BRITISH THEATRE

The theatre has always been very strong in Britain. Its centre is, of course, London, where successful plays can   1   run__ without a break for many years. London has several dozens of theatres, most of them not   2 far  _ from Trafalgar Square.   3  Outside _ London even some quite big towns have no public theatre at all, but every town has its private theatres. British theatre is much admired. There you can   4   _get___ the best of everything – an excellent orchestra, famous conductors, celebrated actors and a well-dressed   5   _audience___.
Choose a good play, and you’ll enjoy yourself throughout from the moment the curtain   6   goes up____to the end of the last act. Get your seats beforehand, either at the box-office or at the theatre itself. You’ll probably want to sit as near to the   7   _stage___ as possible.

1. А) show Б) perform В) run Г) produce

2. А) far Б) remote В) distant Г) close

3. А) Inside Б) Outside В) In Г) Out

4. А) take Б) give В) hold   Г) get

5. А) audience Б) auditorium В) authority Г) publicity

6. А) puts up Б) sets up В) makes up Г) goes up

7. А) scene Б) stage В) scenery Г) performance

.                                                                     A CHINESE VASE

When I was a child I loved visiting my grandmother. I thought her house was as beautiful as a palace. As I grew older the house and garden seemed smaller, but I still loved visiting the old lady. There were so many lovely things to look   1   _at____ in the house.

I loved her paintings and the old clock, but   2   most of__all I loved a big Chinese vase which stood in the hall. It was   3   _taller than me, and I couldn’t see   4   _inside____ it. I walked round and round it looking at the beautiful ladies and the birds and flowers and trees, and Grandmother often   5   __told_ me stories about these ladies. She said that her grandfather had brought the vase with him when he returned from a long   6   _voyage to China.

We live in a modern house, and I’m afraid my husband and I often nag at the children. “Don’t make the new carpet dirty, Paul!” “Be careful with the new table, Philip!”

Before she died, Grandmother gave me the vase I loved so much. It   7   _looked beautiful in our modern hall.
One day I came home from the shop. The boys met me at the door. “I’m as strong as George Bes, Mummy,” said Paul. “I got a goal and I broke the vase.” Philip tried to be more diplomatic than Paul, “It doesn’t really matter, does it? You told us it wasn’t new. You aren’t cross, are you?”

1. А) out Б) at В) into Г) about

2. А) mostly Б) great of В) greatly Г) most of

3. А) higher Б) larger В) taller Г) greater

4. А) about Б) around В) inside Г) outside

5. А) said Б) spoke В) talked Г) told

6. А) voyage Б) tour В) hike Г) excursion

7. А) looked Б) viewed В) appeared Г) seemed

A QUIET HOUSE

It was April and John Moore was studying for an important examination. As the date of the exam 1 _moved nearer, he decided to go somewhere and read by himself.

He did not want the amusements of the seaside, or the beauties of the countryside. He decided to find a quiet, little town and work there undisturbed. He 2 _packed his suitcase with clothes and books. Then he looked in a railway timetable for a town that he did not know. He found one, and bought a ticket to go there. He did not tell anyone where he was going. After all, he did not want to be 3 _bothered.

That is how Moore arrived at Benchurch. It was a market town, and once a week it was quite busy for a few hours. The rest of the time it was a very quiet and sleepy place. Moore spent his first night at the only hotel in the town. The landlady was very kind and helpful, but the hotel was not really quiet enough for him. The second day he started 4 _looking for a house to rent.

There was only one place that he liked. It was more than quiet – it was deserted and very lonely. It was a big, old seventeenth-century house. It had barred windows like a prison, and a high brick wall all around it. It would be hard to 5 _imagine a more unwelcoming place. But it suited Moore perfectly. He went to find the local lawyer, who was responsible for the house.

Mr. Carnford, the lawyer, was very happy to rent the house to him. “I’d be glad to let you have it free,” he said, “. It’s been empty so long that people have started to 6 _spread a lot of foolish stories about it. You’ll be able to prove that the stories are wrong.

Moore didn’t think it was necessary to ask the lawyer for more details of the foolish stories. He paid his rent, and Mr. Carnford gave him the name of an old servant to 7 _look after him. He came away from the lawyer with the keys of the house in his pocket.

Looking for a job

My new home was a long way from the center of London but it was becoming essential to find a job, so 1 _finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and applying to London Transport for a job on the tube. It turned out that they were looking for guards, not drivers. This 2 _suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but I could probably guard a train and perhaps continue to write poems between stations. “Yes, I would be a tube guard,” I thought. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis.

The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other 3 _candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. The examiner sat at a desk. You were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been 4 _dismissed. Sometimes the person was rejected quickly and sometimes after quite a while. Obviously the longer interviews were the most successful ones. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half. I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job, “Why did you leave your job before that? “And the one before?” I can’t 5 _recall my answers, except they were short at first and grew shorter as we continued. His closing statement 6 _revealed a lack of sensitivity, which helped to explain why as a psychologist he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You have failed this test and we are unable to offer you a position.” Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such a job 7 _expects exactly this sort of elementary responsibility a dreamer like me is unlikely to have. But, I was still far short of self-understanding as well as short of cash.

Tracy

Tracy was as excited as a child about her first trip abroad. Early in the morning, she stopped at a 1 _travel agency and reserved a suite on the Signal Deck of the Queen Elizabeth II. The next three days she spent buying clothes and luggage.

On the morning of the sailing, Tracy hired a limousine to drive her to the pier. When she 2 _arrived at Pier 90, where the Queen Elizabeth II was docked, it was crowded with photographers and television reporters, and for a moment Tracy was panic stricken. Then she realized they were interviewing the two men posturing at the foot of the gangplank. The members of the crew were helping the passengers with their luggage. On deck, a steward looked at Tracy’s ticket and 3 _directed her to her stateroom. It was a lovely suite with a private terrace. It had been ridiculously expensive but Tracy 4 _assured it was worth it.

She unpacked and then wandered along the corridor. In almost every cabin there were farewell parties going on, with laughter and champagne and conversation. She felt a sudden ache of loneliness. There was no one to see her 5 _off, no one for her to care about, and no one who cared about her. She was sailing into a completely unknown future.

Suddenly she felt the huge ship shudder as the tugs started to pull it out of the harbor, and she stood 6 _among the passengers on the boat deck, watching the Statue of Liberty slide out of 7 _sight, and then she went exploring.

Busy Day

Let me tell you what happened once when my dear Uncle Podger decided to hang a picture on the wall. He told us not to   1 _worry and just watch him do it. He said he would do it by himself. Well, he came up to the picture which was waiting to be put up in the dining room and took it. But suddenly it fell down and the glass   2 broke_ into pieces and he cut his finger. He started to   3 _look for his handkerchief but couldn’t find it because he had put it in his coat and none of us knew where his coat was.
“Six of you!” Uncle Podger exclaimed, “and you cannot find the coat that I put down only five minutes ago!” But then he got up from his chair and found that he had been sitting on his coat the whole time. “Oh, you can stop your   4 _search. I’ve found it myself!”
Then after an hour was spent in tying up his finger Uncle Podger wondered where the hammer had disappeared to. And while everybody was trying to get the hammer he was standing on the chair saying: “Well, I want to know if you are going to   5 keep_ me here all evening!”
Finally the hammer was found, but we noticed that the nail which he had prepared was lost. And, of course, Uncle Podger didn’t keep   6 _silent while he was waiting for another nail to be brought. We heard all he had to say about our habit of losing all the things he needed.
When the picture was hanging on the wall at last, everybody looked very   7 _tired, all except Uncle Podger, who was lively as ever. Aunt Maria remarked that if Uncle Podger wanted to do a job like that again, she would spend a week with her mother until it was over.

1. A) scare  B) disturb  C) worry  D) fear

2. A) failed B) broke C) ruined D) fell

3. A) look at B) look to C) look after D) look for

4. A) search B) investigation  C) exploration  D) study

5. A) stay B) keep C) put D) take

6. A) dumb B) cool C) still D) silent

7. A) dull B) tired C) fresh D) boring

A Storyteller

In my early 20s, after a year and a half in England, and four months in France, I returned to the United States and got a job at a camp in northern Virginia. My   1 _partner that summer was Dan from Mississippi, and I am from Rhode Island. We worked together with a group of boys from 12 to 14 years old. I've always been a bit untidy, but Dan was   2 _neat and clean, even after a night in the woods with our campers. We could not have been more different, but we got on because we shared the same   3 _sense of humor.
At the end of the summer, a few of us went to   4 explore_ a cave in West Virginia and got stuck in the cave for the night. It wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds. The park rangers had told us to stay there if anything happened. They knew where we were going, and when we should have been back. Dan hurt his right foot badly. So we had to   5 _spend the night in the cave. Food and water were not a problem, but we turned off our lights to save power. In the distance, we could hear the sound of running water.
To   6 _pass the time, we told stories. That night in the cave we moved from one family story to another. As the night wore on, I remembered more and more. I was not alone–the cave, the blue light and the flowing water released stories and memories that we had never revealed to anyone. It was as if a river of stories had started flowing in each of us.
When the rangers came the next morning, we didn’t want to   7 _leave. "Can't we just tell a few more stories?" In the cave, that night, I became a storyteller.

1. A) friend  B) teammate  C) partner  D) opponent

2. A) clear  B) neat C) exact D) careful

3. A) feeling B) emotion C) reason D) sense

4. A) explore B) analyze C) teach D) learn

5. A) lead B) spend C) hold D) waste

6. A) keep B) waste C) spare D) pass

7. A) escape B) leave C) remain D) retire

New York City: Nostalgia for the Old Neighbourhood

Life is made up of little things: some unimportant memories from childhood that, in fact, shaped your character. I   1 _grew up on Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan during the 1950s-60s where family life was centred around old   2 _blocks of flats and small stores. Third Avenue was my old neighbourhood and it had character. It was   3 _filled with working families of Italian, German and Irish origin. We shopped together with all those people and their kids played together. Third Avenue influenced the way our family lived. I absorbed the street life. It gave me an   4 _education that I could not have received in any other place. To me, it was home.
In a recent walk around Third Avenue my eyes   5 _looked for signs of the old neighbourhood but couldn’t find any. If I hadn't been born here and someone described the area, it would be   6 _hard to believe. It wasn't because a few buildings had changed – everything had changed. The transformation began in the late 1950s and 60s when corporations replaced the old neighbourhood. In the early 1960s, the houses were pulled down. Families were forced to   7 move out_, the small stores went out of business and the old neighbourhood was changed forever. And now there is a lack of character in the transformed neighbourhood.

1. A)  brought up B)  grew up C)  went up D) got up

2. A) blocks B) houses C) groups D) sets

3. A) covered B) held C) loaded D) filled

4. A) knowledge B) information C) education D) training

5. A) looked after B) looked for C) looked through D) looked at

6. A) hard B) easy C) strange D) heavy

7. A) stay out B) take out C) move out D) go out

                                                             To Hear A Child

I believe in patience. I live as a volunteer residential counselor in a small group home. These boys have brought joy and happiness into my life; they have made me laugh and made me proud. However, they have also challenged me, made me angry and tested my patience.
Each day we start anew, going about a   1 daily routine. I drive them to school, pick them up, cook for them and help with homework. We spend the evenings   2 _talkng about what happened during the day. I meet their teachers and study for tests with them. They are the last people I see each night and the first ones I hear in the morning. They have become a   3 _part of my life. I am twenty-two and am beginning to understand the love of a parent.
I could not have come this far without patience. They do not think like miniature adults and it is not fair to expect them to.   4 __although my expectations of them are high, I must remember that so much of what they see and understand is for the first time. First loves, first failed test, first time feeling the need to break away from the nest. I must have patience with them, because there is still a child within that comes out when I least expect it.
This world is a fast-paced, fast food, fast-internet place.   5 _nevertheless, no matter how fast things move, children will be children. I believe they will mature quicker and with more tools if I am patient. I see it in their eyes. Over time, sad eyes can glisten again, but only if I am   6 _aware of the fact that it takes them longer to get somewhere.
I see around them a world that expects too much of them. They come   7 _through too many things that give them too much sadness. They listen to me, respect me and understand reason but not always when I want them to. This opportunity has given me wisdom but only when I was patient enough to hear a child.

1. A)  daily  B) common  C)  average  D) traditional

2. A) discussing  B) debating  C) talking  D) saying

3. A) bit  B) part  C) parcel  D) piece

4. A) also  B) altogether  C) although  D) thus

5. A) nevertheless  B) nevermore  C) although  D) therefore

6. A) common  B) familiar  C) aware  D) acquainted

7. A) through  B) along  C) upon  D) across

Bo

It was raining. The rain started early in the morning and it seemed, that it would never stop. Looking out of the window, Bo was thinking about his telephone conversation. Raindrops spattered the windshield as the taxi sliced through   1 _heavy traffic on Park Avenue. There were too many cars as usual. When it had skidded to a halt at the curb, Bo gave a ten-dollar bill to the driver. That included a very generous tip. He   2 _reached his point of destination and was ready to take on Frank Ramsey. He had called Ramsey that morning from the Yale club and demanded the meeting. Ramsey had tried to avoid it but Bo insisted and Ramsey gave   3 _in.
At the building’s revolving doors, Bo glanced back over his shoulder through the rain and noticed a woman standing on the sidewalk a short distance away. In the dim light he could not get a clear picture. She   4 _looked so much like Tiffany. She was wearing a yellow top and had long blond hair. Standing absolutely   5 _still beneath her umbrella while everything around her moved, she seemed to be gazing sraight at him. His heart   6 _sank, the way it always did when he saw her. He couldn’t help it. Bo strained to   7 _take sight of her as he was jostled into the doorway. When he cleared the doors, the woman had already disappeared.

1. A) solid  B) heavy  C) hard  D) difficult

2. A) achieved  B) arrived  C) entered  D) reached

3. A) to  B) on  C) in  D) off

4. A) stared  B) gazed  C) looked  D) glanced

5. A) inert  B) static  C) quiet  D) still

6. A) set  B) sank  C) moved  D) dropped 

7. A) keep  B) hold  C) take  D) give