Academic Word List in Context

Instructions:

Read the passage about Tour de France, a World famous bicycle race. In each sentence, choose the one word or phrase in parentheses (..) that has the same meaning as the underlined word in the sentence.

1. The course for the Tour de France is altered (........) every year, but it is always about 4,000 kilometers, or 2,500 miles.

• measured

• changed

• marked

The course is designed (..........) to travel through towns, up steep mountains, and across flat lands.

• located

• expected

• planned

Riders come from all over Europe as well as from overseas (......) to take part in the 22-day race.

• islands

• other continents

• oceans

The race is divided into 20 stages, or parts. The riders who wins one stage has the honor of wearing a yellow Tour shirt in the subsequent (.....) stage.

• final

• longest

• next

The rider who has the fastest race time in all of the stages is the overall winner. Lance Armstrong is the only individual (....) to win seven Tour de France competitions.

• person

• man

• foreigner

The framework (....) of modern racing bicycles is made of lightweight steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber tubes.

• mechanism

• structure

• wheel

The recent use of lightweight frameworks brought about revolutionary (....) changes in the 100-year-old race.

• unwanted

• great

• unfair

Teams pay an entrance fee (....) to join the Tour de France. The fees create the prize money paid to the winning teams.

• payment

• tax

• salary

Riders must be good athletes to meet the physical demands that are an inherent(....) part of a long race.

• unexpected

• natural

• dangerous

If a rider is injured (....), he tries to minimize the pain so he can stay in the race.

• sick

• bleeding

• hurt