Answer Keys
Part 1
- C- local. ‘Local residents’ makes the only strong collocation of the four.
- B – recently. A study that has been published short time ago.
- A- images. A satellite image is a picture taken from the orbit of our planet.
- B- extremely. The only word having the meaning of ‘very rapidly’.
- D- combined. The only word of the four that can be used with ‘of’. If something is combined with something else, they are joined together.
- C- chances. To increase chances of something is to make something more likely to happen.
- B – influence. This is the only noun that collocates with ‘on’ preposition.
- C – unlikely. Unlikely to do something. ‘Doubtful’ is not used with ‘to’ infinitive; ‘Unsure’ doesn’t fit grammatically; ‘Improbable’ has the meaning ‘impossible’ here.
Part 2
- for. ‘To be responsible for something’ means to be the reason that something has happened, especially something bad.
- many. The idea in these two sentences is that despite the obvious advantages of cycling, few people actually use bicycles.
- to/and. Both options can be used with slightly different meaning: ‘Stop to think’ is to stop in order to spend some time thinking about it; ‘Stop and think’ are two actions followed by one another.
- unlike. A contrast is made between large investments – houses and cars.
- top. ‘On top of that’ is a set expression meaning ‘in addition to something’.
- which. A relative clause that requires the usage of which (and not that).
- less. Making a comparison with the topic of the previous paragraph – cars – we can deduce, that the word ‘less’ (and not ‘more) is required here.
- whether. ‘Whether or not’ means ‘unimportant which of the two options is true’.
Part 3
- network/networking. Either is acceptable.
- steadily. Adverb that means ‘at an even rate’.
- stressful. An adjective that denotes stress is needed. Note the ending ‘-ful’ with only one ‘l’.
- unbearable. An adjective with a negative meaning is required. Make sure to spell the word right.
- risky. An adjective with the meaning of risk.
- commercial. Do not forget to spell it with double ‘m’, otherwise you won’t get the point for this question.
- enabling. A prefix ‘en-‘ is added as well as the ending ‘-ing’ to form a verb.
- decisions. A plural form is needed as we are not talking about one email, but many of them.
Part 4
- as/so long as I was. Remember that in reported speech we take one step back with all the tenses (as I was…).
- get my old bike repaired. Passive voice is used here – as suggested by the keyword ‘get’.
- the fall in profits on. ‘To blame on something or someone’. The main difficulty is using the right preposition.
- wished (that) she had/she’d spent. Past Perfect is needed here to show what happened first and what followed it. In this case first she spent money, then she regretted.
- is believed to have been. Another passive voice construction. Make sure to spell ‘believed’ right.
- it had not been for. Another Past Perfect tense example to show relation of actions in time.
Part 5
- C. Paragraph Three, first sentence: ‘A deciding factor for me in choosing to study at the University of Edinburgh was the fact it offered more than 230 exchange places at overseas universities’. Answer A is not mentioned. Answer B doesn’t fit – hew sister persuaded her to study abroad, not in Edinburgh specifically. The opposite of Answer D is said in the text: ‘… deciding to spend a year abroad was something of a novelty, with most of my friends giving more thought to embracing Edinburgh…’
- B. Paragraph Five contains the answer, even though it is mentioned before Berkeley, it relates to it as Berkeley was the ultimate aim of going to California. The opposite of Answer A is mentioned – people didn’t live up to popular stereotypes (end of Paragraph Six). Answers C and D are not mentioned.
- A. Last sentence of Paragraph Seven: ‘… my stay there enabled me to return to Edinburgh with an increased sense of awareness about what I wanted to gain from my English literature degree.’ Answer C is mentioned as a minor detail.
- C. Paragraph Eight, second sentence says that you only pay a fraction of what you would normally pay in your home university. Therefore, it can actually be much cheaper. Other answers are either not mentioned or given partial attention.
- A. To qualify for a place on the international exchange programme. The whole paragraph talks about the possible difficulties of getting there.
- B. The cases of satisfied students are very numerous – they believe that their time abroad was well worth it.
Part 6
- D. ‘This information’ in D refers to whatever he learns from his phone, social media and so on, to prioritise his tasks.
- F. ‘Making sure it does so’ is getting the report into the studio, ready to be read live.
- G. ‘it’s best to keep trying’ helps to connect it to the next sentence: ‘Don’t be put off; people in this business admire people who don’t give up.’
- A. Sentence A is the best way to illustrate how luck can be a huge factor in this kind of business.
- C. The idea of the paragraph is how equipment is getting smaller, better and easier to use. Sentence C shows how in the past it took a number of people with various hardware to shoot the news.
- B. An additional argument is presented in favour of the future of reporting and news in general.
Part 7
- D. ‘… I must confess that back then she was the last person I would have imagined becoming an economist because she was pretty hopeless at maths.’
- C. ‘… in fact as soon as we saw each other on the screen we started chatting again as if that ten-year gap had never existed.’
- D. ‘… in fact she might be having an influence on me.’
- B. ‘… she remains as sociable as she ever was and I suppose we’re quite alike in that respect.’
- E. ‘Somehow I’d always known that one way or another we were bound to run into each other at some point…’
- A. ‘… I know I should have made more of an effort to stay in touch with Amina because we always got on well together…’
- C. ‘The other mistake I made was being rather cautious about responding when she first got in touch with me…’
- E.‘I expressed my sympathy…’
- B. ‘The first thing that struck me was that Natalia still looked much the same as she had ten years earlier…’
- C. ‘… she was never keen on studying so I sort of took it for granted that she would end up doing a job that didn’t require qualifications. Now it turns out she went on to do really well academically and for two years was a Philosophy lecturer at a top university.’