Read the passage mark letter A, B, C or D to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 11 to 15.

 

Most people think of computers as very modern inventions, products of our new technological age. But actually the idea for a computer had been worked out over two centuries ago by a man (11) ______

Charles Babbage. Babbage was born in 1791 and grew up to be a brilliant mathematician. He drew up plans for several calculating machines which he called “engines”. But despite the fact that he (12) ______ building some of these, he never finished any of them. Over the years, people have argued (13) _____ his machines would ever work. Recently, however, the Science Museum in London has finished building (14) _______ engine based on one of Babbage’s designs. (15) ______ has taken six years to complete and move than four thousand parts have been specially made.

Whether it works or not, the machine will be on show at a special exhibition in the Science Museum to remind people of Babbage’s work

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 1 to 5.

Hospitality

Hospitality - looking after visitors - is universal but in different cultures hostsare (1)______to receive guests in different ways.

In much of the ancient world it was the custom to provide passing travellers with food and water. Today some old customs have (2)_______. In a traditional Japanese household, if a guest admires a particular object in the house, the host will want to give it to the guest straight away. And in parts of Russia guests are greeted with bread and salt on a special cloth.The guest is (3)______to kiss them and hand them back to the host. Sometimes the guest breaks off a small piece of bread, dips it in the salt and eats it.

In some countries, when foreign guests arrive from abroad, they may feel they have been given a particularly (4)______meal. But this is probably because the host politely offers more and more food and

drink and the guest is too embarrassed to (5)_______anything down.

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct word or phrase that best fits each of the numbered blanks from 36 to 40.

TATTOOING: AN ANCIENT TRADITION

Tattooing is an old art. In ancient Greece, people who had tattoos were regarded as members of the upper classes. On the other hand, tattooing was (36) __________ in Europe by the early Christians, who thought that it was a sinful thing to do. It was not until the late 18th century, when Captain Cook saw South Sea

Islander decorating their bodies with tattoos that attitudes began to change. Sailors came back from these islands with pictures of Christ on their backs and from then on, tattooing (37)__________ in popularity. A survey by the French army in 1881 showed that among the 387 men (38) __________there were 1,333 designs.

the guest is too embarrassed to (5)_______anything down.