GE B1+ End of Year Test Use of English

Maps

Nowadays, if you don’t know where you’re going, you probably just turn on the GPS on your smartphone. At the touch of a button, we ¹_____ access detailed maps of the world. GPS is a relatively new invention ²_____ first appeared in the 1980s. Before that, you would either have to ask someone for directions ³_____ use a map.

People ⁴_____ used maps for thousands of years and the earliest written maps date from 2300 BC. They ⁵_____ written on clay tablets so they wouldn’t have been easy to carry around. They also would have been quite simple and only showed a relatively small area compared to the maps of today.

⁶_____ , the invention of the printing press made it much easier to produce maps. At the same time, people became more interested in discovering new places. Explorers would return home with new knowledge of the world, which could be used to make more detailed maps. In the sixteenth century, the first world maps were created. These maps were detailed ⁷_____ for sailors to find their way around the world.

Nowadays, most maps are made with computers and they even tell you what direction you should be going in. It makes you wonder what maps will ⁸_____ like in the future.