Test 5

Name: ___________________

1 Put the words in brackets into the correct adjective form. (8 points)
Rio Negro Adventure Tour
I’m not really a risk-taker and I don’t like doing dangerous things, so when my brother suggested
going on an adventure tour while on holiday in Costa Rica, I wasn’t very 1____________ (excite).

We started the day on horseback, going from the hotel stables through the tropical dry forest. I’m
very 2____________ (frighten) of horses and I actually couldn’t get on mine, so it was quite
____________ (embarrass). I didn’t enjoy being on the horse and the ride was too long, but we saw
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some streams and waterfalls along the way and the surroundings were just 4____________ (amaze).
We were 5____________ (surprise) by all the wildlife, too. We saw a variety of birds, reptiles and
mammals. After the 45-minute ride, we got to Victoria Waterfall at the foot of Rio Negro, where our
white water rafting adventure started. It was very 6____________ (frighten) in the beginning, but it
turned out to be good fun. We ended our rafting adventure with a swim in natural volcanic hot
springs and that was 7____________ (amaze).

It turned out to be a very 8____________ (excite) day and the whole family had lots of fun. Would I
do it again? Probably not – I still don’t like taking risks.

___ / 8
2 Complete sentences b and c so that they have a similar meaning to sentence a. Use the correct noun or
verb form of the underlined words in sentences a. (8 points)
1 a The frontal cortex is the last part of the brain to fully develop.
b The frontal cortex ____________ last.
c The ____________ of the frontal cortex happens last.
2 a Adults find it easier than teens to see the consequences of their decisions.
b Adults find it easier than teens to see the consequences of the ____________ they make.
c Adults find it easier than teens to see the consequences of the things they ____________ .
3 a I don’t need any encouragement to go on a rollercoaster ride.
b Nobody needs to ____________ me to go on a rollercoaster rise.
c Nobody needs to give me ____________ to go on a rollercoaster ride.
4 a Sometimes teenagers take risks to make an impression on their friends.
b Sometimes teenagers take risks to ____________ their friends.
c It’s because they want to ____________ their friends that teenagers sometimes take risks.

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3 Complete the text with the strong forms of the adjectives in brackets. (8 points)
At 8.30 a.m. I was already outside my son’s school, sitting in my 1____________ (small) car. I spent
all day, every day there for three years. I sometimes asked myself if this was 2____________ (silly)

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 and if I should be there, especially on days when I was 3____________ (cold) or 4____________
(hot) in the car. But I knew I had to do it as this was the only way my son stayed in school.

Ben developed a phobia called ‘school refusal’, which meant that he was frightened of being in class.
He suffered from 5____________ (bad) symptoms, including: panic attacks, migraines and breathing
problems. The only thing that helped him was knowing that I was outside. Some parents found it
____________ (funny) and said that I was making a 7____________ (big) mistake because I was
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letting my son manipulate me. I first got 8____________ (angry), but then I realized that they just
didn’t understand that this was a real phobia.

With the help of a doctor, Ben started making progress. He first stayed at school for a lesson, then for
half a day and at the end of his third year, he managed a whole day. I no longer had to sit in my car
outside the school.

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4 Circle the correct answers. (6 points)
1 Jason has been to India.
a Jason is still in India.
b Jason is back from India.
2 I’ve already read the book about explorers.
a I know the book.
b I’m still reading the book.
3 Megan and her dad haven’t finished planning their trip across the Atlantic yet.
a They are planning the trip.
b They have already planned the trip.
4 Susan and her family have gone on a journey across the Canning Stock Route.
a They are back from their journey.
b They are still on their journey.
5 We’ve had terrible weather since Monday.
a The weather is still terrible today.
b The weather is good today.
6 Peter has worked as a scientist for three years.
a Peter still works as a scientist.
b Peter doesn’t work as a scientist.

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5 Complete the text with the present perfect or simple past forms of the verbs in brackets. (10 points)
Parker Liautaud calls himself an ‘explorer / campaigner / teenager’. He’s mainly known for his polar
expeditions, but he’s also a climate change campaigner, motivational speaker and published
journalist. Parker’s first Antarctic expedition 1________________________ (take place) in 2009,
when he 2________________________ (be) only fourteen. He first 3________________________

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 (try) to trek to the North Pole at the age of fifteen, but 4________________________ (stop) fifteen
miles from the Pole because of dangerous weather conditions. But since that expedition, he
________________________
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(complete) the trek twice and in April 2010
________________________ (become) the first person to check in at the North Pole via Foursquare.
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All of Parker’s expeditions help raise awareness of climate change, especially among teenagers. He
________________________ (give) numerous talks on the issue, and in August 2012
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________________________ (speak) at the prestigious TEDx conference in Belgium. He

________________________ (write) articles for The Huffington Post, The Independent and The
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New York Times.

There is more ahead for this inspiring teenager and the world 10________________________ (not /
heard) the last of Parker Liautaud yet.

___/ 10

6 Read the text below. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)? (10 points)
Hot air ballooning
Most of us have watched a hot air balloon as it has flown quietly across the summer sky. But did you
know that people have travelled in hot air balloons for over two hundred years?
In November 1783, after spending months designing and building their balloon, two French brothers
called Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier wanted to find out if people could fly in it. Two men climbed
into their invention and went up into the sky above Paris. The crowd below was excited, but very
frightened. Only two months before, the first hot air balloon in history had flown into the sky, but its
passengers were a duck, a chicken and a sheep! However, the men flew for twenty-five minutes and
then landed the balloon safely on the ground. Everyone cheered. It was the start of hot air ballooning!
The successful flight of the Montgolfier brothers’ balloon was big news, and a lot of other scientists
and engineers wanted to design bigger and better balloons. Only two years after the famous first
flight, people were able to fly long distances in a hot air balloon. A French balloonist called
Blanchard, and his American co-pilot Jeffries, managed to fly across the English Channel between
France and England. It took two and a half hours. People thought that a new age of international
travel was about to start. However, in the end, hot air balloons as a form of transport never became
popular. It was just too expensive and dangerous, and most people preferred to keep their feet on the
ground.
In the nineteenth century, scientists invented trains and steamboats, and, then later, cars and planes,
and no one was really interested in developing hot air balloons any more. But then, in the 1930s, with
more modern materials, and with the introduction of a different type of gas called helium, a new
generation of hot air balloonists discovered the enjoyment of ballooning. They flew higher and
higher, reaching heights of over twenty-five kilometers above sea level, and found out that human
beings could survive so high in the sky.

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In the last forty years, balloonists have become excited about breaking long distance records again,
and have managed to achieve what the Montgolfier brothers could only dream of. In the late 1970s,
three American pilots crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a hot air balloon for the first time. In 1981, four
pilots crossed the Pacific Ocean, flying from Japan to California in just 84 hours. Since then, other
adventurers have broken even more records. Travelling at speeds of almost 400 km per hour, Richard
Branson and Per Lindstrand went across the Pacific in 46 hours, and in 1999, Bertrand Piccard and
Brian Jones went all the way around the in just under twenty days in a balloon.

1 The Montgolfier brothers made the hot air balloon which carried people. ___
2 No one watched the first hot air balloon flight that carried people. ___
3 In 1783, a hot air balloon flew with two birds and a sheep in it. ___
4 It was 20 years before people could fly for more than 25 minutes. ___
5 Blanchard flew across the English Channel alone. ___
6 After 1785, hot air balloons quickly became a popular form of transport. ___
7 One reason why balloon travel didn’t become more popular was that it cost a lot of money. ___
8 In the 1930s, balloonists didn’t use the same gas as balloonists used in the 1780s. ___
9 Balloonists first crossed the Pacific Ocean in the 1970s. ___
10 It took two men less than three weeks to go all the way round the world in a hot air balloon. ___

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TOTAL: ___ / 50 points