Test your vocabulary for fce 8

)........... shave the other day. A car almost hit US as we were crossing the road. 
17. Her husband never lifts a finger in the house - he’s ............ idle. 
18. It’s a(n)............ secret that the new boss is gay. 
19. He was so desperate to get home at the weekend to see his girlfriend that he decided to take ......... leave. 
20. I’m not surprised he married Maria. He’s always had a(n)...........spot for Italians. 
 KEY 
1. chain 8. Dutch 15. flat 
2. hush 9. inside 16. close 
3. pitch 10. d irt 17. bone 
4. splitting 11. stone 18. open 
5. dead 12. sore 19. French 
6. marked 13. confirmed 20. soft 
7. casting 14. Foregone 
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PHRASAL VERBS 
Complete each of the following sentences with a suitable phrasal verb. 
1. He won’t be able to ................... that speed. (maintain) 
2. Mr Watkins is .................... with some sort of virus infection. (confined to his bed) 
3. Ms Wilson is ..................... Mr Thompson while he’s on holiday. (taking the place of/substituting for) 
4. I don’t see why you .................... foreigners. (despise) 
5. I’m sorry to ..................... but you’re wanted on the phone. (interrupt) 
6. We must....................... a date for the firm’s Christmas party soon. (arrange/decide upon) 
7. Can you................. me.............. for the night? (give me a place to sleep) 
8. It will cost at least £1,000 to ................... the flat. (decorate) 
9. Her husband treats her really badly. I don’t know how she ..................it. (tolerates) 
10. Let’s ................. these silly rules. (abolish) 
11. It is very expensive to ......................... a large house nowadays. (maintain/look after) 
12. I will never trust her again. She h as ................. me............. so many times. (failed me/disappointed me) 
13. All our plans.....................................because of my sudden illness, (came to nothing) 
14. The number of spectators has .................................... considerably in the past year. (decreased) 
15. I wish I knew what.................................... his attacks. (caused) 
16. “I hope I haven’t ................. you......... ?” ~ “No, not at all. I never go to bed before midnight.” 
(prevented you from going to bed) 
17. If it ..................... soon, we’ll be able to have our picnic as planned. (becomes fine) 
18. It was the first time they had .................................... since they got married. (quarrelled) 
19. Since four of the committee were ill, they decided to ..............the meeting until the following week. 
(postpone) 
20. To some extent the high standard of living in Sweden..............the boring social life. (compensates for) 
21. You’d better not eat that food; it’s .................... (gone bad) 
22. Each of the runners was given a number, but they decided to ................number 13 in case anyone was 
superstitious. (omit) 
23. When do British schools.................................... ? (close for the holidays) 
24. Dinosaurs.................................... millions of years ago. (became extinct) 
25. Since it was his first offence, he was........................ (not punished/allowed to go free) 
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 KEY 
1. keep up 10. do away with 18. fallen out 
2. laid up 11. keep up 19. put off 
3. standing in for 12. let (me) down 20. makes up for 
4. look down on 13. fell through 21. gone off 
5. butt in 14. fallen off'gone down 22. leave out 
6. fix up 15. brought on 23. break up 
7. put (me) up 16. kept (you) up 24. died out 
8. do up 17. clears up 25. let off 
9. puts up with 
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FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES 
 A lot of foreign words and phrases are used in English. See if you understand the following by putting 
each of them into one of the sentences below. 
ad hoc coup d’état kudos quid pro quo 
ad infinitum curriculum vitae non compos mentis rapport 
alfresco de facto non sequitur status quo 
aplomb détente per capita tête-à-tête 
avant garde ex officio per se vice versa 
blasé extra-curricular persona non grata vis-à-vis 
bona fide faux pas post mortem 
carte blanche in camera prima facie 
1. The General overthrew the President and became the .................. ruler of the country. 
2. What is the average.................. income in your country? 
3. It says in the invitation that wives are allowed to bring their husbands and ................ So I shall certainly 
take Anne with me. 
4. If you ask me, most of this .................. music is rubbish. Give me Beethoven or Mozart any day! 
5. You made a terrible .................. when you asked how his wife was. Didn’t you know that she’d recently 
run off with his best friend? 
6. They decided to set up an .................. committee to deal with the urgent problem that had come up. 
7. He was thrown out of the country two years ago and has been .................. since then. 
8. Generally speaking, students are against preserving the .................. in a country. They usually want 
change and reform. 
9. She gained a lot of .................. after her third successful novel. 
10. He came to power in a violent and bloody................... 
11. As President she will be a(n).................. member of several important committees. 
12. The car park is for .................. customers only. No one else is allowed to use it. 
13. As there seems to be a .................. case against him, they decided to press for a trial immediately. 
14. When Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher met for the first time, there was an instant.................. 
between them. 
15. Don’t mention golf when Charles is around; otherwise he’ll go on ..................about it. 
16. It is hard to believe in the present.................. that the two countries were at war with one smother less 
than two years ago. 
17. The Prime Minister handled the hostile questioning of the journalists with great.................... 
18 Your argument is a .................. and totally irrelevant! 
19 I’d like to see you tomorrow, John , .................. the proposed new changes. I’d just like to hear what you 
think of them. 
20. It was a very nice house.................. .but it wasn’t quite the sort of place we were looking for. 
21. The case involved discussing matters which were top secret, so it was held 
22. No one told me what to do. I was given .................. to organise things as I saw fit. 
23. Applicants must send in a fu ll .................. no later than Friday, March 24
th
. 
24. We usually eat .................. in the summer. 
25. He gave me a 10 per cent discount as a .................. for having helped him mend his car. 
26. He was believed to have been .................. when he attempted to commit suicide. 
27. Visiting Russia so often has made him very .................. about eating caviar. 
28. Our school offers a wide range of ........... activities, including photography, karate and folk-dancing. 
29. I had a very interesting .............. with the new manager last week. Now I think I understand what he 
plans to do. 
30. The .................. examination showed that she had died of a heart attack. 
KEY 
1. de facto 11. ex officio 21. in camera 
2. per capita 12. bona fide 22. carte blanche 
3. vice versa 13. prim a facie 23. curriculum vitae 
4. avan t garde 14. rapport 24. alfresco 
5. faux pas 15. ad infinitum 25. quid pro quo 
6. ad hoc 16. détente 26. non compos m entis 
7. persona non grata 17. aplomb 27. blasé 
8. status quo 18. non sequitur 28. extra-curricular 
9. kudos 19. vis-à-vis 29. tête-à-tête 
10. coup d’état 20. per se 30. post mortem 
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MISSING WORDS: TERMS USED IN ENGLISH 
Write each of the following words next to the correct definition below. 
abbreviation elegy malapropism simile 
alliteration epigram maxim slogan 
anagram epitaph metaphor spoonerism 
analogy fable palindrome synonym 
anecdote glossary parody synopsis 
antonym homonym pseudonym 
cliche index pun 
1. .................. A word which has the opposite meaning to another, e.g. high and low. 
2. .................. An alphabetical list of special, technical or difficult words with their meanings placed at the 
back of a book. 
3. ..................A word, phrase or sentence which is the same when read backwards or forwards, e.g. madam. 
4. .................. The use of an expression which describes one thing by directly comparing it with another 
using the words ‘as’ or ‘like’, e.g. as cool as a cucumber. 
5. .................. A shortened form of a word or phrase. 
6. ............A word that has both the same sound and spelling as another but is different in meaning or origin. 
7. .................. The name used by a writer instead of his or her real name. 
8. .................. A brief description of the contents of something such as a film or book. 
9. .................. A clever and amusing use of a word or a phrase which has more than one meaning or of 
words with the same sound but different meanings. 
10. .................. A short saying or poem that expresses an idea in a clever and amusing way. 
11. .................. A word or phrase formed from another by changing the order of the letters. 
12. .................. An amusing mistake made by using a word that sounds similar to the word you meant to 
say but means something completely different. 
13. .................A short piece of writing or a poem about a dead person, especially one written on their 
gravestone. 
14. .................A word which is similar in meaning to another, e.g. sad and unhappy. 
15. .................Repetition of the same first letter or sound in a group of words or line of verse, e.g. ‘Round 
the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.’ 
16. .................A story which teaches a moral lesson and in which the characters are usually animals. 
17. .................A partial likeness between two things whic