Unit 2 Progress Test B

1 Choose the correct words to complete the sentences.

1 I wouldn't have to put up with this slow computer if I had paid a little more to buy a better one.
2 It would be very hard to stay in touch with friends if people hadn't invented mobile phones.
3 Went up the red flag. It was a penalty!
4 We would have enjoyed the trip more if the weather hadn't been so bad.
5 Such impressed were the band with Tom's guitar playing that they hired him on the spot.
6 If it hadn't been for a passing motorist, we would have had to walk all the way home.
7 In no way do I approve of what you did, but I won't tell anyone about it.
8 Rarely have my parents listened to the same music as me, but I caught dad whistling to Wiz Khalifa the other day.
9 Tom would have slept better last night if he hadn't read a scary short story before going to bed.
10 Provided the internet suddenly stopped working, what would we do?
11 We went up and down the street, but nowhere could we see the number 34.

Mark: ___ / 11

Solutions Third Edition Advanced Tests 1 Unit 2 Progress Test B

2 Choose the correct words to complete the book review.

Book club review: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

1
_C_ a work colleague at my summer job not enthusiastically recommended The Tea Girl of
Hummingbird Lane to me, I probably 2_A_ read it. But I'm very glad that I did. 3_C_ have I
come across such a poignant and beautifully-written novel.
The plot begins when a car arrives at a small village in the tea-growing hills of Yunnan
province, China. It is the first car that Li-Yan has ever seen, and 4_B_ does she know how the
stranger in that car will change her life. As the plot unfolds, Li-Yan is forced to abandon her
family, her village and her baby daughter. 5_A_ years later, when mother and daughter live in
different continents, do they decide to try and find each other. But 6_C_ that you wanted to find
someone whose name you do not know, how 7_A_ about it? The answer, intriguingly, is the
tea that grows in the hills of Yunnan Province, but to say any more would spoil the plot.
8
_B_ reading The Painted Veil have I come across such a beautifully evocative description of
rural China. 9_So_ impressed was I with the novel, that I'm now enthusiastically
recommending it to all my friends.

1 a Were b Supposing c Had

12 a wouldn't have b didn't c haven't
13 a No longer b Seldom c Neither
14 a rarely b neither c little
15 a Not until b Never c No longer
16 a Should b Provided that c Supposing
17 a would you go b will you go c did you go
18 a No sooner b Not since c Not only
19 a Such b So c If

Mark: ___ / 9

Solutions Third Edition Advanced Tests 2 Unit 2 Progress Test B

Vocabulary
3 Choose the correct words to complete the sentences.
1 It's a _A_ story which you'll find hard to put down.
a gripping b clichéd c tedious
20 One brave investigative reporter actually ____B____ a terrorist group in order to write about them.
a tipped off b infiltrated c revealed
21 The book contains a ____A____ description of how the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed with only seconds of fuel left.
a nail-biting b slow-moving c macabre
22 When it emerged that the Prime Minister had accepted money from a foreign country, it caused a huge ____C____.
a revelation b undercover c scandal
23 In Zola's novels, he describes the ____A____ struggle of the poor to make a living and look after their children.
a life-threatening b never-ending c middle-aged
24 I ____A____ at his untidy appearance, but I didn't want to say anything.
a wondered b emerged c prayed
25 We'll be very happy to ____C____ you and your family when you come to London.
a steal after b tip off c receive

Mark: ___ / 7

4 Match the words and phrases in the box to the definitions.

touching big-budget gutsy tip-off shallow ground-breaking

1 Very brave and determined. _________Gutsy______

26 Not convincing or very real. ______ground breaking__________
27 Very original and different to what has been done before. ______shallow__________
28 Poignant and affecting viewers or readers' emotions. _______touching________
29 A piece of important information which causes people to act. _tip-off_
30 Costing a lot of money to make. _________Big-budget_______

Mark: ___ / 6

5 Complete the sentences with the words in the box.

true takeaway far-fetched well-dressed complex seem revelations disappointing suspense considered

1 The biography contains some startling _______seem________ about the President's private life.
2 Abbie is always _____well-dressed_______, but she doesn't wear a lot of make-up.
3 There's a lot of _________suspense_______ in the novel – you never know what's going to happen next.
4 I loved the first two novels in the trilogy, but the third one is a bit ______disappointing_______. I was expecting more.
5 I'm tired of eating _________takeaway_______ food. Let's go and eat in a proper restaurant, or cook at home.
6 The idea of someone living alone on Mars for all that time is a little ________complex________, but if you get over
your disbelief, it's quite a good film.
7 The plot is so ___________complex_____ that you have to see the film several times in order to really understand it.

Mark: ___ / 7

Solutions Third Edition Advanced Tests 3 Unit 2 Progress Test B

Use of English
6 Complete the text with one word in each space. There may be more than one possible answer.
What the photos have in 1___________________ is that they both show people writing, or at some stage of the writing
process. In the first photo there is a woman on her own, sitting on a bed and 2___________________ the top of my head,
I’d 3___________________ she’s writing a diary. It appears to be a very private and individual activity and she seems so
busy writing that she’s unaware of her surroundings. The clearest difference 4___________________ the photos is that
there are more people in the second photo. Photo 2 has a group of people around a table with notebooks on it. It
5
___________________ like a creative writing class because there are objects and photos on the table too, so I suspect
the students have to write about them. Photo 2 6___________________ people talking to others about what they’re going
to write, 7________Diffrent___________ in photo 1 the woman is already putting her thoughts down on paper. The first
photo shows an individual activity. On the other 8__________hand_________, photo 2 shows collaboration and sharing as
part of the writing process.
As I 9______see_________ it, while there’s been a big increase in the number of creative writing degrees, I don’t think
writing diaries is as popular as it used to be. All things 10__________________, writing for ourselves can be just as
important as writing for others. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on our feelings without having to worry about what other
people think all the time.

Mark: ___ / 10

Listening
7  2 Listen to a journalist talking about two other journalists she admires. Complete each sentence
with a word or short phrase.
1 The speaker says that there are ________________ issues about spending time with some people incognito.
31 Doty learned about the lives of fellow prisoners and began to ________________ them.
32 Antonio Salas wanted to infiltrate a ________________ and find out how its people operated.
33 Salas met the family of Carlos the Jackal, who is in prison for ________________ in France.
34 Salas' hopes that his investigations will help ________________ to avoid terrorist groups.

Mark: ___ / 5

Reading
8 Read about the War Horse and answer the questions.
1 What does the article suggest about cavalry tactics in the First World War? To take horses.
35 In what way is War Horse similar to Jack London's novel Call of the Wild? Is told from the point of view of an animal.
36 Why is it surprising that the puppet horses in the play are so believable? Cause they are not real and looks really good.
37 Why does the article mention the opening scene of the film? To make people into this.
38 Overall, how well have the play and film have captured the original story? resolutely the same there is some difference.

Mark: ___ / 5

39

Solutions Third Edition Advanced Tests 4 Unit 2 Progress Test B

 The many faces of War Horse
War Horse began its life as a best-selling novel and was then adapted into an award-winning stage play. In its final
reincarnation it became a big-budget Hollywood film. Arts Editor Stephanie Palmer looks back on the phenomenal success
of the War Horse franchise.

Author Michael Morpurgo's inspiration for War Horse was the largely-forgotten story of the horses taken to the battlefields
during the First World War. Enduring the horrors of modern warfare alongside their human companions, they carried
supplies to the front lines and helped to evacuate the wounded. The least fortunate were drafted into the cavalry and sent
with their riders to face almost certain death – in pointless charges, swords drawn, straight towards machine guns. Rarely
did war horses survive for long: of the one million horses that went to war, only 60,000 returned.
The novel
Michael Morpurgo's novel was originally written for teenagers, but is also avidly read by adults. It has become a modern
classic – a runner-up for the Whitbread Award which has sold millions of copies worldwide. Like Jack London's epic tale
Call of the Wild, the narrative in War Horse is told from the point of view of an animal: a farm horse called Joey who is sold
to the army to become a cavalry horse. As the tale unfolds, not only does Joey witness the horrors of combat, but he also
experiences both the cruelty and tenderness of the different people he meets.
The novel's characters are well-rounded and complex, allowing us to identify with them rather than judge, even when it
comes to Albert's cruel father. Ultimately, the plot hinges on the relationship between Joey and the main human
protagonist: a young boy called Albert who grew up with Joey. Albert goes on to enlist in the army, despite being under-
age, in order to find and rescue Joey. Such a tale could have been far-fetched had a lesser author written it, but Morpurgo
manages to make it entirely convincing.
Despite being for younger readers, the novel in no way avoids the gruesome realities of war. In this respect too it
resembles Call of the Wild, which is also anything but sentimental. War Horse would be a less powerful novel if Morpurgo
had hesitated to kill off some of his main characters. Instead he underlines the tragic cost of war by portraying the deaths
of likeable characters such as warm-hearted Friedrich and Joey's companion, the horse Topthorn.
The play
In no way was it easy to adapt War Horse for the theatre, bearing in mind the need to recreate believable live horses and
epic battles on a relatively small West-End stage. The solution to many problems was to use brilliantly-crafted puppets.
If the puppets' creators, the Handspring Puppet Company, had tried to imitate the look of real horses, they would probably
have failed to impress. Instead their horses are wonderful moving sculptures, made of translucent fabric and a wooden
frame. So brilliantly are the horses operated by their puppeteers that their movements are astonishingly believable and
lifelike. No sooner has the play begun than you forget the puppets' lack of anatomical realism and fully embrace them as
living, breathing animals.
The play skips some details in the novel, perhaps inevitably when changing the format to a two-act play. And unlike
readers of the novel who see things through the horse's eyes, you are watching the action from the outside. Suddenly
some of the coincidences in the plot seem a little harder to accept. Having said that, it is a truly great piece of theatre, and
deserves both its popularity and multiple awards.
The film
Films adaptations of successful novels often disappoint partly because of Hollywood's tendency to jazz up the plot for the
big screen, adding action, love interest and sweeter endings. Had Steven Spielberg gone too far down that road, the story
would have lost its power. Instead, his adaptation successfully avoids the usual Hollywood clichés, despite significant
changes to the original story. As well as solid, convincing performances by Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson and Benedict
Cumberbatch, the film is very cleverly structured. Even the opening scenes, which feature sweeping views of the unspoilt
English countryside, have their place in the overall scheme of things. They serve as a striking contrast to the vision of hell
which comes later: the corpse-littered, bomb-cratered fields at the front line.
Although there are some important differences between the book, play and film, it's fair to say that the spirit of War Horse
remains resolutely the same. In whatever form it takes, War Horse is a poignant and compelling tale. And despite the
tragedy portrayed – the senseless waste of human and animal life – Morpurgo manages to deliver a story of hope. We are
left with the feeling that even in the chilling presence of death, love, loyalty and tenderness can prevail.

Solutions Third Edition Advanced Tests 5 Unit 2 Progress Test B

Writing
9 Read the task below and write a film review (220–260 words). Remember to plan your paragraphs
before beginning to write.

Write a review of a film which was adapted from an original novel. Mention any important
differences between the book and the film. State which you prefer, and why.

Mark: ___ / 10

Total: ___ / 70

Solutions Third Edition Advanced Tests 6 Unit 2 Progress Test B