Comprehension , Upper Intermediate , Advanced [ 3 ]

3 - ] Comprehension  

Upper Intermediate & Advanced

Read the following , then answer the question below :

            We’re ‘animal people’ who enjoy the company of all kinds of creatures. Consider the typical chain of events , leading to total confusion , which began one afternoon . My daughter telephoned me ay work with the news that she had found a wonderful pine snake.   

             ‘Can we keep him ?’ she cried , I said ‘Yes , but only overnight.’ We had set up a special tank for just such passers-through , overnight being long enough to admire and look them up in our well-used natural history book .

              I was late getting home . I hurriedly put a pot on to boil just as screams of ‘oh , Mother ! Help ! Do something !’ came from my sons’ bedroom . I leapt to it .

               The crisis involved Domino the cat and Bianca the white mouse given to me as a Mother’s Day present . ( I’ve heard that some mothers get perfume . ) Domino , with mouse feet waving from his jaws , ran round and round the bedroom that was crowded with furniture and children .

                 Looking for a way out so he could enjoy his catch , Domino had so far avoided the forest of waving arms . I threw myself into the confusion and promptly tripped over something of someone to find myself on the floor .

                  As I thought about dropping my full weight on Domino when he next came past , my eyes locked on the snake . It had escaped - or , more correctly , was escaping . It was pouring itself up and out and off the table and all over the floor . I crouched like a rabbit at the approach of its bullish head , and long powerful body .

                The snake and I were now both being jumped over by cat / mouse / kids in a screaming , leaping , hissing mass - the snake striking at every moment , the dog barking wildly .

                The pot boiled over in the kitchen and I raced to shut off the gas , returning to the battle with new strength . This time I successfully captured Domino by the tail , and pulled the small , damp and miraculously uninjured mouse from his growling jaws . Incidentally , the same mouse was caught by the same cat three more times during its lifetime , but eventually died of old age .

                 Encouraged by mu success with the cat , I looked the snake over for weak points . It didn’t have any . In the end , I sat on the floor like a snake-charmer , rocking backwards and forwards , but within a flute . Gradually the snake relaxed enough to drop its head on to its piled-up body , but its eyes still shone with suspicion . I eventually ever-so-slowly eased my hands beneath the piled-up snake and gradually raised myself to a kneeling position , then I stood up and walked to the very end of the garden where I gave the snake the choice of living happily ever after on the garden shed by pointing it in the direction of a handy tree .

                    But when I finally gathered enough courage to release the snake’s head - fully expecting it to swing instantly around to crush my face in its powerful jaws - it slid away from the tree and up over my shoulders where , like a colorful leathery shawl , it gave every sign of making itself comfortable for the winter .

                  We stood in the gathering dusk , four young children , Mum and the snake . DJ , my eldest , broke the heavy silence with a scientific explanation : ‘ You know what it is , Mum ? You’re nice and fat and warm , and the shed isn’t .’ I had the children gather at the snake’s tail end and gently encourage it to move on . Slowly and unwillingly it did so . Without a backward glance , the snake traveled smoothly up the wall to disappear over the now night-shadowed roof .

                         As the last tiny bit of tail disappeared from our property , three-year old Clay sighed and said it for all of us : ‘Boy , that was one big snake !’   

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1 . Why did the children start shouting ?

( A ) They were arguing about what to do .

( B ) The cat had eaten the mouse .

( C ) The snake had frightened them .

( D ) They wanted their mother to save the mouse .

2 . What does the writer really mean when she says ‘I’ve heard that some mothers get perfume’ ?

( A ) She would not be surprised to receive perfume .

( B ) She sometimes received perfume .

(  C ) She thinks perfume is a strange present .

( D ) She would quite like to receive perfume .

3 . When did she realize the snake was escaping ?

( A ) when she arrived in the bedroom

( B ) as she lay on the floor

( C ) when she tripped over it

( D ) as she grabbed the cat

4 . What does she mean when she says she was ‘encouraged’ by her success with the cat ?

( A ) She now had the confidence to deal with the snake .

( B ) The cat was no longer a threat .

( C ) The snake no longer seemed so strong .

( D ) The children were pleased with what she’d done .

5 . How did she get the snake out of the house ?

( A ) She frightened it .

( B ) She sent it to sleep .

( C ) She chased it away .

( D ) She carried it .

6 . Where did the snake move to instead of the tree ?

( A ) up the garden wall

( B ) into the writer’s shoulders

( D ) into the garden

7 . The snake finally left the garden when the writer

( A ) used her hands to give it a push .

( B ) let go of its head .

( C ) got her children to help .

( D ) stood up quickly .

8 . Why was the story written ?

( A ) to warn

( B ) to amuse

(C ) to instruct

( D ) to advise

Answer Key

1 .D 2 . D 3 . B 4 . A 5 . D 6 . B 7 . C 8 . B