Use the Strategies to choose the best answer,
b, c or d.
'Wine tasting.'
'Not Dad's home-made?'
'No. Proper wine.This afternoon it's Australian. We all chip in
and a man comes and explains it all.'
I didn't know you were interested in wine.'
Oh, yes. And your dad loves it.'
.. ..The room is full of people I don't recognise.
I wasn't expecting this. I came for an afternoon of silent
misery not wild partying; the one thing I wanted from the
afternoon was incontrovertible proof that my life may be grim
and empty, but not as grim and empty as life in Watford. Wrong
again!... Life in Watford is grim,yes; but grim and full. What
right do parents have to go to parties on Sunday afternoons for
no reason at all?
Genevieve is on the telly this afternoon, Mum.'
I know. We're taping it.
'When did you get a video?'
'Months ago.'
'You never told me.'
'You never asked.'
'Is that what I'm supposed to do every week? Ask you whether
you've bought any consumer durables?'
.. ..We go home and watch the rest of Genevieve.
My dad comes back maybe an hour later.
'We're all going to the pictures,' he says.
This is too much.
'You don't approve of the pictures, Dad.'
'I don't approve of the rubbish you go to watch. I approve of
nice well-made films. British films.'
'What's on?' my mum asks him.
'Howard's End. It's the follow-up to A Room with a View'.
'Oh, lovely,' my mum says. 'Is anyone else going from across the
road?'
'Only Yvonne and Brian. But get a move on. It starts in half an
hour.'
'I'd better be going back,' I say. I have exchanged hardly a word
with either of them all afternoon.
You're going nowhere,' my dad says.'You're coming with us.
My treat.'
It's not the money, Dad. It's the time. I'm working tomorrow.'
'Don't be so feeble, man.You'll still be in bed by eleven. It'll do
you good. Buck you up. Take your mind off things.'
This is the first reference to the fact that I have things off
which my mind needs taking.
And anyway, he's wrong. Going to the pictures aged thirty-five
with your mum and dad and their insane friends does not take
your mind off things, I discover. It very much puts your mind
on things...
adapted from High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Rob decides to visit his parents because
a he enjoys spending Sundays there,
b he hasn't got anything else to do.
c he wants to go back and live with them,
d everything is familiar in their home.
Which sentence about Rob's parents is NOT true?
a Something about his father's looks suggests
what kind of person he is.
b His mother is rather ordinary,
c He worries because his parents miss him.
d His parents like to watch their favourite films on TV.
How does Rob feel when he finds out his parents
are not at home?
a furious b amused c let down d very sad
Rob's real intention in coming to his parents' was
to make sure that
a he was more miserable than them,
b their social life was not as wild as his.
c they were as sociable as before,
d their life was even worse than his.
Which of these statements about Rob's parents is
NOT true?
a They enjoy themselves on Sunday afternoons,
b They no longer care about their favourite films,
c They have bought a video player,
d They have changed their opinion about going to
the cinema.
Vocabulary: Collocations
Lexicon, pages 160-161.
Match the words from the text that go together.
1 talk 2 head 3 empty 4 hard 5 feel
a time b sense c back d life e bad
Classify the collocations above into the following
categories:
a verb + adverb c verb + adjective
b adjective + noun d verb + noun
Write six sentences using these collocations.
get back, hit back, move in, clean out, throw out,
express thanks, express an opinion, express horror,
rain heavily, sleep heavily, empty space,
empty streets, empty gesture, hard time
Speaking
Work in pairs. Ask and answer these questions.
Have you ever been in a situation like Rob when
you expected one thing to happen, but instead,
something completely different happened?
What happened and how did you feel?