Comprehension
5 - ] Upper Intermediate & Advanced
Read the following article , then answer the
questions below :
On Monday , 14th November , it rained all day . ‘Is this a
bad sign ?’ I wondered as I asked a local person for directions to the venue
for my course . As I was late , I was glad his instructions were brief and
clear , but I thought he had a strange expression on his face .
‘Danger of flooding . Check your brakes ,’ read the next sign . The sign
after that read ‘Avon Foundation’ , where my course was . It also said ‘Drive
carefully .’ I edged towards my destination . It was too late to turn back .
When I’d mentioned that I was going on a writing course my friends’
reactions had varied from ‘Are you running it ?’ to ‘You must be mad .’ The
latter was right , I thought , as I walked into a 16th century
farmhouse just before dinner . I was shown to a small room with three beds and
a wash basin. The only bathroom was through another bedroom . For a journalist
with wide experience of 5-star hotels , this was a shock .
I took my place at the dinner table and looked at my companions for the
next five days , sixteen would-be fiction writers , aged 26 - 7 4 . We had two
teachers : Deborah , author of ten novels , and Stephen , whose latest work I
had been unable to find in one of the biggest bookshops in London . ‘Hi , I’m
Stephen ,’ he said amiably , sitting down next to me . Without thinking , I
confessed to my failure in the bookshop , which added to the strain of the
occasion for us both .
After dinner , our course in fiction writing began . ‘What do you want
to get out of your course here ?’ Stephen enquired , and we each explained our
plans . Mine had been a novel . When I’d booked the course , I’d left lots of
free time to plot it out , identify the characters and write at least one
chapter . But all this was swallowed up by less demanding activities , like
going to parties . ‘Er , a short story …’ I heard myself saying weakly , but at
least it sounded like something I could achieve .
It seemed less so the next day , when I was faced with the blank screen
on the word processor I had brought with me . There was nothing between me and
my fiction but writer’s block . But professional journalists like me don’t get
writer’s block , do they ? Wrong . Fortunately , no-one else could get started
either .
Towards the end of the morning , I remembered that I had an ancient
piece of fiction in my machine . This was a desperate idea but I had to have
something to show the teachers before the afternoon’s individual tutorials . Perhaps it could be turned into a short
story . It didn’t take more than as quick glance at it to convince me that it
could .
Then it was tutorial
time . We were due for our 20-minute individual session and nerves were frayed
by the threat of cruel assessment . We had heard of idle tutors who refused to
read the students’ work at all and of frank ones who dared to tell the truth
about it , but we were much luckier . Deborah and Stephen were thorough in
their preparation . Stephen provided detailed analysis from handwritten notes ;
Deborah supplied brilliant solutions to tricky problems ; both were
heartwarmingly encouraging to everyone .
By Thursday evening ,
the brave were reading their own stories , which provided fascinating insights
into their lives and personalities . Predictably , standards varied from the
truly talented to the deeply ungifted , but all were clapped and praised , as
they deserved to be . Most of the stories were autobiographical - so how come
mine , which I was too cowardly to read - was about a world I know nothing
about ? And how come I got the distinct
impression that Deborah and Stephen thought I’d better stick to journalism ?
Answer the following questions :
1 . How did the writer feel as she made her way to
the course ?
( A ) confused
( B ) annoyed
( C ) nervous
( D ) determined
2 . When the writer arrived for the course , she
( A ) felt that some of her friends’ reactions had
been right .
( B ) was disappointed that the building was such an
old one .
( C ) considered complaining about the lack of
facilities .
( D ) suspected that it was likely to be badly run .
3 . In paragraph three ‘my failure’ refers to the
fact that the writer
( A ) didn’t remember Stephen from the bookshop .
( B ) hadn’t found Stephen’s new book .
( C ) didn’t realize Stephen worked with Deborah .
( D ) couldn’t start a conversation with Stephen .
4 . Before she went on the course , the writer had
( A ) managed to write a short story to take with her
.
( B ) decided that writing a novel was going to take
too long
( C ) not had As much free time as she’d expected .
( D ) not succeeded in putting her plans into action
.
5 . What happened when she sat down to write on the
first morning ?
( A ) She discovered that she could have the same
problems as any other writer .
( B ) She realized that something she had written in
the past was excellent .
( C ) She overcame a problem with the machine she had
taken with her .
( D ) She decided that her first idea for a story was
unlikely to work .
6 . What does the writer say about the first tutorial
?
( A ) The teachers didn’t tell them what they really
thought of their work .
( B ) It was better than those given on some other
courses for writers .
(C ) She was more nervous about it than some of the
other writers .
( D ) She thought that Stephen’s approach wasn’t as
useful as Deborah’s .
7 . When people read their own stories to the others
,
( A ) different stories got different reactions .
( B ) there was no opportunity for the writer to read
hers .
( C ) the stories revealed things about their writers
.
( D ) the writer felt that they were better than hers
.
Answer Key
1 . C 2 . A 3
. B 4 . D 5 . A
6 . B 7 . C
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment