Advanced Vocabulary for IELTS 7.0 – 8.0 – 9.0: Practice Exercises & Answer Key (Part 3)

(C) Match the words in the left column with their definitions in the right column.

(D) Now use some of the words 1 – 25 above to fill the gaps in the sentences below. You will not need all the words, and you should use each word once only.

1. She seemed to have a rather____________ manner and held herself in very high regard indeed.
2. The new colour you’ve chosen for the walls is quite possibly the most____________ thing I’ve ever seen; it is utterly tasteless.
3. As ____________ gasses continued to flow into the air pocket in which the minors were trapped, it was clear that time was running out to launch a successful rescue operation.
4. The Queen is the ____________ head of state of Great Britain.
5. Bats are ____________ creatures, it’s true, but, contrary to what most people believe, while they often rely in the main on sonar and enhanced hearing, most species do, in fact, also have reasonably good eye-sight.
6. There was a(n) ____________ agreement in place between the two countries to waive the visa requirements for short-stay holidaymakers of either nationality travelling between the two states.
7. He was as ____________ as they come, never venturing much further afield than his front gate to pick up the post; his wife had to do all his errands for him while he virtually led the life of a hermit.
8. The ____________ adventurers successfully scouted the heretofore unexplored region of the Amazon that is home to the Tupi tribes.
9. There were some ___________ skirmishes, but there have been no full-scale engagements thus far in what is now being termed a phoney war.
10. Details as to exactly what happened remain___________ , but what is now clear is that despite the large number of injuries sustained, no one has been critically hurt.
11. The eagle perched itself on the ___________ cliff edge, scouting the horizon for its next unlucky victim.
12. Observers in the country describe the situation as highly___________ , and suggest that there is no telling what could happen next.
13. The reporter’s ___________ style of delivery often made for painfully slow and dull viewing. He was kept in his job purely on account of his ability to read the situation on the ground accurately and always be first to break the big story.
14. The celebrity’s cameo was ___________ at best and served to distract viewers from concentrating on the actual story, which was, after all, a very serious and important one that deserved to be told.
15. Her ___________ glance now and then was enough of a cue for the man to realise that she was very attracted to him.

Answer Key

(C)

1. ponderous – slow and awkward, boring
2. precipitous – steep
3. presumptuous – disrespectful and brazen/ rude in speech or behaviour
4. treacherous – extremely dangerous
5. tentative – careful, uncertain of being completed
6. volatile – dangerously unpredictable, infrequent
7. sketchy – containing few details, vague
8. sporadic – occasional
9. taciturn – saying little
10. surreptitious – discrete, secret
11. tenacious – determined
12. superfluous – unnecessary
13. prudent – careful and cautious
14. provident – making provision for the future
15. reciprocal – connected so that one completes the other
16. scrupulous – having moral integrity
17. reclusive – withdrawn, very anti-social
18. petulant – rude in speech/disrespectful and brazen
19. nocturnal – active at night
20. ghastly – awful
21. haughty – overly proud of self
22. intrepid – resolutely fearless
23. noxious – physically harmful
24. nominal – in name or thought only
25. heterogenous – made up of different parts of things

(D)

1. haughty
2. ghastly
3. noxious
4. nominal
5. nocturnal
6. reciprocal
7. reclusive
8. intrepid
9. sporadic
10. sketchy
11. precipitous
12. volatile
13. ponderous
14. superfluous
15. surreptitious

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