In the context, which is the best alternative sentence or expression to fit in the gap? Mark your choice by writing one of the letters A, B, C, or D in the boxes below. Read the whole text through before you decide.
Text 1: Fighting Disease
For the first time a vaccine against malaria has shown that it can save children from infection or death. ____________________. It protected children from catching the disease only about 30 percent of the time and prevented it from becoming life-threatening only about 58 percent of the time. But because malaria kills more than a million people a year, 700,000 of them children, even partial protection would be a public health victory. The disease is found in 90 countries, and drug-resistant strains are spreading.
Text 2 – Global TV
Media giant Rupert Murdoch has lately become a disciple of localisation. When he bought StarTV in 1993, the plan was to use his Fox films and TV programmes to fill a pan-Asian channel. But it was not until Star hired local producers to make soaps, comedies and game shows for customised channels, in languages from Hindi to Mandarin, that the business began to prosper. ____________________. It recently launched a local version in Scandinavia, mixing familiar Disney characters such as Winnie-the-Pooh with local favourites such as Pippi Longstocking. In Britain, over half of the output of Playhouse Disney is now British-made.
Text 3 – Languages
All languages are works in progress. But the globalisation of English will revolutionize the language in ways we can only begin to imagine. ____________________ . You could use a local English-based dialect at home, a national variety at work or school, and international Standard English to talk to foreigners. With native speakers being a shrinking minority of the world’s Anglophones, there’s a growing sense that students should stop trying to emulate Brighton or Boston English and embrace their own local versions.
Text 4 – Losing Weight
With obesity much on Americans’ minds, an entire industry has sprung up selling diets and diet books, meal replacements and exercise programs, nutritional supplements and Internet-based coaching, all to help people lose weight. But a new study finds little evidence that commercial weight-loss programs are effective in helping people drop excess pounds. Researchers report that ____________________. Moreover, companies are often unwilling to conduct such studies, arguing that they are in the business of treatment, not research.
- 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.