he couldn’t be honest.
A. embellished B. baffled C. implored D. clashed
5. You cannot see it very well on the screen, can you?
Why don’t I________copies for everybody?
A. print out B. buy out C. step out D. find out
6. I’m sick and tired of being kicked________by my boss.
A. off B. up C. around D. in
7. Soon after the voting was over, every participating state ________ a new constitution.
A. declares B. has declared C. had declared D. declared
8. He gave such a ________ speech that some people actually fell asleep.
A. long-range B. long-term C. long-winded D. long-standing
9. She wants me to carry out a special ________for her.
A. assignment B. assessment C. assertion D. persistence
10. She found the movie ________ funny.
A. comically B. jokingly C. humorously D. hilariously
11. What an odd ________ that we should be working for the same company!
A. coincidence B. condition C. circumstance D. consequence
12. ________breaks really gets on my nerves! I always flick through the channels while they are on.
A. Advertisement B. Commercial C. Show D. Program
13. The national park was a ________ for many endangered species.
A. collusion B. sanitarium C. sanctuary D. coalition
14. Political refugees are usually ________ at customs for a day or two before they are allowed entry.
A. detained B. confined C. provoked D. condoned
15. We went on vacation on a shoestring ________, so we could spend very little money.
A. deposit B. account C. withdrawal D. budget
16. “I called round last night, but you weren’t in.”
“I wasn’t ________, so I went out with the neighbors.”
A. too keen on staying alone home B. such keen on staying home alone
C. being keen on staying home alone D. too keen on staying home alone
17. “How are things with the new employee?”
“The boss appears ________ to her and that’s why she is now working harder.”
A. to speak B. to speaking C. to have spoken D. to be spoken
18. The law was ________ because it was discriminatory towards minorities.
A. repealed B. repented C. compressed D. construed
19. It is said that every man should be held ________ for his actions.
A. trustworthy B. accountable C. irritable D. intrepid
20. It is said that pregnant women ________ pickles and ice cream.
A. pine B. long C. yearn D. crave
Part 2. Read the passage below which contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write the corrections in
the corresponding numbered boxes. (10 points)
Line 1 All tournament chess games are played with a chess clock – that is two clocks attached
2 together. When one player does his move, he presses a button which stops his clock and
3 starts his opponent clock. Whoever fails to keep up the time limit, no matter what the
4 position on the board, loses the game.
5 Weekend tournaments with a fast time limit and long sessions of play of up to twelve
6 hours a day are very strenuous and result from fatigue and time troubles. The play is
7 quite sharp. Active, attacking chess is the order of the day and it is difficult to maintain
8 a sustained, precise defense against such play. A score of the game must be kept as play
9 goes on. Each move is written down on a score sheet, it has to be handed to the
10 tournament officials in the end of each round. The sorely thought in everybody’s head
11 is to win. Talent and youth – that’s what is needed for success at chess, with the
12 emphasis on youth. Some approach the board with a slow, purposeless manner without
13 giving you a second glance – you simply don’t count. They seem to imply that the
14 outcome is a foregone conclusion for them; you only have to accept them with good
15 grace.
16
17
Part 3. Complete each sentence with one suitable particle or preposition. Write your answers in the box
provided. (10 points)
1. My wife backed me ______ over my decision to quit my job.
2. My mum and dad always find a way to work well together and are not critical ________ each other.
3. We’re been trying to puzzle which TV series she used to be in.
4. Traditionally, Amish weddings are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so there is time in ________ to get
ready for and clean up after each.
5. According to a government study, Korean elderly women are much more vulnerable ________ social
isolation and illnesses compared to their male counterparts.
6. What is there so remarkable of him that people will hang ________ his every word?
7. We’re thinking of doing ________ the spare bedroom to make it a bit nicer.
8. Let’s mull this tonight and make a final decision in the morning?
9. The practice of acupuncture is rooted ________ the idea of promoting harmony between humans and the
world around them and a balance between yin and yang.
10. I never doubt that this candidate can pull ______ a victory.
Part 4. Write the correct form of the words given in the brackets. Write your answers in the spaces provided
below. (10 points)
The Media Commentators
A live broadcast of any public event, such as a space flight or sporting occasion,
is almost (1) ________ accompanied by the thoughts of a commentator. This may 1. VARY
be on television, along with the relevant pictures, or (2) ________ on radio. The
technique involved differs between the two media, with radio broadcasters 2. ALTER
needing to be more explicit and (3) ________. Because of the (4) _______ of
visual information. TV commentators do not need to paint a picture for their 3. DESCRIBE
audience; instead their various observations should add to the images that are 4. ABSENT
already there. There will sometimes be silences and pauses in TV (5) ________,
although these are becoming increasingly rare. Both types of commentators
should try to be more informative, but should avoid sounding (6) _______. In 5.COMMENT
sports ones, fairness and (7)_______ to both sides is vital, but spontaneity and
(8)________ are valued by those watching or listening. Sports commentators 6. OPINION
usually broadcast live in an essentially unscripted way, although they may refer 7. PART
to previously prepared materials such as sports statistics. Because of the (9) 8. ENTHUSE
________ nature of live events, thorough preparation in advance is vital. The
internet has helped enormously with this aspect of the job. Anyone interested in
becoming a commentator should have excellent (10)________ skills, the 9. PREDICT
willingness to work irregular hours and a strong voice.
 10.ORGANIZE
C. READING (50 points)
Part 1. Read the following passage and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap. Write your
answers in corresponding numbered boxes. (10 points)
Responding to children’s mistakes
Promoting children’s self-esteem seems to be one of the aims of modern childcare and education. It goes
hand in hand with a culture in which children are (1) _______ praised for the most minor achievements. While
this promotion of self-esteem is, rightly, a reaction against sterner times when children weren’t praised enough, it
also seems to be (2) _______ by a fear of how failure will affect children: a fear that if they don’t succeed at a
task, they will somehow be damaged.
However, the opposite may well be true. Many scientists spend years experiencing (3) _______ failure in
the lab until they make a (4) _______. They know that (5) _______ this process advances scientific knowledge. In
the same way, children need to experience failure to learn and grow. If children have been praised for everything
they’ve done, (6) _______ how good it is, then failure in adult life will be all the more painful.
Life is full of (7) _______ and there is no point in trying to protect children from the disappointments that
(8) _______ them. Parents and educators shouldn’t be afraid of (9) _______ children’s mistakes, as long as they
also praise them when they do well. After all, the heroes children try to emulate, the pop stars and footballers,
have all reached the top in the face of ruthless competition. Like them, children need to learn how to cope with
failure and (10) _______ it to their advantage.
1. A. immensely B. enthusiastically C. thoroughly D. devotedly
2. A. developed B. evolved C. caused D. originated
3. A. concurrent B. consequent C. consecutive D. continual
4. A. success B. breakthrough C. progress D. breakout
5. A. ultimately B. lastly C. conclusively D. latterly
6. A. according to B. regardless of C. consistent with D. depending on
7. A. faults B. checks C. delays D. setbacks
8. A. expect B. anticipate C. await D. approach
9. A. getting round to B. looking down on C. giving way to D. picking up on
10. A. move B. turn C. make D. take
Part 3. Read the following passage and circle the best answer to each of the following questions. Write your
answers in corresponding numbered boxes. (10 points)
PARENTHOOD
Paul watched the television above the bar. An army of turtles waddled up a beach, cumbersome helmets
dragged through the fine sand to deposit a clutch of smooth, white eggs in the dunes. He saw the wriggling
reptilian babies emerge sticky from the broken shells and repeat the journey in reverse, thousands of tiny helmets
trundling inexorably over the moonlit dunes towards the breakers. Those who escaped being flipped over on their
backs and pecked to death by wading birds were finally swallowed up in the surf. There was no pleasure involved
in this reptilian cycle of birth and death. The turtles survived purely because there were so many of them, and the
oceans were so vast, that one or two were bound to slip through unnoticed.
He wondered why they bothered, and presumed it could only be because they had no choice. Their genes
forced them ever onwards - life would not be denied. Previous generations had imposed their will upon their
distant descendants, and the descendants wearily obeyed. If, by chance, a turtle was born in whom this instinct
towards multiplication was misformed or absent, a turtle whose instincts directed them not towards reproduction
but towards reflection on the purpose of reproduction, say, or towards seeing how long it could stay underwater
on one breath, then this instinct would die with the turtle. The turtles were condemned to multiply purely by the
breeding success of their own ancestors. There was no escape for them. Multiplication, once set in motion, was
unstoppable.
At the present moment, the balance of his own inclinations tilted more towards sleep, the cessation of thought,
hibernation, vegetation. Had he been one of those tiny helmets, he would, at that moment, have flipped over
belly-up in the sand and simply awaited the releasing beak. Parenthood had taken him by surprise. The books, the
articles, the classes, had not prepared him for the intensity of it all. Snap decisions to be made, everybody looking
to him for the answers, and no way of knowing if he had made the correct guess, no way of finding his way back
to the main track if he took a wrong turning. Last night he had been half a couple. He had lived with others all his
life. It was easy - you had rows, you had resentments, but if they became too frequent or too boring, or if the
compensations ceased to be adequate, you just left, and tried again with someone else until you found someone
you could put up with. He could not remember how it had all changed. Perhaps it had been the doors of youth and
liberty creaking shut behind him, or the demands that were suddenly being made of him, the faces turning
towards him when a decision was required. Or perhaps it was just the steaming concoction of his emotions, his
hormones, his thoughts slopping around his veins with the coffee and nicotine. Whatever it was, something had
obliged him to seek out a tranquil place in order to restore some order to his metabolism.
Then there was the feeling that he had been duped - the one feeling that he hadn’t been warned of - when he
saw mother and baby together and realized that the reason why everyone made such a big deal of fatherhood these
days was simply because it was such an implausible state. Mothers and babies were the world. Fathers were
optional extras, accessories. If some strange virus colonized the Y- chromosome and poisoned all the men, the
world would carry on. It would not be a very exciting world perhaps, rather bland and predictable, but women
would find some way to reproduce, and within a generation or two it would be difficult to believe that there bad
ever been men at all. They would appear in the encyclopaedias somewhere between dinosaurs and Romans.
Future generations of little girls would try, in vain, to understand what it had been that men had done, how they
had contributed. What use had they been? He had suddenly seen his role exposed as that of a footnote. The books
had warned him of this feeling, of jealousy of irrelevance and superfluity. They had said it was natural, that he
would get over it. What they had not said was that it was natural because it was so manifestly, poignantly true, or
that he would get over it only by stopping thinking about it. Fathers deceived themselves. Mothers and babies
held it all together. The men came and went, interchangeably, causing trouble and bringing presents to make up
for it.
He turned his attention to the television. The tiny helmets he had watched clawing their way down towards the
surf had become parents themselves now. You could tell they were the same turtles, because the scientists had
painted fluorescent hieroglyphics on their shells. They returned to the beach on which they had hatched, and the
credits rolled.
1. What did Paul notice about the turtles in the first paragraph?
A. their reluctance to return to the sea B. their behaviour with their young
C. the effort they made to survive D. the tiny proportion of young who survived
2. What does the word ‘inexorably’ in bold in paragraph 1 mean?
A. unstoppably B. inexplicably C. inevitably D. inadvisably
3. Paul assumed that if a turtle did not wish to reproduce,
A. it is would be punished by other turtles. B. it would end up doing so anyway.
C. this attitude would not spread to other turtles. D. this would not come as a surprise.
4. His thoughts turned towards going to sleep because
A. he knew that he was unlikely to get much in the near future.
B. he had been left mentally exhausted by becoming a parent.
C. he had become weary of his actions being criticized.
D. he felt that that was what many of the turtles probably wanted to do.
5. What does the word “resentment” in bold in paragraph 3 mean?
A. anger B. suspicion C. jealousy D. confusion
6. What did he feel he had been forced to do since last night?
A. accept that he was not really cut out for living with other people.
B. find a way of making himself feel better physically
C. identify precisely what had caused his life to change so radically
D. remind himself of how he had felt prior to this
7. In what way did he feel that he had been duped?
A. He had expected his role to be one that differed from that of most men.
B. He had not been informed about how women changed when they became mothers.
C. He had not been told the truth by women about how they really regarded men.
D. He had thought fatherhood was treated as a major subject because fathers were important.
8. He felt that the books had failed to warn him that his feeling of irrelevance
A. would not fade away naturally. B. would not be shared by others.
 C. would be replaced by worse feelings. D. would reduce him to inactivity.
9. What does the word “duped’ in bold in paragraph 4 mean?
A. shocked B. fascinated C. cheated D. appealed
10. What is implied about events on the television programme?
A. They made, him more depressed than he would otherwise have been.
B. They made him feel that turtles were better off than humans.
C. They reflected his own lack of joy at becoming a father.
D. They gave him a chance to escape from his own thoughts.
Part 4. Read the following passage and answer questions 1-10. (15 points)
For questions 1-6, choose correct heading for paragraphs B-G from the list of headings. Write your
answers in the corresponding numbered boxes. There is an example at the beginning.
List of Headings
i. What are metabolites?
ii. The negative effects of allelopathy
iii. Biological warfare in the plant world
iv. Why we cannot use allelopathic chemicals at present
v. What is allelopathy?
vi. The reasons why plants compete with other plants
vii. The effects of allelopathy and realisation of its possible uses
viii. How could we use allelopathic chemicals in farming?
ix. Specific examples of allelopathic plants
Mutual harm
A. In forests and fields all over the world, plants are engaged in a deadly chemical war to suppress other plants
and create conditions for their own success. But what if we could learn the secrets of these plants and use them
for our own purposes? Would it be possible to use their strategies and weapons to help us improve agriculture by
preventing weeds from germinating and encouraging growth in crops? This possibility is leading agricultural
researchers to explore the effects plants have on other plants with the aim of applying their findings to farming.
B. The phenomenon by which an organism produces one or more chemicals that influence the growth, survival
and reproduction of other organisms is called allelopathy. These chemicals are a subset of chemicals produced by
organisms called secondary metabolites. A plant's primary metabolites are associated with growth and
development. Allelochemicals, however, are part of a plant's defence system and have a secondary function in the
life of the organism. The term allelopathy comes from the Greek: allelo and pathy meaning 'mutual harm'. The
term was first used by the Austrian scientist Hans Molisch in 1937, but people have been noting the negative
effects that one plant can have on another for a long time. In 300 BC, the Greek philosopher Theophrastus noticed
that pigweed had a negative effect on alfalfa plants. In China, around the first century AD, the author of
Shennong Ben Cao Jing described 267 plants that have the ability to kill pests.
C. Allelopathy can be observed in many aspects of plant ecology. It can affect where certain species of plants
grow, the fertility of competitor plants, the natural change of plant communities over time, which plant species
are able to dominate a particular area, and the diversity of plants in an area. Plants can release allelopathic
chemicals in several ways: their roots can release chemicals directly into the soil, and their bark and leaves can
release chemicals into the soil as they rot. Initially, scientists were interested in the negative effects of allelopathic
chemicals. Observations of the phenomenon included poor growth of some forest trees, damage to crops, changes
in vegetation patterns and, interestingly, the occurrence of weed-free areas. It was also realised that some species
could have beneficial effects on agricultural crop plants and the possible application of allelopathy became the
subject of research.
D. Today research is focused on the effects of weeds on crops, the effects of crops on weeds, and how certain
crops affect other crops. Agricultural scientists are exploring the use of allelochemicals to regulate growth and to
act as natural herbicides, thereby promoting sustainable agriculture by using these natural chemicals as an
alternative to man-made chemicals. For example, a small fast-growing tree found in Central America, sometimes
called the 'miracle tree', contains a poison that slows the growth of other trees but does not affect its own seeds.
Chemicals produced by this tree have been shown to improve the production of rice. Similarly, box elder -
another tree - stimulates the growth of bluestem grass, which is a tall prairie grass found in the mid-western
United States. Many weeds may use allelopathy to become ecologically successful; a study in China found that 25
out of 33 highly poisonous weeds had significant allelopathic properties.
E. There may be at least three applications of allelopathy to agriculture. Firstly, the allelopathic properties of wild
or cultivated plants may be bred into crop plants through genetic modification or traditional breeding methods to
improve the release of desired allelochemicals and thus improve crop yield. Secondly, a plant with strong
allelopathic properties could be used to control weeds by planting it in rotation with an agricultural crop and then
leaving it to rot and become part of the soil in order to inhibit the growth of weeds. Finally, naturally occurring
allelopathic chemicals could be used in combination with man-made chemicals. Boosting the efficiency of man-
made herbicides could lead to a reduction in the amount of herbicides used in agriculture, which is better for the
environment.
F. Despite the promising uses of allelopathic chemicals, agricultural scientists are still cautious. Firstly,
allelopathic chemicals may break down and disappear in the soil more easily than artificial chemicals. Secondly,
allelopathic chemicals may be harmful to plants other than weeds. Thirdly, allelopathic chemicals could persist in
the soil for a long time and may affect crops grown in the same field as the allelopathic plants at a later date.
Because the effects of allelopathic chemicals are not yet fully known, agricultural scientists will need to continue
to study the biological war between plants.
Example: Paragraph A Answer: iii
0. Paragraph A 1. Paragraph B 2. Paragraph C 3. Paragraph D
4. Paragraph E 5. Paragraph F
For questions 6-10: Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage
for each answer. Write your answer in the space provided.
Scientists can see three potential uses of allelopathic chemicals in farming. Firstly, the ability to produce
allelopathic chemicals could be (6) ________ into agricultural crops; secondly, allelopathic plants could be
planted in rotation with the (7) ________; finally, naturally produced chemicals could be combined with (8)
________ herbicides. However, agriculturalists are still (9) ________ as allelopathic plants may have negative
effects on plants which are not the intended target and the chemicals could remain in the ground for a (n) (10)
________, even after the plants themselves have died.
D. WRITING (50 points)
Part 1. Finish each of the following sentences in such a way that it means exactly the same as the sentence
printed before it. (10 points)
1. In a nutshell, Joseph's not up to the job.
The long and.
2. What alienated the workforce was that management never consulted them.
It was the ...................................................................................................................
3. The thought of what might happen next fills me with horror.
I dread ........................................................................................................................
4. It was not until five years had elapsed that the whole truth about the murder came out.
Not for another……………………………………………………………………..
5. You could be arrested for not giving a breath sample to the police
Refusal………...……………………………………………………………………
Part 2. Rewrite each sentence using the word in brackets so that the meaning stays the same. You must use
between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. (10 points)
1. We only ingratiated ourselves with our teacher because Kate insisted. (CURRIED)
It was at………………………………………………………………….our teacher.
2. It is recommended that you take water with you as wells are few and far between in this area. (LEST)
Travellers to this area are advised to carry water …………………………… ground.
3. Nobody expected it of him but Sam was laid off. (RANKS)
Against all………………………………………………………………unemployed.
4. The jumper you knitted for my daughter no longer fits her. (GROWN)
My daughter …………………………………………………………………….for her.
5. I found the plot of the book too complicated to follow. (HEAD)
I couldn’t ……………………………………………………………………..the book.