Read the text. Then imagine you are interviewing Mary Blunt.

Write questions with the words below. Use the

Past Simple, Present Simple or Present Perfect Simple. Then answer the questions according to Mary.

THE JOY OF THE PARTY

1 38-years-old Mary Blunt is a professional comedian. She has specialized in birthday parties and she mainly makes
money by performing at childrens parties.
Her career began when she was eighteen. She was studying performing arts at university, but on Fridays she had no
lessons and decided to make use of her free time to make some extra money by doing something she just loved:
5 entertaining kids. She sent her CV to an Events Agency, passed an interview and soon began organising parties.
At the beginning, she just told funny stories to the children but she soon realised that there were many new things she
could do to improve her show. And all of them were a lot of fun!!!
That is how she somehow turned into a clown. She got a big, red stoff nose and put some funny make-up on her face.
9 She also wore a huge hat and a pair of red, white and green shoes which, of course, were ten sizes too big for her!
Nowadays, she calls herself a clown-comedian. She doesn't use any marionettes because she thinks that they usually
terrify little children. She has become a master of face painting. She can paint the kids' faces so well that they look like
real pirates, skeletons, clowns, animals... She is very good now at balloon twisting and, according to her young
13 customers, her stories, her magic tricks and her balloon animals are the best in the world.
Her parties have got so popular that she does an average of 25 parties a month and she works almost every day. Last
year, she won a prize for being the best party clown in London and, since then, she makes very good money. Moreover,
she loves her job!
17 When she starts talking, children get hypnothised by her words. She usually uses puns or shouts some expressions
that kids find really funny. She notices it if something goes wrong and immediately changes her strategy. Things always
go well at her parties. No wonder! She's not been a clown-comedian for over 20 years for nothing and she obviously
knows how to do her job!
1. Interviewer: how long / you / be / a clown-comedian / ?
.....................................................................................................................................................
Mary: ...........................................................................................................................................
2. Interviewer: when / your career / begin / ?
.....................................................................................................................................................
Mary: ...........................................................................................................................................
3. Interviewer: you / enjoy / your work / ?
.....................................................................................................................................................
Mary: ...........................................................................................................................................
4. Interviewer: what / costume / you / wear / ?
.....................................................................................................................................................
Mary: ...........................................................................................................................................
5. Interviewer: you / ever / win / any / awards / ?
.....................................................................................................................................................
Mary:

.................................................................................

6. Interviewer: how / you / make / kids / laugh / ?

.....................................................................................................................................................
Mary: ...........................................................................................................................................

Tick the sentences true (T) or false (F) according to the text in Exercise 1.
Copy the sentences that helped you decide.
T

1. Mary became a party clown because she wanted to be popular.

................................................................................................
2. Mary makes a lot of money.
................................................................................................
3. Mary doesn't wear make-up.
................................................................................................
4. Mary sometimes shouts at the children.
................................................................................................

Find words in the text that mean the same as these ones:

1. earns money: __________________ (lines 1-3)

2. acting: __________________ (lines 1-3)
3. spare time: __________________ (lines 1-5)
4. profession (working life): __________________ (lines 1-5)
5. get a little extra money: __________________ (lines 1-5)
6. amusing: __________________ (lines 1-5)
7. make better: __________________ (lines 5-9)
8. extremely big: __________________ (lines 5-9)
9. frighten: __________________ (lines 9-13)
10. expert: __________________ (lines 9-13)
11. shaping of special modelling balloons into almost any given shape: ________________________
(lines 9-13)

12. widely appreciated: __________________ (lines 13-17)

13. nearly: __________________ (lines 13-17)
14. award: __________________ (lines 13-17)
15. has a good salary: __________________ (lines 13-17)
16. plays on words with a funny or suprising result: __________________ (lines 17-end)

17. realises: __________________ (lines 17-end)