Monday, November 17, 2014

TOEFL tests/ Incomplete Sentences/ Advanced level #  16


HIGH SCHOOL VOCABULARY TEST (3)


Q1 The result of the election didn’t give either candidate a clear majority but in the end the leader of the opposition agreed to step down and ……. to the wishes of the electorate.

(a) accept                             (b) accent                     (c) accede                    (d) ascend

Q2 The sound of the waterfall goes on all day and night and in the end the ….. noise gets on your nerves.

(a) interrupting                    (b) inciting                  (c) invading                     (d) incessant

Q3 I apologized for what seemed like a deliberate act of rudeness but I explained that it had been purely accidental and an ….. action on my part.

(a) inverted                           (b) inadvertent              (c) incurred                  (d) inhibited

Q4 Although it’s a complicated subject the professor managed to make it all totally clear and …… by her delivery.

(a) lucid                           (b) luminous                     (c) lightening                              (d) lifting

Q5 When you take a party of tourists round a famous city there are always those who ……. and keep everybody else waiting.

(a) litter                            (b) lessen                             (c) loiter                              (d) languish

Q6 Before she knew what had happened a man suddenly fell on her …… across and stealing her handbag.

(a) lurking                      (b) linking                         (c) limping                          (d) lunging

Q7. There was absolutely no call for him to criticize her so cruelly and in almost a …… manner.

(a) malformed                       (b) malicious                       (c) maladroit                          (d) malcontent

Q8. There was absolutely no question about it he was the ……. idiot such as you’d find in one of those old farces.

(a) provincial                            (b) provided                           (c) proverbial                      (d) protective

Q9. You’ll soon get used to his funny ways as it’s one of the ….. of his personality.

(a) quibbles                        (b) quills                    (c) quaffs                       (d) quirks

Q10. He didn’t really give speeches because he used to scream and shout and you could hear him …… a hundred meters down the road.


(a) reigning                         (b) raining                           (c) ruling                              (d) rattling

Tuesday, November 11, 2014







 The pot that would not stop boiling


There was once a little girl who lived with her mother in a tiny little house. They were very, very poor, and often did not even have enough to eat.
   One day there was nothing at all in the house to eat, so the mother sent the little girl out into the woods to hunt for berries.
As the little girl wandered in the woods she met an old woman.
    “Why are you out in the woods alone, my dear?” asked the old woman. When the little girl told her, the old woman pulled out from under her heavy cloak a little iron pot.
    “This is a magic pot, my dear,” said the little old woman. “Whenever you are hungry, just say to it, ‘ Cook, little pot, cook!’
and you will have sweet porridge. When you  have enough, all you need to say stop.”
         The little girl thanked the old woman and ran all the way home with home with the little magic pot.
   From that time on the little girl and her mother never went hungry, for whenever they needed food, the little girl would say:
    “Cook, little pot, cook!” and the little pot would fill up with sweet porridge.
    Then the little girl would say:
   “Stop, little pot, stop!” and the little pot would stop boiling.
But one day when the little girl was away from home, her  mother got hungry for some good sweet porridge. So she took out the little pot and said: ‘’Cook, little pot, cook!’’Soon the little pot was full of sweet porridge. ‘’No more, little pot, no more!’’ said the mother. But the porridge climbed up to the brim of the little pot and began to spill over the edges. ‘’Halt, little pot, halt!’’ cried the mother . But the porridge kept coming. It ran over the stove and began to drip on to the floor. Try as she might, the mother could not think of the right words to make the little pot stop boiling. So the porridge spread out over the kitchen floor, and grew deeper and deeper. It ran out the door and tricked down the path. Soon the trickle was a stream that went rushing down the little village street, pushing its way into houses. And still the little pot kept on boiling. The stream of porridge flowed along, growing deeper and faster, until it came to the last house in the village, where the little girl was visiting. When she saw the first trickle of porridge creep in under the door, she guessed what had happened, and she ran home through porridge-filled streets. ‘’Stop, little pot, stop!’’ cried the little girl as she waded into the kitchen. Instantly the little pot stopped boiling. But by that  time the village was so full of porridge that it took the people three weeks to eat their way out of it.  
   


Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Words that inspire.

"Raise your words not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder."



Talk is “in”. Action is out


Talk is ‘in’
Action is ‘out’
Never has there been so much talk as there is today.
Never has such an avalanche of hollow,
pointless words crashed down on people’s heads.
Everyone wants to talk.
Everyone wants to put in a word.
Everyone wants to interrupt.
But only a few have anything to say.
Because only a few can bear the silence
and effort needed to think.