Every day, on television, on the radio, and in the newspapers, we see, hear, and read about
leaders and politicians making decisions that are clearly wrong-headed and that seem to us,
the horrified watchers, listeners, and readers, counter-productive. To be reasonably impartial
about such blunders, we must try to put (1) …………….. for the moment how the decision
might affect us as individuals; what we are looking for are decisions that are contrary to the
interests of their makers. A glaring historical example of such stupidity would be the
respective attempts of Charles XII, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Hitler to invade Russia (2)
……………. the disasters it brought each of their predecessors.
Now, when investigating these matters we must tread carefully and remember that it is wrong
to judge the past by the ideas of the present. Therefore, the disastrous (3) ……………………
made in the past must have been seen at the time by contemporaries to be
counterproductive, not just with the (4) ………………… of experience. Again, we must check to
see if there were any other (5) ………………. of action that could have been taken and, if so,
why they were not.
1 away, aback, aside, behind
2 although, despite, regardless, whatever
3 actions, decisions, practices, effects
4 benefits, aim, interest, clarity
5 ways, means, possibilities, courses
Answer – PTE Reading and Writing Fill in the Blanks
1 aside (If you put something aside for the moment, you ignore it temporarily.)
2 despite (This means “in spite of” and can be followed by a noun.)
3 decisions (This collocates with made.)
4 benefit (This means “advantage”.)
5 courses (Courses of action is a collocation.)
Q -f) PTE Reading Fill in the Blanks
Below is a text with blanks. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.
Light is usually (1) ……………. as a form of energy and it is indeed a kind of electromagnetic
energy, not much different from radio waves, television signals, heat, and X-rays. All of these
are made up of waves that spread, bend, interfere with one another, and (2) …………….. with
obstacles in their path, rather like waves in water. A physicist might tell you that light, along
with all its electromagnetic relatives, is really a form of matter, little different from more
substantial matter such as houses and, like them, it is made up of individual particles. Light
particles, called photons, (3) …………… in streams, similar to the way in which water pours
through a hose.
To most people, this might sound paradoxical or illogical, as many things to do with physics
seem to these days. How can light be both energy and matter, wave and particle? The reason
it can be is, in fact, not at all (4) ……. ……..: all energy is a form of matter. Almost everybody
recognizes – even if they do not understand – Einstein’s famous equation, E-mc, which spells
it out: E refers to energy and m to the mass of matter. Furthermore, all matter has some of
the (5) ……………… of waves and some of particles, but the waves of such solid-seeming
things as houses are not discernable and can generally be ignored because ordinary matter
acts as if it were made up of particles.
1 illustrated, pictured, described, referred
2 crash, encounter, collide, react
3 journey, travel, pour, voyage
4 complicated, sophisticated, unknowable, incomprehensible
5 particulars, characteristics, character, actions