ZHAW Proficiency XI

There's nothing more likely to irritate a mountaineer or explorer than to ask them why they do it, or why they are so willing to put _____ with danger and discomfort. 

In 1824 when George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, he replied: "Because it's there." 

It may be that, having been asked the same question several hundred times, Mallory just didn't care any more and this was the first phrase to ____ into his head. 

Then again, for ____ we know, it was simply his way of saying, "Why not?".

This might seem self-evident ____ someone like Mallory. 

You climb Everest because you can. One way to look at people like mountanieers or explorers, or successful ones at any rate, is to see them ____ people who have realised what they are good at. 

When you read their books, more often than (1) _____ they will come across as poeple who are (2) ____ ease with their environment, (3) ____ alien it might seem to an outsider.

Any mention ____ the movie Star Wars instantly triggers the resounding opening bars of the film score, which signals the presence of the enemy. 

But can you call to ____ who wrote the music?

(1) ____ to the legendary film director Orson Wells, music accounts (2) ____ half the work in a movie, mostly (3) ____ the audience even knowing the composer's name. 

The cruellest ____ of it for the composer is that, in a good film, that is how it should be. 

If the art of dressing well is to all intents and purposes to dress i such a way that others do (1)  ____ notice your elegance, the art of a great music score is to fuse so perfectly with what is on the screen that audiences are unconsciously sucked (2) ____ the mood of the movie.

For this reason, even great movie music brings very ____ recognition to composers. 

To survive, language must evolve, yet it is resistant ____ certain forms of change.

Most new words sparkle briefly, ____ at all, and then fade away. 

However, new words are necessary because, as the world changes,  ____ must our vocabulany. 

In a society (1) ________ science seems to occupy the intellectual high ground, it is inevitable that vocabularies are continually being augmented (2) ________ technical terms. Novel items ot vocabulary distress people for two reasons. 

Novel items ot vocabulary distress people for two reasons. They attest to phenomena we don’t like ________ expect not to like, and their tone offends our sensibilities.

There is ________ new about this aversion to neologism. 

As tar ________ as the 1750s, a distinguished English lexicographer criticised the ‘unnecessary words creeping into the language’. So what does make a word stick?

So what does make a word stick? First of all, it has to be widely adopted; it also has to denote something of lasting significance tor it will only last as long as the phenomenon ________ question; and to become embedded, it needs to generate derivative forms. 

A recently published book claims that the ____ of time we spend on the Internet is changing the very structure of our brains. 

Its thesis is simple enough: not only that the modern world’s relentless informational overload is killing our capacity ____reflection, contemplation and patience, but that our online habits are also altering the way our brains are wired. 

In the book, the author looks (1) ____on such human inventions as the map and the clock and the (2) ____to which they influenced our essential models of thought. 

He argues that the Internet’s multiplicity of stimuli and mass of information have  ____rise to hurried and distracted thinking. 

Without putting too fine a point on it, the author concludes that our ability to learn ____ at all worthwhile has become superficial. 

Surprisingly very (1) ____ research has looked into the Internets effects on the brain, but further research is (2) ____ hand and is investigating whether deep-thinking processes really are in (3) ____of disappearing.

Everyone knows that parrots can imitate human speech, but can ____ birds also understand meaning?

Two decades ago, researcher Irene Pepperberg started working with Alex, an African grey parrot, and ever since then, she has been building ____ data on him. 

Pepperberg, (1)  ____ recently published book "The Alex Studies" makes fascinating reading, claims Alex doesn't copy speech but intentionally uses words to get (2)  ____ it is that he wants. 

In actual _____ , some of his cognitive skills are identical to those of a five-year-old-child. 

_____ a child's, Alex' learning has been a steady progression. 

Early on, he _____ vocalise whether two things were the same or differnet. 

Early on, he _____ vocalise whether two things were the same or differnet. 

Now, he carries ____ more complex tasks. 

Presented ____ different-coloured balls and blocks and asked the number of red blocks, he'll answer correctly. 

He requests things as well. (1) _____ he ask to sit on your shoulder and you put him (2) _____ else, he'll complain: "Wanna go shoulder."

A (1) _____ experts remain sceptical, seeing very (2) _____ in Alex's performance beyond learning by association, by (3) _____ of intensive training. 

Yet Alex appears to (1) ____ master simple two-way communication. As parrots ive for 60 years or more, Alex may surprise (2) _____ all further. 

It is hard for almost everyone, but especially the young, to imagine a world _____ television

We have (1) _____ to expect that all the important news of the day, worldwide, will be there (2) _____ the touch of a button.