Life Advanced: Review and Memory Booster - Unit 1

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

Some years ago I __________ Timbuktu in Mali.

• visited

• have visited

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

Generally, people __________ of Timbuktu as a desert town somewhere at the end of the world.

• are thinking

• think

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

But once upon a time, Timbuktu __________ a thriving city and key trading post, a place in Africa with a long and rich history.

• was

• has been

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

In the marketplace you get a sense of this: women in brightly coloured clothes selling produce of all kinds. But my attention was drawn to a very old man who __________ in a corner.

• had sat

• was sitting

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

For a while, people __________ around him, so I joined them. He was a griot, or a traditional story teller.

• had gathered

• had been gathering

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

Griots __________ about kings and magicians, wars and journeys for generations.

• have been singing

• sang

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

This is how Malians __________ about their history.

• learned

• have learned

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

He poured me a glass of tea and then I __________ to him tell a story of King Mansa and the golden age of Timbuktu, a story he __________ countless times before.

• listened / told

• listened / had told

• was listening / told

• was listening / had told

Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:

At the end, the griot quoted old Mali saying: 'To succeed, you need three things - a brazier, time and friends.' The brazier is to heat water for tea. Time and friends are what you need to share stories. It's advice that __________ with me in future years.

• will stay

• will be staying

Choose the most suitable expression to complete the sentence:

It's such a ____________________ painting. It seems so real!

• lifelong

• a fact of life

• lifelike