Reading and writing: Fill in the blanks
TEST 1
READING AND WRITING: FILL IN THE BLANKS
ON-SCREEN
PART 2
31
Remember that in the exam, a drop-down menu will appear when you click
on each blank with your mouse. You will select an answer from each menu.
A Below is a text with blanks. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.
Most of us (1) ...... ......... to have, or like to think we have, a sense of humor. It makes us better
company and is an effective way of dealing with the various annoyances and frustrations that life brings,
whether (2).....
..... by people or by circumstances. We assume that it gives us the ability
to laugh at ourselves, even when others make (3)
.......... of us. Now, what is the difference
between humor and satire, and is it true, as many people seem to think, that humorists are on the whole
optimistic and sympathetic, while satirists are cynical and negative? I will be taking two writers - Henry
Fielding, a writer of comedy, and Jonathan Swift, a satirist - to examine what the differences might be
and how much a comic or satiric view of things is a matter of character and temperament, and to see
how much the lives these two men led coincided with their respective visions. However, first I'd like
to put (4) ........................ a theory of sorts that would seem to reverse the general idea that humor
is a positive and satire a negative view of the world. Humor is a way of accepting things as they are.
Confronted with human stupidity, greed, vice, and so on, you shrug your shoulders, laugh, and carry on.
After all, there is nothing to be done. Human nature is unchanging and we will never reform and improve
ourselves. Satirists, on the other hand, begin with the idea that making fun of the follies of man is a very
(5) ......................... way of reforming them. Surely, in believing this they, rather than the humorists, are
the optimists, however angry they may be.
1 demand
2 caused
3 joke
4 up
5 handy
look
brought
claim
deserve
made
effected
conversation
fun
entertainment
in
effective
down
decent
forward
logical
B Below is a text with blanks. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.
It's a risky, not to say foolhardy, business predicting the future, but some (1)
so large they are impossible to ignore and the future becomes a little less difficult to see.
(2) .....
(3) .....
pollution.
trends are
... of what the future might be like for the natural environment include population
acts of environmental vandalism such as deforestation, global warming, and
Since the 1960s, the human population has roughly doubled and it is likely to rise by another third by
2030. This will of course lead to increased demands for food, water, energy, and space to live, necessarily
putting us in competition with other species - and, if the past is anything to go by - with obvious results.
Humans already use 40% of the world's primary production (energy) and this is bound to increase, with
serious consequences for nature. We are fast losing overall biodiversity, including micro-organisms in
the soil and sea, not to mention both tropical and temperate forests, which are (4)
maintaining productive soils, clean water, climate regulation, and resistance to disease. It seems we take
these things for granted and governments do not appear to factor them in when making decisions that
affect the environment.
One prediction that has been made is that, in the UK at least, warming and the loss of (5)
........ to
habitats could lead to more continental species coming to live here, and that in towns and cities, we will
have more species that have adapted to urban life and living alongside humans.
1 local
2
Pointers
new
3 development
4 crucial
Indicators
growth
typical
Signposts
rises
global
Premonition
explosion
favorable
decisive
effective
5 unusual
rare
uncommon
human
208
READING AND WRITING: FILL IN THE BLANKS
ON-SCREEN
PART 2
31
Remember that in the exam, a drop-down menu will appear when you click
on each blank with your mouse. You will select an answer from each menu.
A Below is a text with blanks. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.
Most of us (1) ...... ......... to have, or like to think we have, a sense of humor. It makes us better
company and is an effective way of dealing with the various annoyances and frustrations that life brings,
whether (2).....
..... by people or by circumstances. We assume that it gives us the ability
to laugh at ourselves, even when others make (3)
.......... of us. Now, what is the difference
between humor and satire, and is it true, as many people seem to think, that humorists are on the whole
optimistic and sympathetic, while satirists are cynical and negative? I will be taking two writers - Henry
Fielding, a writer of comedy, and Jonathan Swift, a satirist - to examine what the differences might be
and how much a comic or satiric view of things is a matter of character and temperament, and to see
how much the lives these two men led coincided with their respective visions. However, first I'd like
to put (4) ........................ a theory of sorts that would seem to reverse the general idea that humor
is a positive and satire a negative view of the world. Humor is a way of accepting things as they are.
Confronted with human stupidity, greed, vice, and so on, you shrug your shoulders, laugh, and carry on.
After all, there is nothing to be done. Human nature is unchanging and we will never reform and improve
ourselves. Satirists, on the other hand, begin with the idea that making fun of the follies of man is a very
(5) ......................... way of reforming them. Surely, in believing this they, rather than the humorists, are
the optimists, however angry they may be.
1 demand
2 caused
3 joke
4 up
5 handy
look
brought
claim
deserve
made
effected
conversation
fun
entertainment
in
effective
down
decent
forward
logical
B Below is a text with blanks. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.
It's a risky, not to say foolhardy, business predicting the future, but some (1)
so large they are impossible to ignore and the future becomes a little less difficult to see.
(2) .....
(3) .....
pollution.
trends are
... of what the future might be like for the natural environment include population
acts of environmental vandalism such as deforestation, global warming, and
Since the 1960s, the human population has roughly doubled and it is likely to rise by another third by
2030. This will of course lead to increased demands for food, water, energy, and space to live, necessarily
putting us in competition with other species - and, if the past is anything to go by - with obvious results.
Humans already use 40% of the world's primary production (energy) and this is bound to increase, with
serious consequences for nature. We are fast losing overall biodiversity, including micro-organisms in
the soil and sea, not to mention both tropical and temperate forests, which are (4)
maintaining productive soils, clean water, climate regulation, and resistance to disease. It seems we take
these things for granted and governments do not appear to factor them in when making decisions that
affect the environment.
One prediction that has been made is that, in the UK at least, warming and the loss of (5)
........ to
habitats could lead to more continental species coming to live here, and that in towns and cities, we will
have more species that have adapted to urban life and living alongside humans.
1 local
2
Pointers
new
3 development
4 crucial
Indicators
growth
typical
Signposts
rises
global
Premonition
explosion
favorable
decisive
effective
5 unusual
rare
uncommon
human
208