9. Don't wash that sweater in hot water, ___________ it will shrink.

   unless

   otherwise

   if

   moreover

10. ___________ the vacation we had the most wonderful weather imaginable. Sunshine all the way!

   along

   moreover

   all in all

   throughout

11. Police arrested a man late last night in connection with the murder. Police expect to charge the ___________ later this morning.

   guilty

   condemned

   arrested

   suspect

12. Right Mrs. Jones. Take these pills twice a day and if the problem ___________ more serious, come back and pay me a visit.

   becomes

   goes

   turns

   develops

13. When each group of tourists have paid the entrance fee, ___________ them with a picnic hamper and two parasols.

   give

   provide

   lend

   give out

14. You are the only person in this company who ___________ access to both the staff phone list and the bank information of every employee. Please remember, it is a huge responsibility.

   takes

   opens

   sees

   has

15. We all just looked at the bill and then realised that ___________ wasn't even included! So we had to pay another 15% on top of that! I am never going back to that restaurant.

   services

   serving

   service

   serves

16. We got home to find the children ___________ down the marble hallway in their socks.

   skidding

   falling

   sliding

   crashing

Text 1: The Earth's plates

Read about the Earth's tectonic plates, then answer the questions about the text, choosing either A, B, or C as the best answer.

Most earthquakes are caused by large-scale movements of the Earth's lithospheric plates. and occur at the boundaries between the plates. Experts recognize seven to twelve major plates and a number of smaller ones. The plates take their names from continents (the North American plate): from oceans (the Pacific plate): and from geographic areas (the Arabian plate).

Slow and Steady Motion

The plates are in very slow but constant motion, so that seen from above, the Earth's surface might look like a slowly moving spherical jigsaw puzzle. The plates move at rates of 2 to 15 cm or several inches in a year, about as fast as our fingernails grow. On a human scale, this is a rate of movement that only the most sophisticated instruments can detect. But on the scale of geological time, it's a dizzying speed. At this rate, those almost-four-billion-year old rocks could have traveled all the way around the Earth eleven times.

The movement of the plates is generally one of three kinds: spreading, colliding or sliding. When plates are spreading, or separating from each other, we call their movement divergent. When they are colliding, or pushing each other, we call the movement convergent. Movement in which plates slide past each other is called lateral (or transform) plate movement. Earthquakes can accompany each of the three types of movement.

Plate Tectonics

The revolutionary theory of plate tectonics originated early in the 20th century, although it did not gain general acceptance until the late 1960s. The German meteorologist, geophysicist, and explorer Alfred L Wegener is now given credit for the first step in understanding the movement of the lithosphere. In the period 1910-1912 he formulated the theory called continental drift and collected evidence from the rocks, fossils, and climate of various continents to show that they had once been joined together. Wegener had little data on the oceanic crust, so he thought that the continents merely moved through that crust.

1. Earthquakes occur when what parts of the tectonic plates collide?

      A  the edges

      B  the centres

      C the peaks

2. Tectonic plates can get their names from what?

      A  cities

      B  rivers

      C  seas

3. Why is the phrase "jigsaw puzzle" used in the second paragraph?

      A  to show how complex everything is

      B  because of the way the plates fit together

      C because of the number of plates

4. Why have the plates travelled so far?

      A because they are moving quite fast

      B because Earth is not very big

      C because of the age of the Earth

5. Can earthquakes be caused when plates are moving away from each other?

     A  yes

     B  no

     C only if they are touching

6. Why did Wegener's theory take so long to be accepted?

     A he had no understanding of the ocean floor

     B it was very different from previous ideas in this area

     C he made several errors in his theory

7. What evidence did Wegener NOT use to support his theory of Continental Drift when looking at two now-distant locations?

     A the existence of similar rocks

     B the  existence of similar extinct animals

     C the existence of similar races of people

           Reading: Magicians

Read about three magicians, then answer the questions about the text. For each question, choose which magician is the correct answer.

Harry Houdini

He began his magic career in 1891. At the outset, he had little success. He performed in sideshows, and even doubled as "The Wild Man" at a circus. Houdini focused initially on traditional card tricks. At one point, he billed himself as the "King of Cards". But he soon began experimenting with escape acts.

In 1893, while performing with his brother, Dash, at Coney Island as "The Brothers Houdini", Harry met a fellow performer, Wilhelmina Beatrice "Bess" Rahner. She and Houdini married in 1894, with Bess replacing Dash in the act, which became known as "The Houdinis." For the rest of Houdini's performing career, Bess would work as his stage assistant.

Houdini's big break came in 1899 when he met manager Martin Beck in rural Woodstock, Illinois. Impressed by Houdini's handcuffs act, Beck advised him to concentrate on escape acts and booked him on the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country. In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe. After some days of unsuccessful interviews in London, Houdini managed to interest Dundas Slater, then manager of the Alhambra Theatre. He gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard, and succeeded in baffling the police so effectively that he was booked at the Alhambra for six months.

Derren Brown

Derren Brown is a British illusionist, mentalist, trickster, hypnotist, painter, writer, and sceptic. He is known for his appearances in television specials, stage productions, and British television series such as Trick of the Mind and Trick or Treat. Though his performances of mind-reading and other feats of mentalism may appear to be the result of psychic or paranormal practices, he claims no such abilities and frequently denounces those who do. Brown states at the beginning of his Trick of the Mind programmes that he achieves his results using a combination of "suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship".

Brown was born to Bob and Chris Brown in Purley, Croydon, London, England. He has a brother, who is nine years his junior. Brown was privately educated at Whitgift School in South Croydon (where his father coached swimming), and studied Law and German at the University of Bristol. While there, he attended a hypnotist show by Martin Taylor, which inspired him to turn to illusion and hypnosis as a career. Whilst an undergraduate, he started working as a conjuror, performing the traditional skills of close-up magic in bars and restaurants. In 1992, he started performing stage shows at the University of Bristol under the stage name Darren V. Brown.

Brown was an Evangelical Christian in his teens, and became an atheist in his twenties. Brown said he sought to strengthen his belief and provide answers to common criticisms of religion by reading the Bible and other Christian religious texts, but upon doing so found none of the answers he sought and came to the conclusion that his belief had no basis.

Joseph Dunninger

Dunninger was born in New York City. He headlined throughout the Keith-Orpheum Circuit, and was much in demand for private entertainment. At the age of seventeen he was invited to perform at the home of Theodore Roosevelt in Oyster Bay and at the home of the inventor Thomas A. Edison, both of whom were avid admirers of his mysticism.

Dunninger was a debunker of fraudulent mediums. He claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena. He wrote the book Inside the Medium's Cabinet which exposed the tricks of mediumship. He also exposed how the indian rope trick could be performed by camera trickery.

Dunninger had a standing offer of $10,000 to anyone who could prove that he used paid assistants for his tricks. He often said he could raise that offer to $100,000. Through Scientific American magazine and the Universal Council for Psychic Research, Dunninger made this offer to any medium who could produce by psychic or supernatural means any physical phenomena that he could not reproduce by natural means. Dunninger appeared on radio starting in 1943, and on television frequently in the 1950s and 60s.

1. Which magician made it clear he doesn't use real magic?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

2. Which magician went to have a lot of success abroad?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

3. Which magician enjoyed showing other performers were dishonest?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

4. Which magician enjoyed media success late in his career?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

5. Which magician had ambitions to work in magic after seeing another performer? 

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

6. Which magician was initially a failure?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

7. Which magician abandoned many of his beliefs as he grew up?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

8. Which magician worked with a family member?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

9. Which magician was already performing before becoming an adult?

      A  Brown

      B  Dunninger

      C  Houdini

Task 3: Grammar

1. Ann ___ that she ___ the visitor before.
A) thought / saw B) thinks / sees C) is thinking / sees

D) thought / had seen E) have thought / had seen

2. As it ___ dark we ___ to go home.
A) gets / decided B) would get / shall decide C) had got / have decided
D) was getting / decided E) will be getting / had decided

3. He ___ looking at her, wondering where he ___ her
A) keep / see B) kept / had seen C) keeps / saw

D) had kept / had seen E) being kept / would see

4. They ___ to get married last month although they ___ each other for only six weeks.
A) decide / know B) decided / know C) decided / had known
D) decided / knew E) decided / has known

5. ___ the weather good when you ___ tennis?
A) is / played B) was / were playing C) will be / played
D) is / will be playing E) has been / will play

6. When he ___ to the station the train already ___ .
A) comes / left B) came / leaves C) came / had left
D) had come / left E) has come / leaves

7. Last Monday when I ___ the house it ___ heavily.
A) leave / rain B) left / was raining C) left / had rained
D) was leaving / rained E) leave / rains

8. Mark Twain ___ that they ___ about him.
A) understand / speaks B) understands / speaks C) will understand / spoke
D) understood / are speaking E) understood / were speaking

9. He usually __________ until 5 but today he _____________ until 7.
A) works / works   B) is working / works    C) is working  / is working
D) works / is working

10. Last year we ____________ to Greece. It ___________ great.
A) travelled / is     B) were travelling / was being     C) travelled  / was
D) were travelling/ is

Prep - HW 4

Prep - HW 5