ENGLISH ADVANCED VOCABULARY TEST (1)

Q1 Thanks to the crash barrier in the middle of the motorway cars are …… from hitting those on the other side in the event of an accident.

(a) distracted                            (b) diverted                      (c) directed                   (d) prevented

Q2 It doesn’t matter what position you hold in society everyone is …… to the same laws.

(a) object                       (b) subject                       (c) controlled                         (d) restricted

Q3 As I was a stranger in that country I was not ….. with some of their customs and didn’t understand why 

people were laughing at me.

(a) addicted                         (b) attracted                      (c) acquainted                      (d) acquired

Q4 You can have that car in any colour you want in fact you have a …… of 24 different ones.

(a) choice                        (b) choosing                 (c) number                              (d) shade

Q5 The theatre was ….. to display in the entrance some of the excellent newspaper reviews the play had received.

(a) deluded                            (b) developed                             (c) demanded                       (d) delighted

Q6 As the hospital had been careless with its hygiene procedures, the patient found she had been……. with a harmful virus.

(a) detected                        (b) rejected                         (c) infected                              (d) suspected

Q7 As a …… of the district she had absolutely no difficulty in understanding the local dialect.

(a) inhabitant                               (b) relation                          (c) native                    (d) newcomer

Q8 There is a new company regulation to remove the danger of passive smoking, which ……. all employees from smoking at their place to work.

(a) prohibits                                  (b) promotes                       (c) professes                      (d) protests

Q9 He finds breathing very difficult in restricted spaces as he ……. from asthma.

(a) refers                               (b) defers                      (c) suffers                       (d) differs

Q10 I am very pleased to be working with you because I think the same way and ….. with your policies.

(a) accept                     (b) conform                             (c) confer                            (d) agree

Back to another story. Read it for your pleasure. 

  

    Lazy Jack

Once upon a time there lived in a little cottage an old woman and her son Jack. Every day the old woman sat in the corner and worked at her spinning, and every day her son sat by the fire and did nothing at all. So all the neighbors called him Lazy Jack. One morning his mother could stand his idleness no longer, and she told Lazy Jack that he must work for his bowl of ridge. So off he went to work  a day for a farmer who lived near by.At the end of the day , the farmer paid him a penny.  But Lazy Jack lost the penny in the brook on his way  home and had nothing  to show for his work. The next time , said  his mother, put what you earn in your pocket. The next day Jack worked as a cowherd for a dairyman who lived over the hill, and  at the end of the day , the farmer  paid him a jug of milk. Remembering what  his mother had  said, Jack tried  to put  the jug in his pocket. Of course he spilled all the milk and had only an empty jug when he got home. Next time, said his mother , you should  carry it on your head. Then you won’t spill it. The next morning Lazy Jack went once more to work for the dairy farmer.This time, when  the day was over , the man gave him some cream cheese. Remembering what his mother had said, Lazy Jack put the cheese on his head and started  home. But the cheese melted and ran down all over  his head, and Jack had nothing to show for his day’s work but a dirty face. Next time, said his mother patiently, you should wrap it in green leaves and carry it in your hands. At the end of the  next day’s work all Lazy Jack got was a tomcat.  He did  just as he had been told; he tried  to wrap it in green leaves and hold it in his hands. The cat did not like this at all and finally got away  from Jack who arrived home with nothing to show but scratched  hands. Stupid, said his mother , who still had to spin for their living. You should  have tied it to a string and pulled it behind you. So the next afternoon , when Lazy Jack  was given a ham as payment for his work, he carefully tied a string around it and dragged it home along the dusty road.  Oh , you strawhead, cried his mother when she saw the dusty, battered remains of what had been a fine ham. Why didn’t you carry it on your shoulder? So next day, when Jack was given a donkey for his work, he obediently hoisted it to his shoulder and started home. Now on his way Jack passed the handsome home of a wealthy man who had one daughter. The poor girl was both deaf and dumb, and  doctors said the only cure would be for her to laugh. But, try as he might, the father could find nothing that would make his daughter laugh. On this afternoon she was  sitting at the window gazing sadly at the road. Suddenly around a bend came  the strangest sight she had ever seen Lazy Jack struggling along with the donkey on his shoulder. The donkey’s four feet were waving in the air, and it was braying loudly. First she looked. Then she stared. And then , wonder of wonders, she burst out laughing. Father, she called at last. Father, look. My daughter , the old man exclaimed. Is that really your voice I hear? It was, of course and the girl was completely cured. Overjoyed, her father rushed out to the road. Drop your donkey, he cried to Lazy Jack.  You have given my daughter back her voice and her hearing , and no one but you shall be her husband. So Jack, who was called Lazy Jack no longer, and the daughter were married. They lived in  a fine new house and Jack’s mother came often to live with them. The old  man came often to visit them and as you can  well imagine , they all lived happily ever after.

Hi there,

Who has not heard that laughter is a common remedy for all ailments? Scholars always advise us to leave some room for it in our daily life. No matter how dire our life may seem at a given moment, never forget to take a break to laugh. Not only will we feel better, but we'll live longer. Who doesn't want it?
Enjoy what comes following,

Park in the sun

Park in the sun

In reality I don’t have such a long time on this world.

Between the eternity before my birth and the eternity

after my death, I am given such a short time for parking

on our little planet.

I have my own parking meter.

I can’t put back its hand. Neither can I make it give me

more time by popping in a few more coins.

My parking time here is relentlessly limited. There is

not a single thing I can do about it. My life is like  my

name written in the sand: a tiny breeze and it is gone.

So what should you do?

Don’t whatever you do cry about it. Try to park your

life in the sun and not in a wasps’ nest of quarrels and

wrangles, of nerve-wracking worries and problems.

Make beautiful days! Be enthusiastic about light, about

life,about good people and about good things. Be

friendly and warm to the old man who knows that his

parking time is nearly over. Be warm towards the sick,

the handicapped, the dispossessed, the disillusioned,

the cheated and the many unhappy folk who no longer

have a place in the sun.Make beautiful days for them

and for the people around you. You have to do

nothing more to be happy in yourself.

Park in the sun and the parking meter tick.

Hi there,

There is always a problem with certain verbs in English. Sometimes it is not easy to choose the best option between them. Following are a few of those verbs. Try your best to give the right answer.

We will see them together no sooner than next week from today.

I wish you all a very nice evening.

fm

DO, MAKE, GET, TAKE

Q1 You must decide and ……. up your mind.

(a) do                             (b) get                         (c) make                         (d) take

Q2 What time do you …….. up in the morning?

(a) do                             (b) get                        (c) make                                (d) take

Q3 At the moment we are trying to ……. for the town centre.

(a) do                              (b) get                        (c) make                           (d) take

Q4 After they had shouted at each other, they decided to ……… it up.

(a) do                                (b) get                   (c) make                         (d) take

Q5 They are very good friends and ……. on well with each other.

(a) do                              (b) get                       (c) make                  (d) take

Q6 The firm has expanded and they want to …… on extra staff.

(a) do                                (b) get                         (c) make                  (d) take

Q7 She’s good at writing stories for children and is always keen to …… up new plots.

(a) do                             (b) get                                  (c) make                (d) take

Q8 As we don’t have much money at the moment, we’ve decided to …….. without certain luxuries.

(a) do                               (b) get                         (c) make                   (d) take

Q9 We mustn’t be late this morning because today is when the new boss is going to …… over.

(a) do                          (b) get                                   (c) make                 (d) take

Q10 Most of the telephone lines were destroyed in the storm last night and so it’s almost impossible to …… through to anybody today.

(a) do                             (b) get                                    (c) make                        (d) take

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAIRY TALES

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” 
― Albert Einstein

          

 The little red hen and the fox 

One day the Big Black Fox said to his mother, “I am hungry. What is there in the house to eat?”

“Not a bite or a sip, “said Mother Fox.

“Well then, said the Big Black Fox, “ put a big kettle of water on the boil. This morning I shall go after the Little Red Hen.”

    So off he started with a sack slung over his shoulder, in which he planned to bring back the Little Red Hen.

Now the Little Red Hen had gone out to hunt some large, juicy worms for breakfast, and she had left the door of her little  house open. So when the Big Black Fox came sneaking up with his sack over his shoulder, he slipped right into the house and hid.

“Aha!” said he. :I won’t be long before the Little Red Hen comes back. Then what a delicious breakfast we shall have, Mother Fox and I.”

   Soon  the Little Red Hen came back with seven juicy worms for her breakfast. She stepped inside the house and stopped short. She knew immediately that something was wrong. But, before she could think what it was wrong. But, before she could think what it was, the Big Black Fox jumped out from his hiding place.

   Quicker than a wink the Little Red Hen dropped her seven juicy worms and fluttered up to the high mantel above her fireplace.

  “Come down!” cried the Big Black Fox.

But the Little Red Hen was too smart for that. “Not I , “she said. “I am safer up here.”

I know a way to fix that, “said the Fox, and he started to run around and around and around in a circle.

The poor Little Red Hen watched him, wondering what he was up to. And the longer she watched him circling, the dizzier she got. Finally she was so dizzy that she troppled right off the mantel.

     Chuckling wickedly, the Big Black Fox stuffed her into his sack and started for home. It was a long walk and a hot day, and the Little Red Hen was a heavy load, so the Big Black Fox had to stop often to rest. Once he stopped a moment too long, and he fell sound asleep.

     The Little Red Hen heard the fox begin to snore.

“This is my chance, “She thought.

She reached into her apron pocket,where she kept her scissors and needle and thread. Then snip, snip, she cut a hole in the sack big enough to wriggle through.

  “Now for a big stone,” she said to herself.

  She found one at last, just her own size.

This she rolled into the sack: then she sewed up the slit she had cut.

     Then off she went, lickety split, faster than she had ever gone before. She hurried back home. Once inside she closed the door behind her, locked it, and double locked it.

And she locked the back door too.

“Oh dear, the water must be all boiled away by now, :he said. “I must hurry home.”

When he had taken just a few steps, though, he noticed how heavy his sack was.

  “What a plump, juicy little hen she must be,” he thought, chuckling.

      When he got home, his mother was watching anxiously for him.

“You’ve been gone so long.” She complained, “that I’ve had to keep it from all boiling away. Sure enough, there was a great cloud of steam coming from the kettle. Good, said the Big Black Fox when he saw this. Now you hold  the cover off while I dump the Little Red Hen into the pot. But instead  of the Little Red Hen, the steaming  kettle , throwing boiling water all over the Big Black Fox and his mother. That was enough for those two bad foxes. Never again did they bother the Little Red Hen in her little house in the woods.

Simple flowers will do

Why have so many people got nothing to live for?

Because they have no friendships.

Because they don’t know anybody who likes them.

Because nowhere do they find

an ounce of sympathy and affection.

Because a flower never blooms for them.

And yet flowers work wonders!

No need for expensive or rare flowers.

Common simple flowers will do-

a smile, a kind word, a simple gesture.

The smallest tiniest flower

given with a warm heart

tells a lovely story.

A pure, sweet story about a small piece of heaven-on earth,

where the people seem like angels,

where, for every anxiety

for every pain and for each tear,

there is a soft comfort,

where the people, like flowers, bloom for each other.

Good evening there,

I wish you all a very good week to come full of smiles and happy thoughts. 

Following you will find a number of exercises to do when there is nothing else to be done.

Enjoy your evening.

fm

AT THE DOCTORS

Q1 As soon as the doctor looked at her, he was able to  …… the cause of her frequent headaches.

(a) decide                      (b) diagnose                      (c) define                        (d) describe

Q2 Treatment of this particular disorder was beyond the doctor’s capability and he ……. the patient to a specialist.

(a) referenced                   (b) diagnose                     (c) define                      (d) describe

Q3 He left the surgery feeling a lot better than when he arrived because the doctor had reassured him that his condition was not …….

(a) clear                   (b) serious                    (c) determined                      (d) possible

Q4 The doctor took out of her bag an unusual ……. but promised her young patient that it would not hurt her.

(a) utensil                          (b) method                           (c) control                           (d) instrument

Q5 I must confess I feel much better today, as I have found that the medication prescribed has been most ……

(a) effecting                     (b) effects                        (c) effective                       (d) affective

Q6 Under the policy of the new health regulations if you decide to cancel your …….. and don’t notify the surgery, you will be fined.

(a) meeting                      (b) appointment                        (c) rendezvous                    (d) date

Q7 Before she was allowed to leave the hospital , a physiotherapist had to …… the extent of her mobility.

(a) assume                      (b) accept                     (c) assess                  (d) assert

Q8 The treatment has proved very successful but to check progress he has to arrange to visit the doctor’s ……

(a) usually                (b) always                        (c) principally                   (d) annually

Q9 It is much easier to ……. an illness than it is to cure it.

(a) prepare                     (b) prevent                    (c) postpone                     (d) prefer

Q10 Before they could start any kind of treatment, they had to write to the previous hospital in order to obtain her ……

(a) writings                 (b) prescriptions                 (c) records                    (d) recordings

There is  a simple message to everyone:'Don't forget the flowers!"

Where have the flowers gone?

Tell me.

Where  have the flowers gone?

The flowers of delight in life,

the flowers of pretty and nice things

In the TV reports, the newspapers

and in daily conversation?

They died and suffocated under an avalanche of news

about hatred, violence, murder and petty scandals.

Nobody has seen the flowers.

Nobody has heard about them.

They died and suffocated in the wallets

of sensation-seekers

and on the lips of doom-prophets.

Tell me.

Where have the flowers gone?

The flowers of little things done for each other.

The flowers of being a gift for each other.

The husband for his wife,

The wife for her husband

All people for each other.

They have died in our self-will,

suffocated in our so-ridiculous sensitivity,

in or mini household cold-wars.

Tell me.

Where have the flowers gone

of that tiny bit of happy security

we can offer each other?

You have a heart,

And there’s a human being who needs you.

Bring on the flowers!

Call to the Spring. Meet the sun.

Let yourself be captured by the wonder of light

and life.

Look at the skylark

who sings so high in the air.

Do you know why?

Because he doesn’t have to pay any rent!

Look up at he sky and sing,

because the sun is free

and it shines for you.

Hi everyone,

It was really relaxing today. Only a few things to do. There were quite a few people to see and this is what I was told by one of them:

"Remember that if you have walked through a park and have not seen the flowers there but have simply been amazed by the number of people going back and forth, you have not felt the breath of life, so live life more abundantly with closer contact with the life power in the nature".

Enjoy the following lines.

fm

A spoilt day

I will never be happy

if I have no control over my emotions,

if my day is spoilt

by a scratch on my car,

an angry word at home,

a mini-crisis at work,

an unkept appointment,

a less-than-perfect result,

a wrinkled stocking

or a crooked tie.

I will never be happy

if I am the victim of my own emotions,

a slave of my own desires,

a prisoner of overgrown expectations.

Hi there,

The following link will change for a while the way we spent together this month of August 2014.
A few grammar exercises are always necessary in leaning a language.
Enjoy doing them.


http://englishallyear.com/vocabulary14/menu.php

Some more exercises on the same line. 

Before you start this one, be sure you have finished the others before.

fm

A PUBLIC FIGURE

Q1 Imagine an …… public figure attacked by press and public, who is facing an iquiry into allegations of having obtained money by deception.

(a) empowered              (b) endangered            (c) embattled                (d) engrossed

Q2 Any arguments he put up in his defence were regarded as a ……. by people who were determined to 

see him convicted.

(a) cloud                    (b) smoke screen                    (c) confusion              (d) fog

Q3 People tended not to believe a word he said and maintained that his protestations of innocence were wearing a bit ……

(a) scarce                          (b) bare                       (c) scant                         (d) thin

Q4 There was very strong support for the police who were determined to …… this kind of crime.

(a) restrain                    (b) manage                    (c) curb                      (d) kill

Q5 The press had been …… by an unknown source to make as much publicity about him as they could.

(a) prompted                   (b) picked                      (c) promoted                   (d) proposed

Q6 His agent spend a lot of time ……. the press on his background in the hope that they would present a 

balanced view.

(a) training                        (b) briefing                                (c) showing               (d) clearing

Q7 Views as to his guilt or innocence even before the trial started …… from utter conviction that he was guilty to wild support for his innocence.

(a) started                        (b) began                         (c) ranged                          (d) swept

Q8 Gradually however as the days went by even his greatest supporters were beggioning to …… him.

(a) destroy                 (b) desert                  (c) despair                              (d) destruct

Q9 Then two days before the trial was due to start, new evidence came to ……. proving he was totally innocent.

(a) light                               (b) see                         (c) show                             (d) indicate

Q10 By then of course it was too late because the damage had already been done to his career, which ….. everything else he did for the rest of his life.

(a) overtook                 (b) overcame                         (c) overran                    (d) overshadowed

Hi everyone,

We often find ourselves into certain emotional expressions such as temper, anger, jealousy, hatred, fear, selfishness,impatience, and egoism. Such expressions simply represent mind, at certain states, expressing the lower qualities of feeling, whereas the development of generosity, patience, understanding, confidence, tolerance, tenderness, love, and compassion represent emotion lifted to a constructive level. 

I wish you all enjoy what comes following...

fm

Trifles

Why do I look so ugly when I miss the bus?

Or can’t  borrow the car and have to walk for once?

Yet I know that in Asia people have to walk every day,

between the poles of a rich man’s rickshaw

-for just a handful of rice.

Why do I grumble about a minor illness

and worry about wrinkles or spots

when I know that thousands

carry an incurable illness in their body.

And thousands are being tortured for their beliefs,

for the color of their skin or for nothing at all.

Why do I feel put on when I have to queue,

or walk in the rain or when I’m kept waiting?

Don’t I ever think of others, those with no legs,

or those who must live in bed,

the people who would be so happy, just once,

to be able to queue, or, just once,

to walk in the rain, or to be kept waiting.

And if my meal isn’t served on time

Why do I forget that millions of people

are never able to sit at a full table?

We are laughable, pathetic, stupid creatures,

who spoil our own lives, who spoil the lives of others,

because of a multitude of petty trifles,

when we ought to be so grateful

for every new day, for all the good things of life,

which we don't even deserve.

We have a fever

and our fever is really a madman’s selfishness.

Hi there,

Hope your Sunday was great. There was  a little rain today. A good warning sign by us that autumn is at the back door.

If there is not much to do this evening, why not try the following? 

Wish you enjoy doing it.

fm

A NIGHT OUT

Q1 The other night we went out to the cinema for ….. as they say in the USA.

(a) goings             (b) doings                      (c) moves                  (d) movies

Q2 Nothing unusual you might say but we haven’t visited a cinema for ……

(a) periods                    (b) ages               (c) times                     (d) lengths

Q3 The subject ……… of the film concerned the American Civil War in the 1860’s.

(a) matter                 (b) topic                  (c) theme                 (d) interest

Q4 At least that was …… to be the background although the main interest was in something else.

(a) inferred                    (b) implied               (c) suggested                 (d) supposed 

Q5 It will come as no ……. to you I’m sure if I tell you that this interestwas in love affair.

(a) damage                        (b) surprise                  (c) concern                (d) interest

Q6 The young couple in the story only meet about three times but still manage to …... deeply in love.

(a) go                     (b) drop                    (c) fall                  (d) feel

Q7 When you see the first kiss on the ….. and you are sitting in row four, it can be very dramatic.

(a) slide                     (b) picture                    (c) board                   (d) screen

Q8 Everything is so much bigger than you expect and you are constantly …… your head from side to side.

(a) tipping                    (b) testing                        (c) turning                   (d) trying

Q9 And the sound is much greater too. During the war scenes I was jumping up and down out of my seat 

like a …… in the box at every explosion.

(a) John                   (b) Jack                        (c) Jim                        (d) James

Q10 The following evening we were back again watching television but after the cinema it’s never the ….. 

again.

(a) same                      (b) identical                    (c) similar                          (d) like

 If you can’t laugh you can’t live.

Laughing is healthy.
You need to laugh.
Humour is healthy.
Do you think enough about this aspect of your health?
If all your anxieties give you wrinkles of your heart,
you will soon have wrinkles in your face.
Laughing frees you.
Humour relaxes you.
A laugh can free you from needles intensity.
A laugh is the best cosmetic for your outside
and the best medicine for your insides.
If your laugh-muscles work regularly
your digestion will improve,
your appetite will be stimulated,
and your blood pressure will stay down.
Humour gives you a sense of proportion.
Laughter and fun don’t only influence your metabolism,
but also your surroundings.
They lessen the tensions
and the tears.
Laughter and fun free you from that deadly earnestness
about leaden problems,
free you from that miserable daily drag.
Laughter and fun are the best remedies
for the drugging of your heart and mind.
Laughter and fun open out new spaces
for the still unknown joys of life.

A day when you don’t laugh, is a lost day.

Hi there,

Today is your third day on the same line of exercises. If you chance to see it now, please try to finish the others before this one.

fm

A HOLIDAY REPORT

Q1 Yesterday I …… to an archeological site because I want to be an archeologist.

(a) go                                        (b) went                               (c) visited

Q2 The problems I have ……. the language are to do with spelling.

(a) on                                        (b) to                                     (c) with

Q3 If I want to pass my exams, I ……. study very hard.

(a) can                                    (b) must                                      (c) will

Q4 The …… thing of all difficulties in a language is vocabulary.

(a) worst                                 (b) bad                                         (c) worse

Q5 I have been …… English for 5 years.

(a) study                                (b) trying                                       (c) learning

Q6 When we walked into the school, we saw that the students were working very…….

(a) hardly                              (b) hard                                            (c) easy

Q7 Most people don’t want to study Latin because it is a …….. language.

(a) death                               (b) old                                               (c) dead

Q8 I’ve forgotten the name of my teacher but I thing it’s something like………

(a) brown                                  (b) Smith                                    (c) jones

Q9 What is the name of ……… you put tea into ?

(a) think                                    (b) thing                                         (c) thinking

Q10 I ….. a lot of presents for my birthday.

(a) got                                           (b) became                         (c) become