PRACTICE TEST 9-1

SECTION A – LISTENING
Part 1: Listen to Thomas and Elise talking about their work/ life habits and decide the best answer to each
question.
1. What made Thomas change his lifestyle?
A. he received an important email.
B. He couldn’t enjoy Rome because he was obsessed with work.
C. He went to the coast and fell in love with the sea.
2. What has Thomas learned from living by the sea?
A. That human actions and money aren’t so important.
B. That you can’t make much money there.
C. That he should have left his city job much earlier.
3. What do Elise’s friends think of her working life?
A. They think it’s making her ill.
B. They think she is too competitive.
C. They think Elise never has enough time.
4. Why does Elise carry around so much technology?
A. Because she doesn’t have an office.
B. Because she travels a lot and doesn’t want an office.
C. Because she travels a lot and the technology gives her confidence.
5. What does she believe about her future?
A. She won’t do the same job for more than three and a half years.
B. She will never have a completely relaxing lifestyle. She doesn’t want one.
C. Her lifestyle will probably get worse, especially her health, so she will slow down.
Part 2: Listen to a lecture about how language is learnt and then decide whether the statements are true
(T0 or false (F).
1. There are very few facts known about how language is learnt. T F
2. Subliminal language learning can only take place overnight. T F
3. You learn your first language quickly because you were exposed daily to new words.
T F
4. Watching TV or playing the radio in a foreign language is useless. T F
5. The author thinks that learning a new language in six weeks is possible. T F
Part 4: Listen to a lecture about the behavior of primates-the group of animals that includes monkeys
and humans and fill in the gaps with missing information. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for
each question.
 Date: 6th November
Lecture Topic : Primate Behaviour
Review – Last lecture we talked about how physical features apply to:
living primates
classification
___1___________________
Human evolution is not just about how people have __2________________ but also about how our
behavior evolved.
The most notable thing about humans is not just that they walk on two legs but that they can
__3______________

Primate Cognitive Abilities

Cognitive = the amount of __4________________ that goes into a behavior. It’s difficult to come up with
__5___________ to measure cognition.
How sentient are the ___6_______________ ?
Sentient = there is ____7___________________ conscious thought.

Behaviour that support the presence of conscious thought in primates:

Various sorts of ___8_______________ (helping others without benefit).
‘Machiavellian Intelligence’ or deliberate ___9_________________.
Chimps can be language trained – highly intelligent.
Cognition and intelligence in primates has deep ___10__________________ ramification.
SECTION B – LEXICO – GRAMMAR
Part 1: Choose the best word/ phrase that best completes each sentence.
1. The area was neglected and soon turned into an overcrowded ____________.
A. suburb B. estate C. quarter D. slum
2. Don’t you feel the problem needs to be ___________ head-on?
A. tackled B. worked out C. ironed out D. solved
3. I dislike him so much that I find it difficult even to be _______ to him.
A. civil B. tactful C. diplomatic D. well-mannered
4. I’m in a bit of a _________ as to what to wear to the wedding.
A. loss B. quandary C. problem D. bewilderment
5. It seems our application has been refused ____________ .
A. bull’s eyes B. carte blanche C. point blank D. about face.
6. It’s no good trying to ____________ with Bob. You’ll never change his mind.
A. deal B. discuss C. side D. reason
7. ‘If you implement this scheme, we shall have no choice but to go on strike.’
‘_________, we must implement the scheme.’
A. Be that as it may be B. may that be as it is
C. Though it be thus D. While that be so
8. Leili said she found learning languages as easy as __________. She had a gift for it.
A. sliding off a branch B. falling off a log
C. diving off a climb D. branching off a bough
9. You are going to need her help. If I were you, I’d ___________ a bit. I’d try to get her on my side, you
know what I mean.
A. soap her down B. oil her over C. butter her up D. grease her out
10. This museum has more visitors than ___________ any other in the world.
A. really B. practically C. actually D. utterly
11 One of the main drawbacks of office work is that people can be easily inflicted ________ back pains.
A. from B. with C. by D. on
12. In a relationship if you are giving and getting nothing back in _______, stop giving so much, and spend
time being. Give to yourself, be who you are.
A. fact B. the end C. addition D. return
13. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands - one for helping yourself,
______________ for helping others.
A. another B. other C. two D. the other
14. In the United States, there has risen a demand that guns __________ from the public.
A. are banned B. ban C. be banned D. banned
15: Alex dreams of going on tour – he’s just waiting for his big ________ to get his foot in the door of the
music industry.
A. deal B. break C. cake D. cheese
16: When someone is down on their _____, friends are not easy to find.
A. mood B. luck C. fortune D. merit
17: The widened _________ will help keep traffic flowing during rush hours.
A. entryway B. runway C. freeway D. pathway
18: We all thought that Doug was _________ to be an artist, so we were very surprised when he became a
trader on Wall Street.
A. likely B. about C. bound D. due
19: Have you seen that __________ invention?
A. fantastic new Italian B. new fantastic Italian
C. new Italian fantastic D. Italian new fantastic
20. She thinks very _____ of him although he behaves badly to her.
A. openly B. kindly C. highly D. widely
Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in
each of the following questions.
Question 21: ln 1921, accompanied by her two daughters, Marie Curie made a triumphant journey to the
United States to raise funds for research on radium.
A. sorrowful B. difficult C. adventurous D. victorious
Question 22: Although the general manager is officially in charge, everyone knows his deputy is really in
the driving seat.
A. out of control B. on duty
C. abusing of power D. in control of a situation
Mark the letter A, B, C or D to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in
each of the following questions.
Question 23: The matches went on till as late as 10 p.m. on Saturday and even then the A division final had
to be carried over to the next day.
A. brought forward B. put out C. moved out D. put off
Question 24: Urbanization is the triumph of the unnatural over the natural, the grid over the organic.
A. failure B. effort C. power D. side
Part 2: There are 5 errors in the passage. Identify and correct them.
Line 1 Since water is the basis of life, composing the greater part of the tissues of all living
Line 2 things, the crucial problem of desert animals is to survive in a world when-> where sources of
Line 3 flowing water are rare. And since man’s inexorable necessity is to absorb large quantities of
Line 4 water in->at frequent intervals, he can scarcely comprehend that many creatures of the desert
Line 5 pass their entire lives without a single drop.
Line 6 Uncompromising as it is, the desert has not eliminated life just->but only those forms
Line 7 unable to withstand its desiccating effects. No moist- skinned, water-loving animals can exist
Line 8 there. A->o few large animals are found. The giants of the North American desert are the
Line 9 deer, the coyote, and the bobcat. Since desert country is open, it holds more swift-footed
Line 10 running and leaping creatures than the tangled forest. Its population is largely nocturnal,
Line 11 silent, filling->filled with reticence, and ruled by stealth. Yet they are not emaciated.

SECTION C – READING
Part 1: Read the text below and decide which answer best fits each gap.
Most of us regard our moods as being rather like the weather - it is something that colours the whole
day, comes from somewhere else and _1______ which we have little control. Not that there isn't a range of
folk __2______ for dealing with a bad one: "Just snap out of it. Have a good cry. Talk to a friend - a problem
shared is a problem halved. __3_______ yourself."
The problem is, as the latest American research reveals, all these favourite mood-changing ploys are
very ineffective. In his new book, Robert Thayer, professor of psychology at California State University,
__4____ forward a new theory about what to do to change them and why. There are a few surprises. For
instance, men, contrary to popular opinion, are actually better at dealing with their moods than women. Not
only that, but the time-honoured female techniques of __5______ it all out to a friend or __6______ a good
cry are often a waste of time.
His approach makes it possible to forecast moods and be much more precise about controlling them.
For instance, we all have a daily energy rhythm - on average, we start low, build up to a __7_____ around
midday, dip down, pick up a bit in the later afternoon and then __8_____ towards the evening. So, because of
the link between energy levels and mood, we can predict that an increase in tension will produce a more
gloomy __9_____ at those times of day when our energy regularly takes a dip. Knowing that, you can
__10______ it into account.
1. A. over B. in C. from D. with
2. A. solutions B. medicines C. remedies D. treatments
3. A. Treat B. Spoil C. Feel D. Pamper
4. A. brings B. puts C. calls D. moves
5. A. dropping B. draining C. pouring D. spilling
6. A. giving B. doing C. making D. having
7. A. point B. peak C. height D. limit
8. A. tail off B. pick up C. speed up D. stop by
9. A. prospect B. outlook C. review D. aspect
10. A. get B. turn C. take D. Bring

Part 2: Read the text below and think of the word that best fits each space. Use only one word in each
space.
HARD ROAD TO SUCCESS
In today’s music industry it is hard to __1 ___stand____ out in the crowd but the band, Makeover
Mayhem, seem to have done just that. They only got together a couple of months ago, but their first album,
which was ready for downloading only a week ago, is already speeding up the charts. It looks as if they are
__2 ____set_______ to become the biggest success story of the year. If this continues, they stand __3
______to_____reach number one and make their fortunes. Their music harks __4 __back_____ to the early
rock and roll of the fifties and the reason for their success is probably __5_due____ to two main things: first,
the modern twist which they have put on rock and roll music and, secondly, the wave of nostalgia that seems
to be sweeping through the music-buying public.
In __6 __sharp___ contrast to the band, Josh Logan is an actor who has been struggling for years to
make a __7_name_ for himself. But, finally, he has just finished his first lead role in a film at the age of 32.
Although he loves working on films, he finds it difficult to tap into the emotional __8 _recall_ required when
the scenes do not follow on from each other as they do in a stage play. The film __9 ___was__ to have been
released in spring next year, but that has now changed to the autumn, mainly because of the director’s
pedantic obsession with a perfection that only exists in his head. However, Josh knows that tenacity and
belief in __10__what_ you are doing is a prerequisite for an actor and he is prepared to work long hours to be
the best he can be.

Part 3: Read the article about a businessman and choose the answer which you think fits best according
to the text.
The codfather
The cod, the species of fish that features in the famous British dish 'fish and chips', could soon make
the leap out of the frying pan and into popular culture according to Karol Rzepkowski, an effervescent Scot
of Polish decent. ‘Someone approached us specifically with a view of making iPod covers out of cod skins -
it's seen as an alternative to snake skin for the fashion industry,' laughs 42-year old Karol, managing director
of Johnson Seafarms, the world’s first organic cod farm which is located in the Shetland Isles. Lifestyle
entrepreneurs will have to wait though, because the main target market for Karol's carefully reared cod is
clearly a consumer armed with knife and fork rather than a digital music player.
Along with business partner Lament Viguie, Karol has put enormous into the technology
diversification that they hope will bring sea farming into the twenty-first century with a profitable,
environmentally friendly, cod-farming venture. All of this is literally oceans away from the chance meeting
that brought: together two business men with the clout to push forward a scheme deemed outlandish by
most: people in the business.
Karol and Laurent struck up a friendship whilst on a diving trip off the Caribbean island of Grenada
in 1999, and realised that their different business experience would make them into a formidable team.
Laurent was a trained lawyer, restaurateur and high-profile figure in the music industry, while Karol was
running Grenada's biggest leisure company, having grown up helping at his father's delicatessen in
Edinburgh. Karol has never flinched from hard work. 'One day, it might be nice to have a holiday ... " he says
wistfully.
Life in Grenada was good, but Karol was married to a Shetlander and wanted his 12-year-old son to
grow up with a good education as well as personal freedom; 'Somewhere he can walk out of the door at nine
in the morning and we don't need to worry if he's not back until nine at night.' Most people might think of
moving to a sleepy village within commuting distance of a big city, but he found his idyll on a scattering of
islands that are closer to the Arctic Circle than to London, where puffins out number people by ten to one.
After moving to Shetland, Karol found employment as marketing director at Johnson Seafarms, a
small, family-owned company which mostly reared salmon. Two fishing issues featured on the public agenda
around that rime: a spate of public health scares over the chemicals used to farm salmon, and the plight of
wild cod as over-fishing devastated shoals in the North Sea. Cod stocks there have plummeted 75 percent
over the past fifteen years, bringing the lynchpin of UK cuisine almost to the cusp of extinction-yet Britons
tuck into some 170, 000 tonnes of the fish every year.
The solution was obvious for Karol, 'Farmed salmon was becoming a tainted industry in people's
minds . I said: why don't we just move into another species? Bur everyone was rather taken aback at the
idea.' After convincing sceptical colleagues, he faced the much tougher task of persuading hard-boiled
financiers to stump up millions of pounds for an unprecedented experiment. Karol enlisted the support of his
old friend Laurent who, convinced that the plan had potential, decided to join forces with Karol and take
over the company. With the money at Johnson Seafarms fast running out, the pair headed to London in 2004
to seek emergency funds of £21 million. "There was a great deal of misgiving, but the people who were
most reticent were the ones who ended up investing,' adds Karol. With enough investors interested, the
company went through the process known as 'due diligence', which saw zealous lawyers and accountants
descending on the Shetland Isles to scour the paperwork and check every last detail. It was a major
cliffhanger-at any moment it could have fallen flat on its face, says Karol. When it didn't, he says the biggest
thrill was being able to call the company's twenty-seven employees and tell them their jobs were safe.
The end of the funding drama was the start of real work: farming a new species of fish in a way that
would address increasingly pressing environmental and ethical concerns. Today, Johnson Seafarms takes
wild codlings from regularly renewed breeding stocks, nurturing them on a natural diet throughout their
stages of development: The fish swim about in large sea pens enclosed with nets that arc regularly cleaned
rather than treated with chemicals, and come with shady areas for repose and 'toys' such as coconut rope to
chew on. It would be easy to dismiss this fastidiousness as shrewd public relations, but the company has won
enthusiastic accolades from animal charities which don't hold back from lambasting the corporate world
when they see fit. The big test is still to come as the company waits to see whether the shopper will rake to
the new organic cod.

1. How has Karol reacted to the idea of making cod skin iPod covers?
A. It’s not his main priority at the moment.
B. He thinks that it is a ridiculous suggestion.
C. He cannot see them catching on as a fashion item.
D. It is something he is looking forward to trying out.
2. Which of the following is closest meaning to ‘outlandish’ in paragraph 2?
A. strange B. usual C. normal D. available
3. Karol and his business partner, Laurent, met _________
A. whilst both on holiday in Grenada.
B. because of a shared leisure interest.
C. as a result of their business dealings.
D. through a contact in the food industry.
4. Why did Karol move to Shetland?
A. He had the offer of job in the area.
B. He had family responsibilities on the islands.
C. He could see there be business opportunities there.
D. He wanted his family to benefit from a particular lifestyle.
5. ‘His’ in paragraph 3 refers to ______
A. Karol B. Laurent C. the father D. the 12-year-old son
6. What problem was Johnson Seafarms facing when Karol first worked there?
A. a decline in the local fishing industry.
B. the limited resources available to the company.
C. a loss of public confidence in fish-farming methods.
D. poor health affecting the main type of fish it produced
7. How did Karol’s colleagues react to his proposed solution to the company’s problems?
A. They refused to cooperate with him.
B. They eventually accepted his suggestion.
C. They remained unconvinced that it would be successful.
D. They immediately realized it was their only hope of survival.
8. Which phrase from the sixth paragraph is used to emphasise how keen someone was to do something
properly?
A. hard-boiled B. join forces
C. a great deal of misgivings D. zealous
9. What can be inferred from paragraph 6?
A. Karol and Laurent had no problem in seeking funds for their plan.
B. Investors didn’t support the pair’s plan immediately.
C. Most investors were lawyers and accountants
D. To Karol, convincing his colleagues of the potential idea was the toughest.
10. In the last paragraph, we learnt that animal charities ________
A. have expressed their concerns about the company’s new method of fish farming.
B. have given their seal of approval to the company’s approach to fish farming.
C. remain unsure that the fish will not suffer in the company’s fish farming.
D. are generally supportive of companies engaged in fish farming.

Part 4: Read the passage and then do the following tasks.

The Final Frontier for Tourism
A – For some reason humankind has always looks towards the stars and dreamt of one day making the
voyage into the unknown and exploring outer space. Perhaps it is our innate curiosity, perhaps the challenge
presented by the seemingly impossible; whatever the lure, the quest to venture into space has become an
obsession for many.
B – On a memorable July day in 1969 one man made a giant leap for his kind. Neil Armstrong touched down
on the moon as the world watched with bated breath. Was this a beginning or the culmination of years of
endeavor that pushed science to its very limits? Well, it has been a long time indeed since the last moon
landing, more than 40 years, but science has not stood still in the interim, nor have our dreams become any
less ambitious. According to NASA, plans are afoot for a manned mission to Mars at some point after 2020.
A return to the moon has been scheduled sooner - perhaps 2018 if NASA’s new Crew Exploration Vehicle
(CEV) is rolled out on time. It may not be Hollywood razzle-dazzle-style progress; it may even be
painstakingly slow, but rest assured that plans are afoot for something very ambitious and special indeed, and
NASA may be back in the headlines making waves and history again, just as it did on that faithful day in
1969, in the not-too-distant future.
 C – That said, it is the prospect of space tourism for the masses that has captured the headlines recently, and
this may not be such a distant dream as people would expect. In 2001, an American multimillionaire, Denis
Tito, became the first space tourist, spending ten days on the International Space Station along with his crew
of Russian cosmonauts, and fulfilling a lifelong ambition in the process. He described the experience rather
paradoxically as ‘indescribable’; everything that he thought it would be and more. A year later, South
African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth followed in his footsteps. On his return to Earth he said, ‘every
second will be with me for the rest of my life’. Clearly these men had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but
this came at a hefty price, both paying $20 million for the pleasure of their space adventures.
D – At present, space tourism is undoubtedly reserved for an elite and wealthy few, but what of the future? If
Eric Anderson, president of Space Adventures, the company that organized Tito and Shuttleworth’s trips, is
to be believed, it will be the next big thing. ‘Everyone’s looking for a new experience’, he says. Indeed,
Space adventures is planning to offer rocket trips to the public for $100,000 within the next few years, so
perhaps space tourism is closer than we think. Another company, The Space Island Group, is planning to
build a space hotel inspired by the spaceship in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Gene Meyers, the
company’s president, predicts that in 2020 a five-day holiday at the hotel will cost less than $25,000.
Imagine, he says, a five-star hotel with all the usual luxuries, except that each morning you will be greeted by
mind-blowing views of outer space. This is certainly food for thought for adventure-seeking holiday
planners. That said, unless there is a serious spike in inflation between now and 2020, $25,000 will still
remain a considerable sum of money to have to part with for a recreational activity, once-in-a-lifetime or not.
But that is perhaps missing the point- the prospect of affordable space travel is getting closer and it is only a
matter of time before it becomes a reality.
E – Other companies have even more ambitious plans. Bigelow Aerospace is spending close to $500 million
on a project to build a 700-metre spaceship to fly tourists to the moon. The spaceship will be able to hold 100
guests, each with a private room offering truly unique views of the earth’s sunset. Even the Hilton Hotel
Group wants to get in on the act with talk of plans to build a Hilton on the moon. For the present, only
millionaires can enjoy the privilege of a space journey, but in the words of one Bob Dylan, ‘The times they
are a changing.’ And sooner than you’d think.
(From Succeed in IELTS 9)
Choose the right heading for each paragraph A-E from the list of the headings below.
List of Headings
i. Not worth the cost
ii. Space travel; past, present and future
iii. Russian innovations
iv. A profitable investment
v. The future of tourism
vi. Insatiable desire for adventure
vii. The first space tourism
viii. Moon hotels
1. Paragraph A: ________VI____________
2. Paragraph B: ________II_____________
3. Paragraph C: ________VII_____________
4. Paragraph D: ________V_____________
5. Paragraph E: ________VIII_____________
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Read and write:
 TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
 FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
 NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
6. Bigelow Aerospace’s spaceship will offer unique views of the Moon’s sunset.F
7. The Hilton Hotel Group has ambitious plans to organize cheap space journey.NG
8. Gene Meyers believes space tourism will be popular in the near future.T
9. NASA plans to launch a mission to Mars, but first it is hoping to return to the moon.T
10. At the moment, space tourism is too expensive for ordinary people, only the very rich can travel to space.
II. WRITING
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the original
sentence, but using the word given. This word must not be altered in any way.
1. Some parents are confident that their children will succeed. HOPES
....... Some parents have high hopes of their children's success.............
2.It is best for you to give up resistance and to co-operate. INTERESTS
........ It is in your best interest to give up resistance and to co-operate.................
3.I can't stand your stupid remarks any longer. ENOUGH
......... I've had enough of your stupid remarks.................
4.He insisted on absolute obedience and recognition of his right to give orders. NOTHING
......... He insisted on nothing but his right to give orders..............
5.He bears a strong resemblance to somebody else that I used to know.REMINDS
.......He reminds me strongly of somebody else that I used to know.................