Joy English
Joy English

C2 Use of English

C2Music and performance38 min

Test 4: Music and performance

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

This C2 Use of English test is set in the world of music and live performance. Part 1 tests precise vocabulary and fixed phrases, Part 2 tests structures such as inversion and relative clauses (one gap asks you to complete a rephrased sentence), and Part 3 tests abstract nouns, adjectives and negative prefixes.

Exercise 1 of 3

Part 1: Multiple-choice gaps

Choose the word or phrase that best completes each sentence.

  1. The quartet played as _____, every entry exactly together.

  2. The soloist brought the house _____ with an encore nobody had expected.

  3. The conductor’s gestures were barely _____, yet the orchestra responded at once.

  4. Her playing, _____ technically flawless, lacked any real warmth.

  5. Critics were divided: some found the production daring, _____ thought it merely self-indulgent.

  6. The composer left the final bars deliberately _____, inviting each performer to decide how to end.

  7. Such _____ the power of the final chord that several listeners wept.

  8. She is the most _____ of musicians: she can play almost anything by ear.

0 of 8 answered

Exercise 2 of 3

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.

0 of 8 answered

Exercise 3 of 3

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)

0 of 8 answered

Source

Original lesson by Joy English.

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