Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each blank. 0 is an example.
Spain: home of the luxury espadrille
Back in the 1970s, Isabel and Lorenzo Castañer, a Spanish couple with a small artisanal business (0) … espadrilles, or alpargatas as they are known in Spain, (1) … Yves Saint Laurent in Paris. When the fashion designer discovered what they did for a living, he asked if they would be able to make a wedge version of the traditional sandal.
“My father, (2) … was always looking for new challenges, accepted,” says Antonio Castañer, now CEO of the family firm that dates back six generations.
The offer to work with Yves Saint Laurent came at a time when Castañer was facing a(n) (3) …: its traditional market, made up of farmers and villagers, was getting smaller as rural Spaniards left the countryside for the cities in search of work and better opportunities, leaving their espadrilles behind.
Now, four decades on from that meeting in the French capital, tastes have changed and the time-honored simplicity of the original espadrille is (4) … . Around a third of Castañer’s production are designs for luxury (5)… .
The espadrille’s rustic (6) … has always had its admirers but an increasingly varied range of models are now available, making it an haute couture option. In 2011, Karl Lagerfeld took Chanel’s famous two-tone dress shoe and adapted it to the traditional espadrille. A year later, Valentino created a sensation by using delicate designs (7) … the usual strong canvas for the top part. Since then, both pret-à-porter luxury companies and high street (8) … have helped put the espadrille in the center of attention. There is something special and (9) … about it, says Antonio Castañer. “It’s a return to something natural, to something hand-made, Mediterranean.”
Barcelona-based company Naguisa, a newish firm that (10) … a name for itself by reviving traditional, hand-made espadrilles, brought out its SOC model in 2012 by copying the traditional model using unusual colours. “Eight years ago we (11) … to see a trend developing for home-grown, sustainable shoes using natural materials,” says Claudia Pérez Polo, the firm’s co-founder. Naguisa exports more than 70% of its (12) … to more than 25 countries. Its designs, many of which have been copied and recopied, are sold in US trendy women’s fashion chain Anthropologie.
“When we started out, the truth is that I (13) … espadrilles,” says Pérez. But conscious it needed to attract a younger clientele, Naguisa was able to combine tradition with local know-how to build a business that could establish an international presence. Since then, other Spanish fashion designers (14) … Paloma Barceló, Like Mimika, and Prism have begun making luxury espadrilles now found in the best-known stores around the world by combining Spanish tradition with cutting-edge design.
0 Example:
A constructing
B doing
C making
1
A bumped into
B came up with
C encountered
2
A that
B which
C who
3
A downturn
B improvement
C rise
4
A in fashion
B into the fashion
C out of fashion
5
A brands
B makes
C marks
6
A exterior
B layout
C look
7
A instead
B instead of
C rather
8
A customers
B retailers
C shoppers
9
A appalling
B appealing
C disgusting
10
A had made
B has made
C made
11
A begun
B had begun
C has begun
12
A output
B input
C handouts
13
A had never worn
B never wore
C would never have worn
14
A as
B like
C such
traditional espadrille
wedge espadrilleKEY:
1A 2C 3A 4A 5A 6C 7B 8B 9B 10B 11A 12A 13C 14B
