Keeping food on the table

C1 Advanced Reading and Use of English

Part 1 — Multiple-choice cloze

For questions 1–8, read the text and choose the answer A, B, C or D that best fits each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Example (0) A build  B establish  C assemble  D construct

Answer: A

Keeping food on the table

At a simulated UN committee on the 2030 Agenda, the delegation of Kenya proposed a regional food reserve designed to protect low-income households after severe flooding. Its position paper sought to (0) ______ on previous international efforts by linking emergency food distribution to longer-term investment in local markets.

The first proposal met with resistance. Several delegations took (1) ______ with a clause allowing the committee to direct municipal spending. They argued that it fell outside the committee’s (2) ______ and asked Kenya to draft a narrower recommendation. Kenya agreed, provided that participating governments published clear criteria for how they would (3) ______ funding among districts.

Only after local suppliers had been consulted did the committee assess the (4) ______ of its distribution plan. Some towns could store enough food for several weeks, but others lacked suitable facilities. What the revised proposal offered was a phased (5) ______ for implementation, with named partners and deadlines for each stage.

To strengthen accountability, Kenya also proposed that municipal authorities (6) ______ for any substantial differences between the amounts dispatched and those received. By the end of the session, the committee had reached (7) ______. The final text asked participating governments to (8) ______ their existing commitments to publish expenditure reports even when supplies had to be purchased at short notice.

No.	A	B	C	D
1	objection	dispute	issue	criticism
2	consent	endorsement	entitlement	mandate
3	allocate	reimburse	compensate	subsidise
4	eligibility	feasibility	credibility	legitimacy
5	forecast	outcome	roadmap	record
6	account	settle	explain	justify
7	compliance	concession	permission	consensus
8	uphold	enforce	restore	renew