Задание 24 на текст и пропущенные слова

The Archipelago
In the remote southern seas there is a cluster of islands. Each island is inhabited by a different race of people. Although physically they look alike, you can tell them OUT / OFF / APART / ASIDE by their styles of dress and their distinctive dialects. Each island has its own unique form of architecture. The only similarity between them is that each race builds in a manner that is OVER / AT / AGAINST / ON odds with the environment. On rocky hillsides there are wooden huts and in wooded valleys you can see towns of brick. Arid uplands are irrigated and planted with leafy gardens, whereas, on fertile plains, the parks are paved with stone. DESPITE / IN SPITE / BESIDES / ALTHOUGH their differences, the islanders coexist peacefully. There is rivalry over certain fishing waters but it rarely RAISES / ATTAINS / AMOUNTS / ACHIEVES to more than a few heated exchanges.

At the centre of the archipelago, perhaps in the most favoured spot of all, lies an island that has been deserted for many generations. It looks very different from the rest: darker, taller, silent. There is no obvious reason WITH / TO / OF / FOR its abandonment as it has good soil and plenty of freshwater.

Long ago, it was inhabited by farmers and fishermen much like everywhere else in the archipelago, but everything changed when they started building the first wall. As soon as it was finished a second circle of battlements began to rise from the centre, slightly narrower than the one before, so that from faraway the island RECOLLECTED / REMINDED / RESEMBLED / REMEMBERED an enormous wedding cake.

Nobody can explain why the wall was started but there are many theories as to why it was never finished. Some say that so many had perished during its construction, that no one dared halt the work and thereby admit that it had all been in vain. Others claim that the builders simply WENT / RAN / GREW / CAME out of materials. But one thing is certain, the predicted threat never arrived and the people at the centre of the archipelago had, quite simply, bricked themselves in.

The Archipelago
In the remote southern seas there is a cluster of islands. Each island is inhabited by a different race of people. Although physically they look alike, you can tell them APART by their styles of dress and their distinctive dialects. Each island has its own unique form of architecture. The only similarity between them is that each race builds in a manner that is AT odds with the environment. On rocky hillsides there are wooden huts and in wooded valleys you can see towns of brick. Arid uplands are irrigated and planted with leafy gardens, whereas, on fertile plains, the parks are paved with stone. DESPITE their differences, the islanders coexist peacefully. There is rivalry over certain fishing waters but it rarely AMOUNTS to more than a few heated exchanges.

At the centre of the archipelago, perhaps in the most favoured spot of all, lies an island that has been deserted for many generations. It looks very different from the rest: darker, taller, silent. There is no obvious reason FOR its abandonment as it has good soil and plenty of freshwater.

Long ago, it was inhabited by farmers and fishermen much like everywhere else in the archipelago, but everything changed when they started building the first wall. As soon as it was finished a second circle of battlements began to rise from the centre, slightly narrower than the one before, so that from faraway the island RESEMBLED an enormous wedding cake.

Nobody can explain why the wall was started but there are many theories as to why it was never finished. Some say that so many had perished during its construction, that no one dared halt the work and thereby admit that it had all been in vain. Others claim that the builders simply RAN out of materials. But one thing is certain, the predicted threat never arrived and the people at the centre of the archipelago had, quite simply, bricked themselves in.