1.   What evidence is there in the text for thinking that Doreen Stannard is not enthusiastic about her husband’s collection of beer-mats?
Doreen isn’t happy about her husband’s collection of beer-mats

because she said, “If he died, I’d have a wonderful bonfire.”
 

2.   Why does Tim Stannard not know exactly how many beer-mats he has?
Because he never really finishes the task of sorting them all out, as the numbers keep growing.

3.   What is Tim’s principal motivation for continuing to collect beer-mats?
Tim’s fear is Tim’s motivation: he is afraid of being overtaken by someone else if he stops collecting beer-mats.

4.   What evidence does the text give for thinking that the motivation for Tim’s hobby is not primarily a financial one?
Some of his rare specimens are more than £15 worth. His whole collection has a value of probably £ 25,000.

5.   What problems has Tim’s hobby caused for the family home?
The entire floor of the loft was reinforced to support the weigth of the collection, when the house was extended to provide more roof space for the beer-mats.

6.   What hopes does Tim have for the future?
Tim’s hope is that much older collectors will decide to pass on their collections to him. As a result of this he would leave potential rivals far behind him.

7.   What do you think is meant by the phrase “cheap and nasty” when applied to Spanish beer-mats?
I think it means that the Spanish beer-mats has a poor qualtity because of a cheap production.

8.   What other information given in the text indicates that Tim Stannard is an unusual person?
Tim is an unusual person because he has a huge collection of

munitions in his garage.

 

Language (The language you are writing in)