1 You will hear Donna Lowdon talking about her childhood. For questions 1-6, complete the sentences.
Donna has 1)____________ siblings. On a school day, Donna had to get up at 2)__________ . There weren’t many 3)___________ between the children in Donna’s family. The children became very noisy around 4) _________ . These days, Donna and her siblings usually meet at 5)_________ and 6)_________.
2 You are going to read a magazine article in which four people talk about their neighbours. For questions 1-5, choose from the people A-D. A person may be chosen more than once.
They say “good fences make good neighbours”, but this doesn’t apply in Mrs. Beasley’s case. Edwina Beasley has managed to find a way of sticking her busybody nose into my business, though I barely speak a word to her when she starts asking me personal things. She’s even taken it upon herself to find me a wife! Imagine my shock, when she knocked on my door last Sunday, in the company of a woman I’d never seen before and told me: “This is Mary Allen, dear, I’m sure you two have a lot in common, so I’ll let you get to know each other.” And then she left, almost certain that Mary Allen and I will name our first child after her!
The truth is I grew up to believe that our neighbours were also our friends, all of us sharing our joys and sorrows as they presented themselves in our small but closely-knit community. Unfortunately, this was not the case in the big city I moved to. I realized that trying to be friends with your neighbours and be there for them in times of need was not always welcome when my next-door neighbor told me to mind my own business and stop trying to control other people’s lives. All I had done was knock on her door to see if she was alright on a night I’d heard her crying out loudly!
Don’t get me wrong, I love animals. Be it feathered, furry, two-legged or crawling, I simply adore all creatures. Except one: Mr. Watson’s poodle, Lulu. Though Mr. Watson is a great neighbor, Lulu gets on my nerves so much that I’m seriously thinking of kidnapping her and secretly replacing her with a more tolerable look-alike. Not only does Lulu steal my newspaper every morning, she is also very selective with my friends. Whenever I have friends over that she doesn’t like, she will stand outside my door barking or howling for hours if Mr. Watson isn’t home to come and pick her up. I know you’re supposed to “love thy neighbor”, but do you have to love his dog too?
I know you can’t really choose your neighbours, but I thought that I had chosen the right ones when I decided to move to a nice, peaceful street where mostly elderly people resided. What I hadn’t thought of was that these wonderful, friendly people, who mostly kept to themselves, had children and noisy grandchildren who visited on Sunday morning. Worst of all what I didn’t know was the same, seemingly quiet senior citizens would be having band practice every Saturday morning in the house right next to mine. I’m really having second thoughts about this neighbourhood!
4) has a neighbour who interferes in their social life?
5 ) got something different to what they expected?
6 ) had to get used(привыкать) to a new reality?
1 Underline the correct item.
1) Mary rarely agrees/approves with her friend’s views, but this doesn’t affect their friendship.
2) Jane and George got married in the States, so many of their ancestors/relatives from Scotland found it difficult to be there for the wedding.
3) Tony is of Italian generation/origin , but he grew up in England.
4) They wanted to have a very small and quiet wedding, so they only invited members of their extended/immediate families and very few friends.
5) He’s always making/picking fights with his neighbours! It’s difficult to make friends with him!
2 Underline the correct verb form
1) By the time we arrive at the theatre, the play will start/will have started.
2) Linda had been trying/was trying to find a present for her mum for over an hour before she finally saw/had seen something nice to buy her.
3) Mark has just had/is just having a fight with Tom because he used Mark’s laptop without asking him.
4) He smells/is smelling the flowers. They smell/are smelling very well.
5) Watch out! You are crashing/are going to crash into that tree!