Unit 2

1 Complete the sentences with these words.

 across  appearance  clue  conclusion  explanation  mystery
 rely  remarkable  secrets  theory  unlikely  unusual

1 She was a very private person who had a lot of ___________ .

2 It is ___________ that the trees all grew in such a similar shape.
3 Nobody has ever been able to solve the ___________ of the missing jewels.
4 We found a ___________ that may lead us to the place where they hid the treasure.
5 You can’t trust anything that is written in that book. I’m afraid you can’t ___________ on it.
6 We came ___________ some mysterious circles in the field that weren’t there the day before.
7 It is very ___________ that these marks on the rock are natural. I’m sure people made them.
8 The traditional homes in this area have a curious ___________ . The doors and windows are round.
9 Do you have a ___________ about why the artists chose this cave for their paintings?
10 If you find anything ___________ in the forest, don’t touch it. Just tell the rest of the team.
11 All of the scientists came to the same ___________ – the painting was the oldest ever discovered.
12 We’ve found an ___________ for the pink colour of the sand. It’s coming from the bacteria in the lake.

2 Complete the text with the past simple or the past continuous forms of the verbs.

In all mysteries, there is usually someone who knows what really happened. Our English teacher told us about a
particular class she 1 ________________ (have) when she first 2 ________________ (start) teaching. One hot summer day,
she 3 ________________ (teach) phrasal verbs when she 4 ________________ (notice) a student at the back of the class.
He 5 ________________ (chew) what must have been a whole packet of gum. She 6 ________________ (tell) him to get
rid of the gum, which he did immediately. He 7 ________________ (stand) up and threw the gum out the window, and it
went flying straight through the open window of a flat opposite the school. The whole class 8 ________________ (go)
silent. Honestly, she told us that he couldn’t have aimed it better if he had tried. After that, everyone
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________________ (talk) about where the gum might have landed. One idea was that the gum had stuck to the TV
screen. Then everyone wondered about the people who 10 ________________ (live) there. What in the world would
they think when they 11 ________________ (see) it? Those people would have been quite puzzled when they
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________________ (find) the gum, no matter where it had ended up in their house. Anyway, the case of the mysterious
gum was certainly no mystery to the class or to our teacher.

3 Choose the correct option (a–c) to complete the sentences.

1 Jack ______ tell these wonderful stories around the campfire when we went camping.
a use to b would c was used to
2 Albert ______ down the street when he witnessed a car accident.
a was used to strolling b used to stroll c was strolling
3 When I got home yesterday, my brother ______ dinner, which was a pleasant surprise.
a used to cook b would cook c was cooking
4 My sister-in-law ______ to read lots of detective stories, but she got bored with them and is now into science fiction.
a got used b used c didn’t use
5 He ______ money, which was quite annoying, but he always paid it back.
a was always borrowing b is always borrowing c used to borrowing
6 We had a wonderful tour of the castle, even though it ______ all day.
a would rain b rained c raining
7 Most tourists who come to Greece in the summer ______ the heat and find it quite uncomfortable.
a would be b aren’t used to c get used to
8 I ______ live in the suburbs but moved to the city because it’s much more convenient.
a would b used to c was used to

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Permission granted to photocopy for classroom use. Vocabulary / Grammar activities