PRACTICE TEST 1

SECTION I: LISTENING
Part 1: Listen to a recording about agriculture and environment and complete the note below by
writing NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

Agriculture and Environment

 (1)__ food______production = biggest problem in today’s world
 Agriculture is important for jobs, exports and foreign exchange
 ‘Agriculture’ means:
Growing crops
Raising animals
(2)_Fishing_________
(3)__Forestry________
 Agriculture must be sustainable: old methods, new, chemical methods are all
sustainable -> (4)____destruction______ of biodiversity
 Biotechnology -> GM or GE -> bio-prospecting (bio-piracy) i.e. large companies steal
samples of native plants to use the (5)____genetic material______ for their own crop
improvement
 (6)___Climate change_______ is responsible for less food and higher prices
 Farmers need to be educated but governments also need to pay attention to (7)__policy
development_____ in order to protect the environment and renourish the soil.
 Experts from around the world could come together to form a (8)___global
network___ to observe farm systems aiming to prevent pollution and erosion and
encourage safe procedures that are also (9)_cost-effective_________
 Creating the project’s (10)___infracstructure_______ would be very expensive and
more money would be needed for the monitoring system but it could solve the problem
of food shortages.

Part 2: Listen to a dialogue and answer the questions

Write ONLY ONE WORD OR A NUMBER from the dialogue for each answer.
1. How many days did the scientists spend under the waves?
31
2. What answer did Rob choose?
B
3. What's the name of the laboratory?
Aquarius
4. Where's the laboratory situated?
Florida
5. What is the world record, in minutes, for holding breath underwater? 
22

Part 3: Listen to a lecture about Australian Aboriginal art and decide if the statements are TRUE or
FALSE
1. Sand drawings are an example of Australian ancient art. T
2. One of the oldest arts by Aborigine is rock painting. F
3. Ancient Aborigine used rock art as a kind of language. T
4. Aboriginal people used ochre to paint because it could be found eveywhere. T
5. Honey was also as paint. F
Part 4: Listen and choose the correct answer
1. The main reason that Isabella was unlikely to become a travel writer was that she ________.
A. believed travel at that time was very dangerous.
B. was under an illusion about her health.
C. had never displayed much imagination.
D. had regarded travel as a man’s occupation.
2. Sarah thinks Isabella’s trips to Australia were surprising because she had previously________.
A. preferred an inactive lifestyle.
B. been frightened of animals.
C. never experienced extreme climates.
D. spent most of her time socializing.
3. According to Sarah, Isabella’s letters ________.
A. should have been published earlier.
B. were based on newspaper articles.
C. may have exaggerated what she saw.
D. failed to provide enough details at times.
4. In Sarah’s opinion, Isabella’s personality was unusual because she ________.
A. had rebelled against her father.
B. was at her best in challenging situations.
C. only pretended to be courageous.
D. traveled despite her illnesses.
5. According to Sarah, the book in its current form ________.
A. does not make it clear how the letters have been edited.
B. ought to contain all of the letters Isabella wrote to Henrietta.
C. fails to include examples of Isabella’s bad experiences.
D. should be adapted so the style is familiar to readers today.

SECTION II: LEXICO & GRAMMAR

Part 1. Choose a word or phrase that best completes each sentence.
1. The brother and sister were _______ over who would get to inherit the beach house.
A. at large B. at odds C. at a standstill D. at a loose end
2. You can’t always depend on _______ on time.
A. the trains’ arriving B. the trains to arrive
C. the arriving of trains D. the train that arriving
3. In all _______ there will never be a Third World War.
A. odds B. probability C. certainty D. possibilities
4. Conversations you strike up with travelling acquaintances usually tend to be _______.
A trivial B. perverse C. insufficient D. imperative
5. Because so much wheat has been sold to other countries, local supplies are _______.
A. expanded B. depleted C. apprehended D. preoccupied
6. Her performance in the last scene was quite ________.
A. describable B. remarkable C. notable D. noticeable
7. She was caught cheating in the race. _______, she was disqualified.
A. Explicitly B. Accordingly C. Equally D. Fundamentally
8. His laziness at work made him _______ with his workmate.
A. improper B. disliked C. unpopular D. unappealing
9. They came to inspect the house _______ buying it.
A. in the event of B. with reference to C. with a view to D. on account of
10. You should be _______ashamed of yourself for what you have done.
A. thoroughly B. hopelessly C. entirely D. earnestly
11. Jane handed in the test and awaited the results _______.
A. with bated breath=anxiously B. out of breath
C. under her breath C. in the same breath
12. Lindsay’s excuses for being late are beginning to _______rather thin.
A. get B. turn C. wear D. go
13. He cannot_______ ignorance as his excuse; he should have known what was happening in his
own department.
A. insist B. plead C. refer D. defend
14. _______ is a belief generally held by people who live in colder climates.
A. That weather affects a person’s mood
B. Weather affects a person’s mood
C. A person’s mood is affected by weather
D. Although a person’s mood is affected by weather
15. If you have a minor illness, it’s usually better just to let the nature take its _______.
A. time B. path C. way D. course
16. I’m afraid that the herring we had for dinner has given me _______.
A. sickness B. indisposition C. infection D. indigestion
17. The facilities at many schools today are still _______ inadequate.
A. sadly B. woefully C. regrettably D. grimly.
18. The preparations for the Olympic Games are on ________ according to the committee in charge.
A. goal B. progress C. target D. aim
19. Having never worked on a major newspaper before, he was all at _______when he first
started.
A. loss B. water C. coast D. sea
Be at sea=be confused
20. _______, scientists have greatly increased the yield of crops such as corn, rice, and wheat.
A. As using the laws of genetics B. Using the laws of genetics
C. The laws of genetics D. The laws of genetics are to be used

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning
to the underlined part in each of the following questions.
1. If we had taken his sage advice, we wouldn’t be in so much trouble now.
A. willing B. sturdy C. wise D. eager
2. A mediocre student who gets low grades will have trouble getting into an Ivy League college.
A. average B. lazy C. moronic D. diligent

Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word or phrase that is OPPOSITE in
meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions.
3. The rocket steepened its ascent.
A. descent B. decent C. decant D. dissent
[Link] some countries, the disease burden could be prevented through environmental improvements.
A. something to stiffer B. something enjoyable
C. something sad D. something to entertain

Part 2: The passage below contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write the corrections in the
corresponding numbered boxes.
Sleeping less than six and half(a half) hours a night is not good for you, warned(warned by) the American
National Sleep Foundation recently. With supremacy irony, the warning came just as people in the US, in the
interests of daylight saving, were about to put their clocks down one hour, which always deprives them of some
sleep. The Foundation's latest research shows that eight hours' sleep is optimal for good health. The problem is
that these days, some people seem to regard sleep as slothful and unproductive, a view
encouraging(encouraged) by innovations like the Internet, which allows users unlimiting(unlimited) access,
long after other sources of information are asleep. Actually, one could go further back in time and blame the
invention of the light bulb, that(which) effectively eliminated darkness. People slept on average nine hours a
night before the arrival of electricity, which is probably means they were a good deal happier. For sleep is not
qeuipvalent(equivalent) to switch(switching) off your computer. In sleep important things still happen, things
which are thought to be restorative and conserving. Sleep reduces the body's metabolism(metobolic) rate by up
to 20 per cent, representing a great saving in energy, and the number(amount) of oxygen which we use in the
first part of the night also falls considerately(considerably), as does our body temperature to a lesser extent.
And during sleep the body releases growing(growth) hormone, which is why children need plenty of sleep.

SECTION III. READING

Part 1. Read the following passage and choose the words that best complete the sentences.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy (1) .............. to have gained a lot more respectability in society than a number of GPs
believe it really deserves. (2) .............. there being no evidence that it is effective, according to a recent UK
government report, many prominent people (3) .............. to support it. In view of this, perhaps the most
surprising fact of all is that homeopathy is offered (4) .............. treatment on the NHS (National Health Service)
in the UK. Like many other alternative forms of medicine, homeopathy has become so accepted (5) ..............
there are few who question its use. People have become (6) .............. to seeing homeopathy as a treatment for
illness and disease. However, many researchers insist (7) .............. claiming that it is not a valid treatment
because the medicines contain no active ingredients.
The real question is why it is so popular. Many patients swear that was an effective cure for their disease
whilst the report maintains this is simply (9) .............. to the placebo effect. In other words, just the act of taking
the medicine is a good enough reason for patients to (10) .............. feeling better. In short, while homeopathy
many be useful for helping people get over minor illnesses, it is (11) .............. that anyone with serious illnesses
should seek out conventional treatment.
1. A. feels B. suggests C. seems D. shows
2. A. Except B. Although C. However D. Despite
3. A. maintain B. keep C. carry D. continue
4. A. as B. from C. on D. to
5. A. until B. that C. enough D. when
6. A. accustomed B. familiar C. acquainted D. fond
7. A. for B. on C. by D. in
8. A. due B. up C. result D. because
9. A. have B. start C. get D. become
A. regarded B. referred C. recovered D. recommended

PART 2. Fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word and write your answers in
the corresponding numbered boxes provided.
The second-time saga
It was so simple (0) the first time round, my main anxieties being what dress to wear to the wedding and (1)
__who_______ to invite. Twenty years ago, it never (2)___occured______ to me to worry about money or to
comtemplate what would happen if it all fell apart.
However, this time, all (3) _____too____ aware of the failure rate or second marriages, and with children from
our previous relationships to think about, we’ve prepared for the worst, spending the last month absorbed in the
(4) ___less______ than romantic details of wills and life assurance. I have to say (5) ___it______ hasn’t been
much fun. We’ve asked all sorts of morbid questions, such as What if one of us falls under a bus? What if (6)
__both_______ of us do? Our main priority has been to produce wills dealing with (7) __every_____ possible
eventuality, though this hasn’t been easy.
The other nightmare scenario was spliting up. What if we decided we couldn’t stand each other within the first
couple of years? The administrative answer to this was fairly simple, involving us (8) _into________ signing a
pre-nuptial contract, stating our intention to walk away with (9) _________ resources we had brought into the
marriage. Pre-nuptial contracts have (10) ___no______ actual force at all in English law, but we certainly felt
better after we had signed. We were at long last ready to enjoy our wedding!

Part 3: Read the text and choose the best answer A, B, C or D.

They are just four, five and six years old right now, but already they are making criminologists nervous.
They are growing up, too frequently, in abusive or broken homes, with little adult supervision and few positive
role models. Left to themselves, they spend much of their time hanging out on the streets or soaking up violent
TV shows. By the year 2005 they will be teenagers–a group that tends to be, in the view of Northeastern
University criminologist James Alan Fox, “temporary sociopaths–impulsive and immature.” If they also have
easy access to guns and drugs, they can be extremely dangerous.
For all the heartening news offered by recent crime statistics, there is an ominous flip side. While the
crime rate is dropping for adults, it is soaring for teens. Between 1990 and 1994, the rate at which adults age 25
and older committed homicides declined 22%; yet the rate jumped 16% for youths between 14 and 17, the age
group that in the early ’90s supplanted 18- to 24-year-olds as the most crime-prone. And that is precisely the
age group that will be booming in the next decade. There are currently 39 million children under 10 in the U.S.,
more than at any time since the 1950s. “This is the calm before the crime storm,” says Fox. “So long as we fool
ourselves in thinking that we’re winning the war against crime, we may be blindsided by this bloodbath of
teenage violence that is lurking in the future.”
Demographics don’t have to be destiny, but other social trends do little to contradict the dire predictions.
Nearly all the factors that contribute to youth crime–single-parent households, child abuse, deteriorating inner-
city schools–are getting worse. At the same time, government is becoming less, not more, interested in spending
money to help break the cycle of poverty and crime. All of which has led John J. DiIulio Jr., a professor of
politics and public affairs at Princeton, to warn about a new generation of “super predators,” youngsters who are
coming of age in actual and “moral poverty,” without “the benefit of parents, teachers, coaches and clergy to
teach them right or wrong and show them unconditional love.”
Predicting a generation’s future crime patterns is, of course, risky; especially when outside factors (Will
crack use be up or down? Will gun laws be tightened?) remain unpredictable. Michael Tonry, a professor of law
and public policy at the University of Minnesota, argues that the demographic doomsayers are unduly alarmist.
“There will be a slightly larger number of people relative to the overall population who are at high risk for doing
bad things, so that’s going to have some effect,” he concedes. “But it’s not going to be an apocalyptic effect.”
Norval Morris, professor of law and criminology at the University of Chicago, finds DiIulio’s notion of super
predators too simplistic: “The human animal in young males is quite a violent animal all over the world. The
people who put forth the theory of moral poverty lack a sense of history and comparative criminology.”
Yet other students of the inner city are more pessimistic. “All the basic elements that spawn teenage
crime are still in place, and in many cases the indicators are worse,” says Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing
Grace, an examination of poverty in the South Bronx. “There’s a dramatic increase of children in foster care,
and that’s a very high-risk group of kids. We’re not creating new jobs, and we’re not improving education to
suit poor people for the jobs that exist.”
Can anything defuse the demographic time bomb? Fox urges “reinvesting in children”: improving
schools, creating after-school programs and providing other alternatives to gangs and drugs. DiIulio, a law-and-
order conservative, advocates tougher prosecution and wants to strengthen religious institutions to instill better
values. Yet he opposes the Gingrich-led effort to make deep cuts in social programs. “A failure to maintain
existing welfare and health commitment for kids,” he says, “is to guarantee that the next wave of juvenile
predators will be even worse than we’re dealing with today.” DiIulio urges fellow conservatives to think of
Medicaid not as a health-care program but as “an anticrime policy.” 
(Source: Time Magazine)
1. Young children are making criminologists nervous because
A. they are committing too much crime.  B. they are impulsive and immature. 
C. they may grow up to be criminals. D. they have no role models.
2. The general crime rate in the US is
A. increasing B. decreasing C. not changing D. difficult to predict
3. The age group which commits the highest rate of crime is
A. 14 – 17. B. 18 – 24.  C. 24 +. D. the old
4. James Fox believes that the improvement in crime figures could
A. make us complacent in the fight against crime. B. result in an increase in teenage violence. 
C. make us become fooled and blindsided. D. result in a decrease in teenage violence.
5. According to paragraph 3, the government
A. cutting down on the budget. B. is doing everything it can to solve the problem.
C. is not interested in solving the problem. D. is not doing enough to solve the problem.
6. In comparison with James Fox, Michael Tonry is
A. more pessimistic. B. less pessimistic.  C. equally pessimistic. D. indifferent
7. Jonathan Kozol believes that
A. there is no solution to the problem.
B. employment and education are not the answer.
C. employment and education can improve the situation.
D. people can solve the problem by improving schools.
8. Professor DiIulio thinks that spending on social programs
A. should continue as it is B. should be decreased.
C. is irrelevant to crime rates. D. is a better solution to the problem.
9. The word ‘lurking” in the paragraph 2 can be best replaced by
A. happening B. hiding C. impending D. looming
10. The sentence “This is the calm before the crime storm.” means:
A. There will be population booming in in the next decade.
B. The age group committing crime most in the next decade is now under 10.
C. The age group 14 – 17 will commit the most crimes in the next decade.
D. People will be successful in dealing with the war against crime in the next decade.

Part 4: Read the passage and do the tasks below.

London’s Cycle Hire Scheme
A London is a ‘world city’: one of the most important economic and financial hubs of the world. It has a
population of around eight million people and contains hundreds of iconic buildings which are recognized
the world over. London receives around 20 million visitors each year, a large proportion from overseas, who
mingle with further millions of people who travel into the city from a wide area to work in the central area.
It is frequently rated as providing the most satisfying ‘cultural experience’ for visitors to any city.
B One of the challenges involved in managing (and living in) such a city is the ability to move people
efficiently around it, for the purposes of work and leisure, and at reasonable cost. The London black cab is
one response to this problem, but it also contributes to the number of vehicles that are on the roads. The
much quoted result of millions of daily vehicle movements is a very low average speed for traffic on
London’s roads and frequent congestion problems.
C Many cities have taken steps to reduce the amount of traffic on the roads by adopting a range of measures
which can broadly be described as either ‘carrots’ or ‘sticks’: those which either promote, or discourage
certain activity. London has already been forced into trying a number of measures to reduce traffic
congestion. These have included:
• Traffic management systems which included the world’s first traffic light. It was installed outside the
Houses of Parliament in 1868 to reduce congestion in this area.
• An underground system which was the first in the world. The first section opened in 1863, and the
network is still developing. Since 2003, it has been managed by Transport for London. The classic
London Tube map forms part of the city’s cultural heritage, and has been much copied and adapted
elsewhere.
• The Cross Rail development: due to provide high frequency rail services through two new tunnels under
Central London from 2017.
• The congestion charging system – introduced in 2003, and extended in 2007 – charges many motorists
(there are some exemptions) £10 to enter the central charging zone between 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday to
Friday.
• The Oyster card – an automated charging system which speeds up the use of public transport using a
specially chipped card, which can be pre-charged with ‘credit’.
D The latest solution is the Barclays London Cycle Hire Scheme. In 2010, London joined a growing list of
cities that had turned to the bicycle for a possible solution to traffic congestion. Cities like Amsterdam have
long since been associated with bicycles. Other cities that already have cycle hire schemes include
Copenhagen and Barcelona. In Paris, the system is known as the Velib scheme, a word which merges the
word for bicycle with freedom. It is funded by advertising. The London scheme was launched on the 30 th
July 2010 with an initial total of 5,000 bikes spread around 315 locations, with plans for further extensions.
The bikes are fairly robust so that they can withstand the knocks of daily use. They are fitted with dynamo-
powered LED lights, have three gears, a chain guard and a bell. Each bike is also fitted with a Radio
 Frequency Identification (RFID) chip, so that its location can be tracked. The bikes have puncture-proof
tyres and are regularly checked over for mechanical faults.
E It is hoped that people will experience London in a more direct way. instead of descending into the earth,
they will cycle the streets and thus gain ‘a different view’ of London and improve their own mental maps of
the city. They will also be getting exercise, which in an age of soaring obesity rates can only be a good
thing, can’t it?
Enough reading, time for you to get out there and start pedalling!

For Questions 1 - 5, choose the most suitable headings for sections A – E from the list of
headings below. Write the appropriate numbers (i – ix) next to the sections. There are more
headings than sections, so you will not use them all.
List of headings 1. Section A __v______
i Current and past actions 2. Section B __iii____
ii Congestion and pollution 3. Section C __i_____
iii Problems on the roads 4. Section D __vii______
iv The best city in the world 5. Section E ___vi_____
v A centre of activity
vi The many benefits of cycling
vii Cycling in European cities
viii A new initiative
ix Rail systems

For Questions 6-10, Use ONE WORD from the reading to complete each of the blanks in the summary
below. (5 points)
The Barclays London Cycle Hire Scheme was started in 2010 in the hope of providing a
(6)____solution_________ for the existing transport issues. The money that was necessary to have a scheme
like this was sourced from (7)__advertising___________ and allowed London to have (8)____5000_________
bikes initially, but there are likely to be (9)____extentions_________ to the scheme. The bikes have a tracking
(10)____chip_________, are properly equipped and regularly maintained.

Part 5: For questions 96-105, read the magazine article about bees carefully. Which of the following actions
has been believed to produce the results listed A-J? Some choices my required more than once. The task
begins with an example (0).
Example: (0) D
taking bees across water (0) _______

turning a beehive round on the owner’s (96)

death __I____ A. bees get angry
B. bees recover from illness
using swear words close to bees (97) C. serious misfortune
__G____ D. bees die
E. bees go away
lifting a beehive as a coffin passes (98) ___I__ F. someone comes to see you
G. bees cannot concentrate on their
activities
a bee coming into the room (99) H. someone visits you for a long
__F____ time
I. bees continue to be healthy
inviting bees to a funeral (100) J. wealth
_I____

arguing a lot in front of bees (101)

_E____
forcing a bee out of your home (102)
__C___

keeping a bee in a purse (103)

_J____

a bee making noise at a window (104)

H_____

failing to tell bees the names of a couple (105)

getting married __A___

Beliefs about Bees

Paul Prossart looks at some of the superstitions surrounding bees
You don’t find many people these days who would keep a bee in their purse. But catching the first bee
seen in the spring was once considered the height of good luck, and if you kept it in your purse, you were
certain never to be short of money. Probably because you would be too afraid to open it! This is just one of the
many superstitions surrounding bees.
Next time a bee flies in through your window, expect a visitor very shortly. Take a closer look at bee: if
it has a red tail, your visitor will be a man, a white tail means a woman. If the bee happens to be buzzing at the
living-room window, make sure there’s an ample supply of food – your visitor is probably intending to stay a
while. Whatever you do, don’t drive the bee out of the house. That would bring incredibly bad luck.
Housekeeping would never be the same again.
And were you aware that bees dislike bad behavior? Years ago, bee-keeping was much more common.
A hive or two would provide some honey in the summer months and it wasn’t unusual to have a few hives in
the back garden. You would never consider owning a hive of bees if your family was quarrelsome. A magazine
of the 1850s declared that “if a man and his wife quarrel, the bees will leave them.”
Bad language should never be used near beehives as it disturbs the bees, affecting their honey-making.
Bees, it seems, are paragons of virtue. And make sure you’ve had a bath if you are going to collect honey from a
hive. Bees are fussy about cleanliness. As early as 77AD, Pliny, in his book Natural History, advised his
readers: “It is particularly recommended that he person who takes the honey should be well washed and clean.”
Bees obviously take a dim view of dirty hands on their pure honey.
They also have mixed feelings where water is concerned because tradition has it that if you move a hive
of bees, they must never be taken across a stream or river because they will all die.
There was much concern for bees in the 17 th century. It was believed that if the owner of the hives were
to die, all the bees would die too, unless they were moved to another place. From this the superstitious custom
developed of turning round the beehives that belonged to the deceased, so that the bees would survive.
Once, at the funeral of a rich farmer in the 1790s, someone duly called out to a servant “Turn the bees”,
as the body was being placed in the hearse and the horseman was about to pull off in the funeral procession.
This servant, having no knowledge of the custom, lifted up the hive and laid it on its side. The bees, naturally,
didn’t like this, and instantly attacked and fastened onto the horses and riders. The horses bolted and galloped
off, with the bees in hot pursuit, and as a mourner commented later: “A general confusion tool place, with loss
of hats and wigs.”
By the end of the 19th century, this custom had become a mere lifting of the hives a few inches off the
ground as a token gesture whenever a funeral passed the house, as it was still considered necessary for the well-
being of the bees.
During that century, when a death occurred, it was thought the done thing to send an invitation to the
funeral to the bees in their hives, otherwise they would die. Bees obviously still observe this tradition - and
literally, at that – for the Shrewsbury Chronicle as recently as 1961 related the story of the death of a beekeeper
who was devoted to his bees. At a memorial service in the village, the bees left their hives and settled in a great
swarm all over the flowers on the deceased master’s grave.
 It was the custom at weddings and funerals to give a piece of the wedding cake or funeral biscuit to the
bees, telling them the name of the person married or dead. If the bees didn’t know of the former they became
very annoyed and stung everyone within reach and if they were ignorant of the latter they would become sick
and might even die.
So next time you are in the queue at the supermarket and a bee flies out of the purse of the woman in
front, don’t be surprised – she is just being superstitious.

SECTION IV: Writing

Part 1: 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 eight words, including the word
given.
1. We got no assistance when we needed help and advice. RESOURCES
We were given no resources when we needed help and advice .
2. Students at the school are not allowed to go into the Rainbow Disco. BOUNDS
The Rainbow Disco __is out of bounds to the student______________ at the school.
3. It will be necessary to wear safety gloves throughout this experiement. DURATION
Safety gloves _____have to be worn for the duration____________________ of this experiment.
4. While most writers earn only modest royalities, a lucky few create a betterseller. STRIKE
A few writers___strike it lucky with a bestseller, although______earning only modest royalties is the norm.
5. We must always bear in mind that many scientific breakthroughs are due to luck. SIGHT
We must not _________lose sight of the fact that luck________ plays a large part in many scientific
breakthroughs. .