Use of English: Grammar
1 Rewrite the sentences,
changing from direct speech to reported speech. Choose the most appropriate reporting verb from the list below.
accuse promise recommend refuse
wonder
1 ‘I will help you decorate your living room on Friday afternoon’, Dan told Rachel.
Dan_______________________
2 ‘We definitely don’t want to live in the city centre because it’s too expensive’, the students told the estate agent.
They _______________________ 3 ‘You are constantly looking at
Facebook on your mobile’, Marc told Maria.
Marc _______________________
4 ‘Do we have to go to the meeting on Friday afternoon?’ Gill asked her colleagues.
Gill _______________________
5 ‘The book we read was really good’, Anita and Adam told Tony.
They _______________________
/5
2 Find and correct one mistake in each sentence.
1 We promised paying our rent on the first of every month.
2 The estate agent insisted that he should to go and view the
property.
3 They agreed not making any noise when they came home. 4 I confessed to borrow the book
without telling anyone.
5 Don’t you regret to eat all those sweets?
/5
3 Complete the second sentence so it means the same as the first, using the word given. Do not change the word given.
1 According to a newspaper, approximately 300 people sleep on the streets in London every night.
SAID
It ____________ 300 people sleep on the streets in London every night.
2 The director has stated there will be more jobs available over the next six months.
REPORTED
It ____________ there will be more jobs available over the next six months.
3 Barcelona has many beaches you can relax on during the day. KNOWN
____________ many beaches that you can relax on during the day. 4 Some people say that she has
declared herself bankrupt. CLAIMED
It ____________ herself bankrupt. 5 There are rumours that she’s
going to put down a £30,000 deposit on the house.
____________ going to put down a £30,000 deposit on the house.
/5
Use of English: Vocabulary
4 Fill in the gaps with the correct word(s) in the correct form.
landlord
draft a contract move in
tenant
inspect the property
1 The _____________ that we have living in our two bedroom flat are great. They always pay their rent on time.
2 Before returning the deposit, the agency _____________ to ensure we had not left anything
damaged or broken.
3 I have to go home immediately as my _____________ is coming round this afternoon and the flat is in a complete mess.
4 We _____________ to our new house in December. That’s in precisely four months time! 5 Fortunately the process didn’t
take long as the estate agent _____________before he had put the flat on the market.
/5
5 Choose the correct alternative.
1 You can keep asking me for your results on the home stretch/until
the cows come home but I can’t
tell you until tomorrow.
2 Every month he takes home/is at
home with more than £4000 and
that’s not including his quarterly bonus.
3 “Finally we’re home and dry/’re
on the home stretch. What a
horrendous journey! I can’t believe it took over three hours to get home”.
4 The boss called Deborah into his office and told her a few home
straights/home truths about her
work.
5 Once the teacher had read the essay, she was upset that her pupil hadn’t tried harder as it
wasn’t anything to write home about/wasn’t home and dry.
/5
6 Read the text and write the correct form of the word in CAPITALS to complete the gaps.
Madrid is my favourite city in Europe. The people are so friendly and (1) ____________ (WELCOME). They instantly make you feel at home.
Although it can be a little (2)
____________ (TOURIST) in places, it is generally a beautiful city to walk around with lots of Spanish charm. If you go there, you will see the city is divided in two: the modern part and the
(3) ____________ (HISTORY) part. When in the old part, La Latina, for example, you will find yourself walking down cobbled streets and surrounded by some of the best Spanish tapas restaurants. When in the new part, there is a different, more (4) ____________ (VIBE)
atmosphere. One thing that
surprised me about the city was its cleanliness. When you’re in the city centre, you will notice the streets are (5) ____________ (SPOT). Not a single piece of rubbish litters the floor. If you haven’t been I suggest you visit!
Reading
7 You are going to read an article about squatters in the UK. Five paragraphs have been removed from the text. Choose from the paragraphs A-F the one which fits each gap (1-5). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.
The door was left open
The number of squatters occupying houses in the UK has grown
drastically. Squatters, people that occupy properties without paying rent, are becoming a grave problem for those leaving their homes
unattended for long, and even short, periods of time. What is more, they are claiming that they entered the property because ‘the door was left open’ which immediately relieves them from the criminal charge of breaking and entering.
1 _____________________
Two weeks after her departure, neighbours close to Mrs Smith
noticed a family with shopping bags entering Mrs Smith’s home. They approached them and asked who they were. They replied, stating that Mrs Smith’s son had rented her property to them and that they were their new neighbours. The
neighbours were baffled by this response and, doubting them, tried desperately to contact their
neighbour.
2 _____________________
When Mrs Smith arrived in north London, she stormed up her
driveway with her front door key in hand, only to find her key didn’t fit in the lock. Enraged, she pounded
the door with her fist. A lady
wearing Mrs Smith’s dress and pearl jewellery opened the door. Mrs Smith was invited into her own house and told to calm down by the intruder. The imposter told Mrs Smith that she had rented the property from Daniel, Mrs Smith’s son. She proved it by showing the home owner the contract signed by both parties. However, this was a fabrication as Mrs Smith did not have a son.
3 _____________________
It in fact took ten days to get the judge to agree to an eviction. On the tenth day, Mrs Smith and her
neighbours stood outside waiting for the squatters to leave. As the six squatters walked out, they carried suitcases, which later, it emerged, were packed with Mrs Smith’s clothes and possessions. Once the group had stuffed their new-found belongings into two taxis, Mrs Smith ran into her house.
4 _____________________
Mrs Smith’s situation is not unique. In June, there were an additional four cases in the same town, which suggests there is a group of
squatters operating in the area. 5 _____________________
A Fuelled with rage, she ran out of the house and headed to the police station. She explained her situation to the officer, who
informed her that she would need to prove that the house was hers and then they would investigate the issue. “This is not going to be resolved overnight”, the officer informed her.
B Those who have been targeted are requesting the law be
changed to strongly favour those affected. As Mrs Smith claims, “Ten days is too long. The police should have the power to act immediately.” A proposed change has been presented to the
government, and hopefully we will see a change in the near future.
C It wasn’t until seven days later that they were able to inform Mrs Smith of the suspicious situation. Mrs Smith was horrified, and urged her neighbours to contact the police. She would catch the next flight home, cutting her dream trip short by five weeks. D Mrs Smith, 51, was a victim of a
recent case in north London. On Thursday 3rd May, she left her two bedroom property, where she lived alone, and started what she had anticipated to be an eight week trip of a life time to
Australia. She had been wanting to visit the other side of the world for over ten years, and had only recently saved enough money to fulfill her dream.
E Mrs Smith found it hard to
believe that her house had been the target of squatters. She was not a rich woman and her house did not contain any modern technology or expensive goods. There were, however, plenty of other houses in the area which would have definitely been more appealing.
F The scene that she encountered was awful. All of the possessions that the squatters were
uninterested in had been shoved
into plastic bags and left in a spare room. Her beautiful cream carpets were filthy with footprints and mud and the majority of her walls had been covered with posters of young pop stars. Mrs Smith was quite understandably, upset. The home that she had lived in for twenty years was a mess.
Listening
8 You are going to hear
three people talking about their unusual homes.
Choose from Speaker 1, 2, or 3 to answer questions A-E.
Which speaker
A had been looking for over a year for somewhere to live when they found their property? ___
B eats home-grown food? ___ C is envied by their friends? ___ D feels their house is
environmentally friendly? ___ E lives in a property but doesn’t
pay any rent? ___
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Writing
9 You recently saw this notice in a student magazine.
We would like you to write an article about the worst place (city,
museum, restaurant, shop, etc.) that you have ever visited. Include a detailed description of the place, why you were there and why you think it is the worst place.
Write your article of 200-250 words.
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