Complete each of the following sentences with a suitable preposition or particle.

Complete the following sentences with the words given in the brackets. You have to change the form of the word.

A Great Staycation

Holidays at home are usually a last (1) ______ (COURSE) when all other options have been ruled out for one reason or another, but, in these tough times when money is perhaps tighter than ever before, the grim (2) ______ (REAL) that the stay-at-home vacation may be the only realistic (3) ______ (ALTER) is one that more and more of us are faced with.

However, this does not have to mean a (4) ______ (MISERY) time in the same old (5) ______ (ROUND) you are in for the other 355-odd days of the year. For those willing to think outside the box a little, there are, in fact, a (6) ______ (MULTIPLE) of possibilities that should be explored.

Ever thought about a house swap, for example? The house swap is ultimate holiday (7) ______ (RECEDE) buster. And there are now websites on which (8) ______ (MIND) individuals, couples and families looking to get a flavour of the life lived in some else’s home can hook up and start house swapping.

Okay, so it’s not the two weeks in Gran Canaria you might have hoped for, but staying in someone else’s (9) ______ (RESIDE) for a few days at least, whether it be ten, fifty or one hundred miles away, sure beats (10) ______ (SLOUCH) around at home on your sofa.

For questions 1–10, read the following passage and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap.

Gerard Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet

When Gerard Mercator was born in 1512, the geography of the globe still (0) remained a mystery. It was unclear whether America was part of Asia, if there was a vast (1) ______ of sea at the top of the world or if Australia was connected to Antarctica.

Mercator’s childhood was spent chiefly in Rupelmonde, a Flemish trading town on the river, and it was here that his geographical imagination was (2) ______ by the ships which passed to and from the rest of the world. Alongside imagination, he developed two very different skills. The first was the ability to gather, (3) ______ and co-ordinate the geographical information provided by explorers and sailors who frequented the margins of the known. He also had to be able to imagine himself (4) ______ from the heavens, to achieve the visionary (5) ______ of gods in the skies, (6) ______ down on the world. The main reason why Mercator’s name is familiar to us is because of the Mercator Projection: the solution he (7) ______ to represent the spheroidal surface of the globe on a two-dimensional plane. It is less well known that Mercator was the first man to conceive of mapping the (8) ______ surface of the planet or that he (9) ______ the idea of multiple maps being presented in bound books, to which he gave the name ‘Atlas’.

It is difficult for us now to be surprised by maps, so many are there, and of such detail and coverage, but we should bear in mind that Mercator lived at a time when such knowledge was far from (10) ______. He was the man who altered our worldview for ever.

For questions 1–10, read the following passage and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D) best fits each gap.

RENOIR THE FILM DIRECTOR

Film directors usually make the least promising subjects for biography. They tend to stay behind the camera and get on with making films, emerging only to make the (1) ______ promotional statement. Only rarely is a filmmaker interesting enough to (2) ______ biographical interest, and some pay off the attention handsomely. What biographer could (3) ______ analyzing Hitchcock, Woody Allen or Polanski? These directors, in any case, were themselves sufficiently absorbed in their own (4) ______ to cross over the other side of the camera and (5) ______ themselves to the public.

Much of Jean Renoir's public profile is (6) ______ on his appearance in his final film. But judging by the most recent biography, by Ronald Bergar, the man was simply not that interesting. He grew up in the benevolent (7) ______ of his painter father, against whom he appears not to have (8) ______ in any way, emerged to make his own (9) ______ in the early French cinema, and went on making films for most of the rest of his life. Even when (10) ______ by war, Renoir seems to have (11) ______ through his career with equanimity, fueled by the love of all around him.

It may be that there is nothing new to say about the director's life, since he dealt with it so thoroughly in two (12) ______. Bergan takes a lot from Renoir’s accounts, although he does point out the occasional discrepancy between memory and (13) ______. The biography is too (14) ______ to strike any life into the subject. Bergan's assessments of the films are level-headed and pay (15) ______ attention to their formal achievement, but cast no new light on them.

For questions 1-10, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Karaoke fever

Karaoke is fast (0) becoming the nation’s Number One party pastime. Public humiliation has (1) ______ been so fashionable. It’s 1 a.m. at an exclusive location in the heart of London. A major pop singer has taken the stage but rather than sing her latest hit, she treats the crowd (2) ______ a Michael Jackson song. What was (3) ______ the party habit of teenagers is now favoured by London’s coolest crowd and everyone is having a (4) ______. So why are so many of our young celebrities queueing up to make fools of (5) ______ in clubs and bars across the country? Maybe it’s because (6) ______ out a naff pop song to a public audience shows that even though you may be a celebrity, you don’t (7) ______ yourself too seriously. And if you are a big movie star, that’s a good message to get across. Nobody gets away without being laughed (8) ______ on a karaoke evening, no matter how famous they are. (9) ______ all, that’s the whole point of the exercise. But for the musical experts among you, a word of warning: this isn’t about proving to the world that you know all the lyrics to a serious song. It’s about expressing your inner performer. Don’t bother (10) ______ up at a karaoke night if you aren’t prepared to sing; you’ve got to put in the effort and prove that you are one of the ‘in-crowd’. Break a leg!

Use the word given in brackets and make any necessary additions to write a new sentence in such a way that it is as similar as possible in meaning to the original sentence. Do NOT change the form of the given word. You must use between THREE and EIGHT words, including the word given. There is an example at the beginning (0).

0. Louise should have been given more time to complete her thesis. (INSUFFICIENT)

--> Louise was given insufficient time to complete her thesis.