Tom offered .......  Jane a ticket to the theater, but she refused to take it.

Please give me _________ pen that is on the counter. 

History is full of inventions that looked good at the time, but which nobody wanted to buy. New ideas may fail for one of several reasons. Firstly, there are those which do not (i) _____ work very well when put to the lest. Then, there are the ideas which are good in themselves, but which do not fulfill a real (ii) _____. In other words people can do without them, so do not buy them. A third group are those which prove to be too expensive to manufacture. But none of these reasons explains why, in the 1990s, no new technology was (iii) _____ in replacing (iv) _____ for the home. During this time, a number of alternative technologies were invented that could have replaced the CD, but none of them (v) _____ on. The new ideas worked, were not costly to make and would have provided consumers with higher quality recordings. Despite all this, few people bought them. And this can only be explained by the fact that people who had invested in CD players and discs of their favorite music did not think the improvement in quality on offer was great enough to make it worth the effort and expense ofchanging.

(i)_______

Years ago there were many social rules and etiquette procedures involving introductions. Some formal introductions between two people were (i) _______ by letter by third party. A person had to be very careful to weigh the importance of social class or status, age, and gender when deciding (ii) _______  person should be presented or introduced to the other person first. However, times have changed, and most of the social rules about introducing older people to younger ones, women to men, and those in higher positions to those in lower positions have changed, too. Many people now feel much more (iii) _______ about making introductions. In most situations, handshaking is (iv) _______ , but these days it is more often done than not-especially in formal social or business settings. It’s very common for one person (or both) to extend a hand when meeting someone. If you are in this situation, and you are offered a hand to shake, you should grasp it firmly and shake it briefly. People often tend to make some (v) _______ about someone according to their handshakes, so make sure yours is not too weak or limp, not too hard, and not too long-lasting. It should be firm and brief.

(i)_______

Parrots and macaws have become so rare that special varieties of these birds are fetching up to £9,000 each on the black market in Britain. Macaws from Brazil cost from £1,000 and parrots from Australia can cost £7,500 a pair. The demand for parrots, cockatoos and macaws has led to a (i) _______ increase in thefts from zoos, wildlife parks and pet shops. London and Whipsnade zoos are among the many places from which parrots have been stolen. Some thefts have not been (ii) _______  in an effort to prevent further incidents. Parrot rustling, as it is known among bird fanciers, has increased rapidly in Britain since 1976 when imports and exports of exotic birds became (iii) _______ controlled. Quarantine controls, coupled with the scareity of many types of paiTOts in the wild in Africa, Australia, Indonesia, and South America, have caused a shortage of birds which can be sold legally under (iv) _______. This has sent prices to (v) _______ levels. Working al night and equipped with wire-cutters, nets and substances to dope the birds, the rustlers are prepared to take serious risks to capture the parrots they want. At Birdworld, a specialist zoo, thieves stole two parrots after picking their way through an enclosure containing cassowaries. The cassowary is a large flightless bird, related to the emu, which can be extremely agressive, and has been known to kill humans with blows from its powerful legs.

(iv)_______

The Penny Black is the name of the world’s postage stamp. It was introduced by the U.K. in 1840 and is perhaps the most famous stamp ever issued. It has a (i) _____  of the young Queen Victoria and because of its colour, and its price of one penny, it is known as the “Penny Black”. Before 1840, postage rates for delivery of letters in the U.K. depended on the (ii) _____  the letter had to travel and the number of sheets of paper used. Furthermore, at that time it was not possible to pay for your letter before you sent it. The postage had to be paid by the receiver (iii) _____ than the sender of the letter. The Penny Black changed everything: al the rate of one penny, letters that did not weigh more than half an ounce could be sent to any destination in the U.K.Nowadays, Penny Black stamps are not all that rare although they are (iv) _____ regarded by stamp collectors. About 68 million of these stamps were issued between 1840 and 1841, and it is thought that about 1.5 million of these survive today. The price of the stamp today varies according to whether it has been used or not and its condition. A line used copy can be bought for around 77 pound or less, while unused examples are quite rare and sold for 2,000 pound or more. To honour the U.K. for having issued the world’s first postage stamp, the Universal Postal Union has made an exception regarding its rule that the name of the country must (v) _____ on a stamp. No British stamp to date has ever had the country name on it.

(v)______

Jennifer tasted _____ birthday cake her mother had made. 

Long ago, Chinese people didn’t say “How are you” when they met each other or saw their friends. They said, “(i) _____ you eaten your rice today?”. Eating rice (ii) _____ such an important part of daily life in China! Rice is still one of the (iii) _____ important kinds of food in the modem world. Nearly half the people that live on our planet eat it every day and in some countries, an adult eats more than 100 kilos of rice each year. We think that people first (iv) rice in India. In China, people began eating rice about 5,000 years ago. Rice wasn’t eaten in North America until 17th century, but many Americans prefer to cat pasta these days (v) _____ only cat about 2 kilos of rice per year.

(ii)___

Today the police are able to make use of all kinds of scientific and technological achievements in their fight against crime. This was not always the (i) _______ , however. In the early days of the British police force, during the nineteenth century, the police office’s whistle was his main way of calling for help if he got into (ii) _______ . Gradually, in the twentieth century, things (iii) _______ _ to improve.

Those police officers who were lucky enough to be given a patrol car rather than a bicycle could also took (iv) _______ of radio communications. In 1903, a new system for identifying people by their fingerprints was discovered. (v) _______ it soon proved to be one of the most significant developments in crime investigation, a seareh of the national fingerprint collection could take days, if not weeks, until computers were introduced in the 1970s.

(v)_________

Today the police are able to make use of all kinds of scientific and technological achievements in their fight against crime. This was not always the (i) _______ , however. In the early days of the British police force, during the nineteenth century, the police office’s whistle was his main way of calling for help if he got into (ii) _______ . Gradually, in the twentieth century, things (iii) _______ _ to improve.

Those police officers who were lucky enough to be given a patrol car rather than a bicycle could also took (iv) _______ of radio communications. In 1903, a new system for identifying people by their fingerprints was discovered. (v) _______ it soon proved to be one of the most significant developments in crime investigation, a seareh of the national fingerprint collection could take days, if not weeks, until computers were introduced in the 1970s.

(iii)_________

From next year, every student in their final year at our school will study for a compulsory Diploma of Practical Achievement.

This will be in addition to the (i) _____ examinations. Up to now, the course has been optional, but from now on every student must (ii) _____ it. The aim is to (iii) _____ students with “life skills”, which the Diploma divides into eight categories. These cover a range of things relevant to life beyond school, from sending an e-mail to giving presentations to an audience. Under the heading “survival”, (iv) _____, students can learn car maintenance, first aid and cooking. We have discovered that many students cannot do simple things such as mend a puncture or boil an egg. At the other extreme, the Diploma includes such things as how to design a webpage and how to (v) _____ if someone has a heart attack. It has been called a “Diploma in Common Sense”.

(iv)______

A worrying question which requires global attention is severe over-population and its drastic effects in the countries of the Third World. In regions where the birth (i) _____ is extremely high, poverty and starvation are rife. In India, there is (ii) _____ of thirty five infants being bom every minute, yet the most shocking figures are those which indicate the enormous number of the victims of famine in certain African territories. Communities afflicted with acute destitution are additionally confronted with illiteracy, life in appalling conditions and infectious diseases decimating the (iii) _____ populations.

There is an urgent need for these problems to be solved or else they might continue bring about innumerable worries upon the affluent societies ties around the world. Unless measures are taken to (iv) _____ the  uffering of the impoverished undeveloped nations, desperate crowds of immigrants will persist in flooding the richer states in seareh of a brighter future. It’s the most (v) _____ task for the international giants nowadays to help the poor populations get out of the poverty trap.

(i)_____

Researehers in the field of psychology have found that one of the best ways to make an important decision, such as choosing a university to attend or a business to invest in, involves the utilization of a decision worksheet. Psychologists (i) _______ optimization compare the actual decisions made by people to theoretical ideal decisions to see how similar they are. Proponents of the worksheet procedure believe that it will yield optimal, that is, the best decisions. (ii) _______ there are several variations on the exact format that worksheets can lake, they are all similar in their essential aspects. Worksheets require defining the problem (iii) _______ a clear and concise way and then listing all possible solutions to the problem. Next, the pertinent considerations that will be affected by each decision are listed, and the relative importance of each consideration or consequence (iv) _______ . Each consideration is assigned a numerical value to reflect its relative importance. A decision is mathematically calculated by adding these values together. The alternative with the highest number of points emerges as the best decision. Since most important problems are multifaceted, there are several alternatives to choose from, each with unique advantages and disadvantages. One of the benefits of a pencil and paper (v) _______ procedure is that it permits people to deal with more variables than their minds can generally comprehend and remember.

(v)_______

I promise to look ............ the matter.

In Britain these days, it seems even very young children hope to wear a Calvin Klein watch or Nike trainers. Fashion experts claim that brand names have become so important that their followers (i) _____  to be able to buy the company’s products no matter what. In an (ii) _____  to get people to buy, these companies’ symbols are used so extensively that they have become more important than the products themselves. In a recent survey of British teenagers, only one out of 60 would admit that they did not own any designer clothes of the (iii) _____ fashion. The survey also revealed that a staggering 60 percent are willing to spend the same (iv)    of money on one designer item as on two non – designer items which might do harm to their image. Some people argue that on the whole, designer labels offer a guarantee of quality, but 35 per cent said they would rather buy counterfeit designer wear than a non – label item of clothing. The survey suggests that we have less real choice in what we buy than we might think. The media make the decisions about what is in fashion, and so a whole generation is trying to (v) _____ smart by wearing identically labeled trainers, jeans, shirts and sweatshirts.

(ii)______

_______ dancing is _______ more interesting activity than _________ reading. 

Choose a, b, c or d that best completes each unfinished sentence:

The ____ of the town itself comes as something of a surprise.

Some years ago, when I was working as an astronomer at the Greenwich Observatory in London I received a letter from an elderly lady living nearby who said: “When I was a girl we could sec so I many stars, but they’re not there anymore. Have they faded?” Walking down the hill on which the observatory stands, I (i) _____ the truth of what she said. Beneath me were all the lights of London and above me was the orange glow they send up into the night sky. But I could (ii)  _____ see any stars. If light pollution – as this effect is known – continues to increase at its present rate, our grandchildren will only get the chance to see the stars if they visit an observatory like the one in Greenwich. Light pollution is almost (iii) _____ for granted in most cities, and it is fast spreading into rural areas too. (iv) _____ recent research, almost half of all Europeans and two-thirds of North Americans can no longer see the milky Way. And this type of pollution doesn’t only destroy our view of the night sky. It also wastes money and causes environmental pollution. For example, a single light bulb, (v) _____ all year, releases around a quarter of a tone of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making global warming even worse.

(v)_______

Stories about how people somehow know when they are being watched have been going around for years. However, lew (i) _______ have been made to investigate the phenomenon scientifically. Now, with the completion of the largest ever study of the so-called staring effect, there is impressive evidence that this is a recognizable and genuine sixth sense. The study involved hundreds of children. For the experiments, they sat with their eyes covered and with their backs to other children, who were told to either stare at them or look away. The results consistently showed that the children who could not see were able to (ii) _______ when they were being stared at. In a total of 18,000 trials (iii) _______ worldwide, the children correctly sensed when they were being watched almost 70% of the time. The experiment was repeated with the added precaution of putting the children who were being watched outside the room, separated from the starers by the windows. This was done just in case there was some (iv) _______ going on, with the children telling each other whether they were looking or not. This prevented the possibility of sounds being transmitted between the children. The results, though less impressive, were more or less the same. Dr. Sheldrake, the biologist who designed the study, believes that the results are (v) _______ enough to find out through further experiments precisely how the staring effect might actually come about.

(iv)_______

Smart shoes that adjust their size throughout the day could soon be available. A prototype of such a shoe has already been produced and a commercial (i) _____ may be in production within a few years. The shoe contains sensors that constantly check the amount of (ii) _____ left in it. If the fool has become too large, a tiny valve opens and the shoe expands slightly. The entire control system is about 5mm square and is located inside the shoe. This radical shoe (iii) _____ a need because the volume of the average foot can change by as much as 8% during the course of the day. The system is able to learn about the wearer’s feet and build up a picture of the size of his or her feet throughout the day. It will allow the shoes to change in size by up to 8% so that they always fit (iv) _____. They are obviously more comfortable and less likely to cause blisters. From an athlete’s point of view, they can help improve performance a little, and that is why the first use for the system will find a place in other household items, from beds that automatically change to fit the person sleeping in them, to power tools that (v) _____themselves to the user’s hand for better grip. There is no reason why the system couldn’t be adapted for use in hundreds of consumer possessions.

(i)_____

We can finish the rest of the bread for _________ breakfast.