Captain Webb - Test 2

C2 Proficiency · Word Formation · Proficiency Testbuilder, 4th Edition, Mark Harrison, Macmillan

For questions 1–8, read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line.

UNDO

OBSCURE

EXHAUST

STAR

APPLAUD

ENDURE

PUNISH

REGARD

Captain Matthew Webb is fortunate in being remembered as the first man to swim the English Channel, rather than the one who later tried, and failed, to plunge through the Niagara Falls. If ever a man possessed an abundance of self-confidence, it was Webb; but it was his stubborn (0) ___ to give up that eventually proved his (17) ___ . Unwilling to recognise the Channel crossing as the peak of his career, he went on and on, addicted to glory, literally swimming himself to death. Webb astonished the British nation on August 25, 1875, with a Channel crossing that took a mammoth 21 hours and 45 minutes. He had entered the sea a merchant-ship captain living in (18) ___ , but he emerged in France, stung by jellyfish and half-dead with (19) ___ , a national hero. He was feted, mobbed and cheered wherever he went. But all this (20) ___ was too much for him, and he made the fatal error of many a pop star in later years. Craving (21) ___ , he very nearly dissolved himself in a series of marathon swims for money, including a six-day (22) ___ contest. Then he sailed for America, where he had a (23) ___ schedule of long swims. It was America that lured Webb beneath the Falls in June 1883. (24) ___ of all advice, he dived in from a boat and subsided forever into the boiling rapids.

Captain Webb

REFUSE

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