Brenda is a nineteen-year old full-time college student, and she earns money working part time as a waitress. Brenda loves to listen to music like most young people, but she can’t 1 _____ the high CD prices that record companies 2 _____ for popular CDs. Brenda says that the prices of CDs are ridiculously high at $17 to $20 each and there are only two or three good songs on each CD.
She 3 _____ an apartment with three other roommates. She pays her own 4 _____ and she also pays most of her 5 _____. Her solution to expensive CDs is to download or copy music from the Internet. Brenda and millions of other people are called “downloaders” because they download free file-sharing software and music. When Brenda later gives, shares, or trades her music files free over the Internet, she is also an uploader. She considers herself an active music uploader, but the music industry considers her a 6 _____. From 2001 on, the Recording Industry Association of America has sued and fined dozens of file-sharing services, for uploading music files, and hundreds of people, for 7 _____ the law by downloading music.
1. А) provide Б) supply В) afford Г) allow
2. А) offer Б) charge В) suggest Г) propose
3. А) leases Б) lends В) hires Г) rents
4. А) lessons Б) classes В) tuition Г) education
5. А) costs Б) fees В) expenses Г) payments
6. А) thief Б) cheater В) burglar Г) bandit
7. А) undermining Б) disobeying В) breaking Г) ruining
Ответы: 1В 2Б 3Г 4В 5В 6А 7В
BRITISH THEATRE
The theatre has always been very strong in Britain. Its centre is, of course, London, where successful plays can 1 ____ without a break for many years. London has several dozens of theatres, most of them not 2 ____ from Trafalgar Square. 3 _____ London even some quite big towns have no public theatre at all, but every town has its private theatres. British theatre is much admired. There you can 4 ____ the best of everything – an excellent orchestra, famous conductors, celebrated actors and a well-dressed 5 ____.
Choose a good play, and you’ll enjoy yourself throughout from the moment the curtain 6 ____ to the end of the last act. Get your seats beforehand, either at the box-office or at the theatre itself. You’ll probably want to sit as near to the 7 ____ as possible.
1. А) show Б) perform В) run Г) produce
2. А) far Б) remote В) distant Г) close
3. А) Inside Б) Outside В) In Г) Out
4. А) take Б) give В) hold Г) get
5. А) audience Б) auditorium В) authority Г) publicity
6. А) puts up Б) sets up В) makes up Г) goes up
7. А) scene Б) stage В) scenery Г) performance
Ответы: 1В 2А 3Б 4Г 5А 6 Г 7 Б
A CHINESE VASE
When I was a child I loved visiting my grandmother. I thought her house was as beautiful as a palace. As I grew older the house and garden seemed smaller, but I still loved visiting the old lady. There were so many lovely things to look 1 _____ in the house.
I loved her paintings and the old clock, but 2 _____ all I loved a big Chinese vase which stood in the hall. It was 3 _____ than me, and I couldn’t see 4 _____ it. I walked round and round it looking at the beautiful ladies and the birds and flowers and trees, and Grandmother often 5 _____ me stories about these ladies. She said that her grandfather had brought the vase with him when he returned from a long 6 _____ to China.
We live in a modern house, and I’m afraid my husband and I often nag at the children. “Don’t make the new carpet dirty, Paul!” “Be careful with the new table, Philip!”
Before she died, Grandmother gave me the vase I loved so much. It 7 _____ beautiful in our modern hall.
One day I came home from the shop. The boys met me at the door. “I’m as strong as George Bes, Mummy,” said Paul. “I got a goal and I broke the vase.” Philip tried to be more diplomatic than Paul, “It doesn’t really matter, does it? You told us it wasn’t new. You aren’t cross, are you?”
1. А) out Б) at В) into Г) about
2. А) mostly Б) great of В) greatly Г) most of
3. А) higher Б) larger В) taller Г) greater
4. А) about Б) around В) inside Г) outside
5. А) said Б) spoke В) talked Г) told
6. А) voyage Б) tour В) hike Г) excursion
7. А) looked Б) viewed В) appeared Г) seemed
Ответы: 1Б 2 Г 3В 4В 5Г 6А 7А
A QUIET HOUSE
It was April and John Moore was studying for an important examination. As the date of the exam 1 _______ nearer, he decided to go somewhere and read by himself.
He did not want the amusements of the seaside, or the beauties of the countryside. He decided to find a quiet, little town and work there undisturbed. He 2 ______ his suitcase with clothes and books. Then he looked in a railway timetable for a town that he did not know. He found one, and bought a ticket to go there. He did not tell anyone where he was going. After all, he did not want to be 3 ______.
That is how Moore arrived at Benchurch. It was a market town, and once a week it was quite busy for a few hours. The rest of the time it was a very quiet and sleepy place. Moore spent his first night at the only hotel in the town. The landlady was very kind and helpful, but the hotel was not really quiet enough for him. The second day he started 4 ______ for a house to rent.
There was only one place that he liked. It was more than quiet – it was deserted and very lonely. It was a big, old seventeenth-century house. It had barred windows like a prison, and a high brick wall all around it. It would be hard to 5 ______ a more unwelcoming place. But it suited Moore perfectly. He went to find the local lawyer, who was responsible for the house.
Mr. Carnford, the lawyer, was very happy to rent the house to him. “I’d be glad to let you have it free,” he said, “. It’s been empty so long that people have started to 6 ______ a lot of foolish stories about it. You’ll be able to prove that the stories are wrong.
Moore didn’t think it was necessary to ask the lawyer for more details of the foolish stories. He paid his rent, and Mr. Carnford gave him the name of an old servant to 7 ______ him. He came away from the lawyer with the keys of the house in his pocket.
| 1. | A) | appeared | B) | drew | C) | moved | D) | entered |
| 2. | A) | wrapped | B) | laid | C) | piled | D) | packed |
| 3. | A) | bothered | B) | intervened | C) | interfered | D) | helped |
| 4. | A) | finding | B) | looking | C) | skimming | D) | exploring |
| 5. | A) | understand | B) | imagine | C) | know | D) | seek |
| 6. | A) | extend | B) | promote | C) | gossip | D) | spread |
| 7. | A) | look at | B) | look about | C) | look after | D) | look around |
Ответы: 1B 2D 3A 4B 5B 6D 7C
Looking for a job
My new home was a long way from the center of London but it was becoming essential to find a job, so 1 ______ I spent a whole morning getting to town and applying to London Transport for a job on the tube. It turned out that they were looking for guards, not drivers. This 2 ______ me. I couldn’t drive a car but I could probably guard a train and perhaps continue to write poems between stations. “Yes, I would be a tube guard,” I thought. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other 3 ______, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. The examiner sat at a desk. You were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been 4 ______. Sometimes the person was rejected quickly and sometimes after quite a while. Obviously the longer interviews were the most successful ones. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half. I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job, “Why did you leave your job before that? “And the one before?” I can’t 5 ______ my answers, except they were short at first and grew shorter as we continued. His closing statement 6 ______ a lack of sensitivity, which helped to explain why as a psychologist he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You have failed this test and we are unable to offer you a position.” Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such a job 7 ______ exactly this sort of elementary responsibility a dreamer like me is unlikely to have. But, I was still far short of self-understanding as well as short of cash.
| 1. | A) | finally | B) | at the end | C) | lastly | D) | in conclusion |
| 2. | A) | comforted | B) | matched | C) | fitted | D) | suited |
| 3. | A) | friends | B) | members | C) | candidates | D) | nominees |
| 4. | A) | declined | B) | dismissed | C) | accepted | D) | abandoned |
| 5. | A) | recall | B) | memorize | C) | forget | D) | remind |
| 6. | A) | discovered | B) | revealed | C) | disguised | D) | opened |
| 7. | A) | expects | B) | offers | C) | demands | D) | asks |
Ответы: 1А 2D 3С 4B 5А 6В 7C
Tracy
Tracy was as excited as a child about her first trip abroad. Early in the morning, she stopped at a 1 ______ agency and reserved a suite on the Signal Deck of the Queen Elizabeth II. The next three days she spent buying clothes and luggage.
On the morning of the sailing, Tracy hired a limousine to drive her to the pier. When she 2 ______ at Pier 90, where the Queen Elizabeth II was docked, it was crowded with photographers and television reporters, and for a moment Tracy was panic stricken. Then she realized they were interviewing the two men posturing at the foot of the gangplank. The members of the crew were helping the passengers with their luggage. On deck, a steward looked at Tracy’s ticket and 3 ______ her to her stateroom. It was a lovely suite with a private terrace. It had been ridiculously expensive but Tracy 4 ______ it was worth it.
She unpacked and then wandered along the corridor. In almost every cabin there were farewell parties going on, with laughter and champagne and conversation. She felt a sudden ache of loneliness. There was no one to see her 5 ______, no one for her to care about, and no one who cared about her. She was sailing into a completely unknown future.
Suddenly she felt the huge ship shudder as the tugs started to pull it out of the harbor, and she stood 6 ______ the passengers on the boat deck, watching the Statue of Liberty slide out of 7 ______, and then she went exploring.
| 1. | A) | journey | B) | trip | C) | travel | D) | tourist |
| 2. | A) | achieved | B) | arrived | C) | entered | D) | reached |
| 3. | A) | set | B) | came | C) | headed | D) | directed |
| 4. | A) | determined | B) | resolved | C) | decided | D) | assured |
| 5. | A) | in | B) | off | C) | of | D) | after |
| 6. | A) | among | B) | along | C) | between | D) | besides |
| 7. | A) | glance | B) | stare | C) | sight | D) | look |
Ответы: 1С 2В 3D 4C 5B 6A 7C
Busy Day
Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to 1 ______ and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass 2 ______ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to 3 ______ his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.
“Six of you!” Uncle Podger exclaimed, “and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!” But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. “Oh, you can stop your 4 ______. I’ve found it myself!”
Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: “Well, I want to know if you are going to 5 ______ me here all evening!”
Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep 6 ______ while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.
When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very 7 ______, all except Uncle Podger, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.
1. A) scare B) disturb C) worry D) fear
2. A) failed B) broke C) ruined D) fell
3. A) look at B) look to C) look after D) look for
4. A) search B) investigation C) exploration D) study
5. A) stay B) keep C) put D) take
6. A) dumb B) cool C) still D) silent
7. A) dull B) tired C) fresh D) boring
Ответы: 1C 2B 3D 4A 5B 6D 7B
A Storyteller
In my early 20s, after a year and a half in England, and four months in France, I returned to the United States and got a job at a camp in northern Virginia. My 1 ______ that summer was Dan from Mississippi, and I am from Rhode Island. We worked together with a group of boys from 12 to 14 years old. I've always been a bit untidy, but Dan was 2 ______ and clean, even after a night in the woods with our campers. We could not have been more different, but we got on because we shared the same 3 ______ of humor.
At the end of the summer, a few of us went to 4 ______ a cave in West Virginia and got stuck in the cave for the night. It wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds. The park rangers had told us to stay there if anything happened. They knew where we were going, and when we should have been back. Dan hurt his right foot badly. So we had to 5 ______ the night in the cave. Food and water were not a problem, but we turned off our lights to save power. In the distance, we could hear the sound of running water.
To 6 ______ the time, we told stories. That night in the cave we moved from one family story to another. As the night wore on, I remembered more and more. I was not alone–the cave, the blue light and the flowing water released stories and memories that we had never revealed to anyone. It was as if a river of stories had started flowing in each of us.
When the rangers came the next morning, we didn’t want to 7 ______. "Can't we just tell a few more stories?" In the cave, that night, I became a storyteller.
1. A) friend B) teammate C) partner D) opponent
2. A) clear B) neat C) exact D) careful
3. A) feeling B) emotion C) reason D) sense
4. A) explore B) analyze C) teach D) learn
5. A) lead B) spend C) hold D) waste
6. A) keep B) waste C) spare D) pass
7. A) escape B) leave C) remain D) retire
Ответы: 1C 2B 3D 4A 5B 6D 7B