Happy Accidents

C2 Proficiency · Word Formation · Cambridge Ready original exercise

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. There is an example at the beginning (0).

LEAD

EXPECT

STUBBORN

PRECISE

DISCIPLINE

DELIBERATE

CONVINCE

DEFINE

Many of the landmark discoveries in science were made by people looking for something else entirely: a contaminated dish left out by mistake, a (0) ___ spill on a laboratory bench. Such stories are often told as though luck alone were responsible, but this is (1) ___ . Chance rewards only those prepared to notice it, and an (2) ___ result is worthless to a researcher who dismisses it as an error. What sets the great discoverers apart is not good fortune but a rare blend of curiosity and (3) ___ . Modern research makes such detours harder. Funding bodies want to know (4) ___ what a project will deliver and when, and a scientist who drifts off to pursue a hunch risks being seen as (5) ___ . Yet a few institutions now (6) ___ set aside time and money for open-ended exploration, in the (7) ___ that the most valuable findings often cannot be planned. They have a point. A discovery is, almost by (8) ___ , something nobody saw coming, and a system designed to eliminate surprises may end up eliminating discovery too.

Happy Accidents

CARE

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