PRACTICE TEST 12T2

SECTION I: LEXICO & GRAMMAR

Part 1. Choose a word or phrase that best completes each sentence.
1. What she said was really ________ for thought. It taught us to be more considerate.
A. drink B. food C. nourishment D. fodder
2. The new teacher was taken advantage of by the students and often had to ________ her authority.
A. assert B. confirm C. inflict D. strike
3. Are you still bearing a ________ against Peter because of his criticism about your singing.
A. dislike B. grudge C. contempt D. scorn
4. When the funds finally ________, they had to abandon the scheme.
A. faded away B. clamped down C. petered out D. fobbed off
5. The team won the championship four years ________.
A. running B. passing C. following D. rotating
6. She said she was disturbed by the shadow of somebody ________ behind the trees.
A. luring B. lurking C. lurching D. launching
7. Derek had no experience of white-water canoeing, so it was extremely________ of him to try and shoot the
rapids.
A. hazardous B. intrepid C. perilous D. foolhardy
8. I’m so tired I think I’ll probably ________ off in the cinema.
A. doze B. sleep C. turn D. fall
9. You never quite know what Ken is up to - he’s rather a dark ________.
A. dog B. fox C. wolf D. horse
10. I can’t possibly make the announcement now - I’ve got a ________ in my throat!
A. fish B. toad C. bird D. frog
11. Jack: This medicine tastes horrible! ~ Jill: ________, it will cure your cough.
A. Be that as it may B. Come what may
C. How much horrible is it D. Whatever it tastes
12. She got a bit hot ________ the collar when a colleague started criticizing her work.
A. under B. on C. beyond D. from
13. The press thought the football manager would be depressed by his dismissal but he just ________.
A. ran it down B. brought it off C. turned it down D. laughed it off
14. The woman accused of shop lifting was found not guilty and was ________.
A. acquitted B. liberated C. excused D. interned
15. It was only when he had been unemployed for six months that Neil's situation hit ________.
A. base B. down C. home D. back
16. Once at the skating rink, Ivan was allowed to skate to his heart's ________.
A. happiness B. content C. contentment D. delight
17. After making several bad business deals the company was losing money hand over ________.
A. finger B. wrist C. thumb D. fist
18. He was claimed to be an unskilled writer, but his latest works have definitely ________ witness to his great
talent.
A. constituted B. borne C. dealt D. displayed
19. Due to the computer malfunction all our data was lost. So unhappily, we had to begin all the calculations from
________.
A. onset B. source C. original D. scratch
20. Jenny has been on a diet, but she can’t resist her ________ for sweets now and then.
A. inclination B. craving C. attraction D. tendency

Part 2: The passage below contains 10 mistakes. Identify the mistakes and write the corrections in the
corresponding numbered boxes.
The big majority of students who make well in the Cambridge Proficiency Examination have learnt to use a
good monolingual dictionary effectively. Such dictionaries provide informations, not just about the meanings for
words but about their pronunciation and grammar as well. A student who studies how to use a dictionary
effectively will be able to work independently for much of the time, and will gain considerable insight to the
workings of the English language. He or she will be able to confirm to the meanings of words in a text where
contextual clues are insufficient, pronounce words accurately by studying the phonological transcriptions, and use
words accurately both when speaking and writing. Make sure that you make the room for at least one good
monolingual dictionary on your bookshelf, and then make sure that you use it at a regular basis.

SECTION III. READING

Part 1. Read the following passage and choose the words that best complete the sentences.
Working parents are devoting more quality time to their children than previous generations, despite time-
consuming (1)_____, research has shown. The findings of this study go against the claim that modern parents,
especially working mothers, spend less time with their children. The study found that parents devote more than
twice as much time on the (2)_____of their children than they did 30 years ago. Full-time working parents were
found to spend more time with their children than their part time and non-working counterparts. This time is spent
talking to children and enjoying planned (3)_____activities, such as swimming and trips to museums together.
The results of the research show that parents devote an average of 85 minutes a day to each child. This compares
with 25 minutes a day in the (4)_____1970s. And it is predicted that the figure will (5)_____to 100 minutes a day
by 2010.
The study highlighted a new concept of "positive parenting", where mothers and fathers are (6)_____committed to
working hard to be good parents and providing the best material and emotional support for their children. The
findings suggest that the "new man" is not a myth. Today's fathers were found to be more involved in their
children's lives than their own fathers or grandfathers were. More fathers are said to be equal (7)_____in parenting.
During the study, three generations of families were questioned on their (8)_____to parenting. What is clear is that
parents desire an increase in creative involvement with children, and for family democracy. (9)_____, this increase
in parental involvement also suggests an increase in the stress (10)_____being a parent. In the future, parenting
classes could become as commonplace as antenatal classes are today.
1. A. jobs B. work C. positions D. occupations
2. A. education B. upbringing C. training D. instruction
3. A. amusement B. free C. leisure D. pleasure
4. A. mid B. middle C. medium D. halfway
5. A. arise B. arouse C. rise D. raise
6. A. equally B. hardly C. similar D. nearly
7. A. couples B. partners C. colleagues D. mates
8. A. thinkings B. opinions C. agreements D. attitudes
9. A. However B. Therefore C. Although D. Despite
10. A. for B. of C. in D. to

PART 2. Fill each of the following numbered blanks with ONE suitable word and write your answers in the
corresponding numbered boxes provided.
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY
Universally, work has been a central focus point (0) ... in ... society. As old as the idea of work (1).......... is the
question of what constitutes ‘real work’. This is, in fact, a very subjective question indeed. (2).... . . . . . . . . . ... you
to ask a miner, or any labourer for that matter, what real work is, he would probably reply that real work entails
working with your hands and, in the process, getting them dirty. To the average blue-collar worker, white- collar
workers are those people who sit in their offices day after day doing little or (3)................. in the line of actual
work.
By (4)................., if you approached a white-collar worker or a professional of some sort with the same
question, you can rest assured that they would adamantly maintain that the world would stop revolving (5)
.... . . ... their invaluable intellectual contribution to the scheme of things.
This idea is reflected (6) ... ... the vocabulary used to describe work and its related subjects. Words (7) .........
career, vocation and profession carry a (8) ................... elevated connotation than the simple term ‘job’. The
(9)..................... three lexical items convey the idea of learned persons sitting at desks and using their grey matter
to solve matters involving financial, legal or medical matters, (10).......... the humble slave away at some mundane
work station or assembly line task.
Part 3: Read the text and choose the best answer A, B, C or D.
GENETICS
In the 1860s, an Austrian botanist and monk named Gregor Mendel began studying the characteristics of
pea plants. Specifically, he was interested in the way in which pea plants passed on their characteristics to their
offspring. Mendel chose to work with pea plants because they are not self-pollinating. Unlike some plants, pea
plants are distinctly male or female, and require the presence of a pea plant of the opposite sex for pollination. In
this way, they are roughly analogous to humans and all other mammals, and it is for this reason that Mendel chose
to study them.
In his experiments, Mendel selected seven distinct traits in pea plants: such as plants producing round seeds
versus those producing wrinkled seeds, or tall plants versus short plants. Mendel then spent years breeding plants
with different combinations of traits and observing the results. What he concluded was that each trait is controlled
by a gene which is passed down by parents. For example, there is gene for pea plants with round seeds and one for
plants with wrinkled seeds. Mendel also concluded that a new pea plant must inherit a full set of genes from each
of its parents. In cases, where a plant inherited the gene for round seeds from one parent and the gene for wrinkled
seeds from the other, the new plants would have round seeds. This led Mendel to conclude that some genes are
dominant and others are recessive. Characteristics which are controlled by recessive genes, like wrinkle seeds in
pea plants, only surface if an organism inherits the recessive gene from both of its parents.
Although it was greatly expanded upon in the 20th century, Mendel’s basis theory has stood up to more than
one hundred years of scientific scrutiny, and a whole field of scientific study, genetics, has arisen around it. It is
now known that Mendel’s genes are actually long strands of a complex. Molecule called DNA. Each gene carries
instructions for the production of a certain protein. , and it is these proteins which determine the traits of an
organism. We also know that genes are transmitted in structures called chromosomes, long chains of genes.
Humans have 46 chromosomes, receiving 23 from their mother and 23 from their father. Actually each set of 23 is
basically a complete genetic package, but since some genes are dominant and some are recessive, the redundancy
events out.
Mendel’s observations led him to a simple and elegant theory heredity, but while the basis of his theory will
stand, reality has not proven to be quite as simple as theory. Any living organism has thousands of genes. For
example, fruit flies have about 13,000 sets of genes, and humans have somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000
adding to the complexity implied by the sheer numbers of genes is the fact that many traits are polygenic; that is,
they are controlled by a combination of tens or even hundreds of genes, rather than by a single gene as Mendel had
envisioned. So while his experiments produced black and white results (a pea plant had either round or wrinkled
seeds), the interactions of genes in determining traits are often not so straightforward, and there may be hundreds
or thousands of possible outcomes.
Genetics has had a huge impact on the first years of the 21st century. While earlier scientists were largely
limited to investigating the genes of organisms and classifying which genes controlled which traits, recent
advances in chemistry and molecular biology have actually allowed scientists to begin to alter those genes. The
implications of this development are nearly infinite. While still in its infancy, this new science, called genetic
engineering, has allowed scientists to change organisms in fundamental ways. Scientists can now deactivate
harmful genes, promote the function of useful genes, or introduce foreign genes into an organism to produce an
entirely new trait.
1. According to paragraph 1, Mendel’s reason for choosing pea plants for his experiments was that
A. they were easier to breed than other types of plants
B. their method of reproduction was similar to that of mammals
C. they passed interesting characteristics to their offspring
D. he was interested in studying why some plants are self-pollinating
2. The phrase “the other” in the passage refers to
A. trait B. seed C. gene set D. parent
3. According to the information in paragraph 2, what led Mendel to conclude that some genes were recessive?
A. In some cases, pea plants completely failed to inherit characteristics from their parents.
B. Some of his pea plants produced seeds that were progressively more and more wrinkled.
C. Some characteristics only seemed to surface if both parents had that characteristic.
D. In some cases, his pea plants did not seem to inherit a full set of genes from each parent.
4. The word “scrutiny” in the passage is closet in meaning to
 A. investigation B. opposition C. application D. theory
5. All of the following are mentioned in the passage as supplements to Mendel’s original theory EXCEPT
A. an explanation of how some genes dominate others
B. the chemical description of genes
C. the counting of genes and gene grouping in organisms
D. the manipulation of genes to produce specific traits
6. According to paragraph 3, what is ultimately responsible for the production of specific traits in an organism?
A. The replication of chromosomes
B. The production of proteins within the organism
C. The use of proteins to create DNA in the organism
D. The structural complexity of the DNA molecule
7. According to paragraph 4, what fact complicates Mendel’s theory?
A. The fact that many traits are controlled by several genes
B. The fact that the exact numbers of genes for organism are uncertain
C. The fact that organisms can have very different numbers of genes
D. The fact that Mendel had only thought in black and white terms
8. Based on the information in paragraph 4, what can be inferred about the genetic make up of organisms?
A. Humans have the highest number of genes that are polygenic.
B. Their traits are actually impossible to predict.
C. Only organisms that lack polygenetic traits are properly understood.
D. More advanced organisms generally have higher numbers of gene sets.
9. The word “envisioned” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. imagined B. required C. represented D. tested
10. Which of the following is not true?
A. According to Mendel, traits were passed down through genes, which could either be recessive or dominant.
B. Mendel’s basic theory has proved to be very complicated.
C. Humans have 46 long chains of genes.
D. Thanks to genetics engineering, scientists can now make fundamental changes to organisms.

Part 4: The reading passage below has six paragraphs A-F. Choose the correct heading for each paragraph
from the list of headings below. Write the correct number i-viii. One has been done (20 points)
List of headings
Understanding people who react strongly to smell
Future awards for research expected
Everyone has a different capacity for smell
The variety of reactions to smell
The development of our sense of smell
Applications of smell research
Disagreement over research findings
Research into smell eventually received award
THE GENETICS OF OLFACTION
A. Why are some people more sensitive to ordours than others? And why do no two people experience a scent in the
same way? The answer lies in our genes. In 2004 neuroscientists Linda Buck and Richard Axel shared a Nobel
Prize for their identification of the genes that control smell, findings which they first published in the early 1990s.
Their work revived interest in the mysterious workings of our noses- interest which is now generating some
surprising insights, not least that each of us inhabits our own personal olfaction world.
B. ‘When I give talks, I always say that everyone in this room smells the world with a different set of receptors, and
therefore it smells different to everyone’ says Andreas Keller a geneticist working at the Rockefeller University in
New York city. He also suspects that every individual has at least one odorant he or she ca not detect at all- one
specific anosmia, or olfactory ‘blind spot’, which is inheriated along with his or her olfactory apparatus. The
human nose contain roughly 400 olfactory receptors, each of which responds to several odorants, and each of
which is encoded by a different gene. But, unless you are dealing with identical twins, no two persons will have the
same genetic make-up for those receptors.
C. The reason, according to Doron Lancet, a geneticist at the Weizmann institute of science in Israel, is that those
genes have been accumulating mutations over evolution. This has happened in all the great apes, and one possible
explanation is that smell has gradually become less important to survival, having been replaced to some extent by
color vision- as an indicator of rotten fruit, for example, or of a potentically venomous predator. However, every
species has a different genetic ‘bar code’ and a different combination of olfactory sensitivities.
D. That genetic variability is reflected in behavioural variability, as Keller recently demonstrasted when they asked
500 people to rate 66 odours for intensity and pleasantness. The responses covered the full range from intense to
weak, and from the pleasant to unpleasant, with with most falling in the moderated range- a classic bell curve in
each case. The researchers also tested people’s subconscious responses to odorants, by presenting them at much
weaker doses. One compound that people famously perceive differently is androstenone, a substance that is
produced in boars’testes and is also present in some people’s sweat. ‘For about 50 per cent of people androstenone
is nothing’ says Chuck Wysocki of the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia. ‘For 35 per cent it’s very
powerful state urine smell, and for 15 per cent it’s a floral, musky, woody note’
E. Lancet says that the genetic tools that are now available could help researchers to solve another olfactory puzzule,
too: why some people have an acute overall sensitivity to smells than others. One in 5000 people is born without
any sense of smell at all, while at the other end of the spectrume are those individuals who have a higher average
general sensitivity, some of whom may graviate to the perfume industry. He suspects that biological culprits in this
case are not theolfactory receptors themselves, which are responsible for specific anosmias, but the proteins that
ensure the efficient transmission pathways that are shared by all receptors. ‘What is facinating to me is the idea that
we could discover a gene or genes that underlie this general sensitivity to odorants, so that we might be able to
‘type’ those professional noses and say, ‘A-ha, we now understand why you are in your profession,’ Lancet says.
F. The implications of the new research go wider tha smell, however. Most of our sensation of taste comes from the
odorants in food stimulating our olfactory receptors. ‘The wonderful enjoyment of a fresh tomato is practically
only in the nose,’ lancet says. Awareness of individual variation in smell has already filtered through to wine
world, launching a debate about how valuable experts’s advice really is, when thay may be having different smell-
and hence taste- experiences from other people. The scientists now know a lot more about the genetics of olfaction,
which the Nobel Prize committee may or may not have foreseen when they bestowed their honour in 2004.
Your answers:
Paragraph A. viii 1. Paragraph B. ______ 2. Paragraph C. ______
3. Paragraph D. ______ 4. Paragraph E. ______ 5. Paragraph F. ______
Complete the summary below using ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
The olfactory puzzule: who is super sensitive to smell?
Lancet believes researchers have the genetic tools to find the answer to why certain people display (6) _________
reactions to smells in general. While some people may have no sense of smell, others are highly (7) _________
and in some cases, may end up working in the (8) _________ business. Lancet believes the biological reason
behind a heightened sense of smell is (9) ________ in the body which helps signals transmit to the brain. He hopes
that scientists can identify a (10) ________ which would identify those who are particularly sensitive to smell.

Part 5 You are going to read four different opinions from leading scientists about the future of fuel. For
questions 1-10, choose from the writers A-D. The writers may be chosen more than once.

Which writer:
1. believes oil will be available for many more years __________
2. believes that from now on, less oil is available __________
3. believes that from now on, less oil is available __________
4. sees a great potential in natural fuels __________
5. believes the fuel crisis will cause the poor to become poorer __________
6. sees energy and the economy as intrinsically linked __________
7. believes we should reduce our dependence on oil immediately __________
8. believes that people need to be attracted to working in the energy industry _____
9. believes that it is unlikely that governments will invest a lot of money into alternative energy ______
10. believes that future oil recovery will lead to more environmental disasters ____

A: Howard Bloom, Author

Even though most people are convinced that peak oil has already passed, to me, peak oil is just a hypothesis. There
is a theory that carbon molecules can be found in interstellar gas clouds, comets and in space ice, and if this is the
case, our planet could ooze oil for ever. And even if we stay earthbound, those who say we have raped the planet of
all its resources are wrong. There's a huge stock of raw materials we haven't yet learned to use. There are bacteria
two miles beneath our feet which can turn solid granite into food. If bacteria can do it, surely we creatures with
brains can do it better. As far as the near future of energy is concerned, I believe the most promising alternative
fuels are bio-fuels, such as ethanol. It's an alcohol made from waste products such as the bark of trees, woodchips,
and other 'waste materials'. And that's not the only waste that can create energy. My friend in the biomass industry
is perfecting an energy-generation plant which can run on human waste. We produce that in vast quantities, and it's
already gathered in centralized locations. 
B: Michael Lardelli, Lecturer in Genetics at The University of Adelaide 
Nothing exists on this planet without energy. It enables flowers and people to grow and we need it to mine
minerals, extract oil or cut wood and then to process these into finished goods. So the most fundamental definition
of money is as a mechanism to allow the exchange and allocation of different forms of energy. Recently, people
have been using more energy than ever before. Until 2005 it was possible to expand our energy use to meet this
demand. However, since 2005 oil supply has been in decline, and at the same time, and as a direct result of this, the
world's economy has been unable to expand, leading to global recession. With the world's energy and the
profitability of energy production in decline at the same time, the net energy available to support activities other
than energy procurement will decrease. We could increase energy production by diverting a large proportion of our
remaining oil energy into building nuclear power stations and investing in renewable forms of energy. However,
this is very unlikely to happen in democratic nations, because it would require huge, voluntary reductions in living
standards. Consequently, the world economy will continue to contract as oil production declines. With energy in
decline, it will be impossible for everyone in the world to become wealthier. One person's increased wealth can
only come at the expense of another person's worsened poverty. 
C: Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell 
People are understandably worried about a future of growing energy shortages, rising prices and international
conflict for supplies. These fears are not without foundation. With continued economic growth, the world's energy
needs could increase by 50% in the next 25 years. However, I do not believe that the world is running out of
energy. Fossil fuels will be able to meet growing demand for a long time in the future. Taking unconventional
resources into account, we are not even close to peak oil. The priority for oil companies is to improve efficiency,
by increasing the amount of oil recovered from reservoirs. At present, just over a third is recovered. We can also
improve the technology to control reservoir processes and improve oil flow. However, these projects are costly,
complex and technically demanding, and they depend on experienced people, so it is essential to encourage young
people to take up a technical career in the energy industry. Meanwhile, alternative forms of energy need to be made
economically viable. International energy companies have the capability, the experience and the commercial drive
to work towards solving the energy problem so they will play a key role. But it is not as simple as merely making
scientific advances and developing new tools; the challenge is to deliver the technology to people worldwide.
Companies will need to share knowledge and use their ideas effectively. 
D: Craig Severance, blogger 
What will it take to end our oil addiction? It's time we moved on to something else. Not only are world oil supplies
running out, but what oil is still left is proving very dirty to obtain. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred
precisely because the easy-to-obtain oil is already tapped. If we don't kick oil now, we will see more disasters as oil
companies move to the Arctic offshore and clear more forests. The cheap petroleum is gone; from now on, we will
pay steadily more and more for our oil — not just in dollars, but in the biological systems that sustain life on this
planet. The only solution is to get on with what we will have to do anyway - end our dependence on it! There are
many instances in which oil need not be used at all. Heat and electricity can be produced in a multitude of other
ways, such as solar power or natural gas. The biggest challenge is the oil that is used in transportation. That doesn't
mean the transportation of goods worldwide, it's the day-to-day moving around of people. It means we have to
change what we drive. The good news is that it's possible. There are a wide range of fuel efficient cars on offer,
and the number of all-electric plug-in cars is set to increase. For long distance travel and freight, the solution to this
is to look to rail. An electrified railway would not be reliant upon oil, but could be powered by solar, geothermal,
hydro, and wind sources. There is a long way to go, but actions we take now to kick our oil addiction can help us
adapt to a world of shrinking oil supplies. 
SECTION IV: Writing
Part 1: Rewrite each of the following sentences in such a way that it means exactly the same as the one given.
1. Having bad table manners is the most annoying thing.
There is……………………………………………………………………………………
2. We would be extremely grateful if you could reply as soon as possible.
A prompt ………………………………………………………………………………….
3. In a nutshell, Joseph’s not up to the job.
The long ……………………………………………………………………………………
4. It’s a widespread assumption that George was wrongly accused.
George ……………………………………………………………………………………...
5. Immediately after winning the race, Sandy began training for the next one.
No sooner …………………………………………………………………………………..

Part 2: Plastic shopping bags are used widely and cause many environmental problems. Some people say
they should be banned.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Write at least 350 words.