Placement test

The first question is an easy one:

Please type your name so we know who you are.

Choose the best word to complete the sentence:

The baby boy saw … in the mirror and started to cry.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

A lot of trains … late today due to the heavy storms.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

… was a strong wind last night.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

First, I want to congratulate you all. Second, I would like to wish you good luck and … I hope you have enjoyed the course.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

You … clean your teeth twice a day to avoid having problems.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

The children thought they were … when they saw the bull.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the dialogue:

Jack: I think it’s going to rain.

Jill: I … , the clouds are clearing.

Jack: We’ll soon see.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

I really don’t like this meal. … money in the world wouldn’t get me to eat it.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

I must report to the meeting that Cyrus completed his first piece of work well ahead of schedule. …, however, his work has been handed in late.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

That’s very good of you but you … have paid me back until tomorrow.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the sentence:

I … intending to stop smoking even before I got this bad cough.

Choose the best word or phrase to complete the dialogue:

Anne: Oh! I watched the new TV show last night.

Jo: Was it any good?

Anne: Yes. … the TV set is so old I could see very little.

Choose the word or phrase which has a similar meaning to “to consider.”

Choose the word or phrase which has a similar meaning to “to talk.”

Choose the word or phrase which has a similar meaning to “to complete.”

Choose the word or phrase which has a similar meaning to “to return.”

Choose the word or phrase which has a similar meaning to “to report.”

Choose the best word to complete the sentence:

She hit her … while she was playing football.

Choose the best word to complete the sentence:

The … went to the police.

Choose the best word to complete the sentence.
It was bad but it was not a … .

Some words are often used together, e.g. smelly + socks. Choose a word which is often used with “concrete.”

Some words are often used together, e.g. smelly + socks. Choose a word which is often used with “tender.”

Some words are often used together, e.g. smelly + socks. Choose a word which is often used with “sophisticated.”

Some words are often used together, e.g. smelly + socks. Choose a word which is often used with “blunt.”

Listen to the recording and then answer the question.

Question: What is the speaker shopping for?

Listen to the recording and then answer the question:

Question: Which project is the higher priority?

Listen to the recording and then answer the question.

Question: What does the speaker want?

Listen to the recording and then answer the question.

Question: How does the speaker rank the cars?

Listen to the recording and then answer the question.

Question: What does the speaker want?

Excerpt from a newspaper article:

Dominican Republic plane crash

Nine people have died in a plane crash at the Las Americas airport in the Dominican Republic capital Santo Domingo, the aircraft’s owner Helidosa Aviation Group said in a statement on Wednesday.

Helidosa “regrets the tragic accident on one of its planes at Las Americas airport… in which tragically all of the crew and passengers died,” the company said.

The Gulfstream GIVSP which crashed at the airport had departed for Miami with seven passengers and two crew members on board.

Question: How many people were on the plane?

Exerpt from a newspaper article:

How Lebanon’s Ruling Elite Ruined the Country

It all started in 1943 with the National Covenant between Maronite Christian President Bishara al-Khoury and Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Riad al-Solh, who ushered in a political system based on sectarian accommodation. It gave Lebanon’s diverse religious sects immunity while delegating prerogatives that generally belong to the state. Sects thus gained power at the expense of the state. Law-making required sectarian agreement because prominent sects had veto power. The awkward legislative process favored sectarian leaders and their affiliates and sheltered them from legal questioning. The result was a political arrangement that set the stage for endemic political crises, civil wars and foreign intervention.

The civil war destroyed the first republic and its National Covenant. The 1989 Taif Agreement introduced the second republic, which was run by militia leaders and entrepreneurs, but it failed to resolve the sectarian conflict. The Lebanese parliament convened in Saudi Arabia and passed the agreement, viewing it as a 10-year interim arrangement to eventually establish a secular state. Unlike the Maronite-Sunni 1943 arrangement, Taif included Shiites, giving the three largest sects equal representation in the three formal branches of government and providing access to financially lucrative Cabinet portfolios. Instead of learning a lesson from a war that killed more than 200,000 people, the post-war ruling class destroyed the country’s institutions. It deliberately prevented the establishment of a modern state in which the rule of law prevailed.

Question: According to the passage, who was included in the 1989 agreement?

From Wikipedia:

Joy of Cooking, often known as “The Joy of Cooking”, is one of the United States’ most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer (1877–1962), a homemaker in St. Louis, Missouri, after her husband’s suicide the previous year. Rombauer had 3,000 copies printed by A.C. Clayton, a company which had printed labels for fancy St. Louis shoe companies and for Listerine mouthwash, but never a book. Beginning in 1936, the book was published by a commercial printing house, the Bobbs-Merrill Company. With nine editions, Joy of Cooking is considered the most popular American cookbook.

Question: According to the article, who is A. C. Clayton?

Excerpt from The New York Times:

Kroger, the national supermarket operator and one of the nation’s largest retailers, has restructured its Covid-19 benefits for unvaccinated employees and will charge some of them if they remain unprotected, a spokeswoman for the company confirmed on Wednesday.

Last year, before coronavirus vaccines were available, the company began offering two weeks of paid time off to employees who contracted Covid-19. Kroger told employees last week that, beginning Jan. 1, that benefit would no longer be available to people who were unvaccinated, the spokeswoman said. The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Question: According to the article, what is probably the reason for the change in Kroger’s policy?

Excerpt from The Guardian, about autism:

An unexpected result of the greater number of children being diagnosed has been that many parents have discovered that they are autistic, too, often by figuring it out for themselves, as both Purnell and McGuinness did. There are no exact figures, says Professor Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University, Britain’s leading academic on autism, but it is a phenomenon. And it’s not that there are suddenly more autistic people, but that diagnosis in the past was inadequate and medicine is catching up.

Often, says Baron-Cohen, these autistic adults do not necessarily need a formal diagnosis. “The key question is: are autistic characteristics interfering with your ability to function?” While he welcomes the more accurate picture, he doesn’t want the new numbers to dilute the understanding of what it means to be autistic. “It’s a medical diagnosis and you only get it if the symptoms you have are causing distress,” he points out.

Question: Which statement accurately represents the article?