Jessica

 

The trouble was just Jessica had been brought up by a strong, clear-minded and independent woman, and (1) raised with the expectation that she would be the same. This had meant that at the earliest (2) opportunity she had been encouraged to fly the nest and (3) spread her wings. At no time had she considered marriage or ever having children; the two things didn’t (4) come into her thinking. As a child there had been no bed-time stories of young girls being rescued by handsome princes. ‘Whatever you want to do,’ her mother would say when kissing her goodnight, ‘believe you can do it and you will.’ And more important than anything else, make sure you enjoy what you do. Which might have (5) provoked some children into becoming (6) high achievers, but not Jessica. What it did was convince her from an early age that whatever she did would be because she wanted to do it, and for no other reason.

 

1 A raised B grown C produced D reared (HINT: Semantic precision)

2 A occasion B possibility C opportunity D moment (HINT: Fixed phrase)

3 A spread B open C flap D try (HINT: Idiom)

4 A come B go C move D get (HINT: Phrasal verb)

5 A caused B provoked C incited D incensed (HINT: Word complementation)

6 A great B big C huge D high (HINT: Collocation)

 

Child’s play

 

Child’s play? Not at all, says Dr David Campbell, consultant clinical psychologist, who explains that children as young as seven as busy (1) establishing their identify outside the family. ‘They are developing relationships that give them (2) feedback about what kind of person they are – pretty, sporty, and so on. It’s a very important time for them. As they get older, relationships become more routine.

Psychological theories indicate that women are more (3) likely to find their identify through relationships than boys, who define themselves more through activities,’ he adds. ‘At first, rejections are (4) extremely painful for girls, so they can seem much more important than they really are.’ He points out that the oldest child may feel more threatened by relationships that (5) go wrong. ‘If they lose a girlfriend at school, it reverberates with all their past experiences of (6) losing out to siblings.’

 

1 A constituting B establishing C basing D grounding

2 A feedback B reports C advice D references

3 A possible B probable C likely D given

4 A greatly B extremely C highly D utterly

5 A come B get C go D do

6 A losing out B getting out C bowing out D running out

 

Use of English: Open Cloze