Vocabulary & grammar

9 Match each word from column a with its opposite from column b. The example is given in bold.

A	B
despite	spend
professional	ordinary
talent	boredom
entertain	ugly
earn	amateur
poor	unknown
strange	thanks to
give up	bore
fun	ham
famous	start
beautiful	wealthy

10 Fill in the correct word from the list below. Use the words only once.

1 ___________ audiences

2 _______ a living

3 _______ show

4 _______ of events

5 ________ industry

6 _____ song

7 _________ and minds

8 ________ choir

9 __________ lesson

10 ________ theatre

11 Replace the words in bold with their synonyms from the box.

Although she is now one of the richest and most 1) successful artists in America, Gloria Estefan is not the 2) typical rock star. She’s never had anything to do with drugs or alcohol, and her marriage to Emilio, who was her first and only love, is 3) blissfully happy. Her biggest 4) worry is her son, Nayib. She doesn’t want him to become spoilt by having too much money. A few years ago, when Nayib was behaving very badly, she 5) took away all his toys. ‘I left only his books. He lived like that for a year. I told him he was going to have to realize what it was like to have nothing.’

Gloria has a lot to smile about — a $6 million 6) mansion on Star Island, Miami, her 7) own yacht, and enough money to buy anything she wants. But she has also had to 8) struggle 9) hard in her life. Gloria herself, however, doesn’t see it that way. ‘Everybody’s life is tough sometimes, and other people have had far worse problems than me. I’ve always felt very lucky to have what I have. I certainly felt this when I had to go to the clinic after my accident and saw all the 10) terrible things that had happened to other people in the course of their normal lives. It showed me that we live right on the edge.’

12 Fill in the correct particle(s).

1 Take care not to get _____ the sound producer, he could have you dismissed.

2 How is Tom getting ________ with his new book about music?

3 Do get your rock star __________ to see us.

4 I got _____ with the payments, so they came and took the tape-recorder away.

5 I have to go and work, I must get _____ my next song.

6 He gets ____ on loud music, but I don't.

7 He was surprised to get ___ at his first music festival.

8 Since I gained weight, I can't get _____ my best concert suit.

9 Michael got _____ music when he was only fourteen.

10 I've got this song ____ by heart already.