4 Extra Language Practice Straight to Advanced

Vocabulary
Memory
Match each sentence beginning 1–8 with an appropriate ending a–h.
1 I’m sure we’ve met before, but I can’t seem to
2 We had a lovely time together, reminiscing
3 Throughout his life he was haunted by
4 I lived there as a child but only have a vague
5 Over time I think that your memories
6 I’m amazed by her powers of
7 He says that we visited Rome as children,
but it’s a false
8 Well, it was definitely a memorable
a recollection of what the house looked like.
b recollect the exact circumstances.
c tend to fade a little.
d recall. She can remember even the smallest of details
about events.
e about our time at university.
f memory. He’s probably recalling something he saw
in a book.
g the memory of what he’d experienced.
h experience. But not one I’d like to repeat!

Rooms and spaces

Complete each sentence with an adjective or adverb from the box.
minimally tasteful surburban conveniently solidly cluttered dingy

1 Our apartment is located only five minutes from the nearest tube station.
2 I wasn’t really keen on the house. It seemed so dark and inside.
3 Her house was very furnished, there was barely anything in it.
4 A few years ago we moved to a semi-detached house 40 minutes outisde the city centre.
5 Their old place was so cramped and that there was hardly any room to move.
6 The interior design is extremely and has so many elegant pieces of furniture.
7 The fort is built. It’ll be standing for hundreds of years to come.

Language focus
Adverbs of degree
1 Which of the following adjectives are gradable and which are non-gradable?
awful effective furious terrible entertaining
disappointed exhausted dull unrecognisable successful

Gradable Non-gradable

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4 Extra Language Practice Straight to Advanced

2 Underline the correct adverb in italics and use an adjective from exercise 1 to complete
sentences 1–5.
1 Jennifer Lawrence was completely/fairly in that movie, the make-up was amazing!
2 The lecturer was an incredibly/utterly speaker. Steve almost fell asleep half way through.
3 If you want to be absolutely/really , you’ve got to be prepared to put in the hours.
4 Roberto told me that the play was enormously/perfectly , so I might go and see it
on Saturday.
5 She was severely/extremely with the food at the hotel’s restaurant – everything
was overcooked.
6 He was thoroughly/very after completing the marathon.

Comparisons
1 For sentences 1–5, choose the option a, b or c which is not possible.
1 It is colder today than it was yesterday.
a little b almost c considerably
2 She’s the most talented violinist of her generation.
a easily b a great deal c by far
3 This chilli is as hot as other varieties.
a not nearly b just c slightly
4 Our team is as good as theirs.
a quite b a bit c nowhere near
5 Tina is better at tennis than she was before she started having lessons.
a not quite b no c not any
6 The exam was challenging than I expected it to be.
a no b no more c more

2 Complete each gap with either as or like. More than one answer may be possible.
1 Finally, he was going to play for his country, just his father had done 20 years before.
2 He had a strange feeling in the forest, someone was watching him.
3 Jan used the glass a pot to keep his pens in.
4 She’s nowhere near fast as she used to be.

3 Match the sentences in exercise 2 with the uses and structures below.
a We use as + noun to talk about someone’s/something’s job or function.
b We use like + noun, pronouns and gerunds to make comparisons.
c We use like/as + clause to make comparisons.
d We use nowhere near as + adjective to emphasise the difference between two things.

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4 Extra Language Practice Straight to Advanced

Reading and Use of English Part 2

Open cloze
For questions 1–8, read the text and think of the word that best fits the gap. Use only one word in
each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Taking a trip down memory lane

Nostalgia is big business – old films are remade or rebooted, old novels dramatized (0) FOR new
audiences. Even vinyl is (1) a comeback, with sales of £2.1 million in the UK in 2015. But is it
actually an unhealthy obsession? Surely, (2) we’re always looking back, we’re unable to enjoy the
present fully?
Fortunately, psychologists disagree. (3) we tend to reconstruct the past through rose-tinted
spectacles, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Research shows that nostalgia doesn’t interfere (4)
the enjoyment of the present and planning for the future. In fact, engaging with it can make you more
optimistic, inspired and creative, increasing the desire to try new things. (5) is possibly because
nostalgia is a very social emotion. The sense of social connectivity it helps create is important for going out
(6) the world and planning ahead.
If you were constantly comparing the present to the past, focusing on the negatives, it could be an issue, but
that isn’t (7) the majority of people engage with nostalgia. For the (8) part, we only
occasionally dip into their bank of memories, retrieve something meaningful from this and then move on.

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