Practice

1. PHOTOCOPIABLE © Cambridge University Press 2015
Vocabulary practice Unit 4
PV
Stories
1 Complete the sentences with the words from the box.
comic biography novel fairy tale history
poem satire self-help
1 My mother always used to read us a before we
went to bed.
2 Dad used to take us to the corner shop to buy a
on Saturdays.
3 Have you read the Unbroken about the life of a
US pilot in the Second World War?
4 Our teacher has told us to write a about our
childhood for homework.
5 These books are useless! They all give the
same, unhelpful advice.
6 My favourite author has just written a new .
7 My sister loves books; she’s fascinated with the
past.
8 I find the TV shows that use to mock
politicians and celebrities are quite funny.
2 Write words that have a similar meaning to the underlined
words.
1 The Hunger Games is an excellent series of books which are
not true.
2 I thought the lead role in this book was a very interesting
person.
3 Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a very popular fiction author.
4 My grandmother often tells me stories that have existed for
centuries.
5 Andrew Marr’s The Making of Modern Britain is a brilliant
factual work.
6 The story in this latest thriller is very complicated.
7 My favourite films are those that have a good conclusion.
8 My mother likes watching period series like Downton Abbey.
3 Choose the best answers to complete the sentences.
1 The story took me back / up to my childhood and a book
I had read then.
2 The show was interactive, so the audience could shout out /
over their ideas.
3 Technology has moved on / up a great deal over the last
decade.
4 We were asked to feed back / in our concerns at the end of
the day.
Time adverbs and expressions
4 Put the words in the correct order to make sentences.
1 E-books / paper / gradually / replacing / are / books / .
2 bookshops / small / have / recently / gone / A lot of / out of
business / .
3 Have / read / lately / you / good / books / any / ?
4 go / My / occasionally / parents / out / to / the / theatre / .
5 I / reading / an / novel / excellent / am / currently / .
6 hero / managed / The / rescue / to / eventually / his /
sweetheart / the / evil / witch / from / .
7 reading / book / realised / I / suddenly / I / my / late / for /
was / when / was / I / .
5 Choose the best answers to complete the text.
My reading habits change depending on the time of year
and how busy I am. 1 Throughout the summer / Every now
and then I read very little because I enjoy being outside in
the sunshine. However, for 2 the following weekend /
a fortnight every July we go on holiday to the beach and I
read a lot of books then. I usually go to a bookshop
3 beforehand / afterwards and buy five or six books that
look interesting. I usually read thrillers or romance novels
but I 4 every now and then / hardly ever read history books
as I find them too serious. I don’t usually read during the
week as I don’t have time. However, if a book is very good
I can’t wait until 5 the previous day / the following weekend
to find out what happens. So, 6 at noon / at that precise
instant when I have my lunch break, I find a quiet spot and
read until it’s time to go back to the office.
Idioms
6 Complete the sentences with correct form of the idioms
from the box.
bitter pill to swallow get blood on their hands
present something on a plate right out of the blue
1 The girl’s death made the man feel guilty as he had got her
.
2 Although it was a , the wife
realised her husband was responsible.
3 The wizard appeared and
surprised everyone.
4 The private detective the
evidence to them .