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Test your English  - - -  Super Advanced test

Time limitation 20 minutes (Keep to the rules ! )


Read the text:

Queen Victoria had relationships with men she regarded as indispensable, one of whom was Lord Melbourne her worldly and avuncular first Prime Minister. She had an ecstatic love for Albert which succumbed to a protracted and melodramatic mourning on his passing.

She was a passionate, sociable romantic who filled the household with Whigs and radicals. She railed against colour prejudice but upheld rigid class barriers. She had a strong awareness of her own rights and majesty but was a bulwark against the evils' of female suffrage.

The problems of a fickle press, a fluid public image and a long change-filled reign have obvious contemporary resonances.

1. This text is about:
Victoria's lovers.
Victoria's relationships.
Her relationship with the press.

2. Albert's passing was:
His demise.
His journey away.
His past.

3. `Worldly and avuncular' means:
Knowledgeable and protective.
Experienced and predictable.
Well travelled and impetuous.

4. The text is:
A news article.
A biography.
A history.

5. To be indispensible is:
To be expensive.
To be important.
To be irreplacable.


6. She had an ecstatic love for Albert which succumbed to a protracted and melodramatic mourningcc.

Which is the closest meaning?
She fell in love with Albert one morning.
She surrendered dramatically one morning.
She gave way to a lengthy period of grief.

7. Replace `railed' with the word with the closest meaning:
Argued
Disagreed
Opposed

8. 'To uphold rigid class barriers' means:
To support strong ideas on class.
To propose rigid rules on education.
To support unbending tenets on class.

9. The final paragraph in the text means:
There are parallels in current events.
The press is critical.
The weather has caused problems.

10. What is female suffrage?
The suffering of women.
The campaign for women's franchise.
Women's demand for change.


Read the text:

The images, all of them portraits or townscapes, in the first Fletcher retrospective since 1969 are not easy to read. But when an image emerges from the blizzard of paint, the flash of recognition can be exhilirating.

11. This is a:
Review
An advertisement
A dissertation

12. It is about an:
An exhibition
An installation
A novel

13. In this context, a retrospective means:
Looking back or concerned with past events
Presenting the development of work over a period of time
A decision effective from a given date or time.

14. Is the text:
Enthusiastic?
Critical?
Derogatory?

15. What is exhilirating:
The blizzard of paint?
A sense of elation?
A sudden insight?


Use the most appropriate word in the sentences:

16. The proposal should make [recommendations / comments / recriminations] on improving resources.

17. The outcome is a [cause / subsequence / consequence] of the catastrophe. 

18. Bigots [reject / react / like] opposing views.

19. To achieve success, crises must be managed [eventually / affectively / effectively].

20. Generations that have experienced traumatic events that have destroyed their environment are more [determination / inclined / encouraged] to preservation.


Read the text:

Where is the man who has the power and skill 
To stem the torrent of a woman's will?
For if she will, she will, you may depend on't;
And if she won't, she won't; so there's an end on't.
On a pillar erected on the Mount in the Dane, John Field, Canterbury

21. This is a:
Question?
Report?
Quotation?

22. The text is about:
A man's quest.
A powerful man.
Women's determination.


23. The original is to be seen;
Inscribed on a monument.
Written in a book.
Printed in a newspaper.

Read the text:

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
George Bernard Shaw

24. This text is:
Sentimental
Cynical
Apolitical

25. The text is about:
The problems inherent in the democratic process.
The benefits inherent in the democratic process.
A proposal for an alternative to democracy.

Read the text:

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
Arthur Conan Doyle

26. The meaning of the text is that:
Theories are a mistake if made in the capital.
To be correct one has to have the correct data.
One should not draw conclusions without access to all pertinent information.

Answer the question

27. `To fiddle while Rome burns' means:
To behave frivolously.
To take advantage of a situation.
To fail to make an appropriate, effective response to a situation.

28. `To find one's feet' means:
To achieve stability or success in one's situation.
To succesfully find one's way.
To be a good athlete.

29. `To tear a strip off' means:
To admonish.
To tear paper.
To remove clothing.


30. `To put two and two together' means:
To draw obvious conclusions from the stated facts.
To add two numbers to achieve the answer.
To bring together a group of people.

Drought is cyclical in Ethiopia. Famine doesn't have to be.


Terrible images of famine have covered our television screens and newspapers. Two years of drought and failed harvests meant that the people of Ethiopia faced a food shortage of catastrophic proportions.

Emergency aid shouldn't be necessary. The people don't want to rely on food handouts. They need long term solutions to their long term problems.

Long term solutions sound like huge complicated projects. But the most effective solutions are those that work at a practical level.

31. This is 
Informative  
Entertaining  
Prescriptive  

32. It is
News
Fiction
An appeal

33. It is
Serious
Trite
Humorous


34. Would this have been published by:
A charity?
A fashion magazine?
A food publication?

35. Drought is cyclical in Ethiopia. This means:
It happens periodically at intervals of time.
It is endemic in Ethiopia.
There is constant change.

36. People experienced starvation because of:
A catastrophe.
A failure of the harvest and a consequence of drought.
Emergency aid.


37. Long term solutions are:
Huge and complicated.
Quick solutions.
More effective.


38. `To work at a practical level
', means:
It is effective and functions at grass root levels.
It is a manual response.
It demands little thought.

39. What are the terrible images?
Of handouts.
Of victims of drought.
Of emergency aid.

40. What is something of catastrophic proportions?
The denouement of a drama.
An occurrence on a devastating scale.
A phenomenon relative to other phenomena.


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