Cat CDZ

It's a shame you lost the match, but it's no use _________.

_______ some kind of sport every day is good for your health.

I don’t mind _________ the washing up, as long as you help me.

Stop ________ now! You’re such a big girl!

My dad is really good at _______.

I don't recommend __________ through the city centre during rush hour. There's too much traffic.

It doesn't take that much time_________ your room properly.

It’s no use ________ over spilled milk.

She is saving her money_________ a new car.

She has waited for two hours _________ a cinema ticket.

She stopped _______ some sweets on her way to work.

He advised me ________ a doctor as soon as possible.

Everyone in the village came to see them _______.

Do you expect me __________________ it to you for the second time?

My house is quite easy_______.

You must remember _________ through your pockets before you put the jacket into the washing machine.

Would you mind________ the letter for me. It’s very important.

When I saw her the first time I couldn’t help ________. She was so lovely.

Margaret enjoys _________ to music.

Fill in the gaps with the suitable idioms.

Choose the suitable idiom to complete every sentence.

Read the text and mark the statements TRUE, FALSE, DOESN'T SAY. 1. It is not until we feel sick that we realize how lucky we are to have good health. But imagine having an illness all your life, and not really understanding how it is to hear or see things. Most people have no idea how this would affect us. 2. Andrea Clark, a young woman from the USA, had problems with her ears all her life. She had never been able to hear anything properly, including the voices of her family or her boyfriend. 3. She went to the University of Mississippi hospital, to have an operation on her ears. As soon as the operation had finished, the doctor asked if Andrea could hear anything. She said she could, but everything sounded very strange. 4. Then she was taken to meet her boyfriend, who had never been able to speak to her before. The first thing he said, and the first thing Andrea heard, was “Will you marry me?” Andrea immediately started to cry. She had never been so happy before. 5. Kathy Smith, from Canada, had been blind since a very young age. She had a disease which meant that her eyes and vision got worse and worse. When she was older, she became a mother. 6. When her baby was born, Kathy was given a pair of special new glasses, which helped blind people to see things. She saw her baby and recognized his face. “He has my mouth”, she said. She had never seen a baby before. 7. Not only that, but it was also the first time she was able to see her husband holding her baby. For Kathy, it was the happiest feeling of all, being able to see the two people she loved most. 8. The glasses that Kathy wore cannot help everyone who is blind, and are very expensive, costing around $15,000. But for some people, perhaps, being able to see your own baby for the first time is worth paying every penny.

Match the headings to the paragraphs.

Read the text and mark the statements below as True or False.

Advanced level Read the text and choose the correct option. Work–life Balance Ronan I work in a fairly traditional office environment doing a typical nine-to-five job. I like my job, but it’s annoying that my commute to work takes an hour and a half each way and most of my work could really be done online from home. But my boss doesn’t seem to trust that we will get any work done if left to our own devices, and everyone in the company has to clock in and out every day. It’s frustrating that they feel the need to monitor what we do so closely instead of judging us based on our task performance, like most companies do these days. Jo I used to do a typical five-day week, but after I came out of my maternity leave, I decided that I wanted to spend more time with my children before they start school. After negotiating with my boss, we decided to cut my working week down to a three-day work week. This of course meant a significant cut in my pay too, as I’m paid on a pro rata basis. I’ve since noticed, though, that my workload hasn’t decreased in the slightest! I’m now doing five days’ worth of work in three days, but getting paid much less for it! I find myself having to take work home just so that I can meet the deadlines. It’s wearing me out trying to juggle work with looking after my children and my family, but I don’t dare to bring this up with my boss because I think he feels as if he’s made a huge concession letting me come in only three days a week. Marcus I work for a global IT company, but because their headquarters is in the States, I do all my work online from home. That means that I don’t waste time commuting or making idle chit-chat with colleagues. I work on a project basis, and this flexibility is very valuable to me because it means that I can easily take some time off when my children need me to go to their school performances or if I need to schedule an appointment with the dentist. The downside is that without clear office hours, I tend to work well into the evening, sometimes skipping dinner to finish a task. It can also get quite lonely working on my own, and I sometimes miss sharing ideas with colleagues. Lily I’m a freelancer and work for myself. This is great because I am in control of what I do and how I spend my time. At first, I was working from home, but I found it really hard to concentrate. There were just too many distractions around: housework that needed doing, another cup of tea, my family members wanting my attention for various things. So I started to go to a nearby café to work, but the Wi-Fi connection wasn’t ideal and I found myself drinking too much coffee. In the end, I decided to rent a desk in a co-working space with five other freelancers like myself. I liked getting dressed to go to work in the morning and being able to focus in an office environment. The other freelancers do similar kinds of web-based work to me and so it’s nice to have workmates to bounce ideas off as well.

Read the text and mark the statements below as True or False.