Comprehensive Review 1

Respuesta correcta: A) exacerbate

• A) exacerbateCorrect. 'Exacerbate' means to make a problem or bad situation worse, which fits perfectly here.
• B) alleviateIncorrect. 'Alleviate' means to make something less severe, which is the opposite of what's needed.
• C) mitigateIncorrect. 'Mitigate' means to make something less severe, which doesn't fit the negative consequence implied.
• D) facilitateIncorrect. 'Facilitate' means to make an action or process easy or easier, which is not appropriate for a social divide.

Respuesta correcta: C) deepen

• A) settle'Settle' means to resolve or end a dispute, whereas the sentence describes doubts growing after an audit.
• B) delay'Delay' describes putting something off in time, which has nothing to do with the effect of the findings.
• C) deepen'Deepen' means to make something stronger or more intense, and repeated errors make existing doubts far greater.
• D) conceal'Conceal' means to hide something, and the audit revealed the errors rather than keeping them secret.

Respuesta correcta: B) ease

• A) intensify'Intensify' means to make something stronger, whereas the recommendation is meant to make the burden lighter.
• B) ease'Ease' means to make something less difficult or burdensome, which is exactly what simplifying paperwork does.
• C) conceal'Conceal' means to hide information, and the recommendation is transparent rather than secretive.
• D) delegate'Delegate' means to hand work to someone else, and no transfer of tasks is described in the sentence.

Respuesta correcta: C) gauge

• A) pledge'Pledge' means to promise formally, which describes a commitment rather than an attempt to measure something.
• B) salvage'Salvage' means to rescue or preserve something from loss, so it describes saving goods rather than assessing a figure.
• C) gauge'Gauge' means to measure or estimate the extent of something, and figures that are too weak cannot gauge how serious the damage is.
• D) gloss'Gloss' means to explain the meaning of a word briefly, which is no use at all for judging the scale of damage.

Respuesta correcta: A) To keep the language alive for future generations.

• A) To keep the language alive for future generations.Correct. The text says they teach it 'so that it is not lost as older speakers die', which means preserving it.
• B) To replace Spanish in the whole country.Incorrect. The text says Palenquero mixes Spanish with African elements; no one wants it to replace Spanish.
• C) Because UNESCO requires all schools to teach it.Incorrect. UNESCO recognised the culture in 2005, but the text mentions no requirement for schools.
• D) To prepare tourists who visit from Cartagena.Incorrect. Cartagena appears only to locate the town; the classes are for the local community.

Respuesta correcta: C) To highlight the order of events or the limit on a claim

• A) To make the sentence sound olderThe structure is a current standard pattern, not an archaic survival, and it is chosen for emphasis rather than register.
• B) To avoid repeating the subjectInversion often keeps a subject from repeating, but here the reason is the emphasis that fronting a restrictive phrase creates.
• C) To highlight the order of events or the limit on a claimInversion after 'hardly', 'rarely' or 'not until' brings the earliest event to the front, so the ordering carries the emphasis.
• D) To mark a question as indirectAn indirect question changes word order but keeps the auxiliary after the subject, so it does not use the inversion seen here.

Respuesta correcta: D) The reconsideration was conditional on the appeal

• A) The council rejected the licence immediatelyThe sentence postpones the reconsideration rather than rejecting anything, and no decision is described as final.
• B) The appeal was filed before the council was createdNothing in the sentence places the appeal before the council existed; the only order given is appeal first, reconsideration later.
• C) The reconsideration happened regardless of the appeal'Would' with 'not until' explicitly makes the action dependent on the condition, so it could not happen independently of it.
• D) The reconsideration was conditional on the appeal'Would' in this inverted clause makes the reconsideration depend on the appeal being filed, and 'Not until' delays it until then.

Respuesta correcta: C) The state of the parks and their facilities.

• A) A rule that visitors must follow.Incorrect. 'Condition' can mean a requirement, but the text compares lights, benches and bathrooms, not rules.
• B) The weather in the parks during the weekend.Incorrect. Weather is never mentioned; the comparison is about the parks' facilities.
• C) The state of the parks and their facilities.Correct. The students compared parks with and without lights, benches and clean bathrooms, so 'condition' means how well-kept they are.
• D) The illness of some visitors.Incorrect. This is the medical meaning of 'condition', which does not fit a sentence about parks.

Respuesta correcta: A) The libraries helped them develop skills that they now share with others.

• A) The libraries helped them develop skills that they now share with others.Correct. They used the libraries' workshops and now lead them, which suggests they gained skills there and pass them on.
• B) They have to travel more than an hour to get to work.Incorrect. The one-hour trip describes the situation before the libraries opened, not the leaders' current journey.
• C) They were hired because the libraries had no visitors.Incorrect. The text says some libraries receive thousands of visitors every week.
• D) They only teach in the city centre.Incorrect. The libraries are in hillside neighbourhoods, not in the city centre.

Respuesta correcta: D) To give students practical information about a practice test.

• A) To announce the students' final grades.Incorrect. The email says the results 'will not affect your grades', and no grades are given.
• B) To ask students to bring their mobile phones.Incorrect. Phones must be switched off and left in bags, so they are not part of the materials requested.
• C) To cancel next month's review sessions.Incorrect. The review sessions will be planned using the results, so they are not cancelled.
• D) To give students practical information about a practice test.Correct. The email gives the date, time, place, materials, rules and duration of the practice test.

Respuesta correcta: D) had

• A) hasIncorrect. The sentence refers to a past sequence, requiring the past perfect in inversion.
• B) wasIncorrect. 'Was' does not fit the past perfect structure required by 'Hardly'.
• C) didIncorrect. 'Did' would require the base form of the verb, not the past participle 'been'.
• D) hadCorrect. 'Hardly had...' is a classic C1 inversion structure used for sequential events.

Respuesta correcta: A) had

• A) had'No sooner had the results been published than' is the past perfect inversion that marks the publication as the earlier event.
• B) has'Has' would tie the publication to the present, but the fall in the shares is described as a completed past event.
• C) was'Was' cannot be inverted to open this construction and does not place the publication before the fall.
• D) did'Did' would need the base form of 'publish' after it, instead of the past participle that completes the past perfect.

Respuesta correcta: C) had

• A) has'Has' would place the departure in the present, but both the leaving and the ringing belong to a past sequence.
• B) was'Was' cannot form the inversion that fronted 'Scarcely' demands and does not order the two past events.
• C) had'Scarcely had' is the past perfect inversion, showing the auditor's departure happened immediately before the calls.
• D) did'Did' would require the base form 'left' to follow as a main verb, not the past participle the past perfect needs.

Respuesta correcta: B) does

• A) an audit doesIn formal English the auxiliary precedes the subject after 'rarely', so the order must be 'does an audit produce'.
• B) does'Rarely' is a negative-frequency adverb and it takes an affirmative auxiliary, so 'does an audit produce' is correct.
• C) does produce an auditThis puts the subject after the verb phrase, which is not the order English uses in inversion.
• D) produces an audit'Produces' is not inverted, and 'an audit' is the subject here, not the object of the verb.

Respuesta correcta: B) could

• A) didIncorrect. 'Did' cannot be followed by 'be' + participle; 'did any of the figures be considered' is not a possible English structure.
• B) couldCorrect. A modal inverts after 'Not until' and is followed by a passive infinitive: 'could any of the figures be considered official'.
• C) wereIncorrect. 'Were' already forms the passive, so 'were any of the figures be considered' repeats 'be' and is ungrammatical.
• D) haveIncorrect. 'Have' needs 'been', not 'be', to form a passive ('have... been considered'), and the present perfect clashes with 'was published'.

Respuesta correcta: A) does

• A) does'Rarely does' is the inversion that follows a fronted negative adverb, so 'does a reviewer catch' is the required pattern.
• B) has'Has' would not create the inversion 'Rarely' requires, and the clause would lose its negative emphasis.
• C) was'Was' cannot be inverted to begin this construction and does not say how unusual catching every discrepancy was.
• D) does not'Does not' would claim no reviewer ever caught them all, whereas 'rarely' means it almost never happened.

Respuesta correcta: C) The current strategy is directed towards the wrong objective.

• A) They are literally looking for something in the trees of Bucaramanga.Incorrect. This reads the idiom literally; nobody in the debate is searching real trees, because the expression is figurative and describes a mistaken line of action.
• B) The approach is too noisy and aggressive.Incorrect. 'Barking' here does not describe a loud or aggressive tone; the idiom is about choosing the wrong objective, not about how people speak.
• C) The current strategy is directed towards the wrong objective.Correct. 'Bark up the wrong tree' means aiming your effort at the wrong cause or target, so the speaker is saying the current plan on comprehensive review 1 points in the wrong direction.
• D) A new environmental project involving trees should be started.Incorrect. The word 'tree' belongs to a fixed expression, so the speaker is not proposing a project with trees; the speaker is criticising the approach under discussion.

Respuesta correcta: B) Review the strategies again.

• A) Skip the strategies because there is no time.Incorrect. The teacher offers a session on Thursday, so the strategies will be practised, not skipped.
• B) Review the strategies again.Correct. 'Go over something' means to examine or revise it carefully, and 'one more time' confirms it is a review.
• C) Walk over to another classroom.Incorrect. 'Over' does not refer to moving to another place; the object of the phrasal verb is 'the strategies'.
• D) Teach completely new strategies.Incorrect. 'One more time' shows the strategies were already studied, so they are not new.

Respuesta correcta: C) A line of argument that everyone accepts is already useless.

• A) A person who is working far too many hours.Overwork is not part of the idiom, which concerns effort spent on something already finished or useless.
• B) An argument that is being made much too loudly.The expression refers to futility rather than volume, and nothing in the sentence suggests a loud dispute.
• C) A line of argument that everyone accepts is already useless.'Beating a dead horse' means continuing to pursue something pointless, which is what the debate has been doing for weeks.
• D) A decision that has been postponed several times.Delay is a different idea entirely, since the idiom criticises pointless persistence rather than postponed timing.

Respuesta correcta: B) He needs to study hard.

• A) He is angry with his textbooks.Incorrect. This reads 'hit' literally as a physical action; the idiom is not about being angry.
• B) He needs to study hard.Correct. 'Hit the books' is an informal idiom meaning to study intensively, which fits exams starting on Monday.
• C) He is going to sell his books.Incorrect. Nothing in the dialogue suggests selling; the books are what he will study.
• D) He will organise the party at the library.Incorrect. Juan is refusing the invitation ('I'd love to, but...'), so he is not organising anything.