Part 1. For questions 1 – 10, read the passage below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each space.  

Throwaway lifestyle took off in the second half of the 20th century. Disposable coffee cups, plastic stirrers, and plates (1) ______________ in the bin ‘improved’ our lives. Global plastic production soared from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to nearly 200 million tonnes in 2002. Today, it has reached the 300 million tonne (2) ______________ . Reports of ocean garbage patches suggest that much of that plastic eventually (3) ______________ in our seas. Take a boat out far enough and you will witness bottles, toy figurines, roller balls from underarm (4) ______________ , and thousands of plastic sandals all floating around in the sea. A project called The Ocean Cleanup has been testing floating platforms for collecting bigger bits of plastic, but they cannot deal with microplastics – the technical term for tiny pieces of plastic. They are so (5) ______________ shredded by ocean currents that they are impossible to spot from a boat and are easily mistaken for food by sea creatures.

A recent study by Marcus Eriksen, one of the co-founders of 5 Gyres, the organisation that studies plastic pollution in the seas, reports that at least five trillion pieces of plastic, altogether (6) ______________ at over 268,000 tonnes, are floating around near the surface of the sea. An incredible 92% of the pieces are microplastics. According to Eriksen, we will have to live with what is already out there. “It is going to sink, it is going to get buried, it is going to (7) ______________ ,” he says. “There is no efficient means to clean up 5 km down on the ocean floor.” No one really knows (8) ______________ damage all that stranded microplastic is doing, but the hope is that once it has mixed up with the sediment, it is (9) ______________ . Yet the clouds of microplastics (10) ______________ in the water column pose a problem. The debris is easy for marine life to swallow, but the gunk that the plastics collect – such as pollutants and bacteria – is also a threat.

1)   A. can be tossed          B. which could toss      C. having tossed          D. that could be tossed

2)   A. milestone                B. sign                         C. limit                         D. mark

3)   A. must end up            B. end up                     C. ends up                   D. should be ended up

4)   A. decongestants         B. depressants             C. antiperspirants         D. antioxidants

5)   A. sparsely                  B. leanly                      C. finely                       D. slightly

6)   A. weighing out            B. weighing down         C. weighing up             D. weighing in

7)   A. fossilise                   B. stagnate                  C. accentuate               D. solidify

8)   A. how                        B. whose                     C. that                         D. what

9)   A. doing more of it        B. doing less of it          C. making more of it     D. making fewer of it

10) A. twirling                     B. swirling                     C. twisting                    D. swirling

For questions 1 – 8, read the text below and decide which word best fits each gap. Use only one word for each gap. In the separate answer sheet, write your answers in capital letters, using one box per letter.

Uncovering the Mysteries of the Tango

The tango is undeniably one of the world’s most recognisable dances, evoking romantic images of graceful dancers in city squares surrounded by classical architecture. Despite having (1) _____________ popularised in the elegant ballrooms of Paris in the early 1900s, (2) _____________ birthplace was in the downtown streets of the 18th-century port cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

One common myth about the tango’s origins is that it evolved from flamenco, milonga or habanera, all of (3) _____________ have their roots in Hispanic countries. However, studying sociological changes has (4) _____________ historians to the conclusion that it is more likely to be due to the mixing of European and African cultures that went (5) _____________ in port cities at that time, which in turn created a distinct hybrid of music and dance.

As well as its historical origins, another controversial area that stimulates a lot of heated discussions about the tango is (6) _____________ of its symbolic meaning. Contrary to popular belief, although (7) _____________ first glance the dancers appear to represent a loving couple, the dance actually symbolises love that is not returned. The moves communicate ideas of nostalgia, despair and tales of loss, and (8) _____________ such the dancers perform the moves with slow, precise movements so as to transmit these feelings to the audience.

Part 2:

For questions 16 – 30, complete the following article by writing each missing word in the correct box on your answer sheet. Use only ONE word for each space. The exercise begins with an example (0).

Example: (0) been

BLUE WHALES

        Blue whales, the world’s largest animals, have (0) .......been....... sighted again in British waters for the first time in (16) ………………..…… least twenty years. Indications that a population of blue whales was inhabiting the waters west (17) ………………..…… Scotland came for the first time from the United States Navy, (18) …………..………… surveillance system picked up the songs of a lot of different whales. American zoologists subsequently identified the blue whale song among (19) ………………..…… .

        Now marine biologist, Carol Booker, (20) ……………..……… actually seen a blue whale there herself. She has no doubt about what she saw, because they have distinctive fins which are very small for (21) …..………………… size. She says, “Worldwide they were almost extinct and (22) ………..…………… seemed they had completely vanished from the North Atlantic, so you can imagine how I felt actually seeing (23) …………………..… ! However, it is certainly (24) ………..…………… soon to say if it is an indication of a population recovery.” She goes (25) ………………..…… to say, “What it does show (26) …………………..… the importance of this area of the ocean for whales, and (27) ………..…………… essential it is to control pollution of the seas.”

        Bigger than (28) …………………..… dinosaur known to man, blue whales are the largest animals ever to (29) ………………..…… lived on earth. A blue whale is more than six metres long at birth and, (30) ………………..…… fully grown, its heart is the same height as a tall man and weighs as much as a horse.

Perfect gerunds and infinitives

Tori: I finally broke up with Caleb. I would like ¹     to have done    (to do / to have done) it sooner, but I didn’t know how.

Anna: What!? I thought you really liked him. I saw you at Joe’s party a couple weeks ago, and you seemed ² ______________ (to have been / to be having) a great time.

Tori: I liked him at first, but I regret ³ ______________ (having introduced / having been introduced) him to my family so soon. He became clingy after that and started acting like he was part of my family. He even showed up to my parents’ house without me and invited them ⁴ ______________ (to have / to have had) lunch with him.

Anna: That’s really funny. I would love ⁵ ______________ (to see / to have seen) your dad’s face when Caleb showed up without you! So, what did your parents do?

Tori: Well, that’s the worst part. They actually went! They said they were honored ⁶ ______________ (to have invited / to have been invited) to lunch.

Anna: I suppose it was a nice gesture, but he should have asked you first.

Tori: Exactly. I only dated him for two months. I found it very strange when I learned that he was having lunch with my parents and not me! I feel relieved ⁷ ______________ (to end / to have ended) the relationship. But my parents will be sad!