AD4 - READING TASK – MARCH 2021

OBJECTIVE FIRST
You are going to read a short article. Five sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from the
sentences A-F the one which fits each gap (1-5). There is an extra sentence you do not need to use.

I have lived in Paris since I was eighteen and I’d been on exchange visits there from the age of fourteen. So when
I left the Central School of Speech and Drama in London (I went there to study stage management but they didn’t
want to let me take the acting course and then I got thrown out), I went to Paris as au pair but won an audition for
a place in a drama school, where everybody used to make fun of my French accent. But I got my first job in my
second year and did all my early work in French.

Sometimes my mother, my two sisters and my two brothers come to stay and I always return to England at least
once a year, but I’m not homesick. 1.__________ The art, the architecture, the food, the elegance. And I love the
Parisian attitude. The city is small, the Metro is the easiest way of getting around and the shops are fantastic.
When I was a student I used to spend my life window-shopping with my eyes out on stalks.

‘We live in a lovely Art Nouveau apartment with marble fireplaces, parquet flooring, gilt mirrors and moulded
ceilings and it is located between the Luxembourg Gardens and the Sorbonne. 2. _________ However, I don’t
think this is true because it’s full of bright colours –the hall is yellow, the dinning room is red. My husband,
Francois, has lived in Paris since he was four and my mother-in-law now has another apartment in the same
block. 3. _____________

Francois is an obstetrician and has to be at the hospital by eight o’clock, but the children (Hannah, five and two-
year-old Joseph) tend to wake us up at about six anyway. 4. ___________ We all have breakfast together (usually
just toast and coffee for me) then the nanny arrives to take Hannah to school and Joseph to playground and I lock
myself away to take phone calls, arrange meetings and read scripts. Mornings tend to get frantic but I usually
break for lunch, which I sometimes eat with the children and I sometimes with friends at a favourite restaurant.
I’ve always tried to organize my day and make some time to do this. When Hannah finishes school at 3 p.m. we
might go to the Luxembourg Gardens or to the Louvre. I’ve got a wonderful pass which you get with your first
child in France which allows you to go to the front of the queue in museums, administrative buildings and even at
bus stops. If I go out alone I often end up in the hardware department of a shop called BHV where I linger lovingly
over nuts and bolts, washers and taps. I’m a great DIY fan and I can fit washers, put up shelves and even manage
a bit of rewiring.

The evening starts with the battle of the bath at six o’clock. I usually cook –something simple with salad, though
the salad is never served with meat, not in my house anyway. And we don’t always drink wine. 5. ___________
Then it’s a herbal tea, usualy a camomile or lemon balm infusion and early to bed. I like to be asleep by ten. Well,
it can be quite exhausting living in Paris.

A. I love Paris for all the reasons everybody loves Paris.

B. We rarely watch television, we just sit, chat and play with the kids.

C. Because I’ve decorated it myself people say how English it looks.

D. It is quite far away from the commercial area and people say it is a disadvantage.

E. They are quite active in the morning and I have to deal with it.

F. They were really helpful when choosing an apartment as they knew the city well.