Reading Practice Test 1 [C1]
Quiz Summary
0 of 25 Questions completed
Questions:
Information
You have already completed the quiz before. Hence you can not start it again.
Quiz is loading...
You must sign in or sign up to start the quiz.
You must first complete the following:
Results
Results
Your time:
Time has elapsed
You have reached 0 of 0 point(s), (0)
Earned Point(s): 0 of 0, (0)
0 Essay(s) Pending (Possible Point(s): 0)
Average score |
|
Your score |
|
Categories
- Not categorized 0%
Pos. | Name | Entered on | Points | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
Table is loading | ||||
No data available | ||||
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- Current
- Review
- Answered
- Correct
- Incorrect
-
Question 1 of 25
1. Question
Part 1
- 8 questions -
For questions 1 – 8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
Example:
0 A. deposits B. piles C. stores D. stocks
___________________________________________________________________________________
New uses for salt mines
Geological (0) ...... of salt were formed millions of years ago, when what is now land, lay under the sea. It is hard to believe that salt is now such a cheap (1) ....... , because centuries ago it was the commercial (2) …….. of today’s oil. The men who mined salt became wealthy and, although the work was (3) …….. and frequently dangerous, a job in a salt mine was highly (4) …….. . Nowadays, the specific microclimates in disused mines have been (5) …….. for the treatment of respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and the silent, dark surroundings in a mine are considered (6) ..........in encouraging patients to relax.
In addition, some disused mines have been (7) …….. to different commercial enterprises, although keeping up-to-date with the technology of mining is essential to (8) …….. visitors’ safety. Some of the largest underground chambers even host concerts, conferences and business meetings.
1.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 2 of 25
2. Question
2.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 3 of 25
3. Question
3.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 4 of 25
4. Question
4.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 5 of 25
5. Question
5.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 6 of 25
6. Question
6.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 7 of 25
7. Question
7.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 8 of 25
8. Question
8.
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 9 of 25
9. Question
Part 2
-8 questions-
For questions 9 – 16, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example (0): IS
-
Stress
Stress ...is... often called a 21st century illness but it has always been with us if perhaps with different names. These days we regard stress (9) a necessary evil of modern living. Yet stress is not negative and without (10) we would not enjoy some of the highpoints in life (11) as the anticipation before a date or the tension leading up to an important match. All these situations produce stress but (12) you can control it and not the other way around, you will feel stimulated, not worn out. However, unlike these situations, (13) are generally positive and easier to deal with, sitting in a train that is running late, (14) stuck in a traffic jam or working to a tight deadline are much harder to manage and control and can be a significant cause of stress. Stress is now recognised as a medical problem and as a signficant factor (15) causing coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and a high cholesterol count. Patients are often unwilling to admit to stress problems since they feel they are a form of social failure and it is important that symptoms (16) identified in order to avoid unnecessary suffering.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 10 of 25
10. Question
Part 3
- 8 questions -
For questions 17 – 24, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line. There is an example at the beginning (0).
___________________________________________________________________________________
Training sports champions
-
What are the abilities that a (0) (PROFESSION) …professional….. sports person needs? To guarantee that opponents can be (17) (COME) , speed, stamina and agility are essential, not to mention outstanding natural talent. Both a rigorous and comprehensive (18) (FIT) regime and a highly nutritious diet are vital for top-level performance. It is carbohydrates, rather than proteins and fat, that provide athletes with the (19) (ENDURE) they need to compete. This means that pasta is more (20) (BENEFIT) than eggs or meat. Such a diet enables them to move very energetically when required. Failure to follow a sensible diet can result in the (21) (ABLE) to maintain stamina.
Regular training to increase muscular (22) (STRONG) is also a vital part of a professional’s regime, and this is (23) (TYPE) done by exercising with weights. Sports people are prone to injury but a quality training regime can ensure that the (24) (SEVERE) of these can be minimised.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 11 of 25
11. Question
Part 4
- 6 questions -
For questions 25 – 30, complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three and six words, including the word given. Here is an example (0).
Write only the missing words IN CAPITAL LETTERS on the separate answer sheet.
Example:
0. James would only speak to the head of department alone.
ON
James .......(o) INSISTED ON SPEAKING........to the head of department alone.
25.
-
As long as you explain the process clearly at the conference, your boss will be pleased.
GIVE
If the process at the conference, your boss will be pleased.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 12 of 25
12. Question
26.
-
They say that a visitor to the national art gallery damaged an 18th-century painting.
ALLEGED
A visitor to the national art gallery an 18th-century painting.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 13 of 25
13. Question
27.
-
I really don’t mind whether Jill chooses to come on holiday with us or not.
DIFFERENCE
It really whether Jill chooses to come on holiday with us or not.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 14 of 25
14. Question
28.
-
Without the help that Joe gave me, I don’t think I’d have finished the course.
BEEN
If it help, I don’t think I’d have finished the course.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 15 of 25
15. Question
29.
-
We can assure our customers that we will take every possible measure to maintain the quality of the products on our shelves.
TAKES
We can assure our customers that we will to maintain the quality of the products on our shelves.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 16 of 25
16. Question
30.
-
Following some complaints by local residents, the government withdrew its proposal to build a new runway at the airport.
LIGHT
The government’s proposal to build a new runway at the airport some complaints by local residents.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 17 of 25
17. Question
Part 5
- 6 questions -
You are going to read the introduction to a book about the history of colour. For questions 31 – 36, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Introduction to a book about the history of colour
This book examines how the ever-changing role of colour in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, clothing, painting and popular culture. Colour is a natural phenomenon, of course, but it is also a complex cultural construct that resists generalization and, indeed, analysis itself. No doubt this is why serious works devoted to colour are rare, and rarer still are those that aim to study it in historical context. Many authors search for the universal or archetypal truths they imagine reside in colour, but for the historian, such truths do not exist. Colour is first and foremost a social phenomenon. There is no transcultural truth to colour perception, despite what many books based on poorly grasped neurobiology or – even worse – on pseudoesoteric pop psychology would have us believe. Such books unfortunately clutter the bibliography on the subject, and even do it harm.
The silence of historians on the subject of colour, or more particularly their difficulty in conceiving colour as a subject separate from other historical phenomena, is the result of three different sets of problems. The first concerns documentation and preservation. We see the colours transmitted to us by the past as time has altered them and not as they were originally. Moreover, we see them under light conditions that often are entirely different from those known by past societies. And finally, over the decades we have developed the habit of looking at objects from the past in black-and-white photographs and, despite the current diffusion of colour photography, our ways of thinking about and reacting to these objects seem to have remained more or less black and white.
The second set of problems concerns methodology. As soon as the historian seeks to study colour, he must grapple with a host of factors all at once: physics, chemistry, materials, and techniques of production, as well as iconography, ideology, and the symbolic meanings that colours convey. How to make sense of all of these elements? How can one establish an analytical model facilitating the study of images and coloured objects? No researcher, no method, has yet been able to resolve these problems, because among the numerous facts pertaining to colour, a researcher tends to select those facts that support his study and to conveniently forget those that contradict it. This is clearly a poor way to conduct research. And it is made worse by the temptation to apply to the objects and images of a given historical period information found in texts of that period. The proper method – at least in the first phase of analysis – is to proceed as do palaeontologists (who must study cave paintings without the aid of texts): by extrapolating from the images and the objects themselves a logic and a system based on various concrete factors such as the rate of occurrence of particular objects and motifs, their
distribution and disposition. In short, one undertakes the internal structural analysis with which any study of an image or coloured object should begin.The third set of problems is philosophical: it is wrong to project our own conceptions and definitions of colour onto the images, objects and monuments of past centuries. Our judgements and values are not those of previous societies (and no doubt they will change again in the future). For the writer-historian looking at the definitions and taxonomy of colour, the danger of anachronism is very real. For example, the spectrum with its natural order of colours was unknown before the seventeenth century, while the notion of primary and secondary colours did not become common until the nineteenth century. These are not eternal notions but stages in the ever-changing history of knowledge.
I have reflected on such issues at greater length in my previous work, so while the present book does address certain of them, for the most part it is devoted to other topics. Nor is it concerned only with the history of colour in images and artworks – in any case that area still has many gaps to be filled. Rather, the aim of this book is to examine all kinds of objects in order to consider the different facets of the history of colour and to show how far beyond the artistic sphere this history reaches. The history of painting is one thing; that of colour is another, much larger, question. Most studies devoted to the history of colour err in considering only the pictorial, artistic or scientific realms. But the lessons to be learned from colour and its real interest lie elsewhere.
31. What problem regarding colour does the writer explain in the first paragraph?
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 18 of 25
18. Question
32. What is the first reason the writer gives for the lack of academic work on the history of colour?
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 19 of 25
19. Question
33. The writer suggests that the priority when conducting historical research on colour is to
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 20 of 25
20. Question
34. In the fourth paragraph, the writer says that the historian writing about colour should be careful
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 21 of 25
21. Question
35. In the fifth paragraph, the writer says there needs to be further research done on
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 22 of 25
22. Question
36. An idea recurring in the text is that people who have studied colour have
CorrectIncorrect -
Question 23 of 25
23. Question
Part 6
-4 questions-
For questions 37 – 40, choose from the reviews A – D. The reviews may be chosen more than once.
Allied
Reviewer A
Allied, which is Robert Zemeckis's deft and diverting World War II romantic thriller, operates a bit like Casablanca in reverse. There are some similarities between the films, but I don't want to press the comparison too far. For one thing, there is more Alfred Hitchcock than Michael Curtiz in this movie's DNA. For another, whereas Casablanca put forth a spine-stiffening anti-fascist call to arms, Allied offers the comforts of elegant escapism. Its moral complexities and political ambiguities are intriguing rather than troubling, its ethical and emotional agonies a diversion from rather than a reflection of our own. Which is just fine with me. There are nits to pick, of course. Mr. Pitt, playing a Canadian wing commander in the Royal Air Force, has apparently drawn inspiration from the trees in the great forests of the North. He is handsome, trim and efficient, but the same might be said of a wooden canoe, and his character's stoical reserve often feels more like an empty space than a deep pool of untapped feeling. They are puffy and sentimental, the cinematic equivalent of a cloying dessert following an otherwise well-prepared meal.
NY Times
Reviewer B
Robert Zemeckis has a vastly diverse slate of motion pictures to his credit, but it's not unfair to associate him with a certain technological fixation on stunt-gizmo cinema. Once in a while, though, Zemeckis makes a film that reminds you what a terrific director he can be when he works the old-fashioned way, staging unadorned human drama without the safety net of cutting-edge visual flimflam. Allied is tense and absorbing in the style of Hitchcock , yet the film's climactic act somehow falls short. Zemeckis and company don't make any obvious missteps, but the movie, in trying to reach out and tug on our heartstrings, goes soft regarding what the Marianne we're presented with would choose to do. You believe that she loves Max, but there's another side to her devotion that washes away far too easily. The result is that Allied inspires most of the old-movie reactions it's going for except one: It never makes you swoon.
Variety
Reviewer C
A lot of prerelease gossip has attended this plonkingly slow and clonkingly laborious wartime thriller starring Brad Pitt as dashing Canadian airman Max Vatan and Marion Cotillard as Marianne Beausejour, the lissom French spy with whom he falls in love. Their screen passion bursts forth like a cold wet teabag falling out of a mug that you have upended over the kitchen sink and don't much feel like washing up. Their rapport fizzes like a quarter-inch of bin juice left after you have taken the rubbish out. At this stage, Allied could have summoned up a bit of intimate suspense, some Hitchcockian suspicion, and Knight does in fact unveil an interesting further twist: another level of potential bad faith. But this isn't resolved very satisfyingly and the final big reveal feels anti-climactic, with unanswered questions concerning Marianne. It seems like tourist cinema: a tourist visit to the heritage-wartime past, with Max and Marianne looking like uncomfortable tourists in each other's languages and in each other's lives. Despite being married, they always look like strangers; the stars look as if they are intent on squashing rumours by behaving as if they have just emerged from their trailers and have yet to be introduced.
The Guardian
Reviewer D
Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard play spies in love in a steamy World War II drama called Allied where there are more romantic fireworks than tanks and explosions. Allied turns out to be a slower wartime romance in which Pitt plays Max Vattan, a British assassin sent to Casablanca to kill a high ranking Nazi officer. We see early on how deadly Max can be, but he's been assigned to create the ruse of being married to Marion Cotillard's Marianne Beausejorge, an equally deadly French agent. Pretending to be married eventually drives them closer together and Max and Marianne decide to get married for real, despite the warnings from Max's commander. Marianne soon becomes pregnant as they settle down in England to lead a more domestic life. The ending is quite grim if you're expecting any type of old Hollywood ride into the sunset, but if you enjoy slightly awkward romance during wartime, Allied is worth a fling.
NY Daily News
Questions
-
37) Which reviewer lambasts the film on several levels?
38) Which reviewer doesn't feel the movie ended on a lacklustre note?
39) Which reviewer makes reference to the location where the action takes place?
40) Which reviewer doesn't draw comparison to other famous directors of same cinematic genre?
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 24 of 25
24. Question
Part 7
- 6 questions -
You are going to read an extract from a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A – G the one which fits each gap (41 – 46). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
___________________________________________________________________________________
A
The recruitment of men to the armed forces during the conflict in Europe from 1914 to 1918 meant there was very little persecution, since gamekeepers went off to fight. As the number of gamekeepers decreased, the wildcat began to increase its range, recolonising many of its former haunts. Extinction was narrowly averted.
B
The wildcat waits for a while in rapt concentration, ears twitching and eyes watching, seeing everything and hearing everything, trying to detect the tell-tale movement of a vole or a mouse. But there is nothing, and in another leap he disappears into the gloom.
C
The results, which are expected shortly, will be fascinating. But anyone who has seen a wildcat will be in little doubt that there is indeed a unique and distinctive animal living in the Scottish Highlands, whatever his background.
D
They probably used deciduous and coniferous woodland for shelter, particularly in winter, and hunted over more open areas such as forest edge, open woodland, thickets and scrub, grassy areas and marsh. The wildcat was probably driven into more mountainous areas by a combination of deforestation and persecution.
E
As the animals emerge, their curiosity is aroused by every movement and rustle in the vegetation. Later they will accompany their mother on hunting trips, learning quickly, and soon become adept hunters themselves.
F
This is what makes many people think that the wildcat is a species in its own right. Research currently being undertaken by Scottish Natural Heritage is investigating whether the wildcat really is distinct from its homeliving cousin, or whether it is nothing more than a wild-living form of the domestic cat.
G
It is a typical image most folk have of the beast, but it is very much a false one, for the wildcat is little more than a bigger version of the domestic cat, and probably shows his anger as often.
___________________________________________________________________________________
-
Scottish Wildcat
On my living-room wall I have a painting of a wildcat by John Holmes of which I am extremely fond. It depicts a snarling, spitting animal, teeth bared and back arched: a taut coiled spring ready to unleash some unknown fury.
41.
However, the physical differences are tangible. The wildcat is a much larger animal, weighing in some cases up to seven kilos, the same as a typical male fox. The coat pattern is superficially similar to a domestic tabby cat but it is all stripes and no spots. The tail is thicker and blunter, with three to five black rings. The animal has an altogether heavier look. The Scottish wildcat was originally distinguished as a separate subspecies in 1912, but it is now generally recognised that there is little difference between the Scottish and other European populations. According to an excellent report on the wildcat printed in 1991, the animals originally occurred in a variety of habitats throughout Europe.
42.
It was during the nineteenth century, with the establishment of many estates used by landowners for hunting, that the wildcat became a nuisance and its rapid decline really began; 198 wildcats were killed in three years in the area of Glengarry, for example. However, things were later to improve for the species.
43.
The future is by no means secure, though, and recent evidence suggests that the wildcat is particularly vulnerable to local eradication, especially in the remoter parts of northern and western Scotland. This is a cause for real concern, given that the animals in these areas have less contact with domestic cats and are therefore purer.
44.
Part of the problem stems from the fact that the accepted physical description of the species originates from the selective nature of the examination process by the British Natural History Museum at the start of the century, and this has been used as the type-definition for the animal ever since. Animals that did not conform to that large blunt-tailed ‘tabby’ description were discarded as not being wildcats. In other words, an artificial collection of specimens was built up, exhibiting the features considered typical of the wildcat. The current research aims to resolve this potential problem. It is attempting to find out whether there are any physical features which characterise the so called wild-living cats.
45.
But what of his lifestyle? Wildcat kittens are usually born in May/June in a secluded den, secreted in a gap amongst boulders. Another favourite location is in the roots of a tree.
46.
Rabbits are a favourite prey, and some of the best areas to see wildcats are at rabbit warrens close to the forest and moorland edge. Mice, small birds and even insects also form a large part of the diet, and the animal may occasionally take young deer. The wildcat is one of the Scottish Highlands’ most exciting animals. Catch a glimpse of one and the memory will linger forever.
CorrectIncorrect -
-
Question 25 of 25
25. Question
Part 8
-10 questions-
You are going to read an article containing reviews of recently-published books. For questions 47-56, choose from the Books (A-F). The reviews may be chosen more than once.
Book Corner
A round-up of the latest fiction and non-fiction from Beth Young.
A
Reading a new novelist is a bit like asking a stranger out on a date. You never quite know if this is the start of a beautiful relationship. You check the blurbs, the publicity photograph, and flick through the book to look for the two essentials: entertainment and substance. Beginner's Greek by James Collins is certainly big on the latter, weighing in at 400-plus pages. And the quotes on the back cover have the effect of a bunch of friends saying to you, 'Go on, you'll get on brilliantly'. Early indications are that this blind date could lead to a deeper relationship. Beginner's Greek is described by The New York Times as a "great big sunny lemon chiffon pie of a novel" about romantic love amongst the American middle classes. It is indeed delicious.B
In Manil Suri's second outing The Age of Shiva we have a broad-sweeping, epic novel with an unforgettable heroine so wilful yet flawed that it calls to mind that other famous leading lady, Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. The story begins at a firework party in Delhi where Meera falls disastrously in love. We follow her journey to Bombay, marriage and obsessive motherhood, with occasional flashbacks to a childhood that was marred by political turmoil. Mathematics professor, Suri, captures the fluidity of the role of women with a beautiful kind of precision.C
Devotees of playwright David Mamet, whose screen work includes Wag The Dog and the award-winning Glengarry Glen Ross may be less than enamoured of Ira Nadel's new biography, David Mamet: A Life in the Theatre. It may seem churlish to question the minutia of incidents that abound in this comprehensive tome, but whilst Nadel is clearly striving for accuracy one feels there ought to have been more sifting, more mining for the gold amongst the biographical trivia. In addition, Nadel's tone is somewhat dry and academic and seems at odds with the brilliance of David Mamet's own writing. That said, the book offers a sound introduction to the life and career of the man hailed as one of America's most outstanding writers.D
Can any Mother help me? is the true story of a desperately lonely mother who, in 1935, appealed to other women through the letters page of a women's magazine. Writing under a pseudonym, the woman known as Ubique (meaning 'everywhere') little realised that she would be the trigger for the launch of a new and private magazine that would last for the next fifty years. The Cooperative Correspondence Club was formed to offer comfort and support to wives, often well-educated women, who craved stimulation beyond the drudgery of family life. Jenna Bailey has done a superb job of organising and editing this compendium, adding her own insightful commentary.E
Subtitled, The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Jessie Child's debut historical biography, Henry VIII's Last Victim, was the worthy winner of last year's Elizabeth Longford Prize. Henry Howard's victim status is owing to the fact that he was the final person to be executed by King Henry VIII, a mere nine days before the king himself expired. Although killed ostensibly for treason, the Earl of Surrey's only real crime it seems was leading an unsuccessful army campaign in France. Only 29, he was also a distinguished poet with a fine literary voice, a persona which refutes his reputation as the spoilt son of the Duke of Norfolk.F
This is the 25th outing for T. Keneally but he's lost none of his writing powers. The Widow and Her Hero takes real life events during the Second World War as its inspiration and builds a tale of love and intrigue. Grace looks back on her life to recall her courtship with the hero of the title, the handsome Captain Leo Waterhouse. Leo is tragically killed whilst on a secret mission but it is many years before Grace discovers the facts about his death. Keneally made fans galore when Schindler's Ark was published and later made into the award-winning Steven Spielberg film, Schindler's List. The Widow and Her Hero will bring him even more fans.Questions
In which review are the following mentioned?
-
47) A story in which someone is unaware of the impact of their action. -
48) A description of the opening scene. -
49) An author who exemplifies source material with their own analysis. -
50) A humorous comparison with a real-life situation. -
51) A character who finds out the truth about a situation. -
52) A hint that the author's future writing career will be positive. -
53) A book that would be appreciated by people without much previous knowledge of the subject. -
54) A book which has already won critical acclaim. -
55) A book which includes too much factual detail. -
56) A mention of the profession of the author. -
CorrectIncorrect -