Answer Key
C-Test #1
Thomas Midgley was an American chemist who helped to develop
leaded petrol. General Motors commercialized his discovery, but there
were several deaths from lead poisoning at the factory where the
additive was produced. In 1924, Midgley took part in a press conference
to demonstrate the safety of his product and he inhaled its vapour for
a minute. It took him a year to recover from the harmful effects!
C-Test #2
I ran a triathlon and managed to get o ver 50 people to sponsor me. I
had to train for months and it was really hard work but well worth it. I
actually enjoyed the training more than the final event because on the
day the weather was terrible. I would often get up at 5 o’clock in the
morning so I could train before going to work.
C-Test #3
Your signature is the part of your handwriting that says the most about
your personality. It is quite common for your signature to change during
your life because it reflects how you develop and evolve as a person.
You may have more than one signature, for example a more formal
signature when you sign a credit card or your passport, and an
informal signature when you sign a birthday card.
C-Test #4
There was a time when tobacco companies actually tried to make us
believe that doctors approved of smoking, o r that certain brands were
better for your throat than others. Tobacco companies continued to use
doctors to convince the public to smoke until the 1950s when evidence
showing the link between smoking and l ung cancer became too strong
to ignore.
C-Test #5
Tokyo, with a population of 33 million people, is by far the largest city
in world. It's also the most technologically advanced, and the city runs
like digital clockwork. The automated subway, for example, is so
efficient that it is able to transport almost eight million commuters every
day and on the rare occasions that it goes wrong, nobody believes it.
C-Test #6
The weather was awful and it rained all weekend. We were soaking
wet and I began to wish that I had stayed at home or found a hotel! The
organisers were making a fortune selling umbrellas and plastic
raincoats. Anyway, the concert continued despite the weather. The
organisers advised us to keep to the special walk-ways that they had
set up over the mud and gave us plastic sheets to put over our tents.
C-Test #7
Companies study and make use of our colour associations and
preferences in order to sell us their products. The packaging, for
example, relies heavily on colour, both to carry information and to
make the product appear more attractive. Sugar is sold in packets
coloured in blue because, unlike colours such as green and brown,
these colours are associated with sweetness.
C-Test #8
Pablo Picasso was born in Spain on 25 October, 1881. He showed
himself to be a talented artist as a child and when he was 19 he went
to Paris to paint. He experimented with a variety of styles, for a time
painting sad subjects in shades of blue. During a happier time, he used
reds and pinks to paint more cheerful subjects such as dancers and
performers in circuses.
C-Test #9
Week after week, British tabloid newspapers carry pictures which
intrude into people’s privacy and break the newspaper editors’ code of
practice. Although pop stars do pose for paparazzi on occasion, this is
not typical. More usually, great damage is done to individuals in the
public eye when they see their most private moments captured on the
front page.
C-Test #10
Matt likes to spend his holiday seeing lots of different places. ‘I’m a
restless person so when I go away on holiday I don’t like to be tied
down to one place; camping means you can stay for two nights in one
place then pack up the tent, jump in the car and stay somewhere else
for the next night or two and so on with no need to book ahead. It’s a
great way to see lots of different places in a short period of time.’
