PRACTICE TEST 47

Grade 9 (for the Gifted) | Time allowed: 150 minutes

A. LISTENING

PART 1. You will hear a conversation between a salesman and a customer.

Questions 1–3. Answer the following question using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A
NUMBER for each answer.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of sending things by air? ..................................................
2. What might cause delays in transportation? ............................................................................................
3. When will the customer arrive in Canada? ..............................................................................................

Questions 4–6. Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each
gap.

4. The costs on the price list include ......................................................................................................... .

5. The customer isn’t sending ................................................................................................................... .
6. There is no extra charge for packing ..................................................................................................... .

Questions 7–13. Complete the following information.

Customer’s name (7) …………………

Shipping from 14 Hopton Close, Porton, (8) …………………, UK
Shipping to (9) ………………… Road, Toronto, TR12 3CN, Canada
Contact number (mobile) (10) …………………
Collection date th
19
(11) ………………… 3 x 2 cubic metres
Total cost (12) …………………
Notes Must finish packing by (13) …………………

PART 2. You will hear a radio interview about cats’ body language. For questions 14 – 20, choose
the best answer (A, B, or C).

14. Roger believes that his work is .

A. rather boring B. natural C. quite exciting
15. Roger says that .
A. he understands exactly what cats are thinking
B. cats' body language can tell us how they feel
C. he is always surprised by the way cats behave
16. A cat shows how it feels by moving its .
A. head B. tail C. paws
17. If a cat’s tail is fluffed up and pointing down, the cat is .
A. protecting itself B. very angry C. happy
18. When two cats are about to fight, the most aggressive one .
A. will have its ears pointing forwards
B. will sound frightened
C. won't make a sound
19. Cats can understand if you are friendly to them by the way you .
A. talk to them B. touch them C. look at them
20. Which of the following best describes the interviewer's attitude?
A. He doesn’t like cats.
B. He doesn't believe what Roger is saying.
C. He is surprised.

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B. PHONOLOGY
I. Choose the word (A, B, C or D) whose underlined part is pronounced differently from the others’.
1. A. compromise B. emphasis C. privacy D. hinder
2. A. theoretically B. thenceforward C. thistledown D. thermostatically

II. Choose the word (A, B, C or D) whose stress pattern is pronounced differently from the others’.
3. A. analyze B. sacrifice C. culminate D. comprehend
4. A. unacceptable B. irresponsible C. unavailable D. providentially
5. A. controllable B. conventional C. contrast D. conductance

C. USE OF ENGLISH
PART 1. LEXICO-GRAMMAR
Choose the word or phrase (A, B, C or D) which best completes each sentence.
1. This young author has already received the sort of that many older and wiser heads have had to
strive a lifetime for.
A. attentiveness B. note C. recognition D. notoriety
2. There will of necessity be a to the amount of money put at the new manager’s disposal.
A. ceiling B. roof C. sky D. summit
3. We should make a clear between ‘competent’ and ‘proficiency’ for the purposes of our
discussion.
A. separation B. division C. distinction D. difference
4. The young lad was the of his father.
A. image B. likeness C. picture D. portrait
5. They stood glowering at each other, eyeball to eyeball, their fists ready for action.
A. joined B. clenched C. clasped D. grasped
6. The group’s image to young people in general and the less well-off in particular.
A. appeals B. attracts C. excites D. draws
7. In , I must acknowledge that we were guilty of errors of judgement.
A. hindsight B. review C. experience D. retrospect
8. Despite scares to the contrary, we found that the elderly widow was all right.
A. perfectly B. anything but C. entirely D. far from
9. They agreed to call off the strike on that all those who had been dismissed were reinstated.
A. terms B. demand C. request D. condition
10. There is to be a fortune on the sea-bed nearby.
A. rumoured B. whispered C. told D. written
11. The supervisor’s job is to the work of his particular department.
A. overlook B. overrun C. oversee D. overview
12. It is a sign of the times when a pop record can more money for charity than thousands of street
and door-to-door collections.
A. fetch B. raise C. bring up D. subscribe
13. In fact the criminal was from the country before extradition proceedings could be started.
A. interned B. exported C. deported D. barred
14. It took us only a few hours to the paper off all four walls.
A. paste B. stroke C. scrape D. chip
15. The possibility of our suffering a major defeat cannot be out.
A. rubbed B. erased C. taken D. ruled
16. The employee’s departure was hastened when he was caught with his hands in the .
A. register B. accounts C. books D. till
17. In the unlikely of the film not being a box-office success, the producers stand to lose up to $15
million.
A. event B. happening C. eventuality D. incidence
18. Rumours would suggest that the Board has one more ace up its .
A. mind B. trouser-leg C. planning D. sleeve
19. The caddy trudged on round the , the bag of clubs over his shoulder feeling heavier at every hole.
A. court B. track C. rink D. course
20. Making mistakes is all of growing up.
A. chalk and cheese B. top and bottom C. part and parcel D. odds and ends
21. “Kelly’s late; that’s not like her.” – “She A. might forget
 B. could be forgetting about your date.”
22. “I refuse to write the report,” – “How dare C. might have forgotten
you D. could forgotten
the boss’s instructions!”
A. to defy B. defying C. to be defying D. defy
23. “Why is Ron so upset?” – “He broken into.”
A. gets his house B. has his house C. has got his house D. has had his house
24. “ I dislike Winston, I have to admit that he came up with some brilliant suggestions at the
management meeting.”
“That’s true. I particularly liked his introduction to the ‘Research & Development’ project.”
A. Much as B. No matter C. However D. For all
25. “I can’t understand our new French teacher’s accent.” – “ .”
A. Nor can I B. Nor do I C. Neither do I D. Neither will I

PART 2. WORD FORMATION

Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap.
1. He is writing from the of someone who knows about what life is in prison. (STAND)
2. Building a dam here could have _ consequences for the environment. (SEE)
3. Just water these plants twice a week, and the ones in the bedroom. (LIKE)
4. Mary was the most of the four children. (ACCIDENTAL)
5. Tomorrow’s is for rain in the morning, clearing up in the afternoon. (LOOK)
From the randomly given words, choose the appropriate one for each gap and supply its correct
form to complete the passage. Use each word only ONCE. There are more words than you need.
Nine years ago Philip Fletcher was a normal happily married man with three children
working as a highly skilled chemical worker. Then an accident changed his life beyond
BREAK
recognition. He was plunged into a (6) and unfamiliar world as a head injury
CHARGE
meant he could remember nothing of the previous 15 years. In the accident a metal pole
CONVULSE
became (7) and fell on his head. He survived only thanks to his safety helmet.
COUNCIL
He was (8) from hospital after only 4 hours. He seemed normal at first but was
LODGE
soon having (9) . He suffered for a number of years but his psychological (10)
OUTRAGE
came when he learnt to accept his own limitations. A few years ago he and his
REAL
wife accepted that their marriage could no longer continue but, fortunately, they have both
succeeded in building new lives.

PART 3. GUIDED CLOZE

Read the biography below and then decide which (A, B, C, or D) best fits each space.
BANDERAS, ANTONIO
With 43 movies under his belt, Antonio Banderas in 1995 was on his way to becoming America’s next
"Latin lover". His (1) sexuality and European (2) made this Spanish actor a fully-fledged
Hollywood film star.
Banderas was born on August 10, 1960, in Málaga, Spain. After seeing a performance of Hair at the
age of 15, he said of acting, "I want to be part of this ritual; I want to do this forever." In 1981 he (3)
on a five-year acting stint with the Spanish national theatre in Madrid. There he was (4) by movie
director Pedro Almodóvar, who offered him roles in films. In his first movie with Almodóvar, Banderas
played the first of several roles as a homosexual. Under Almodóvar's direction the young actor was
able to (5)
his talent fully through (6) roles such as rapist, mental patient, and kidnapper.
This experience (7) valuable for Banderas after he moved to Hollywood in 1989. There in 1992
he landed a role in The Mambo Kings, playing a young Cuban musician living in New York City. Although he
spoke almost no English, Banderas was able to learn his (8) phonetically and later took intensive
English courses, which helped him land the role of Tom Hanks’s lover in the box-office (9)
Philadelphia in 1993. Wanting to take the U.S. by (10) , Banderas then enjoyed a whirlwind acting
spree. His movies include The House of the Spirits (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Miami
Rhapsody (1995), Desperado (1995), Assassins (1995), and Never Talk to Strangers (1995). Banderas (11)
to being ambitious but said that in Spain actors prove their success by making one film after another.
 Success for Banderas came at a (12) . His personal life recently became public when he fell in
love with co-star Melanie Griffith from the film Two Much. Gossip (13) across the country were filled
with news about the (14) of his eight-year marriage to a Spanish actress. Banderas insisted that his
marriage had been (15) for some time and said of Griffith, "I love this woman, and I want to make
her happy – that is my only purpose."
1. A. unhesitating B. undoubting C. undeniable D. unanswerable
2. A. gift B. artistry C. mood D. flair
3. A. embarked B. diverged C. undertook D. propelled
4. A. discovered B. founded C. initiated D. starred
5. A. voice B. provide C. exhibit D. express
6. A. uncomfortable B. uncustomary C. unconventional D. uncultured
7. A. realised B. proved C. made D. came
8. A. quotes B. sentences C. lines D. parts
9. A. premiere B. masterpiece C. smash D. hit
10. A. chance B. surprise C. storm D. attack
11. A. conceded B. assented C. revealed D. acknowledged
12. A. cost B. penalty C. fee D. price
13. A. columns B. articles C. features D. editorials
14. A. breakaway B. break-off C. breakup D. break-out
15. A. shaken B. unfaithful C. weak D. unstable

PART 4. OPEN CLOZE

Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only ONE word for each gap.
Rarely, if ever, (1) so much concern been expressed about our daily environment (2)
at the present time. And oddly (3) , (4) from those problems of heavy
traffic, racial integration, overcrowding, and increasing crime and violence generally (5) with
urban life, the concerns expressed in both town and country are very similar. True, many country villages
(6) suffer (7) an increase in through-traffic, and crime is (8) the

increase in rural areas, (9) probably at a slower rate (10) in towns and cities. But
it is problems such as pollution, unemployment, human rights, energy and conservation which concern us
(11) , not just those who live in urban areas.
Even in Britain, (12) the majority of immigrants still live in cities, the challenge of the
Multicultural Society will (13) reach rural areas in (14) village communities have
remained virtually unchanged (15) hundreds of years. Such communities have already been
touched (or tained?) (16) pollution, unemployment and so on: they are (17) to
face up to what to do with their young people, now that farming has become (18) mechanized,
and to fight to conserve the countryside (19) the face of increasing industrialization. What will
be the consequences, one (20) , when this rural population becomes multiracial?
PART 5. ERROR IDENTIFICATION
Read the text below. Then find and correct 10 mistakes in the passage.
SHAPE OF FINS TO COME

There’s something fishy going on in fashion. You could soon be stepping out decked in salmon and
cod, reports Max Glaskin.

Snakeskin might be all the rage in the designer collections this spring, but it could soon be replaced by
something even more scaly. Several Scandinavian designers have just announced a new luxury fabric to
rivalry the finest leathers, silks and furs. No longer snakeskin, lizard and crocodile will be the preferred
hides of exotic materials, because there’s a new child on the block: fish skin. The first fish-leather tannery in
Sweden is now up and running, offering it’s unique products to the world’s top fashion houses in the hope
that they will scale the heights of chic in the new millennium. Turning old fish into desirous dress material is
not easy. It takes three days starting with a wash to remove most of the fat and dirt. The scales are lifted
and then the skin is pickled. ‘The way we get rid of the smell is a trading secret,’ says Bergholz, joint owner
of Sea Skin Scandinavia. Yvonne Eriksson, of the Finnish design company Fero, in the meanwhile, has
been making skirts and jackets from fish leather, almost from turbot and Nile perch caught in Lake Victoria.
‘It’s a great alteration to more traditional exotic skins,’ she says. ‘Fish leather gives a more elegant
impression than traditional leather and it is at least as strong.’
PART 6. KEY WORD TRANSFORMATION
For each sentence below, write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the original
sentence, but using the words given in bold letters. The words must not be altered in any way.
1. I’d like you to wait until they produce a new model.
BRING
I’d rather .................................................................................................................................................
2. I only realised that I couldn’t find the cat anywhere when they told me about it later.
NOWHERE
Only ........................................................................................................................................................
3. What finally ended the dispute was the fact that the union agreed to go to arbitration.
AGREEMENT
The union’s .............................................................................................................................................
4. Though it is expensive to maintain the museum, we will manage to overcome it.
UPKEEP
Expensive ...............................................................................................................................................
5. It is possible that he didn’t let anyone else read his journal.
TO
He might .................................................................................................................................................
6. When I was asked about the accident, I admitted it was my fault for burning the toast.
BLAME
On ...........................................................................................................................................................
7. There was no need for you to have gone to the stadium because the referee first blew the whistle 90
minutes into the game.
PLAYING
You .........................................................................................................................................................
8. It was six years ago when it last poured down here.
FOR
There ......................................................................................................................................................
9. What surprised them was that there weren’t nearly as many people there as they had expected.
CAUGHT
That there were far .................................................................................................................................
10. What do you think the present negotiations would have turned out if I had performed wisely?
OUTCOME
Were .......................................................................................................................................................
11. You don’t have to buy a new computer if your old one is still good.
OBLIGATION
As ...........................................................................................................................................................
12. Under no circumstances will the authorities prosecute anyone they find trespassing on this land.
COST
Anyone found .........................................................................................................................................
13. It was cruel of him to say that the whole idea was ridiculous.
DISMISSED
How ........................................................................................................................................................
14. If he hadn’t clarified what he said, I would have been mystified by the whole thing.
BAFFLING
But ..........................................................................................................................................................
15. She made sure everyone knew she was there as soon as she entered the building.
PRESENCE
No sooner ...............................................................................................................................................
D. READING
PASSAGE 1
For questions 1–7, read the following text and then choose, from the list A–J given below, the best
phrase to fill each of the spaces. Each correct phrase may be used only ONCE. Some of the
suggested answers do not fit at all.

A acknowledging her as the pro

B getting her to do the job for
me C how often I make mistakes
D how to handle a situation like this
E how you deal with these
situations F they don’t know what to
do next
G they’ll rise to the role
H want to prove you right
I who I knew didn’t like me
J who was appreciative instead of hostile
PASSAGE 2
Questions 8–11. The text has 7 paragraphs (A–G). Which paragraph contains each of the following
pieces of information.
8. Traffic accidents are sometimes caused by lack of sleep.
9. The number of children included in the study
10. How two schools are trying to deal the problem
11. How the effect of having less sleep was measured

Questions 9–12. Complete the following sentences using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the
text for each gap.

12. Fallone is now studying the sleep patterns of children with .

13. The researchers used that show movement to check that children went to bed at the
right time.
14. Students with less sleep had problems with memory, remembering new material, and
.
15. Fallone admitted that it was for children to get enough sleep.

Questions 16–20. Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage
2? In boxes 16–20 on your answer sheet, write
if the information
TRUE FALSE
in the text agrees with the statement if the information in the text contradicts the statement

NOT GIVENif there is no information on this

16. The results of the study were first distributed to principals of American schools.
17. Some of the children in the study had previously shown signs of sleeping problems.
18. The study could influence how doctors deal with children’s health problems.
19. Fallone does not let his daughter play soccer.
20. Staying up late is acceptable of the child is doing homework.

THE END OF THE TEST

READING PASSAGE 1

You’re in a crowd of people who are all asking for the same thing. How do you make your voice
heard above the rest? Be different. Don’t shout. Lisa, 25, was waiting to board a plane flying from
London to Austria for Christmas when the flight was cancelled.

‘There were about a hundred of us stranded,’ she says. 'Everyone else was yelling at the airport
staff. Instead of joining in, I walked up to the man behind the ticket desk very quietly and said, "This
must be so awful for you! I don't know (1) – it’s not even your fault. I could never handle it as well
as you are." Without my even asking, he found me a seat on another airline with an upgrade to first
class. He was happy to do a favour for someone (2) .’

Flattery is an essential element of the sweet-talk strategy. ‘It's human psychology that stroking a
person's ego with a few well-directed compliments makes them (3) ,’ says a psychologist. 'Tell
someone they're pretty and they'll instantly fix their hair; praise their sense of humour and they'll rattle
off a joke. So, if you give someone the opportunity to be your hero, (4) .'

You need help and there's absolutely no reason the person will want to lend a hand. Allison, 26, a
solicitor, realised she'd made a huge mistake on a batch of documents she needed for a client meeting
that began in two hours. ‘The only way I could fix the problem was to enlist the aid of a colleague (5)
,’ she says.

Blatant bribery is difficult to offer – slipping someone cash or trying to strike a specific deal will
usually backfire but you can usually glean wooing power if you subtly offer a little payback. Allison went
to the woman's office, wearing a panicked expression and explained her dilemma. Then she offered the
oh-so-subtle bribe. ‘I said, "As I was saying to the boss the other day you're the only person who would
know (6) , what would you suggest I do?" Feeling pumped up, she set about helping me and we
finished the job on time. The trick was (7) – then she was happy to help.’
READING PASSAGE 2

SLEEPY STUDENTS PERFORM WORSE

By Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer
A Staying up an hour or two past bedtime makes it far harder for kids to learn, say scientists who
deprived youngsters of sleep and tested whether their teachers could tell the difference. They
could. If parents want their children to thrive academically, "Getting them to sleep on time is as
important as getting them to school on time," said psychologist Gahan Fallone, who conducted the
research at Brown Medical School.
B The study, unveiled Thursday at an American Medical Association (AMA) science writers meeting,
was conducted on healthy children who had no evidence of sleep- or learning-related disorders.
Difficulty paying attention was among the problems the sleepy youngsters faced – raising the
question of whether sleep deprivation could prove even worse for people with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Fallone now is studying that question, and suspects that sleep
problems "could hit children with ADHD as a double whammy."
C Sleep experts have long warned that Americans of all ages don't get enough shuteye. Sleep is
important for health, bringing a range of benefits that, as Shakespeare put it, "knits up the raveled
sleave of care." Not getting enough is linked to a host of problems, from car crashes as drivers
doze off to crippled memory and inhibited creativity. Exactly how much sleep correlates with school
performance is hard to prove. So, Brown researchers set out to test whether teachers could detect
problems with attention and learning when children stayed up late – even if the teachers had no
idea how much sleep their students actually got.
D They recruited seventy-four 6- to 12-year-olds from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts for
the three-week study. For one week, the youngsters went to bed and woke up at their usual times.
They already were fairly good sleepers, getting nine to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Another week,
they were assigned to spend no fewer than 10 hours in bed a night. And another week, they were
kept up later than usual: First- and second-graders were in bed no more than eight hours and the
older children no more than 6.5 hours. In addition to parents' reports, the youngsters wore motion-
detecting wrist monitors to ensure compliance.
E Teachers weren't told how much the children slept or which week they stayed up late, but rated the
students on a variety of performance measures each week. The teachers reported significantly
more academic problems during the week of sleep deprivation, the study, which will be published in
the journal Sleep in December, concluded. Students who got eight hours of sleep or less a night
were more forgetful, had the most trouble learning new lessons, and had the most problems paying
attention, reported Fallone, now at the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology.
F Sleep has long been a concern of educators. Potter-Burns Elementary School sends notes to
parents reminding them to make sure students get enough sleep prior to the school's yearly
achievement testing. Another school considers it important enough to include in the school's
monthly newsletters. Definitely, there is an impact on students' performance if they come to school
tired. However, the findings may change physician practice, said Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family
physician in Bayou La Batre, who reviewed the data at the Thursday's AMA meeting. "I don't ask
about sleep" when evaluating academically struggling students, she noted. "I'm going to start."
G So how much sleep do kids need? Recommended amounts range from about ten to eleven hours a
night for young elementary students to 8.5 hours for teens. Fallone insists that his own second-
grader get ten hours a night, even when it meant dropping soccer – season that practice did not
start until 7:30 – too late for her to fit in dinner and time to wind down before she needed to be
snoozing. "It's tough," he acknowledged. But "parents must believe in the importance of sleep."
(Adapted from: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-11-11-sleepy-students_x.htm )