PRACTICE TEST 68
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct
word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 1 to 5.
Most people will come across money problems at some time in their lives. It often happens when they are
students and they have to do a part-time job in order to make (1) ___ meet. This can be (2) _____, but
sometimes it is the only way to survive. However, living on a (3) _____ budget is good training for the
future. Everyone should learn to live within their (4)_____. Unfortunately, some people have totally
unrealistic goals and think that one day they will have lots of money to pay off their debts. Then they can
become very depressed when they fail to achieve those goals.
So, if you want to (5) ____ it in this world, you need to work hard and to have some good luck, too.
Question 1.
A. bits B. lines
C. pieces D. ends
Question 2.
A. conventional B. exhausting
C. exhaustive D. meaningful
Question 3.
A. tight B. short
C. standard D. firm
Question 4.
A. salaries B. money
C. means D. values
Question 5.
A. do B. make
C. get D. have
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the
underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 6. She came for Christmas laden with gifts for everyone.
A. later B. provided
C. unloaded D. lift
Question 7. He takes his dates to intimate restaurants where there is candlelight.
A. quiet B. noisy
C. dark D. large and brightly lit
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the
underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 8. She was overcome by chagrin at the checkout couter when she discovered she had left her
wallet at home.
A. anger
B. poverty
C. embarrassment
D. challenge
Question 9. The space shuttle covered vast distances.
A. very B. varying
C. huge D. hard
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following
questions.
Question 10. Here’s a photo of the hotel _______ we stay in when we were in Beijing.
A. where B. which
C. why D. who
Question 11. The robber was sent to ______ prison for a total of three years.
A. Ø B. the
C. a D. an
Question 12. Did you remember ________ Tim about the party?
A. to tell B. telling
C. tell D. told
Question 13. I _______ go on a diet if I was fat , but I’m not.
A. will B. should
C. can D. would
Question 14. They ________ the play last night as they went to a football match instead.
A. couldn’t see
B. might have seen
C. mustn’t have seen
D. can’t have seen
Question 15. The _______ of the house is ideal, with the living room over looking the bay.
A. site B. position
C. place D. location
Question 16. I’m asking for your ___________.
A. forgiving B. forgivable
C. forgiveness D. forgive
Question 17. Those reality shows really _______ on my nerves.
A. take B. test
C. get D. give
Question 18. ‘ You’re very clever!’
‘ Thanks , but I get embarrassed when people ______ me compliments’
A. give B. pay
C. make D. say
Question 19. Buy me a newspaper on your way back,__________?
A. do you B. will you
C. have you D. don’t you
Question 20. A _______ in journalism can be quite rewarding.
A. work B. job
C. post D. career
Question 21. You were going to apply for the job , and then you decided not to . So what _______?
A. put you off B. put you out
C. turned you off D. turned you away
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the most suitable response to complete
each of the following exchanges.
Question 22. Liz is asking Andrew about the seat.
Liz: " Do you mind if I sit here? "
Andrew: "Not at all._________ "
A. Be my guest.
B. I’d be glad to.
C. Fire away, I’m all ears.
D. Now you’re taking.
Question 23. Jenny and her classmates are talking about the next exams .
Jenny: "Do you think you’ll pass the exam ?
John : "I don’t know. _________.
A. How should I know.
B. I’m having second thoughts.
C. I’m going to give it all I’ve got.
D. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word whose underlined part differs
from the other three in pronunciation in each of the following questions.
Question 24.
A. ploughs B. photograghs
C. coughs D. laughs
Question 25.
A. hear B. clear
C. bear D. ear
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word that differs from the other three
in the position of primary stress in each of the following questions.
Question 26.
A. reduction B. popular
C. romantic D. financial
Question 27.
A. copy B. remove
C. notice D. cancel
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct
answer to each of the questions from 28 to 35.
'A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right.' These are the words of Mollie
Hunter, a well known author of books for youngsters. Born and bred near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her
talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a
wider audience for any good book whatever its main market. In Mollie's opinion it is essential to make full
use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing: 'If you aren't
telling a story,you're a very dead writer indeed,' she says.
With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Molly is indeed an entertainer. 'I have this great love of
not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,' she says. This love goes back to early
childhood. 'I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be
when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I
wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said "Nonsense Mollie dear, you'll be a writer." So
eventually I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher - and I decided
when I was nine that I would be a writer.
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third
person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its
achievement.
Thoughts of her childhood inevitably brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with
buttercup meadows and strawberry fields - sadly now covered with modern houses. 'I was once taken back
to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,' she said.
'Never.' 'When I set one of my books in Scotland,' she said, 'I can recapture my romantic feelings as a child
playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children
now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.
To this day, Mollie has a lively affection for children, which is reflected in the love she has for her writing.
'When we have visitors with children the adults always say, "If you go to visit Mollie, she'll spend more time
with the children." They don't realise that children are much more interesting company. I've heard all the
adults have to say before. The children have something new.'
Question 28. What does Mollie Hunter feel about the nature of a good book?
A. It should not aim at a narrow audience.
B. It should be attractive to young readers.
C. It should be based on original ideas.
D. It should not include too much conversation.
Question 29. In Mollie Hunter’s opinion, one sign of a poor writer is:
A. lifeless characters
B. complicated ideas
C. the weakness of the description
D. the absence of a story
Question 30. What do we learn about Mollie Hunter as a very young child?
A She didn’t expect to become a writer.
B. She didn’t enjoy writing stories.
C She didn’t have any particular ambitions.
D. She didn’t respect her teacher’s views.
Question 31. What does 'its' refer to in paragraph 3?
A. novel B. picture
C. ambition D. struggle
Question 32. How does Mollie feel about what has happened to her birthplace?
A. confused B. ashamed
C. disappointed D. surprised
Question 33. In comparison with children of earlier years, Mollie feels that modern children are:
A. more intelligent
B. better informed
C. less keen to learn
D. less interested in fiction
Question 34. Mollie’s adult visitors generally discover that ________
A. she is a very generous person
B. she is interesting company
C. she talks a lot about her work
D. she pays more attention to their children
Question 35. What is the writer’s purpose in this text?
A. to describe Mollie Hunter’s most successful books
B. to share her enjoyment of Mollie Hunter’s books
C. to provide information for Mollie Hunter’s existing readers
D. to introduce Mollie Hunter’s work to a wider audience
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct
answer to each of the questions from 36 to 42.
Writing is arguably the most important invention in human history. The opportunity for human knowledge
to build on other knowledge is severely limited without the medium of writing. Not only does writing allow
a permanence to human thought but also a complexity and scope to human expression that seem barely
possible without it.
The earliest known artifacts that could be considered writing by the loosest definition are the famous and
extraordinarily beautiful 20,000-year-old "cave paintings" in southern France and northern Spain. The
pictures, mostly of animals but with some human figures, possibly tell some sort of story or may merely be
pictures with expressive, magical, or religious purpose. Other assorted pictures have been found antedating
the rise of the great civilizations of the Near East, but the earliest artifacts that are clearly writing date from
about only 5,500 years ago inMesopotamia.
The earliest system of writing is usually attributed to the Sumerians of Mesopotamia during the end of the
fourth millennium b.c. There, officials of such Sumerian city-states as Uruk had developed a system of
recording numerals, pictographs, and ideographs on specially prepared clay surfaces.
Although the clay blanks used by the Uruk scribes are universally referred to as tablets, a word with the
connotation of flatness, they are actually convex. Individual characters were inscribed in the clay by means
of a stylus made of wood, bone, or ivory, with one end blunt and the other pointed. The characters were
basically of two kinds. Numerical signs were impressed into the clay; all other signs, pictographs, and
ideographs alike, were incised with the pointed end of the stylus. The repertory of characters used by the
Uruk scribes was large; it is estimated at no fewer than 1,500 separate signs.
Question 36. This passage mainly discusses ________
A. "cave paintings" as an expressive achievement
B. the Uruk culture in Mesopotamia
C. early writing systems
D. writing instruments of the Uruk scribes
Question 37. According to the passage, the invention of writing was important for all of the following
reasons EXCEPT ________
A. it allowed for the development of human knowledge
B. it encouraged complexity of thinking
C. it began in Mesopotamia
D. it allowed human thought to be permanently recorded
Question38. The phrase "attributed to" is closest in meaning to________
A. blamed on B. characterized by
C. credited to D. replaced by
Question39. The word "incised" in is closest in meaning to ________
A. painted B. cut
C. erased D. embroidered
Question40. Which of the following terms does NOT refer to something on which early writing was
inscribed?
A. Clay surfaces B. Characters
C. Clay blanks D. Tablets
Question41. According to the passage, how were pictographs recorded?
A. They were cut into the clay.
B. They were painted onto the surface.
C. They were pressed into the clay.
D. They were brushed onto the surface.
Question42. The word "repertory" in line 23 is closest in meaning to ________
A. arrangement B. composition
C. understanding D. number
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that is closest in meaning to
each of the following questions.
Question 43. “You shouldn’t have leaked our confidential report to the press, Frank!” said Jane.
A. Jane suspected that Frank had leaked their confidential report to the press.
B. Jane accused Frank of having cheated the press with their confidential report.
C. Jane blamed Frank for having flattered the press with their confidential report.
D. Jane criticized Frank for having disclosed their confidential report to the press.
Question 44. The sooner we solve this problem, the better it will be for all concerned.
A. If we could solve this problem soon, it would be better for all concerned.
B. It would be better for all concerned if we can solve this problem soon.
C. If all concerned are better, we can solve this problem soon.
D. If we can solve this problem soon, it will be better for all concerned.
Question 45. The woman was too weak to lift the suitcase.
A. The woman, though weak, could lift the suitcase.
B. The woman wasn’t able to lift the suitcase, so she was very weak.
C. The woman shouldn't have lifted the suitcase as she was weak.
D. So weak was the woman that she couldn't lift the suitcase.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the sentence that best combines each pair
of sentences in the following questions.
Question 46. Mike graduated with a good degree. However, he joined the ranks of the unemployed.
A. Mike joined the ranks of the unemployed because he graduated with a good degree.
B. If Mike graduated with a good degree, he would join the ranks of the unemployed.
C. Although Mike graduated with a good degree, he joined the ranks of the unemployed.
D. That Mike graduated with a good degree helped him join the ranks of the unemployed.
Question 47. Put your coat on. You will get cold.
A.You will not get cold unless you put your coat on.
B. Put your coat on, otherwise you will get cold.
C. It is not until you put your coat on that you will get cold.
D.You not only put your coat on but also get cold.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the underlined part that needs correction
in each of the following questions.
Question 48. The (A) Oxford English Dictionary is well known (B) for including many different meanings
(C) of words and to give (D) real examples.
Question 49. After analyzing the steep rise (A) in profits according to (B) your report, it was (C) convinced
that your analyses were correct.(D)
Question 50. Educated in the UK (A), his qualifications are (B) widely recognized (C) in the world of
professionals.(D)
KEY
1 2 3 4 5
D B A B B
6 7 8 9 10
C C C C B
11 12 13 14 15
A A D D D
16 17 18 19 20
C C A B C
21 22 23 24 25
C A C A C
26 27 28 29 30
B B A D A
31 32 33 34 35
C C B D D
36 37 38 39 40
C C B B B
41 42 43 44 45
C B D D D
46 47 48 49 50
C B D C B
