Each of the following mini-texts is followed by a statement in which one word, or group of words, has been left out. Read through each text and decide which of the four alternatives should be used to complete the statement so that it fits in with the text. Mark the best alternative: A, B, C, or D.
Text 1: Legal Dispute
After five years, legal bills of £110,000 and a lot of acrimony, a row between millionaire neighbours over ownership of a bramble patch worth a few hundred pounds has been settled in court. Even the judge delivering his decision yesterday confessed that it was difficult to understand why two men with extensive estates should get involved in such a dispute “considering the nature of the land involved”.
Text 2 – Air Safety
The average airline passenger travelling in the United States is nearly 10 kilograms heavier than eight years ago, a survey by the US aviation watchdog has found. The findings prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to order all US-based airlines to add extra kilograms for each traveller to passenger weight standards, plus an extra kilogram for heavier luggage.
Text 3 – Old People
When you are old, you can get away with incompetence to an astonishing degree. If you make a mess of things, the only reproach will be one muttered out of your earshot.
Text 4 – Not to be Sniffed at
In spring, most people are filled with joy at the knowledge that the summer months stretch before us, but some face the prospect of endless suffering due to hay fever. A new study offers hope in the form of a herbal extract which seems to be as effective as the drugs containing antihistamines, but does not have any sedative effects.
Text 5 – Miró’s Art
Miró approached painting with a bard’s sensibility. His tableaux consisted of simple symbols and shapes on earthy backgrounds. “The Gendarme,” for instance, depicts an abstract policeman with a thin moustache and scarlet mitt on a tea-colored canvas, his white horse rearing up next to him. Miró sought to return painting to prehistoric cave art. The result was a spare graphism that he dubbed “painting-poems.”
- Read the text first before you attempt to answer any questions.
- Find the part of the text which answers the question. The answers to the questions will generally follow in the same order in the text.
- Make sure there is evidence for your answer in the text and that it is not just an answer you think is right.
- Don’t choose an answer simply because a word in the question appears in the text. Sometimes specific words are used to trick you.
- Check that your chosen option is correct by trying to find out why the other options are incorrect.