23 February course: ANSWER KEY


Grammar: The passive.


Exercise 3:

2) answered 3) was entered 4) has chosen 5) are invited  6) is made 7) have been offered 8) are
asked 9) are interested 10) detach


Exercise 4:

2) is thought to have been 3) is not known 4) was seen 5) was brought 6) was obliged to 7) are
believed to have been 8) was packed 9) were made to 10) are thought to be


Vocabulary Practice


U14 - p.76/Discussion

Complete the text using the appropriate words from the box:

WOULD       LED     DROPPED    WITH      GREED     INSTEAD

WORTH     INVARIABLY    DEFAULTED     AFFORD

TREASURY    WRITE OFF     OBVIOUSLY   BURST  OBVIOUSLY


Deregulation of the 1980s was a contributing factor. So was the globalization of markets. Some
people blame central banks for lowering interest rates in 2000 after the dotcom bubble 1) BURST and
again in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, which 2) LED to a fall in the savings ratio. Many people
blame the 3) GREED of the lenders, the originators of the mortgages, but giving low-income groups
the possibility to own their homes is surely a good idea… if they can 4) AFFORD  it. When house
prices fell and subprime borrowers 5) DEFAULTED, lenders often repossessed property that was 6)
WORTH less than the amount they had loaned, so they went bankrupt, too. Homebuyers were 7)
OBVIOUSLY  taking risks by buying houses they could scarcely afford, especially if they had no
down-payment or special low introductory interest rate mortgages. They were hoping house prices 8)
WOULD rise, but 9) INSTEAD the housing bubble burst, and prices 10) DROPPED rapidly. Gambling on
house prices continuing to increase is rarely a good idea, but people don´t seem to learn from
history that house price booms or bubbles 11) IVARIABLY burst.

Securitization, including that of risky subprime loans, provides the financial industry 12) WITH  a
lot of liquidity, but an industry that has to 13) WRITE OFF  $1,500,000,000,000 doesn´t come out
looking too clever. Investment banks didn´t need to buy subprime mortgages from lenders, securitize
them into bonds, and include them in their MBSs and CDOs. One can also blame investors who were
willing to purchase MBSs and CDOs because they paid very slightly higher interest than totally safe
14) TREASURY bonds.


Coursebook exercises – U14


74/2 – VERB.NOUN COMBINATIONS:

charge interest, do business, give advice, issue bonds, issue stocks or shares, make loans, offer
advice, offer services, pass laws, pay interest, provide services, raise capital, receive deposits,
share profits


OTHER COMMON COMBINATIONS INCLUDE:

make laws, make profits, offer loans, pay a deposit, provide capital, provide loans


76/Vocabulary

1 B 2C 3E 4D 5A