FCE Use of English Part 1, Dopamine

Answers and explanations

1. B – reward. To better understand what word you need here, it is advised to read further. The next sentence illustrates the situation with some examples. ‘D – bestow’ is more commonly found in a more ceremonial context when talking about titles and other honourable things. ‘A- gift’ and ‘C – present’ are normally used with an object. In other words, you gift or present SOMETHING.
2. C – ensure. To ensure is to make sure that something takes place. ‘A – provoke’ is not good as it is more commonly used with negative words, e.g. ‘to provoke a conflict’. ‘B – guarantee’ is a bit extreme here, as no suggestion of guaranteeing anything is made. ‘Insure’ is a different word that has to do with insurance.
3. A – releasing. A more commonly used word in relation to various chemicals. ‘To eject’ is to let outside, very similar to ‘drop’, but more technical. ‘Launching’ works better with ballistic things like missiles.
4. C – substances. This is the only word that both ‘alcohol’ and ‘tobacco’ can be described as in this context. ‘Product’ does not fit at all, as it is a word more commonly found in marketing texts. An item is a part of a list, e.g. a shopping list. ‘Chemicals’ is not very accurate as it is a ready-to-use thing, not a primitive chemical.
5. A – apply. ‘Apply’ and ‘work’ are the two words that work here contextually, but the preposition that follows only goes well with ‘apply’. In a context like this one, we would say something like ‘… it does not work WITH dopamine’.
6. C – taking.‘Taking’ can be used when talking about medication or drugs (the latter described alcohol and tobacco well). Some examples are given that include both liquid (alcohol) and solid (tobacco) things, so ‘eating’ and ‘drinking’ can’t be used for that reason. ‘Buying’ is not the focus of the sentence – we are more concerned about the fact that they consume addictive substances.
7. B – lead. Another case where the preposition after the gap is crucial. ‘To cause something’; ‘To result IN something’; ‘to bring something’.
8. D – insufficient. ‘Absent’ and ‘missing’ both have the idea of zero levels of something, something that is not there. From the context, we should understand that we are talking about low rather than zero levels of dopamine, because the previous paragraph focused on higher amounts of it. ‘Insufficient’ is the best collocation here.