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Missing paragraphs

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Cambridge English C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading & Use of English Part 7

Difficulty level: C1 / advanced

This page will let you practise for the Certificate in Advanced English exam (from Cambridge English). This is the format of the seventh part of the reading and use of English section.

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cae- free reading practice  exam practice english language elt efl grammar writing structure cambridge business exercises

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Cambridge English C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading & Use of English Part 7: free practice test

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You are going to read a magazine article. Six paragraphs have been removed from the extract. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap

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Multiple choice

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Cambridge English C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading & Use of English part 5

In this part, there is an emphasis on the understanding of a long text, including detail, opinion, tone, purpose, main idea, implication, attitude, and also text organisation features such as exemplification, comparison and reference.

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cae - free reading practice  exam practice english language elt efl grammar writing structure cambridge business exercises

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Cambridge English C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading & Use of English Part 5: free practice test

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You are going to read a magazine article about an African film festival. For questions 1-6, choose the answer which you think best fits according to the text.

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Multiple matching

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CAE Part 8 Mutiple Matching Practice Test

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Consultant A A university degree is no guarantee of a job, and job hunting in itself requires a whole set of skills. If you find you are not getting past the first interview, ask yourself what is happening. Is it a failure to communicate or are there some skills you lack?

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Multiple choice cloze

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CAE Use of English Part 1 (Multiple Choice Cloze) Practice Test

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CAE Use of English Part 1 practice tests (Multiple Choice Cloze)

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Gap filling

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Cambridge English: CAE Listening 2

Difficulty level: C1 / advanced

In this part, you will hear a monologue (which may be introduced by a presenter). You then have to complete 8 sentences with information heard on the recording. You can listen to the audio twice.

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cae  exam practice english language elt efl grammar writing structure cambridge business exercises

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CAE Listening Part 2: sentence completion - free practice test

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Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) - free listening practice test for part 1

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JUST LISTENING : PODCASTS ETC.            Protein mania: the rich world’s new diet obsession – podcast

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JUST LISTENING : PODCASTS ETC.            Protein mania: the rich world’s new diet obsession – podcast

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Protein mania: the rich world's new diet obsession - podcast

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Why we can't get enough when we already eat too much

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Missing paragraphs

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Talking to Plants and Approaching Groups

In this book extract from "...and death came third!" Andy Lopata and Peter Roper show nervous business people how to network with panache.

At networking events, I will often look to start a conversation with people who are on their own. It is much easier than breaking into a group conversation and the chances are they won't tell you to leave them alone and go away. Very few people go to networking events for solitude.

1)

When approaching these people you are already at an advantage because they will both respect your courage (which they have probably lacked) and be grateful that you've taken the time and effort to relieve them from their anxiety. They are probably just as nervous as everyone else, and they'll be delighted to get into a conversation with you. You've rescued them from walking around, avoiding interrupting other people for fear of rejection.

2)

Having spoken to them, try not to leave them on their own again because you'll just return them to the same state as you found them. Move on with them and introduce them to someone else.

3)

If someone is talking and you interrupt, or ask if you can join them, people will stop listening to the person who's talking, and invite you into their group. That's great for you but not so nice for the person who is talking. Stand just on the edge of the group and wait for the appropriate time.

4)

Alternatively, it may be that they're talking about something in which you have an interest, in which case, when there's an appropriate pause, you can just say, "Excuse me, I heard you mention so-and-so. Can I ask you a question? Are you involved in that?" And you're in the conversation. Or it may just be that you have a pause, and you ask "May I join you?" But it's always best to wait for the right pause in the conversation.

5)

While the guidelines above are important, you need to be aware of the body language of people talking to each other and networking events. Whether in couples or groups, people will always send very clear signals about approachability by the way they are standing.

6)

Reading this body language may mean that you are better advised approaching two people rather than a group.

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Flo-Joe.

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CAE Reading and Use of English Part 7: Gapped Text Practice Test

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In this book extract from "...and death came third!" Andy Lopata and Peter Roper show nervous business people how to network with panache. At networking events, I will often look to start a conversation with people who are on their own.

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Discover the Familiar: The plastic backlash

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Discover the Familiar: The plastic backlash - podcast

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Decades after it became part of the fabric of our lives, a worldwide revolt against plastic is under way.

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Missing paragraphs

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Scottish Wildcat

On my living-room wall I have a painting of a wildcat by John Holmes of which I am extremely fond. It depicts a snarling, spitting animal, teeth bared and back arched: a taut coiled spring ready to unleash some unknown fury.

1)

However, the physical differences are tangible. The wildcat is a much larger animal, weighing in some cases up to seven kilos, the same as a typical male fox. The coat pattern is superficially similar to a domestic tabby cat but it is all stripes and no spots. The tail is thicker and blunter, with three to five black rings. The animal has an altogether heavier look.

The Scottish wildcat was originally distinguished as a separate subspecies in 1912, but it is now generally recognised that there is little difference between the Scottish and other European populations. According to an excellent report on the wildcat printed in 1991, the animals originally occurred in a variety of habitats throughout Europe.

2)

It was during the nineteenth century, with the establishment of many estates used by landowners for hunting, that the wildcat became a nuisance and its rapid decline really began; 198 wildcats were killed in three years in the area of Glengarry, for example. However, things were later to improve for the species.

3)

The future is by no means secure, though, and recent evidence suggests that the wildcat is particularly vulnerable to local eradication, especially in the remoter parts of northern and western Scotland. This is a cause for real concern, given that the animals in these areas have less contact with domestic cats and are therefore purer.

4)

Part of the problem stems from the fact that the accepted physical description of the species originates from the selective nature of the examination process by the British Natural History Museum at the start of the century, and this has been used as the type-definition for the animal ever since. Animals that did not conform to that large blunt-tailed 'tabby' description were discarded as not being wildcats. In other words, an artificial collection of specimens was built up, exhibiting the features considered typical of the wildcat.

The current research aims to resolve this potential problem. It is attempting to find out whether there are any physical features which characterise the so-called wild-living cats.

5)

But what of his lifestyle? Wildcat kittens are usually born in May/June in a secluded den, secreted in a gap amongst boulders. Another favourite location is in the roots of a tree.

6)

Rabbits are a favourite prey, and some of the best areas to see wildcats are at rabbit warrens close to the forest and moorland edge. Mice, small birds and even insects also form a large part of the diet, and the animal may occasionally take young deer.

The wildcat is one of the Scottish Highlands' most exciting animals. Catch a glimpse of one and the memory will linger forever.

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Flo-Joe.

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CAE Reading and Use of English Part 7: Gapped Text Practice Test

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On my living-room wall I have a painting of a wildcat by John Holmes of which I am extremely fond. It depicts a snarling, spitting animal, teeth bared and back arched: a taut coiled spring ready to unleash some unknown fury. 1) However, the physical differences are tangible.

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Gap filling

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Watch the following video or listen to the audio recording below it.

If you can't see the video, listen to the recording below.
Click here to listen Fill the gaps in the following summary of the first 4 minutes of the video:

1. Does the amount of ______ you have affect the kind of person you are?

2. In a recent study, drivers of luxury cars were three to four times more ______ to break the law than drivers of less expensive, low ______ cars.

3. The academic paper that resulted ______ ______ everywhere.

4. It is very clear that this study of social class touched a ______.

5. The results were ______ across thirty studies which were run on thousands of people all over the United States.

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Watch the following video or listen to the audio recording below it. If you can't see the video, listen to the recording below. Click here to listen Fill the gaps in the following summary of the first 4 minutes of the video: Does the amount of ______ you have affect the kind of person you are?

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Listen to these extracts and choose the right answer for each of them. Follow the click here link to give your answer.

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New English word? Translate any word using double click.

Listen to this sample exam for Cambridge Advanced (C1) and answer the questions.
You'll hear three different extracts. For questions 1 to 6 choose the answer (A, B or C) which fits best according to what you hear. There are two questions for each extract. These are the questions - When you are ready, press 'START' and check your answers below. Use this notebook to write your provisional answers.

You hear two people on a music programme talking about the singer Nancy Graham. What is the man's opinion of Nancy's second album?

2. What do the two speakers agree about?

3. You hear part of a radio interview with a woman who trained the winning horse in a top showjumping competition. Why does she compare herself with an Olympic athlete?

4. How did she feel before her horse won the competition?

5. You hear part of an interview with a food writer called Richard Capstick. Richard decided not to become a chef because he lacked...

6. What did Richard think about food writing before he got involved in it?

Now Press 'START' and choose the correct option. If you have any problems with the quiz, to see it in an external link.

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New English word? Translate any word using double click. Listen to this sample exam for Cambridge Advanced (C1) and answer the questions. You'll hear three different extracts. For questions 1 to 6 choose the answer (A, B or C) which fits best according to what you hear.

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A selection of listening exercises to practice for the Cambridge Tests. The Listening tests take around 30-40 minutes.

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(Several tasks)

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IELTS Academic Reading Sample 81 - The Return of Artificial Intelligence

Details

Last Updated: Friday, 26 May 2017 14:13

Written by IELTS Mentor

Hits: 46792

The Return of Artificial Intelligence

It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing
human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition.

A After years in the wilderness, the term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) seems poised to make a comeback. AI was big in the 1980s but vanished in the 1990s. It re-entered public consciousness with the release of Al, a movie about a robot boy. This has ignited a public debate about AI, but the term is also being used once more within the computer industry. Researchers, executives and marketing people are now using the expression without irony or inverted commas. And it is not always hype. The term is being applied, with some justification, to products that depend on technology that was originally developed by AI researchers. Admittedly, the rehabilitation of the term has a long way to go, and some firms still prefer to avoid using it. But the fact that others are starting to use it again suggests that AI has moved on from being seen as an over-ambitious and under-achieving field of research.

B The field was launched, and the term 'artificial intelligence' coined, at a conference in 1956 by a group of researchers that included Marvin Minsky, John McCarthy, Herbert Simon and Alan Newell, all of whom went on to become leading figures in the field. The expression provided an attractive but informative name for a research programme that encompassed such previously disparate fields as operations research, cybernetics, logic and computer science. The goal they shared was an attempt to capture or mimic human abilities using machines. That said, different groups of researchers attacked different problems, from speech recognition to chess playing, in different ways; AI unified the field in name only. But it was a term that captured the public imagination.

C Most researchers agree that AI peaked around 1985. A public reared on science-fiction movies and excited by the growing power of computers had high expectations. For years, AI researchers had implied that a breakthrough was just around the corner. Marvin Minsky said in 1967 that within a generation the problem of creating'artificial intelligence' would be substantially solved. Prototypes of medical-diagnosis programs and speech recognition software appeared to be making progress. It proved to be a false dawn. Thinking computers and household robots failed to materialise, and a backlash ensued. `There was undue optimism in the early 1980s; says David Leaky, a researcher at Indiana University. 'Then when people realised these were hard problems, there was retrenchment. By the late 1980s, the term AI was being avoided by many researchers, who opted instead to align themselves with specific sub-disciplines such as neural networks, agent technology, case-based reasoning, and so on.

D Ironically, in some ways AI was a victim of its own success. Whenever an apparently mundane problem was solved, such as building a system that could land an aircraft unattended, the problem was deemed not to have been AI in the first plate. 'If it works, it can't be AI; as Dr Leaky characterises it. The effect of repeatedly moving the goal-posts in this way was that AI came to refer to 'blue-sky' research that was still years away from commercialisation. Researchers joked that AI stood for `almost implemented'. Meanwhile, the technologies that made it onto the market, such as speech recognition, language translation and decision-support software, were no longer regarded as AI. Yet all three once fell well within the umbrella of AI research.

E But the tide may now be turning, according to Dr Leake. HNC Software of San Diego, backed by a government agency, reckon that their new approach to artificial intelligence is the most powerful and promising approach ever discovered. HNC claim that their system, based on a cluster of 30 processors, could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background - tasks humans can do well, but computers cannot. 'Whether or not their technology lives up to the claims made for it, the fact that HNC are emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development; says Dr Leaky.

F Another factor that may boost the prospects for AI in the near future is that investors are now looking for firms using clever technology, rather than just a clever business model, to differentiate themselves. In particular, the problem of information overload, exacerbated by the growth of e-mail and the explosion in the number of web pages, means there are plenty of opportunities for new technologies to help filter and categorise information - classic AI problems. That may mean that more artificial intelligence companies will start to emerge to meet this challenge.

G The 1969 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, featured an intelligent computer called HAL 9000. As well as understanding and speaking English, HAL could play chess and even learned to lipread. HAL thus encapsulated the optimism of the 1960s that intelligent computers would be widespread by 2001. But 2001 has been and gone, and there is still no sign of a HAL-like computer. Individual systems can play chess or transcribe speech, but a general theory of machine intelligence still remains elusive. It may be, however, that the comparison with HAL no longer seems quite so important, and AI can now be judged by what it can do, rather than by how well it matches up to a 30-year-old science-fiction film. 'People are beginning to realise that there are impressive things that these systems can do; says Dr Leake hopefully.

Questions 27-31
Reading Passage 81 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letterA-G in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
NB. You may use any letter more than once.

27. how AI might have a military impact
28. the fact that AI brings together a range of separate research areas
29. the reason why AI has become a common topic of conversation again
30. how AI could help deal with difficulties related to the amount of information available electronically
31. where the expression AI was first used

Questions 32-37
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 81?
In boxes 32-37 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

32. The researchers who launched the field of AI had worked together on other projects in the past.
33. In 1985, AI was at its lowest point.
34. Research into agent technology was more costly than research into neural networks.
35. Applications of AI have already had a degree of success.
36. The problems waiting to be solved by AI have not changed since 1967.
37. The film 2001: A Space Odyssey reflected contemporary ideas about the potential of AI computers.

Questions 38-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write your answers in boxes38-40 on your answer sheet.

38. According to researchers, in the late 1980s, there was a feeling that
A. a general theory of AI would never be developed.
B. original expectations of AI may not have been justified.
C. a wide range of applications was close to fruition.
D. more powerful computers were the key to further progress.

39. In Dr Leake's opinion, the reputation of AI suffered as a result of
A. changing perceptions.
B. premature implementation.
C. poorly planned projects.
D. commercial pressures.

40. The prospects for AI may benefit from
A. existing AI applications.
B. new business models.
C. orders from Internet-only companies.
D. new investment priorities.

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IELTS Academic Reading Sample 81 - The Return of Artificial Intelligence

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Details Last Updated: Friday, 26 May 2017 14:13 Written by IELTS Mentor Hits: 46792 It is becoming acceptable again to talk of computers performing human tasks such as problem-solving and pattern-recognition. A After years in the wilderness, the term 'artificial intelligence' (AI) seems poised to make a comeback.

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What is the future of artificial intelligence (AI)? Will robots become as intelligent as humans? Or more intelligent?