Name: PRACTICE TEST FOR THE GIFTED

Class: TEST 5
A/ LEXICO - GRAMMAR
I. Choose the best answer for each question.
1. I don’t need any medicine. I’m as right as ________.
A. clouds B. rays C. rain D. haze
2. All three TV channels provide extensive ________ of sporting events.
A. vision B. coverage C. broadcast D. network
3. Time was running out, so the committee had to make a ________ decision.
A. brief B. snap C. sharp D. curt
4. Because of an unfortunate ________ your order was not despatched by the date requested.
A. hindrance B. oversight C. negligence D. transgression
5. Tempers began to ________ as the lorries forced their way through the picket lines.
A. break B. fray C. grate D. fire
6. The government has made no ________ in the flight against inflation; indeed, the
situation has worsened recently.
A. headway B. effect C. avail D. triumph
7. The completion of the new Town Hall has been ________ owing to a strike.
A. held off B. held down C. held up D. held on
8. People under 21 years old are not ________ to join this club.
A. desirable B. eligible C. advisable D. admissible
9. News of the attempted coup began to ________ through to the outside world.
A. pour B. filter C. broadcast D. drip
10. My secretary was ________ to have typed those letters already.
A. asked B. supposed C. requested D. ordered
11. To prevent flooding in winter the water flowing from the dam is constantly ________
by a computer.
A. managed B. graded C. monitored D. conducted
12. With all ________ respect, I think your comments are very short-sighted.
A. anticipated B. due C. limited D. firm
13. He bought that house, ________ that he would inherit money under his uncle’s will.
A. considering B. assuming C. estimating D. accounting
14. Jane managed to eke ________ her student loan till the end of the year.
A. off B. out C. in D. through
15. ___________more points to discuss, the meeting has now come to an end.
A. On account of B. Regardless of C. Not having D. There being no
16. How many people do you think his car would ________?
A. occupy B. hold C. fit D. load
17. Financial worries gradually ________ his health and he was obliged to retire early.
A. undermined B. disabled C. exhausted D. invalidated
18. With such lack of financial support, they miraculously managed to run their business
_________.
A. at stake B. on a shoestring
C. in a nutshell D. under seige
19. I don’t feel like buying a ________ in a poke; we’d better check the content.
A. pig B. cattle C. buffalo D. ox
20. If you want to have a good flat in London, you have to pay through the ______ for it.
A. mouth B. eye C. nose D. head
II. Complete each of the following sentences using the correct form of the word in brackets.
1. The swimming pool is advertising itself as a ‘______ swimming 1. TROPICAL
paradise’!
2. The country is now heavily in debt due to the government’s 2. MANAGE
financial _____________.
3. The culture of ______________ is going to kill British workers. 3. PRESENT
4. This meat is ____________ - look, it’s charred on the outside! 4. COOK
5. I think this printer has ______ its usefulness and should be sold. 5. LIVE
6. Some companies are fighting for ______ of the software market. 6. DOMINATE
7. I was suddenly overcome with a(n) ______ desire to hit him. 7.CONTROL
8. “I’m sorry I’m late,” he murmured ______ . 8. APOLOGIZE
9. As I didn’t have a suitable ______ I decided to back down and 9. ARGUMENT
apologise.
10. He is such a(n)___________who always pretends to know 10. INTELLECT
everything
III. The words in bold are in the wrong sentences. Write the correct words.
1. Police believe the bailiff of this crime to be a man of middle-age who lives locally and is
familiar with the area. _____________
2. Eva wasn’t involved in the robbery; she was just one of several innocent convicts who
were unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. _____________
3. The conman in this case has asserted his innocence from the very beginning of the trial,
but it remains to be seen if the jury will agree with him. _____________
4. The bystanders were chained together by their hands and feet and loaded into a waiting
security van. _____________
5. In the British judicial system, a solicitor does not have the right to appear in court, but
works together with a perpetrator who will represent the client during his or her trial.
_____________
6. Elderly people are being warned to guard against a magistrate who has been posing as a
postman in order to gain access to people’s homes. _____________
7. If you don’t pay the backlog of six instalments, then the defendant will be called in to
repossess items of furniture and electrical goods in the amount of the debt._____________
8. A barrister sits in a local courthouse and rules on cases such as land disputes or petty
theft. _____________
IV. Complete the sentences using the compound nouns below.
check-in getaway outset let-up touchdown
mix-up letdown pile-up stopover washout
1. The camping trip was a complete___________- it poured down the whole weekend.
2. There was a___________ with our tickets - we were charged for one-way tickets and
not a round trip.
3. We didn’t fly directly to Australia - we had a one-night___________ in Singapore.
4. The motorway was blocked because there had been a___________.
5. There was no___________ in the noise outside our hotel and we couldn’t get to sleep.
6. I wish I had known at the___________ that the climb would be so difficult.
7. The celebrity couple spent their honeymoon at their island ___________ to avoid the
press.
8. Your luggage may be inspected at___________ for security reasons.
9. After___________, please remain seated until the aircraft comes to a standstill outside
the terminal building.
Some people fear going back to school because they worry that their brains have got rusty.
But the joy is that, although some parts have rusted up, your brain has learnt all kinds of
other things since you were young. It has learnt to think independently and flexibly and is
much better at relating one thing to another. What you lose in the rust department, you gain
in the maturity department.
In some ways, age is a positive plus. For instance, when you’re older, you get less frustrated.
Experience has told you that, if you’re calm and simply do something carefully again and
again, eventually you’ll get the hang of it. The confidence you have in other areas – from
being able to drive a car, perhaps – means that if you can’t, say, build a chair instantly, you
don’t, like a child, want to destroy your first pathetic attempts. Maturity tells you that you
will, with application, eventually get there.
I hated piano lessons at school, but I was good at music. And coming back to it, with a
teacher who could explain why certain exercises were useful and with musical concepts that,
at the age of ten, I could never grasp, was magical. Initially, I did feel a bit strange, thumping
out a piece that I’d played for my school exams, with just as little comprehension of what
the composer intended as I’d had all those years before. But soon, complex emotions that I
never knew poured out from my fingers, and suddenly I could understand why practice
makes perfect.
1. It is implied in paragraph 1 that …………………
A. parents should encourage young learners to study more
B. young learners are usually lazy in their class
C. young learners often lack a good motivation for learning
D. teachers should give young learners less homework
2. The writer’s main point in paragraph 2 is to show that as people grow up,
………………… .
A. they have a more positive attitude towards learning
B. they cannot learn as well as younger learners
C. they tend to learn less as they are discouraged
D. they get more impatient with their teachers
3. The phrase “For starters” in paragraph 2 could best be replaced by “…………………” .
A. First and foremost B. At the starting point
C. At the beginning D. For beginners
4. While doing some adult learning courses at a college, the writer was surprised
………………… .
A. to get on better with the tutor B. to feel learning more enjoyable
C. to have more time to learn D. to be able to learn more quickly
5. In paragraph 3, the word “rusty” means ………………… .
A. impatient because of having nothing to do
B. not as good as it used to be through lack of practice
C. staying alive and becoming more active
D. covered with rust and not as good as it used to be
6. The phrase “get there” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to “………………”.
A. arrive at an intended place with difficulty
B. have the things you have long desired
C. achieve your aim with hard work have the things you have long desired
D. receive a school or college degree
7. All of the following are true about adult learning EXCEPT ………………… .
 A. adult learners have fewer advantages than young learners
B. adults think more independently and flexibly than young people
C. experience in doing other things can help one’s learning
D. young people usually feel less patient than adults
8. It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that maturity is a positive plus in the learning process
because adult learners ………………… .
A. pay more attention to detail than younger learners
B. are able to organize themselves better than younger learners
C. are less worried about learning than younger learners
D. have become more patient than younger learners
9. It is implied in the last paragraph that when you learn later in life, you ………………
A. should expect to take longer to learn than when you were younger
B. can sometimes understand more than when you were younger
C. are not able to concentrate as well as when you were younger
D. find that you can recall a lot of things you learnt when younger
10. What is the writer’s main purpose in the passage?
A. To encourage adult learning. B. To describe adult learning methods.
C. To show how fast adult learning is. D. To explain reasons for learning.
Passage 3: You are going to read a newspaper article about working abroad. For questions 1–10 choose
from the sections (A–D). The sections may be chosen more than once.
In which section are the following mentioned?
1. how being conscious of the outside world can spur on important decision-making
______
2. the fact that young people’s first jobs after university can present some difficult and
unexpected challenges
______
3. the belief that living in a new environment results in a wish to embrace cultural
differences ______
4. a series of mishaps that caused the writer to question an earlier decision ______
5. the fact that others might have a misconception of the experience ______
6. some experiences being unpleasant but later turning into a source of entertainment
______
7. the necessity to stand out if one wishes to be offered a job ______
8. the need for an element of bravery when starting out abroad ______
9. a complaint about young people’s lack of practical knowledge of the working world
______
10.a sense of purpose upon return to university ______
Pack your suitcase for a year working abroad
A
One month into my year interning abroad, I was sitting in a police station giving a statement
in broken French, and wondering if this was what my tutors had in mind when they told me
I would gain ‘life experience’. Having €300 stolen was the latest in a steady stream of events
that had already tempted me to give up, go home, and console myself with the fact that I
tried.
 A. adult learners have fewer advantages than young learners
B. adults think more independently and flexibly than young people
C. experience in doing other things can help one’s learning
D. young people usually feel less patient than adults
8. It can be inferred from paragraph 4 that maturity is a positive plus in the learning process
because adult learners ………………… .
A. pay more attention to detail than younger learners
B. are able to organize themselves better than younger learners
C. are less worried about learning than younger learners
D. have become more patient than younger learners
9. It is implied in the last paragraph that when you learn later in life, you ………………
A. should expect to take longer to learn than when you were younger
B. can sometimes understand more than when you were younger
C. are not able to concentrate as well as when you were younger
D. find that you can recall a lot of things you learnt when younger
10. What is the writer’s main purpose in the passage?
A. To encourage adult learning. B. To describe adult learning methods.
C. To show how fast adult learning is. D. To explain reasons for learning.
Passage 3: You are going to read a newspaper article about working abroad. For questions 1–10 choose
from the sections (A–D). The sections may be chosen more than once.
In which section are the following mentioned?
1. how being conscious of the outside world can spur on important decision-making
______
2. the fact that young people’s first jobs after university can present some difficult and
unexpected challenges
______
3. the belief that living in a new environment results in a wish to embrace cultural
differences ______
4. a series of mishaps that caused the writer to question an earlier decision ______
5. the fact that others might have a misconception of the experience ______
6. some experiences being unpleasant but later turning into a source of entertainment
______
7. the necessity to stand out if one wishes to be offered a job ______
8. the need for an element of bravery when starting out abroad ______
9. a complaint about young people’s lack of practical knowledge of the working world
______
10.a sense of purpose upon return to university ______
Pack your suitcase for a year working abroad
A
One month into my year interning abroad, I was sitting in a police station giving a statement
in broken French, and wondering if this was what my tutors had in mind when they told me
I would gain ‘life experience’. Having €300 stolen was the latest in a steady stream of events
that had already tempted me to give up, go home, and console myself with the fact that I
tried.
Fast-forward nine months and I not only know that I made the right choice staying, but that
working abroad gives the unique opportunity to educate students in how to deal with the
real world. One of employers’ main gripes about the youth of today is that they have
insufficient insight into life in the workplace, so it makes sense to seek such experience now.
University might offer the chance to learn about and debate things that other people have
accomplished, but a year spent working away from this relative safety net allows students
to realize their own ambitions. The artificial bubble of campus life bursts onto the big wide
world of work.
B
After three years of studying, exams and socializing with a set of people not too dissimilar
from themselves, students are often stuck struggling for direction or purpose and left simply
wondering what’s next. Working abroad teaches us to view education as ever-evolving;
learning is not confined to the constructed setting of lecture halls and seminar rooms, but
rather can be continued throughout our lives, making us adaptable and responsive to new
situations as a result.
A placement abroad prepares for this tough jolt into the unknown world of work in a way
that no amount of essays or assessments can ever do. Living in another country and culture
ensures situations and challenges on a daily basis that are testing but ultimately offer the
rewards of independence, self-assurance and motivation.
My own experiences taught me to view each (mis)adventure as a learning curve and
approach problems with a level head, good judgement and healthy dose of humour. Sure,
the initial sense of being lost both literally and linguistically may not have been laugh-a-
minute at the time, but every situation led to a solution or encounter with interesting, vibrant
new people and a fair few stories to recount back at home.
C
Being planted into an unfamiliar setting nurtures openness, empathy and a deep-rooted
understanding of other ethnic groups. More importantly, it stimulates a desire to celebrate
this. Of course, choosing to work abroad isn’t an easy decision. It takes guts and an effort
to plunge in head first. Even then, there may be a significant gap between the reality of your
life and how friends at home perceive it. Their visions of interning in Paris around a romantic
hub of activity and culture might be half-true, but this misses out the less glamorous side of
shocking levels of homelessness and realizing that not everyone is in a position to find a
‘quick-fix’ solution to their problems.
While the same difficulties, are of course, to be found in England, they are somewhat
shielded by the security of campus life. It’s easy to become caught up in the quotidian
activities of student life.
D
Moving to a foreign work environment allows perspective, putting studying into context.
With this awareness of wider world issues comes a certain level of maturity which can
prompt students to make choices about their own life paths. The struggle for a graduate job
in today’s climate is part fight, part intricate dance to showcase and prove your own skills
and achievements against a background of hundreds of capable candidates. A year abroad
not only highlights a students’ skills but shows employers that they have used them in a
transferable context, again and again. Moreover, the taste of work afforded ensures a real
motivation to do well and a sense of direction once back in quotidian student life.
10. It was an impressive building but it wasn’t to my taste.
Impressive ______________________________________________________..
II. Graph description:
The graph below compares the number of visits to two new music
sites on the web.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main
features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words

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10. It was an impressive building but it wasn’t to my taste.
Impressive ______________________________________________________..
II. Graph description:
The graph below compares the number of visits to two new music
sites on the web.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main
features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words

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III. Essay writing:

Most Vietnamese people have so far cherished the tradition of spending Tet holiday
with their family and relatives in their hometown. However, recently some people have
chosen to take a holiday trip away from home to other provinces or even to other
countries on this occasion. What do you think about this trend?
In about 180 - 220 words, write an essay to express your opinion on the issue. Use reasons
and examples to support your position.
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The End