1) It is time you (have) your car (service). It’s almost a year since you (take) it to the servicing station.
2) The car started only after Tom (turn) the key twice. He thought ignition might (be) faulty. In any case, he thought he (tell) father if he (come) home in a good mood.
3) Pamela was about (go) out when the rain (start). She sighed and thought she should (leave) earlier, before it (rain).
4) A large amount of criticism (level) against the committee, which (take) the decision to pull down an old house, (present) a historical value.
5) (Rob), he decided not to report to the police. That decision probably (connect) with his own multiple infringements of the law.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS IN STORE

down; receipt; aware; minds; proof; do; for; refund; which; cautioned; major; from;

Consumers wishing to return Christmas gifts should watch out (1) … retailers’ ploys to deny customers their legal rights, experts (2) … this week. Geoffery Woodroffe, author of Consumer Law and Practice, says: "Many retailers flout (3) … pieces of consumer law, such as the Sale of Goods Act. Most are (4) … of their obligations but rely on consumers’ ignorance.” The law on returning goods is complicated. Many consumers believe that if they change their (5)… about an item, they can return it. However, they have no right to take unwanted goods back to the shop.

It's 75 years since Nessie was first captured on film. What a pity for Loch Ness, says PAUL MANSFIELD

Hugh Gray’s grainy black-and-white picture of a "monster” of Loch Ness, which appeared in the Inverness Courier on December 6, 1933, kickstarted a tourist industry. A year later, the iconic picture above set the seal on our mental image of the legendary creature. Everyone from tartan-clad Americans to Scots keen to witness part of their heritage have flocked to the lake shores ever since. And the debate has raged over Nessie’s existence, even in the face if the evidence, that the monster is no more than a myth. Where would Loch Ness be without Nessie?

1) Pamela was ________ enjoying the party
a) thoroughly b) strongly c) seriously d) sincerely

2) There are several means __________ latitude and longitude.
a) can determine b) determining c) to determine d) which might determine

3) The Homestead Act of 1862 made ________ to acquire land at a small price.
a). possible b) it possible c) the possibility d) that it was possible

4) Botanists are not sure where the first plant was grown or even __________
a) where was it a plant b) it was what plant c) what plant was it d) what plant it was

1)Being an … vegetable, the potatoes soon won the sympathies of all people.
EXPENSE

2) Prolonged … of recessions resulted in significant changes in taxation.
SUCCEED

3) Strange as it might seem, the mother seemed … about the absence of her son.
CONCERN

4)The heat seemed most …
OPPRESS

Choose the right variant:
1) So detrimental … that all the citizens had to be evacuated.
a) the consequences were of the flood
b) were the consequences of the flood
c) the consequences of the flood were
d) were the consequences of the flood to be
2) General Grant had General Lee … him at Appomattox to sign the official surrender of the Confederate Forces.
a) to meet
b) met
c) meet
d) meeting
3) All the people at the AAME conference are…
a) mathematic teachers
b) mathematics teachers
c) mathematic’s teachers
d) mathematician teachers

(1) To widespread relief, the music of the Bee Gee does not feature among the "sticky” tunes that an American scientist has found to be lodged permanently in the human brain, replaying over and over again. (2) But only barely two decades ago the trigger phrases "Staying alive, staying alive” and "Night Fever” were burnt into the neural circuits of an entire generation. (3) The group’s music for the film "Saturday Night Fever” helped to launch the disco craze and a million of sad imitations to John Travolta. (4) The era ended with a stale taste in the mouth: listening to Bee Gees and being reminded of flashing dance floor mirror balls was like devouring an old mince pie over a week after New Year’s Day.

Text 1
1. The mayor of St. Louis is tired.
2. You would be it too if you hadn’t a day off since June, 27.
3. "Oh, God, I’m looking for the 3d of August," the Chief of the Army Corps of emergency center said together with a sigh.
4. That’s when the latest Mississippi River wave is due to hit here.
5. Floods in the Midwest have chased people from their homes, swallowed businesses and chewed up leaves.

Long-lost pictures of a young Barack Obama emerged this week, showing him dragging deeply, and with great pleasure, on a cigarette. Nearly 30 years on, he still hasn’t entirely kicked the habit. But time is running out for the President-elect. Not only is the White House a smoke-free zone, but in Washington smokers are regarded as lowlife. To light up in the city is to attract a million accusing eyes and the emotions of a cop, because you have broken one of its ferocious anti-smoking bylaws. So like many of us, Obama needs to stop within next few months. He has always said that he means to quit. But when a journalist asked him how he was getting on during the last frantic months of the presidential campaign, Obama said: "I need to cut myself a little slack.” A presidential campaign is one hell of an excuse for not giving up smoking, but it’s still an excuse, and that makes Obama no different from all those smokers citing the economic meltdown or the last frantic days before Christmas as their "not yet” reason. Most would-be quitters delay their attempt until after the festivities. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, as long as it doesn’t turn into sometime, never. You have a better chance of successfully quitting if you do so at a time when you are not under intense pressure, for instance, during holidays. Having a specific date indicates that you believe you need to stop smoking and that there is a plan. You need to prepare for giving up, and now is the time to start planning for the next

Read the text and answer the questions below: 1) SAN FRANCISCO
Once a prominent shipping and manufacturing center, San Francisco now has booming financial and business sectors. Since 1980, the city’s population has increased by more than a third and its per capita income ranks among the nation’s highest. Few places have a citizenry that is more environmentally conscious.
Like nearly every traffic-clogged urban California area, San Francisco has struggled with high emissions of greenhouse gases and carbon monoxide. Its Hunter’s Point area is home to two polluting power plants and a highly contaminated Naval Shipyard, now defunct. In 2002, a national report found that while San Francisco’s source water was safe, its tap water contained high levels of a cancer-causing contaminant known as total trihalomethanes, or TTHM, a byproduct of chlorinating water.