Black cabs, officially known as Hackney Carriages, are (1) _______ London and are special for a number of reasons. For a start, they are the only taxis in the city that can be hailed from the kerb with a raised hand signal to get the driver’s attention. Currently, it is estimated that there are 20,000 black cabs (2) _______ on the capital’s streets. Their origin, in fact, can be (3) _______ the name ‘Hackney Carriage’ said to derive from the French word haquenée referring to the type of horse used to pull the carriages in the days of horse-drawn carriages. The first horse-drawn Hackney coaches appeared on London’s streets in the 17th century during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. As transport developed and motor cars were (4) _______, motor cabs replaced the horse-drawn carriages. Since the end of the 19th century, various car manufacturers’ vehicles have been used as motor cabs but it was not until the mid20th century that the cabs we have been (5) _______ over the last decades first appeared. It is such a(n) (6) _______ of becoming a black cab driver in London and it is (7) _______. If you want to gain this honour you will need to have passed the infamous test known as ‘the Knowledge’, which was first introduced in 1851 following (8) _______ of complaints by passengers whose cab drivers got lost. This incredibly difficult test can take around three or four years to prepare for and you can often catch a glimpse of those drivers who are doing just this zipping around London on their mopeds, with a map (9) _______ to a clipboard on their handlebars. These people are essentially trying not only to master the 25,000 or so streets within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross, but also to work out the most direct routes from place to place. They must know thousands of ‘points of interest’ such as hotels, hospitals, places of worship, theatres, stations, sports and leisure facilities, to name but a few. Practically everywhere and anywhere that a potential passenger would wish to be taken to or from must be known, so a nodding acquaintance, for a black cab driver, is (10) _______, and perhaps this is the most difficult part, knowing the quickest way to get from one place to another. Little wonder so few people are successful. 1. A. commensurate with
B. equivalent to
C. synonymous with
D. tantamount to
2. A. hereabouts
B. hither and thither
C. or thereabouts
D. there and then
3. A. ferreted out from
B. hunted down from C. mapped out to
D. traced back to
4. A. all the rage
B. of high standing
C. of repute
D. in vogue
5. A. clued in on
B. gunned up on
C. in the know about
D. no stranger to
6. A. handiwork
B. procurement
C. realisation
D. undertaking
7. A. beyond you
B. no brainer
C. no mean feat
D. over your head
8. A. droves
B. hordes
C. packs
D. swarms
9. A. chained
B. fastened
C. linked
D. sealed
10. A. beyond measure
B. beyond redemption C. beyond the pale
D. beyond the veil
Your answers: 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Part 2.Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only oneword in each gap. Write your answer in correspondent numbered boxes. (10pts) Despite the continued resilience of those early town perks, it wasn’t until the Depressionthat modern Hershey started to take (1) …………. Perhaps the only town in the countryactually to prosper during the 1930s, it thrived because Hershey vowed his Utopia wouldnever be on the (2) …………... Instead he funded a massive building boom that gave (3)…………. to the most visited buildings in today’s Hershey and delivered wages to morethan 600 workers. He admitted that his (4) …………. were partly selfish: 6