Text for Reading
Comprehension №1
Sam was an old farmer. He was
born on his farm and had lived on it all his life. He had married his
neighbor’s daughter, and they grew fruit and vegetables.
Sam got up at five o'clock every morning
to gather them and take a load off to market in his old truck.
There were very few vehicles on the
country roads at that time of the morning, and Sam knew how to get to market
very well, so as he was going along, he was always thinking about everything
except his driving.
One morning he was thinking about what
crops to plant for the next year's harvest, and whether to try something else.
A lot of other farmers were planting the same things which he produced, so the
prices in the market were coming down and he was getting less money.
After a few kilometres, Sam came to a
place where the small road which went in the direction of the market crossed a
bigger one, and he continued over it without stopping. He always crossed the
big road like that, because there was never any traffic on it at that time of
the morning, so there was no fear of having an accident, and anyway he was
always in a hurry, because he wanted to get to the market in time for its
opening.
But this morning a young policeman whom he
had never seen before ~ signaled to him to stop a hundred metres beyond the
crossroads.
Sam stopped beside the policeman, and the
policeman said to him, «Didn't you know that there was a sign telling you to
stop at the crossroads before going over the main road?»
«Oh, yes,» answered Sam, «I knew that
there was a sign at that point, because I go to market along this road every
morning. But what I unfortunately didn't know was that you were here.»
1. Where had Sam lived all his life?
2. What made Sam think of the crops for
the next year's harvest?
3. Why was Sam always in a hurry?
4. Why did Sam stop after he had crossed
the road?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №2
Three young men were playing
with a gun in a street in a quiet area of the town after dark when one of them
fired it by mistake without aiming it at anything. The bullet broke a window in
an old lady's house.
The young men made off at once when they
saw the damage they had done, but the old lady looked out of a window when she
heard the explosion, and she recognized one of them as the son of a man and a
woman who lived not far from her.
The old lady complained to the police, and
a detective came to her house. The old lady gave him a detailed account of
everything that had happened, and then the detective asked her if she knew where
the young man lived. The old lady told him that too, so the detective went to
the young man's house. He and his companions tried to hide, but the detective
found them and the gun and took them to the police station.
There his chief officer questioned the
young men to find out which of them owned the gun, but none of them was willing
to say. The young man who owned the gun did not dare to admit that he did,
because he did not have a license for it.
At last the chief officer decided to put
an end to the conversation, so he turned to the detective and demanded to know
whether he had got an officer's permission to take the gun away from the young
man who owned it.
The detective felt anxious when he heard
this question. «No, sir» he answered nervously, «I didn't get it.»
«In that case,» the officer declared
angrily, «you were quite wrong to take it away from him. You'd better return it
immediately, or there'll be trouble!»
This made the young men smile happily at
each other, and as soon as the detective held the gun out and said, «Here you
are,» one of them put his hand out in order to get it back. -
That is how the officer finally discovered
whom the gun belonged to.
1. Where were the three young men playing
with a gun?
2. Why was the old lady able to recognize
one of the young men?
3. Why was the owner of the gun afraid
to admit it?
4. How did the owner of the gun give
himself finally away?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №3
As the train approached the
seaside town where I was going to spend my holidays, I went into the corridor
to stretch my legs. I stayed there a short time, breathing in the fresh sea air
and talking to one of the passengers, whom I had met earlier on the station
platform.
When I turned to go back to my seat, I
happened to glance into the compartment next to mine. Sitting there was a man
who many years before had been my neighbour. He was a great talker, I
remembered; it used to take hours to get away from him once he began a
conversation. I was not at all sorry when he went to live in another part of
London. We had not met since then, nor did I wish to meet him now, when my
holiday was about to begin.
Luckily at that moment he was much too
busy talking to the man opposite him to catch sight of me. I slipped back into
my compartment, took down my two suitcases and carried them to the far end of
the corridor so as to be ready to get off the train as soon as it stopped. The
moment the train stopped, I called a porter, who in no time at all had carried
my luggage out of the station and found me a taxi. As I drove towards my small
hotel on the edge of the town, I breathed a deep sigh of relief at my narrow
escape. There was little chance that I should run into my boring ex-neighbour
again.
When I reached the hotel, I went straight
to my room and rested there until it was time for dinner. Then I went down to
the lounge and ordered a drink. I hadn't even begun to drink when an all too
familiar voice greeted me. I had not escaped from my tiresome neighbour after
all! He grasped me warmly by the hand and insisted that we should share a table
in the dining-room. «This is a pleasant surprise,» he said. «I never expected
to see you again after all these years.»
1. Where was the narrator going to spend
his holidays?
2. What did the narrator do to escape
from the man?
3. What did the narrator think about his
chance of meeting the man again in the town?
4. What did the man insist on when he saw
the narrator?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №4
Jim lived with his parents
until he was twenty-one years old, and then he got a job in the office of a big
factory in another town, so he left home. He found a comfortable little flat
which had two rooms, a small kitchen and a bathroom, and he lived there on his
own.
At first he cleaned it himself, but he did
not want to have to go on doing this, so he determined to find someone else to
do it instead of him. He asked a lot of his fellow workers at the factory what
they did about this, and at last one of the men said, «Oh, Mrs. Roper comes and
cleans my flat regularly. She washes the dishes, irons my shirts and keeps the
place neat and tidy and so on. I'll introduce you to her, if you
like. She's a charming old lady. She does
her best, but she hasn't got much energy.»
«Well, you'd better ask her to come and
see me, please,» Jim answered. So the next evening Mrs. Roper came to see him,
and she agreed with pleasure to come to his flat every morning for an hour.
After she had been working for Jim for two
weeks, he looked at the mirror in his bedroom and thought, «That mirror looks
very dusty. Mrs. Roper's forgotten to clean it. I can write on it with my
finger.» He wrote a message in the dust: «I'm coughing whenever I breathe
because everything in this room is very dusty.»
He came home at 7 o'clock that evening,
and when he had eaten his supper, he went into his bedroom and looked at the
mirror. «That silly old woman still hasn't cleaned it!» he said to himself.
«All it needs is a cloth!»
But then he bent down and saw a bottle in
front of the mirror. «I didn't put that bottle there.» He thought. «Mrs. Roper
must have left it.» He picked the bottle up and looked at it carefully.
«She's written some words on it,» he said
to himself. He read the words. They were: «Cough medicine.»
1. What kind of flat did Jim have?
2. How did Jim get to know Mrs. Roper?
3. How did Jim let Mrs. Roper know what
he thought about her work?
4. What was Mrs. Roper's answer to him?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №5
Andy Barton was in a bad
mood. It was Friday, and at six o'clock his favourite programme Travel with
us, was on TV. Andy liked to get home in good time for that. But then, just
as he was leaving the office a little early, a customer rang up with a few
complaints. The customer complained steadily for the next fifteen minutes! «I
can still get home in time if I hurry,» Andy told himself as he dashed out of
the office. But then, as he drove off in his car, he noticed that he was almost
out of petrol. «I'll have to stop at Fenton's,» Andy thought. He hated Fenton's
because it was a self-service petrol station. «You do all the work yourself,
but you pay the same for the petrol,» he used to grumble.
But at Fenton's things went wrong again!
The pump was not working properly and it took ages to get the petrol. It was
four minutes to six by
the time Andy jumped back into his car and
drove off. But at two minutes past six he was sitting in front of the
television, watching Travel with us. He was on his way to Japan!
Then the phone rang. «Shall I answer it?»
Andy thought. He tried to concentrate on Japan and forget the phone. But it
kept on ringing and finally he picked it up.
«Mr. Barton?» a voice said. «Fenton's
Garage here.»
«Fenton's?» said Andy. «Why, I was at your
place only a few minutes ago, getting some petrol. Did I leave something behind
or what?» «No, you didn't, Mr. Barton,» the voice went on. «That's just the
trouble! You didn't leave anything behind! You went off without paying for your
petrol, you see! Now normally, when that happens, we ring up the police. But
luckily I recognised you because I live on the same street as you, and I knew
it was a mistake.»
«I'm really very sorry,» Andy said.
«Oh, that's all right, Mr. Baron. These
things happen! But could you come round now and pay for your petrol? And please
hurry! We close at half past six!»
1. What was the name of Andy's favourite
programme?
2. Why did Andy dislike Fenton's Garage?
3. Why did it take longer for Andy to get
petrol?
4. Why did the man from Fenton's Garage
recognize Andy?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №6
Patrick Reilly was the
manager of a company that made washing powders, among other things. The company
employed several scientists, whose job was to find new and better kinds of
products, including washing powders.
Patrick did not know very much about
science himself, but he used to meet his scientists regularly. He always
enjoyed it and took a great interest in what they were doing.
One day one of them was in Patrick's
office, talking about plans for the future, when he said to Patrick, «I suppose
you know Sir James White. He was my professor at the university where I
studied, and now he's one of the world's greatest and most honoured
biologists.»
«Oh, yes, I know,» Patrick answered, «but
I've never actually met him. What about him?»
«Well,» said the scientist, «he's
discovered some new type of system that might be very useful to us for
improving our manufacture of soap powders. I read an article about it yesterday
in one of the scientific journals I take every month. You ought to meet him.»
«I'd like to,» Patrick answered. «What do
you think of inviting him to dinner one evening and suggesting that we might be
able to offer him a job as an adviser?»
«I agree,» the scientist replied. «That
would be an excellent decision.»
Patrick got his secretary to ring
Professor White's office at the university to give him the invitation, and they
managed to find a date on which they would both be free for dinner.
«It'll be a small family affair,» Patrick
said. «I propose to invite two of my scientific staff with their wives. One of
them was a student of yours. And I hope Lady White will be able to come too.»
«Thank you,» the professor answered, «I'm
sure she'll be delighted to.»
Patrickhad a son of sixteen, who had finished
his O-level examinations and was studying for his A-levels. While everybody was
having a drink before dinner, the boy chatted to the professor. «What do you
do?» the boy asked.
«I study biology,» the professor answered.
«Oh?» the boy answered proudly. «Well, I
finished biology last July.»
1. What did Patrick's company produce
among other things?
2. Why did Patrick's company employ
scientists?
3. Why did the scientist tell Patrick
about Sir James White?
4. How was Patrick Reilly planning to
meet Professor White?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №7
I left my friend's house
shortly after seven. It was still too early for me to have my evening meal, so
I walked along the seafront for about an hour until I began to feel hungry. By
that time I was not far from a favourite restaurant of mine, where I often went
to eat two or three times a week. I knew the owner well and frequently
complimented him on his excellent cooking.
I went into the restaurant, which was
already crowded, and ordered my meal. While I was waiting for the soup to
arrive, I looked around to see if I knew anyone in the restaurant. It was then
that I noticed that
a man sitting at a corner
table near the door kept glancing in my direction as if he knew me. I certainly
did not know him, for I never forget a face' The man had a newspaper open in
front of him, which he was pretending to read, though all the while I could see
that he was keeping an eye on me. When the waiter brought my soup, the man was
clearly puzzled by the familiar way in which the waiter and I addressed each
other. He became even more puzzled as time went on and it grew more and more
obvious that I was well known in the restaurant. Eventually he got up and went
into the kitchen. After a few minutes he came out again, paid his bill and left
without another glance in my direction.
When I had finished and was about to pay
my bill, I called the owner of the restaurant over and asked him what the man
had wanted. The owner was a little embarrassed by my question and at first he
did not want to tell me. I insisted. «Well,» he said, «that man was a
detective.» «Really?» I said, considerably surprised. «He was certainly very
interested in me. But why?» «He followed you here because he thought you were a
man he was looking for,» the owner of the restaurant said. «When he came into
the kitchen, he showed me a photograph of the wanted man. He certainly looked
like you! Of course, since we know you here, I was able to convince him that he
had made a mistake.» «It's lucky I came to a restaurant where I am known,» I
said, «otherwise I might have been arrested!»
1. Why did the narrator walk along the
seafront for about an hour?
2. Why was the narrator sure that he had
never met the man with a newspaper before?
3. What was the man with a newspaper
puzzled by?
4. Why did the detective follow the
narrator?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №8
Nick was bored with life.
Every day was exactly the same. He got up at exactly the same time; he caught
the same bus to work; he did the same things in the office; he talked to the
same people; he came home at the same time; he watched the same programmes on
television — and he went to bed at the same time!
«What I need is a little adventure!» Nick
thought as he waited at the bus-stop one morning. Nick's «little adventure»
happened sooner than he expected!
While he was on the bus, reading his
newspaper (the same one that he read every morning), the man sitting next to
him suddenly pushed a large brown envelope into his hands. «Here, take this!»
he muttered. Then he stood up and got off the bus before Nick could say a word.
Nick sat there, holding the envelope. It
felt heavy. There were papers inside, or money perhaps. «I'd better hand it
over to the police,» he thought. There was a police-station close to his
office. But, as he got off the bus, a man approached him. He was obviously
waiting for something. «He wants the envelope,» Nick thought. Nick began to
walk quickly—and the man hurried after him. Nick started to run — and the man
began to run too. But then, just before he got to the police station, Nick
managed to lose the man in the crowds. When he entered the police station, the
man was no longer in sight.
Inside the police-station, Nick handed
over the envelope to the inspector in charge. The inspector opened it. The
envelope was full of money —false money. «Obviously the man made a mistake,»
the inspector said. «He thought you were one of the gang! Well,
congratulations!»
Nick felt like a hero. He could already
see his name in all the papers. He could imagine an interview on television!
«However,» the inspector went on,
interrupting Nick's day-dreams, «I'm afraid I must ask you to keep quiet about
all this. We're trying to catch some very clever thieves — and we don't want
them to know that we have some of the money. So you mustn't say a word to
anyone — not even your boss! Sorry!»
«So that's that!» Nick said to himself on
his way to the office. He was over an hour late. «I' ve had my little
adventure... but I can't tell anyone about it, so what's the point? I've even
got to make up an excuse for the boss!»
1. Where did Nick work?
2. Why did the man give the envelope to
Nick? What criminals were the police trying to catch?
3. Why did Nick feel disappointed after
his «little adventure»?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №9
We were lucky that morning.
The train was not very crowded and we managed to get a corner seat to ourselves
in one of those long open carriages. «I don't like this sort of carriage,» Mark
said as he took out papers for our meeting, «but at least you get a table to
work on!»I fetched some coffee and biscuits from the restaurant car and we
settled down to work. People passed up and down the train, and once the ticket
inspector came to look at our tickets. But, apart from that, it was a peaceful
journey.
«Good!» said Mark after an hour or so. «I
think we've just about finished.» He began to put away his papers. «What time
is it?» he asked. «My watch has stopped.» «About nine-thirty, I reckon,» I
said. «Hold on a moment. My watch is here somewhere on the table.»
I looked under my own papers, and then on
the floor, but there was no sign of my watch. It was not in my pockets, either.
«You didn't put it in your bag, did you?»
I asked Mark. «Along with your papers.» He checked, but the watch was not
there.
«It's very odd,» I said. «I remember
taking it off and putting it on the table when we started work. No one's been
near us except the ticket collector — and he didn't pick it up!»
«Someone came and cleared away the coffee
cups,» Mark said. «I remember seeing a man with a big plastic bag.»
The man with the plastic bag came from the
restaurant car, one of the passengers informed us. I went along there to see
him and I explained my problem.
«Are you sure?» the man asked. «Look,
there's the bag - full of rubbish. I don't want to empty everything out if
you're not sure.»
«I can't be absolutely certain,» I said,
«but my watch was on the table. I'll look in the bag myself if you like.
It's a very expensive watch!»
«Well, in that case, we'd better have a
look, sir,» the man said and emptied everything out on the floor. There, among
the paper coffee cups, half-eaten biscuits and pieces of paper, lay my very
valuable watch!.
«Phew!» I said. «I think I need another
cup of coffee after that!»
«Sorry, sir,» the man snapped. «The
restaurant car is closed. We're almost at London.»
1. Why were the narrator and his friend
lucky that morning?
2. Who informed the narrator where the
man with the plastic bag came from?
3. What things besides the watch were
there in the plastic bag?
4. Why couldn't the two friends have
another cup of coffee?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №10
Aunt Jane is now well over
seventy, but she is still a great cinema-goer. The cinema in our town closed
down years ago and sometimes she has to travel twenty miles or more to see a
good film. And once a month at least she goes up to London to see the latest
foreign films. Of course she could see most of these films on television, but
the idea does not attract her. «It isn't the same,» she says. «For one thing,
the screen's too small. Besides, I like going to the cinema!»
One thing has always puzzled us. Although
Aunt Jane has lots of friends and always enjoys company, she always goes to the
cinema alone. We discovered the reason for this only recently — from mother.
«It may surprise you to learn that Aunt Jane wanted to be an actress when she
was young,» she told us. «She used to wait outside film studios all day,
just to appear in crowd scenes. Your aunt
has probably appeared in dozens of films — as a face in the crowd at a railway
station or in the street! Sometimes she did not even know the name of the film
they were making, so she couldn't go to see herself at the cinema!
«All the time, of course, she was looking
for a small part in a film. Her big chance came when they started to make a
film in our town. Jane managed to meet the director at a party, and he offered
her a role as a shopkeeper. It really was a very small part — she only had a
few lines to say — but it was an important moment for Jane. Before the great
event, she rehearsed for days. In fact, she turned the sitting-room into a
shop! We all had to help, going in and out of the shop until she was word
perfect. And on the actual day she was marvelous. The director congratulated
her. Jane thought that this was the beginning of her film career!
«Unfortunately, in the end, they did not
include the shop scene in the film. But nobody told Jane! When the film first
appeared in London, she took all her friends to see it. And of course she
wasn't in it! It was a terrible blow! She stopped going to film studios and
gave up the idea of becoming an actress. She still loves the cinema, as you all
know, but from that day she has always gone alone!»
1. Why does Aunt Jane have to travel a
long distance to see a good film?
2. Why couldn't Jane sometimes go to see
herself at the cinema?
3. How did Jane get to know the director
of a film?
4. What turned out to be a big blow to
Jane's hopes?
Text
for Reading Comprehension №11
George Robinson was ambitious
but not very clever when he was at school, and he left when he was sixteen. At
first he did not know what to do, but then he tried selling cheap toys in the
street, and it quickly became clear that he was a clever businessman. Soon,
without much struggle, he had a small shop of his own.
Before he was thirty he had quite a big
factory for making toys, and had succeeded in making a considerable fortune.
George had always been interested in local
politics. He was elected to the town council when he was thirty-two, and was
such a busy and useful member of it that he rapidly became mayor.
Although he was very successful in
international industry as well as in local government, George was still not a
very well-educated man, and as he was also a very busy one, he began to have
the speeches he had to
make written for him by a special
speechwriter. George never had any difficulties with him and got quite used to
trusting him. In the end he did not trouble even to look at what he was given
until it was time to make the speech.
Then one day George had to make an
important speech at a formal official ceremony marking the opening of a new
library. He had been away on urgent business for a week before this occasion,
so he had had no time to read through his speech at all.
When it was his turn to speak to the
audience, he stood up on the stage, took his speech out of his pocket and began
to read it. He enjoyed jokes, and always asked his speechwriter to put a few
good ones in each speech he wrote for him, to put his audience in good temper.
This time, sure enough, he came to the words, «And that reminds me of one of my
favourite stories».
George had actually never heard that story
before, and when he looked at it before reading it aloud, he burst out laughing
and laughed so much that he fell off the platform on which he was standing and
broke his arm.
1. Where was George Robinson elected to
at the age of 32?
2. Why did George use a speechwriter?
3. Why did George not know what was in
his speech?
4. What happened to George when he burst
out laughing?
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