Solutions. Upper Intermediate. Test 2

Complete the sentences with one word in each gap. Sometimes there is more than one possible answer.

1. The odds against winning the lottery were      larger when it was first launched      is the case now.

2. Although it is a lot      frightening than many modern horror films, Hitchcock’s Psycho still made me jump when I watched it! Back in the 1960s, it was one of     scariest films people had seen.

3.     more money Jack made from gambling,     more serious his addiction became.

4. The guitar is a      popular instrument than the violin, but only because it isn’t    difficult to play.

5. Jo and Sarah are identical twins – well, almost! Jo’s          taller than her sister and her face is a        rounder.

6. Although it is nothing      as tiring    walking, travelling on the back of a camel is still hard work.

Complete the comparative or superlative sentences. Use the correct form of the adjective or adverb in brackets and add any other necessary words.

1. We played a lot             (good) the other team in the second half.

2. Although not           (famous) as his sister, Eric Roberts is still a fine actor.

3.                      (challenging) the problem is, the more Gareth wants to find a solution.

4. I think I’m just              (strong) the boys, but the school won’t let me play football with them.

5. The last test was nowhere                 (hard) the previous one.

6. At school, we dress                    (casually) our grandparents did.

Complete the sentences. Use the correct form of the verbs in brackets.

1.       (do) a part-time job at weekends can be fun.

2. Have you tried         (talk) it over with your parents? Sometimes it’s good to share a problem.

3. I’d rather      (play) tennis than golf.

4. On the way home, I stopped        (buy) some chewing gum at the corner shop.

5. Why not      (call) round later? We’ll do something together.

6. I overheard Karen         (tell) Simon about your party, but I didn’t stay and listen to the end of their conversation.

7. Could you remember         (pick) up the parcel from the post office?

8. The government should stop people         (cycle) in the park.

Match descriptions 1–5 with adjectives

Choose the correct answer

1. One thing that really                   [gets on my nerves, loses face, on edge] is the way some people whistle all the time.

2. I felt                 [in two minds, green with envy] when my sister won the singing competition.

3. I’ve lost my glasses and I’m                     [over the moon, green with envy, tearing my hair out]. I’ve looked everywhere.

4. I told a lie because I didn’t want to                  [lose face, blow my top, tear my hair out] in front of my friends.

5. I                   [was over the moon, blew my top, in two minds] when my brother broke my camcorder.

Complete the text with the missing prepositions.

Why are teenagers always in the wrong?

I know I was    fault when I took my chewing gum out of my mouth and placed it on the back of the chair in front of me on the bus. It wasn’t as if I did it    mistake. I knew exactly what I was doing. However, the reaction of the bus driver, who saw me do it in his rear-view mirror, was completely out of order. He stopped the bus, shouted at me, and told me I was       arrest for vandalism. He was so furious I thought he was going to explode. I apologised    once and picked up the chewing gum, but he continued to shout. "    that case,’ I said, ‘I’ll get off the bus.’ And I did. What annoys me is that the driver only shouted because I was a teenager, and I only realised later that he couldn’t really arrest me. If I had been an adult, he might have been angry, but he wouldn’t have shouted in that way.

Complete the sentences with the words below.

combat, prevention, rate, recorded, violent.

1. The number of          crimes – that is, the number of crimes reported to the police – have fallen sharply.

2. The authorities are trying to        crime in the area by introducing more community police officers.

3. Take crime            seriously. Put a lock on your bicycle.

4.         crimes such as assault and murder are falling.

5. The crime      in this area has started to fall. It’s down by 10%.

1. Complete the dialogue. Choose the correct answer.

Nick Are you OK? You look like you’re a bit down      [on, in, with, by] the dumps.

Helen I am a bit. Can I have a            [word, sentence, phrase, expression] with you about taking so long in the bathroom in the morning?

Nick Oh, I’m so sorry. You        [must, would, should, ought] have said something earlier.

Helen I didn’t want to bring it       [on, up, down, along] before now, but it’s starting to get on my           [nerve, nerves, nervous, nervously] that I can’t have a shower before I go to work in the morning. I think we need to work something out.

Nick I am really sorry. What did you have    [in, on, at, by] mind?

Helen I thought perhaps we         [ought, must, have to, could] take it in turns to be the first one in the bathroom in the morning. And maybe if you want to have a bath, you could wait until the evening?

Nick That’s fine for the time       [be, been, being, were]. It’s          [just, possibly, perhaps, only] that from next month I’ll need to catch an earlier train and that will mean I need to leave the house by 7 a.m.

Helen Well, let’s take turns     [by, to, on, for] now and then we’ll talk about it again next month.

Listen to four people talking about their first day at a new school. Match the speakers with the sentences . There is one extra sentence.

Read the text and choose the correct answer.

The Mosquito

A Exasperated with having large gangs of teenagers outside their premises day and night, a growing number of British shopkeepers have taken extreme measures. They have installed a Mosquito alarm, a small, square-shaped object which is no bigger than a regular burglar alarm and just as easy to install. Fitted to the exterior wall of a shop, the Mosquito produces an incredibly irritating high frequency noise that only people younger than 25 can hear. To my mind, it seems unfair to target youths in such a way, but the device is proving a bestseller. As a result of its increasing use, hanging out with friends in front of local newsagents, something British teenagers used to enjoy doing, has become, in many places, a thing of the past.

B So far, over three thousand people have purchased the Mosquito, ranging from homeowners driven crazy by teenagers listening to music in the street outside their houses, to local councils anxious about how to prevent teenagers going close to railway lines or electrical cables. It’s most popular with shopkeepers, however. ‘Hanging out near my shop at weekends was all the kids round here ever did,’ complained Frank Court, a newsagent from Bristol. ‘Imagine how that affected my business. The elderly, in particular, felt terrified of walking past them. It all changed the moment I installed the Mosquito. The kids put up with it for about twenty minutes or so, then wandered into the shop and demanded to know what the noise was. In the end, they hated it so much they went away and stayed away. I’m over the moon.’

C Naturally, the use of Mosquitoes has split opinions. Some lawmakers consider it a useful means of crime prevention, pointing out that petty crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism have fallen on large housing estates where youths once congregated in large numbers. Others argue that the Mosquito is an illegal ‘sonic weapon’. Nothing less than the civil rights of young people are at stake, they say, and the authorities should ban selling a product that so obviously discriminates against one section of the community. Furthermore, campaigners have suggested that the Mosquito could be dangerous for very young children who have sensitive hearing. ‘More tests should have been carried out to see what the long-term effects might be before selling this device to the public,’ said a campaigner. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the Mosquito, silent to adults, but buzzing loudly in the ears of the young is, for now, becoming more and more common.

In which paragraph does the author …

say why some consider the Mosquito a bad thing?

Read the text and choose the correct answer.

The Mosquito

A Exasperated with having large gangs of teenagers outside their premises day and night, a growing number of British shopkeepers have taken extreme measures. They have installed a Mosquito alarm, a small, square-shaped object which is no bigger than a regular burglar alarm and just as easy to install. Fitted to the exterior wall of a shop, the Mosquito produces an incredibly irritating high frequency noise that only people younger than 25 can hear. To my mind, it seems unfair to target youths in such a way, but the device is proving a bestseller. As a result of its increasing use, hanging out with friends in front of local newsagents, something British teenagers used to enjoy doing, has become, in many places, a thing of the past.

B So far, over three thousand people have purchased the Mosquito, ranging from homeowners driven crazy by teenagers listening to music in the street outside their houses, to local councils anxious about how to prevent teenagers going close to railway lines or electrical cables. It’s most popular with shopkeepers, however. ‘Hanging out near my shop at weekends was all the kids round here ever did,’ complained Frank Court, a newsagent from Bristol. ‘Imagine how that affected my business. The elderly, in particular, felt terrified of walking past them. It all changed the moment I installed the Mosquito. The kids put up with it for about twenty minutes or so, then wandered into the shop and demanded to know what the noise was. In the end, they hated it so much they went away and stayed away. I’m over the moon.’

C Naturally, the use of Mosquitoes has split opinions. Some lawmakers consider it a useful means of crime prevention, pointing out that petty crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism have fallen on large housing estates where youths once congregated in large numbers. Others argue that the Mosquito is an illegal ‘sonic weapon’. Nothing less than the civil rights of young people are at stake, they say, and the authorities should ban selling a product that so obviously discriminates against one section of the community. Furthermore, campaigners have suggested that the Mosquito could be dangerous for very young children who have sensitive hearing. ‘More tests should have been carried out to see what the long-term effects might be before selling this device to the public,’ said a campaigner. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the Mosquito, silent to adults, but buzzing loudly in the ears of the young is, for now, becoming more and more common.

In which paragraph does the author …

mention people other than shop owners who consider teenagers a nuisance?

Read the text and choose the correct answer.

The Mosquito

A Exasperated with having large gangs of teenagers outside their premises day and night, a growing number of British shopkeepers have taken extreme measures. They have installed a Mosquito alarm, a small, square-shaped object which is no bigger than a regular burglar alarm and just as easy to install. Fitted to the exterior wall of a shop, the Mosquito produces an incredibly irritating high frequency noise that only people younger than 25 can hear. To my mind, it seems unfair to target youths in such a way, but the device is proving a bestseller. As a result of its increasing use, hanging out with friends in front of local newsagents, something British teenagers used to enjoy doing, has become, in many places, a thing of the past.

B So far, over three thousand people have purchased the Mosquito, ranging from homeowners driven crazy by teenagers listening to music in the street outside their houses, to local councils anxious about how to prevent teenagers going close to railway lines or electrical cables. It’s most popular with shopkeepers, however. ‘Hanging out near my shop at weekends was all the kids round here ever did,’ complained Frank Court, a newsagent from Bristol. ‘Imagine how that affected my business. The elderly, in particular, felt terrified of walking past them. It all changed the moment I installed the Mosquito. The kids put up with it for about twenty minutes or so, then wandered into the shop and demanded to know what the noise was. In the end, they hated it so much they went away and stayed away. I’m over the moon.’

C Naturally, the use of Mosquitoes has split opinions. Some lawmakers consider it a useful means of crime prevention, pointing out that petty crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism have fallen on large housing estates where youths once congregated in large numbers. Others argue that the Mosquito is an illegal ‘sonic weapon’. Nothing less than the civil rights of young people are at stake, they say, and the authorities should ban selling a product that so obviously discriminates against one section of the community. Furthermore, campaigners have suggested that the Mosquito could be dangerous for very young children who have sensitive hearing. ‘More tests should have been carried out to see what the long-term effects might be before selling this device to the public,’ said a campaigner. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the Mosquito, silent to adults, but buzzing loudly in the ears of the young is, for now, becoming more and more common.

In which paragraph does the author …

express a personal opinion?

Read the text and choose the correct answer.

The Mosquito

A Exasperated with having large gangs of teenagers outside their premises day and night, a growing number of British shopkeepers have taken extreme measures. They have installed a Mosquito alarm, a small, square-shaped object which is no bigger than a regular burglar alarm and just as easy to install. Fitted to the exterior wall of a shop, the Mosquito produces an incredibly irritating high frequency noise that only people younger than 25 can hear. To my mind, it seems unfair to target youths in such a way, but the device is proving a bestseller. As a result of its increasing use, hanging out with friends in front of local newsagents, something British teenagers used to enjoy doing, has become, in many places, a thing of the past.

B So far, over three thousand people have purchased the Mosquito, ranging from homeowners driven crazy by teenagers listening to music in the street outside their houses, to local councils anxious about how to prevent teenagers going close to railway lines or electrical cables. It’s most popular with shopkeepers, however. ‘Hanging out near my shop at weekends was all the kids round here ever did,’ complained Frank Court, a newsagent from Bristol. ‘Imagine how that affected my business. The elderly, in particular, felt terrified of walking past them. It all changed the moment I installed the Mosquito. The kids put up with it for about twenty minutes or so, then wandered into the shop and demanded to know what the noise was. In the end, they hated it so much they went away and stayed away. I’m over the moon.’

C Naturally, the use of Mosquitoes has split opinions. Some lawmakers consider it a useful means of crime prevention, pointing out that petty crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism have fallen on large housing estates where youths once congregated in large numbers. Others argue that the Mosquito is an illegal ‘sonic weapon’. Nothing less than the civil rights of young people are at stake, they say, and the authorities should ban selling a product that so obviously discriminates against one section of the community. Furthermore, campaigners have suggested that the Mosquito could be dangerous for very young children who have sensitive hearing. ‘More tests should have been carried out to see what the long-term effects might be before selling this device to the public,’ said a campaigner. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the Mosquito, silent to adults, but buzzing loudly in the ears of the young is, for now, becoming more and more common.

In which paragraph does the author …

mention the Mosquito without describing the kind of noise it makes?

Read the text and choose the correct answer.

The Mosquito

A Exasperated with having large gangs of teenagers outside their premises day and night, a growing number of British shopkeepers have taken extreme measures. They have installed a Mosquito alarm, a small, square-shaped object which is no bigger than a regular burglar alarm and just as easy to install. Fitted to the exterior wall of a shop, the Mosquito produces an incredibly irritating high frequency noise that only people younger than 25 can hear. To my mind, it seems unfair to target youths in such a way, but the device is proving a bestseller. As a result of its increasing use, hanging out with friends in front of local newsagents, something British teenagers used to enjoy doing, has become, in many places, a thing of the past.

B So far, over three thousand people have purchased the Mosquito, ranging from homeowners driven crazy by teenagers listening to music in the street outside their houses, to local councils anxious about how to prevent teenagers going close to railway lines or electrical cables. It’s most popular with shopkeepers, however. ‘Hanging out near my shop at weekends was all the kids round here ever did,’ complained Frank Court, a newsagent from Bristol. ‘Imagine how that affected my business. The elderly, in particular, felt terrified of walking past them. It all changed the moment I installed the Mosquito. The kids put up with it for about twenty minutes or so, then wandered into the shop and demanded to know what the noise was. In the end, they hated it so much they went away and stayed away. I’m over the moon.’

C Naturally, the use of Mosquitoes has split opinions. Some lawmakers consider it a useful means of crime prevention, pointing out that petty crimes such as shoplifting and vandalism have fallen on large housing estates where youths once congregated in large numbers. Others argue that the Mosquito is an illegal ‘sonic weapon’. Nothing less than the civil rights of young people are at stake, they say, and the authorities should ban selling a product that so obviously discriminates against one section of the community. Furthermore, campaigners have suggested that the Mosquito could be dangerous for very young children who have sensitive hearing. ‘More tests should have been carried out to see what the long-term effects might be before selling this device to the public,’ said a campaigner. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the Mosquito, silent to adults, but buzzing loudly in the ears of the young is, for now, becoming more and more common.

In which paragraph does the author …

talk about a group of people who may be harmed by the Mosquito?