C1 Advanced

Progress Test 2

Section 1: Vocabulary
1 Read the text. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits
in the gap in the same line.

Although the subject of history has gained in popularity over the past few years, many
people think that history is a waste of time and have an (1) ____________ to reading AVERSE
or thinking about it, believing that it is better to concentrate on the present rather than
the past. However, there are those who consider that (2) ____________ to the exciting EXPOSE
world of the past should start at a very early age. Unfortunately, maybe we are somewhat
(3) ____________ if we hold on to the premise that by studying history, we may be able GUIDE
to avoid the mistakes of the past in our own age. It is obvious that man has learned very
little about living together from his past. Furthermore, in some cases, deliberate
(4) ____________ of past actions are used to justify modern warfare. In addition, scientific INTERPRET
discoveries which have accumulated over the past millennia no doubt lead to a more
comfortable lifestyle for many people today but there are still frontier disputes and
(5) ____________ . It is important to remember that much of history has been written by CONFRONT
those that have conquered others and history is a record of their achievements. This allows
other views of history to be dismissed as irrelevant or (6) ____________ . Nevertheless, SIGNIFY
this should not deter people from studying the past because for every negative and
(7) ____________ event there may have been, there are also many more positive ones FAVOUR
which show how amazing the human race can be. For me, it would be
(8) ____________ not to teach history in schools. IMAGINE

…….../8

Section 2: Grammar
2 Complete the text. Use only one word for each gap.

Rory had reached that age where he could see his life slipping past him, and he realised that it was
high (1) ____________ he actually did something worthwhile, so he decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro
to raise money for the local children’s hospice. However, halfway through the arduous trip, he wished
he (2) ____________ devoted more time to honing his fitness before setting out on the climb. He
realised that he (3) ____________ have given himself more exposure to the type of terrain he’d be
walking on, but his attitude had been rather nonchalant. Furthermore, he hadn’t done enough research
on the physical demands of the ascent, otherwise he would (4) ____________ forced himself to go for
long walks more often. He’d heard about lots of ordinary people who’d had a life-changing experience
and thought it couldn’t be as hard (5) ____________ the leaflets made out. But the reality was nothing
(6) ____________ he’d imagined – it was a great (7) ____________ tougher than he expected. Having
said that, he wasn’t going to give up. The rest of his group were moving farther away from him as he
tried to catch his breath, and (8) ____________ of the organisers was sent back to find out what was
wrong. Rory pulled himself together, had one last gulp from the water bottle and strode towards the
man walking towards him. He (9) ____________ rather die than fail to reach the summit and fulfil his
commitment to the children’s hospice.

…….../9

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 C1 Advanced
Progress Test 2

Section 3: Listening
3  02  Listen to an interview with Diana McLeod about happiness at work. For questions 1-8,
complete the sentences with a word or short phrase.
1 In the survey various _______________ were ranked according to how interesting people felt they
were.
2 Apparently, teachers said they enjoyed being able to employ their _______________.
3 If there is _______________, it’s almost impossible to enjoy your work.
4 The _______________ of bullying in smaller companies is not as high as in bigger ones.
5 When you work for yourself, it can be difficult to separate the work and leisure _______________.
6 Being responsible for one’s own _______________ is likely to make people happy.
7 In the long run, _______________ can be reduced by financial incentives.
8 People who consider their work as a _______________ are more likely to be happy because it is more
meaningful to them.
…….../8

Section 4: Reading
4 Read the article. For questions 1–10, choose from the sections (A–F). The sections may be
chosen more than once.

In which section of the article does the writer mention:

1 statistics regarding how well or badly products have done? _______
2 an awareness of the detrimental effect of failed products on individuals? ______
3 something which seems to be an impossibility? _______
4 a refusal to face and accept weaknesses? _______
5 a man’s obsession with every product launched? _______
6 what producers could have done for themselves? _______
7 a dismissal of historic events? _______
8 the temporary nature of material objects? _______
9 the irony of the museum’s origins? ______
10 how a name can influence a product’s success? ______

…….../10

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 C1 Advanced
Progress Test 2
The museum of failed products
Our business editor, Liam Ellis, pays a visit to The Storehouse; a huge collection of failed supermarket
products.

A
In an unremarkable business park outside the city of Ann Arbor in Michigan stands a poignant memorial to
humanity’s shattered dreams. It doesn’t look like that from the outside, though. Even when you get inside
The Storehouse, it takes a few moments for your eyes to adjust to what you’re seeing. It appears to be a
vast and haphazardly organised supermarket; along every aisle, grey metal shelves are crammed with
thousands of packages of food and household products. There is, however, something not quite right about
the displays and soon enough you work out the reason: unlike in a real supermarket, there is only one
example of each product.

B
The storehouse, operated by a company called GfK Custom Research North America, has acquired a
nickname: The Museum of Failed Products. This is consumer capitalism’s graveyard or, to put it less
grandly, it’s almost certainly the only place on the planet where you’ll find A Touch of Yogurt shampoo
alongside the equally unappealing For Oily Hair Only. These products may well have been perfectly
adequate shampoos let down only by their off-putting names. Whereas some of the other products obviously
had more serious flaws, such as the self-heating soup cans that had a regrettable tendency to explode in
customers’ faces.

C
There is a Japanese term, mono no aware, that translates roughly as ‘the pathos of things’. It captures a
kind of bittersweet melancholy at life’s impermanence – that additional beauty imparted to cherry blossoms,
for their fleeting nature. It’s only stretching the concept slightly to suggest that this is how the museum’s
manager, an understatedly stylish GfK employee named Carol Sherry, feels about the cartons of Morning
Banana Juice in her care or about Fortune Snookies, a short-lived line of fortune cookies for dogs. Every
failure, the way she sees it, embodies its own sad story on the part of designers, marketers and salespeople.
It is never far from her mind that real people had their mortgages, their car payments and their family
holidays riding on the success of products such as Fortune Snookies.

D
The Museum of Failed Products was itself a kind of accident, albeit a happier one. Its creator, a now retired
marketing man named Robert McMath, merely intended to accumulate a ‘reference library’ of consumer
products, not failures per se. And so, starting in the 1960s, he began purchasing and preserving a sample of
every new item he could find. Soon, the collection outgrew his office in upstate New York and he was forced
to move into a converted granary to accommodate it. Later, GfK bought him out, moving the whole lot to its
current home at The Storehouse in Michigan. What McMath hadn’t taken into account was the three-word
truth that was to prove the making of his career: most products fail. According to some estimates, the failure
rate is as high as ninety percent. Simply by collecting new products indiscriminately, McMath had ensured
that his hoard would come to consist overwhelmingly of unsuccessful ones.

E
By far the most striking thing about the museum, though, is that it should exist as a viable, profit-making
business in the first place. You might have assumed that any consumer product manufacturer worthy of the
name would have its own such collection – a carefully stewarded resource to help it avoid making errors its
competitors had already made. Yet the executives who arrive every week at Sherry’s door are evidence of
how rarely this happens. Product developers are so focused on their next hoped-for success, so unwilling to
invest time or energy thinking about their industry’s past failures that they only belatedly realise how much
they need to access GfK’s collection. Most surprising of all is that many of the designers who have found
their way to the museum have come there to examine – or been surprised to discover – brands that their
own companies had created, then abandoned.

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 C1 Advanced
Progress Test 2
F
It isn’t hard to imagine how one downside of the positive-thinking culture, an aversion to confronting failure,
might have been responsible for the very existence of many of the products lining its shelves. Each one
must have made it through a series of meetings at which nobody realised that the product was doomed.
Perhaps nobody wanted to contemplate the prospect of failure; perhaps someone did but didn’t want to
bring it up for discussion. By the time the truth became obvious, the original developers would have moved
to other products or other firms. Little energy would have been invested in discovering what went wrong.
Everyone involved would have conspired, perhaps without realising what they’re doing, never to speak of it
again. Failure is everywhere. It’s just that most of the time we’d rather avoid confronting that fact.

Section 5: Writing
5 Complete the essay. Use only one word for each gap.

It is true that keeping fit will benefit a person’s health in many ways. It has become clear in recent years
that a large number of people are doing less and less exercise and this is now causing many serious
illnesses, putting a strain on doctors and hospitals. However, some experts believe that too much exercise
can do just as much damage.
(1) ____________ it is undoubtedly true that moderate exercise such as walking can be very beneficial to
a person’s health, it is only one factor which keeps us healthy. Diet is also extremely important and I
(2) ____________ argue that it is probably even more important than exercise, although the ideal is for
both of these factors to work together. It (3) ____________ to me that many people are unwilling to put in
the effort required to become fitter.
I know from my own (4) ____________, however, that too much exercise can also cause problems, so
people are urged to take gentle exercise and eat moderately healthily rather than embarking on extreme
diets and training. I have heard of too many instances where otherwise ultra-fit people have had heart
attacks or collapsed.
In my (5) ____________, governments need to find ways of motivating people to take responsibility for
their own health. (6) ____________ all, people need to realise that eating healthy food does not have to
cost a fortune, nor is it difficult to prepare healthy meals themselves. (7) ____________ I see it, people
need to be better educated about their health.

…….../7

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 C1 Advanced
Progress Test 2

Section 6: Speaking
6 Talk about yourself to your teacher. You should:
• explain how difficult you think it is for people to achieve their dreams and why.
• describe what you would change about the modern world if you could change one thing.
• say if you believe money can buy people happiness and give reasons.
• outline what you think the role of the government should be in preserving cultural heritage.

Your teacher will mark your presentation using the scorecard below. The teacher circles
1 mark if a student includes the area and circles 2 marks for communicating it accurately and effectively.
There is a maximum of 8 marks.

The student:

explained how difficult it is for people to achieve their dreams and why. 1 2

described what they would change about the modern world. 1 2

said if they believe money can buy happiness and gave reasons. 1 2

talked about the government’s role in preserving cultural heritage. 1 2

…….../8

TOTAL…….../50

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