Complete with a word formed from those in the list.

Unwelcome Guests

Throughout east London, new buildings go up, and unwanted tenants move in, often before the new ones arrive. The story of Richard Glanville is one example. He explains:

"The flat was just what we wanted and we thought we were lucky to get it. We snapped it up quickly. The (01) ............... were still here when we moved in, and in the first few months we had no sign of our new neighbours. But then they started to introduce themselves. Our (02) ............... were first aroused when our dog started chewing up the edges of the carpet in our bedroom. We thought he was just being deliberately (03) ................ In fact he was trying to alert us to what lay underneath the floorboards.

"We realised there was something seriously wrong when we were woken up at four in the morning by a scratching sound. It seemed to be coming from the wall between the bedroom and the living room. It was a (04) ............... sound - sharp nails tearing up the cavity walls and racing along underneath the floorboards.

"We called in the local health office, and a private firm. The (05) ............... were ripped up and a programme of poisoning was carried out. Well, the scratching at night stopped. But the idea of our new home was ruined. It didn't feel like a home any longer. In the end we just wanted to get out."

In some parts of the capital, there has been an 80 per cent increase in the number of (06) ................ There has been a huge increase in the number of (07) ............... restaurants. More rubbish seems to get dumped in the streets than ever before, and that doesn't help.

Developers want to get people in as fast as possible, often before the building has been completed and the drains properly connected. As a result the rats can sometimes be in there ready and waiting for the new (08) ............... to move in.

Unfortunately, a lot of people have an `out of sight, out of mind' policy towards rodents just because they are (09)............... But they pretty soon make their presence felt if nothing is done about them. Rats love house-hunting and they don't pay rent.

01. BUILD ..............................

02. SUSPECT ..............................

03. DESTROY ..............................

04. NERVE ..............................

05. FLOOR ..............................

06. SIGHT ..............................

07. TAKE ..............................

08. OCCUPY ..............................

09. GROUND ..............................

Smaller Families

Over the past two hundred years the family in the western world has changed (10) ............... In the 18th century, families were restricted by high rates of infant (11)............... and by epidemics of smallpox and cholera which carried off children (12) ............... With the 19th century, and improved health and hygiene, families of 10, 12 and 14 children became commonplace. The (13)............... of effective means of contraception, increased (14) ...............and expectations of higher living standards meant that, at the beginning of this century, the nuclear family became the norm. Despite divorce, the nuclear family - mum and dad and two kids and a television set - has remained the ideal to which most people have aspired. Now, however, a completely new family unit has come on the scene, and dad is no part of it. It consists simply of mother and child.

The new family unit was greeted in the British popular press under the title, Virgin Birth. Of course, it isn't. It's artificial insemination, and is sought by women who seek (15) ..............., not through the Almighty, but through medical science. According to one report: "Many single women (just how many is not specified) want a child without the direct involvement of a man either in its conception or in its (16) ................ Artificial insemination by donor (AID) is a simple, cheap and (17) ............... popular means for them to achieve pregnancy."

10. DRAMA ..........................

11. MORTAL ..........................

12. SALE ..........................

13. ARRIVE ..........................

14. URBAN ..........................

15. MOTHER ..........................

16. BRING ..........................

17. INCREASE ..........................

Exercise Answers

CAE Index

©English Teaching Systems February 2005