B2 First Reading and Use of English Quiz 5

Take this fortnight reading and use of English quiz and boost your preparation for the Cambridge B2 First exam.

Roll up your sleeves and sharpen your wits!

Good luck!

Reading and Use of English, Part 1

Read the sentence. Decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best fits the gap.

The TV programme usually _____ on every Friday evening.

A. looks

B. comes

C. does

D. turns

Reading and Use of English, Part 2

Read the sentence. Think of the word which best fits the gap. Use only one word.

When people reach fame, some seem to be infinitely kind, while others seem to ___ down on everyone around them.

Reading and Use of English, Part 3

Read the sentence below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of the line to form a word that fits in the gap.

I just stood there in ………….. when I heard I’d been selected to go on the forthcoming quiz show. BELIEVE

Reading and Use of English, Part 4

Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between two and five words, including the word given.

My first teacher greatly influenced me.

INFLUENCE

My first teacher ………………………………………………………… me.

Reading and Use of English, Part 5

Read the extract. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Up is one of many smash hits from Pixar, a computer animation studio doing to 21st century animation what Disney did to 20th. Pixar makes cartoons which both children and adults adore. To critics, it can do no wrong. ‘You have to go back to Disney in the Thirties and Forties, when they lifted audiences out of the Great Depression with Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio and Dumbo, in quick succession, to get anything close,’ wrote the respected film critic Tom Shone. ‘This is living history, right under our noses. Your grandkids will ask about this.’

What does the writer say about Pixar and Disney?

A. They had both had a big impact on audiences, but at different times.
B. They are both technically ahead of any other company.
C. They have both had financial problems.
D. They both have a tradition of producing films very quickly.

Reading and Use of English, Part 6

Read the extract. One sentence has been removed from the text. Choose from the sentences (A-C) the one which fits the gap.

Michael Parker is the founder of ‘A Quarter of’, an online old-fashioned sweets shop. After having studied marketing and operational research, he decided to set up a marketing company from his home. He learnt everything he could about the Internet and soon found himself work helping firms to improve their position on search-engine sites. But it was three years later that Parker came up with his winning idea. His brother had told him about a firm he had heard about on the radio.

♦ ?

Parker said: ‘I thought if they could get ten orders a day by making people take a fixed selection, maybe I could get ten orders a day letting people choose what they wanted.’

A. To begin with, he imagined it would be a small operation.
B. It put together boxes of traditional sweets to send to British people living abroad.
C. These created so much interest that Parker had to stop taking orders on 9 December.

Reading and Use of English, Part 7

You are going to read a magazine article about someone who has been influenced a lot by another person.

MY BEST FRIEND
When you get into trouble and think there’s no way out, the last person you want to talk to is your family. You feel that you’ve let them all down. I’d got into a bad situation. I was going round with the wrong people and not exactly behaving myself, when my best friend, Greg, realized what was happening and persuaded me to break away from them. It can’t have been easy – I wasn’t listening to anyone at the time. But he stayed with it and refused to abandon me. My friend helped me see life in a completely different way, and because of him I gave up my job in an estate agency and retrained to be a counsellor so that I could help other young people.

For questions 1-10, choose the ones that are mentioned in the article above.

Is this the person who:

gave advice to the writer when the writer was not at all receptive?
always remained calm?
changed the way a lot of people thought?
was the reason for the writer changing career?
is one of a number of people who have been important to the writer?
caused people to stop laughing at the writer?
influenced the writer more than the writer first realized?
only knew the writer for a short time?
was unselfish with their time?
achieved results by not giving up?

Show Answers

Part 1: B

Note: The phrasal verb to come on has a lot of meanings, e.g. to improve, to start working by being switched on, to appear on stage, etc. In this case, it means to start to be broadcast. Turn on can’t be used since it means to switch on the TV.

Part 2: LOOK

Note: The opposite of to look down on someone, which means to think that you are better or more important than someone else, or to think that something is not good enough for you, is to look up to someone – to admire or respect someone.

Part 3: DISBELIEF

Part 4: HAD/WAS A GREAT INFLUENCE ON

Part 5: A

Part 6: B

Part 7: 1, 4, 10