Grammar test 4

I. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form.

Last week police (1) _______________ (to arrest) Paul Dawson. They (2) _______________ (to suspect) him of being the leader of a gang of robbers who (3) _______________ (to steal) art treasures from museums and homes since last January. Prior to his arrest, Dawson (4) _______________ (to spend) two years in prison for theft. They (5) _______________ (to release) him only 16 months ago. The police (6) _______________ (to try) to find the gang’s hideout for months. They feel sure they (7) _______________ (to arrest) the rest of the gang by the end of the month. This (8) _______________ (to be) the biggest art theft operation to be uncovered since 1974 when police (9) _______________ (to catch) a gang which (10) _______________ (to steal) over a million pounds worth of paintings from galleries all over the country.

I. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form.

Last week police (1) _______________ (to arrest) Paul Dawson. They (2) _______________ (to suspect) him of being the leader of a gang of robbers who (3) _______________ (to steal) art treasures from museums and homes since last January. Prior to his arrest, Dawson (4) _______________ (to spend) two years in prison for theft. They (5) _______________ (to release) him only 16 months ago. The police (6) _______________ (to try) to find the gang’s hideout for months. They feel sure they (7) _______________ (to arrest) the rest of the gang by the end of the month. This (8) _______________ (to be) the biggest art theft operation to be uncovered since 1974 when police (9) _______________ (to catch) a gang which (10) _______________ (to steal) over a million pounds worth of paintings from galleries all over the country.

II. Read the text below and decide which word A, B, C, or D best fits each space.

HOMES

Some of the (0) very first homes were caves, which had walls and ceilings that (1) ________ wind, rain and prowling animals, and floors where people could sit or sleep.

Gradually, as the centuries (2) ________ people learned to build different kinds of homes. They needed homes that were (3) ________ for the place where they lived, and they used (4) ________ that were available locally. In dry places, houses were made of mud or clay. Where there was (5) ________ of wood, people built houses of logs or boards. On grassy (6) ________, they built homes of dry grass. People who lived near rivers made rafts or houseboats, or houses raised above the ground on stilts.

Homes today are (7) ________ built bearing the local environment and conditions in (8) ________. Residents of very hot places need houses that will keep them (9) ________, while people in the frozen north need houses that protect them from the cold. Indeed, the climate affects many of the (10) ________ of a house, such as the size, position and number of windows. Where weather conditions are extreme, for example, windows tend to be smaller. Our homes, comprising modern blocks of flats, (11) ________ a lot in common with those first caves, since they protect us against the weather and give us (12) ________ safe place to sleep.

III. Make the right choice.

1. The strata (contains / contain) fossils.

2. Please, fill in the form (by / at / with / in) pencil first. Then check it.

3. He hardly recognized you, (hadn’t he / didn’t he / did he)?

4. People (by / at / on / in) large were dissatisfied with the government’s decision.

5. He cut the wood-logs (by / without / at / with) an axe.

6. The Rainforests are (impassable / impenetrable / non-passible) in some places.

7. The audience (were / was) throwing flowers and jewelry onto the stage.

8. Cookies or cake (are / is) available.

9. (The / A / —) President Bush is popular in the USA.

10. (— / The / A) certain Mr. Gibson wants you on the phone.

V. For questions 1–10, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.

The Desire to Know

Curiosity goes back to the dawn of human (0) existence. This irrepressible EXIST

desire to know is not a (1) ____________________ of inanimate objects. Nor CHARACTER

does it seem to be attributable to some forms of living organism which, for that very

reason, we can scarcely bring ourselves to consider alive. A tree, for example, does

not display (2) ____________________ curiosity, nor does a sponge or even an RECOGNISE

oyster. If chance events bring them poison, predators or parasites, they die as

(3) ____________________ as they lived. Ceremonious

Early in the scheme of life, (4) ___________________ motion was developed by DEPEND

some organisms. It meant an (5) ____________________ advance in their control of ORDINARY

the environment. A moving organism no longer waited in stolid (6) ______________ RIGID

for food to come its way, but went out after it. The individual that hesitated in the

(7) ____________________ search for food, or that was overly ZEAL

(8) ____________________ in its investigation, starved. CONSERVE

As organisms grew more complex, more messages of greater variety were

received from and about the (9) ____________________ environment. At the same ROUND

time, the nervous system, the living instrument that interprets and stores the data

collected by the sense organs, became (10) ____________________ complex. INCREASE

VII. Read the text. Some of the lines are correct and some have a word which should not be there. If a line is correct, put a tick (V) in the space provided. If a line has a word which should not be there, write it in the space provided.

A Trip to the Funfair

0. We have had been planning for a long time to go to 0. have f

00. the funfair for my brother’s birthday, so on the big 00. V b

1. day we all piled up into the car and set off. The traffic 1. ___________________

2. was so much bad that day that it took us nearly two hours 2. ___________________

3. to get there. Then we discovered that half the people 3. ___________________

4. in town had been had the same idea. The place was so packed 4. ___________________

5. that you could no hardly move. My brother wanted to go 5. ___________________

6. on the roller coaster, so we joined the queue—which it seemed 6. ___________________

7. to be about a mile long—and waited for our turn. 7. ___________________

8. By far the time we got to the front of the queue, my sister 8. ___________________

9. was complaining that she was so afraid to go on the ride, 9. ___________________

10. and even my brother looked a bit of apprehensive. Just then 10. __________________

11. a man announced that there was a technical problem 11. __________________

12. and the ride was made closed. With a sigh of relief we went 12. __________________

to get something to eat.

VIII. Complete each of the idioms below.

1. I want everything ____________________ before I sign anything.

2. He’s quiet, sensible, and ____________________.

3. We were discussing politics when, ____________________, she started talking about her daughter’s boyfriend.

4. The child is so ____________________ that it’s tiring to be with him.

5. I’m ____________________ —I think I’d better go to bed.

6. After his wife’s death he left town ____________________.

7. ____________________, my plan is to buy land.

8. What I think about him is ____________________.