Click to take CPE Reading and Use of English Practice Test 2

CPE Reading and Use of English Practice Test 2

CPE Reading and Use of English Part 1

For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (А, В, C or D) best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Example:

0A expiredB antiquatedC archaic
    D obsolete

The Unobserved Life

The idea that one could move through the world unnoticed, a stranger among strangers, is rapidly becoming 0 _____. Living in digitally saturated cities, we face privacy not just diminishing, but being systematically 1 . The ubiquitous gaze of CCTV, the digital fingerprints we leave with every tap and swipe, every single word we 2 picked up by our phone to serve us relevant ads — these make the 3 of remaining truly unknown a thing of the past. This erosion is not just about a technological shift — it is first of all a cultural one, 4 the concept of public space into something entirely different.

There is one curious 5 of constant surveillance that is worth mentioning. Aware that they can be potentially observed at any given time, people build up behavioural 6 , subconsciously changing the way they act to conform to perceived norms. The spontaneous, the quirky, the dissentient – aspects of life that once flourished in the shadows of anonymity – risk getting 7 out. We are left to ponder what is lost when the ‘right to be let alone’, as famously phrased by legal scholar Samuel Warren, is 8 by the default condition of being perpetually identified, tracked, and analysed.


For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary