“Ordinary” was the worst word she could find for anything. She and I would argue fiercely because I wanted to be ordinary as desperately as my mother wanted to be 1 _peculiar .

“I can’t 2 _stand that hair-do”, she said when I went to the hairdresser with my friend and came back with a pageboy haircut straight out of Seventeen magazine, “It’s so terribly ordinary”. Not ugly, not unsuitable. But ordinary.

Her 3 _fear of ordinariness came out most strongly in her clothes.

“Couldn’t you please 4 _dress something else?” I asked her when she was dressing for Parents’ Day in tight-fitting pants and a bright pink sweater, with a Mexican cape.

“What’s wrong with my outfit?”

What wasn’t wrong with it!

“It’s just that I wish it would be something more plain,” I said sheepishly, “something that people won’t 5 _stare at.”

She looked at me angrily and drew herself 6 _up to her full height of five feet ten inches.

“Are you 7 _ashamed of your own mother? Because if you are, Isadora, I feel 8 _sorry for you. I really do.”

1. A) uncommon; Б) unusual; В) odd; Г) peculiar

2. A) stand; Б) approve; В) agree; Г) vote

3. A) worry; Б) trouble; В) panic; Г) fear

4. A) dress; Б) put; В) wear; Г) clothe

5. A) watch; Б) stare; В) glance; Г) peep

6. A) up; Б) on; В) over; Г) at

7. A) sorry; Б) shamed; В) ashamed; Г) angry

8. A) regretful; Б) sorry; В) guilty; Г) unhappy