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Joy English · Level C2 · Music and performancejoy-english.com

Test 4: Music and performance

Name:Date:

A proficiency-level mixed test about concerts, rehearsal and interpretation: fine collocation, inversion, relative clauses and word formation.

Part 1: Multiple-choice gaps

Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.

  1. The quartet played as ___, every entry exactly together.
    • a) one
    • b) single
    • c) unity
    • d) a one
  2. The soloist brought the house ___ with an encore nobody had expected.
    • a) over
    • b) down
    • c) in
    • d) up
  3. The conductor’s gestures were barely ___, yet the orchestra responded at once.
    • a) perceptible
    • b) perceptive
    • c) perceptual
    • d) perceiving
  4. Her playing, ___ technically flawless, lacked any real warmth.
    • a) despite
    • b) therefore
    • c) though
    • d) unless
  5. Critics were divided: some found the production daring, ___ thought it merely self-indulgent.
    • a) others
    • b) the other
    • c) another
    • d) each
  6. The composer left the final bars deliberately ___, inviting each performer to decide how to end.
    • a) open-minded
    • b) open-handed
    • c) open-hearted
    • d) open-ended
  7. Such ___ the power of the final chord that several listeners wept.
    • a) is
    • b) was
    • c) were
    • d) had
  8. She is the most ___ of musicians: she can play almost anything by ear.
    • a) variable
    • b) various
    • c) versatile
    • d) verbose

Part 2: Open gaps

Type the missing word or words in each gap. Write one word unless the item clearly needs a short phrase.

  1. Not once ___ the performers lose their concentration during the long second movement.
  2. The piece is difficult to play, let alone ___ sing.
  3. So demanding ___ the part that few singers dare to attempt it.
  4. The audience, most ___ whom had never heard the work, listened in rapt silence.
  5. She played the passage as ___ she had known it all her life.
  6. Should the soloist ___ unwell, the understudy will step in.
  7. The critic admitted that she had heard ___ like the singer’s voice before and struggled to describe it.
  8. The composer, ___ work was largely ignored in her lifetime, is now widely performed.

Part 3: Word formation

Use the word in CAPITALS at the end of each sentence to form a word that fits the gap. Type one word.

  1. The pianist’s ___ was breathtaking: she played the hardest passages without a flicker of effort. (VIRTUOSO)
  2. The conductor was known for his ___ attention to detail. (PAIN)
  3. The performance was marred by several ___ entries from the brass section. (PRECISE)
  4. The ___ of the opening, barely above a whisper, silenced the hall. (QUIET)
  5. Her ___ of the slow movement divided critics, some finding it moving, others merely sluggish. (INTERPRET)
  6. Years of ___ practice had given her hands an almost effortless precision. (DISCIPLINE)
  7. The audience was ___, clapping politely but never rising to its feet. (ENTHUSE)
  8. Few composers have written so ___ for the cello. (MOVE)

Answer key

Part 1: Multiple-choice gaps

  1. a) oneTo play as one means to play in perfect unity. The other options do not form this fixed phrase.
  2. b) downTo bring the house down means to receive enormous applause. It is a fixed idiom.
  3. a) perceptiblePerceptible means able to be noticed. Perceptive describes a person who notices things quickly.
  4. c) thoughThough technically flawless is a reduced concessive clause. Despite cannot be followed directly by an adjective in this way.
  5. a) othersSome ... others is the standard pair for dividing a plural group into two sets of opinion.
  6. d) open-endedOpen-ended means without a fixed ending. The other compounds describe people, not music.
  7. b) wasSuch was the power of is a formal inversion. The past tense matches wept.
  8. c) versatileVersatile means able to do many different things well. Variable means likely to change.

Part 2: Open gaps

  1. didAfter Not once at the start of a sentence, the auxiliary comes before the subject: did the performers lose.
  2. toLet alone means and certainly not, and here it is followed by the infinitive to sing.
  3. isAfter So + adjective at the start, the verb comes before the subject. The present tense fits dare.
  4. ofMost of whom is a quantifier relative structure: most of the audience.
  5. if / thoughAs if and as though both introduce an imagined comparison.
  6. be / feel / becomeShould + subject + verb is a formal conditional without if. Be, feel or become unwell all work.
  7. nothingNothing like means not at all similar to. A negative is needed because she struggled to describe something new to her.
  8. whoseWhose is the possessive relative pronoun: whose work.

Part 3: Word formation

  1. virtuosityThe noun is virtuosity: virtuoso + -ity.
  2. painstakingPainstaking means done with great care and effort.
  3. impreciseThe negative adjective imprecise means not exact.
  4. quietness / quietudeWe need a noun: quiet + -ness, or the rarer quietude.
  5. interpretationThe noun is interpretation.
  6. disciplinedWe need an adjective before practice: disciplined.
  7. unenthusiasticThe negative adjective is unenthusiastic.
  8. movinglyAn adverb is needed to modify written: movingly.

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