Reading comprehension 1) Below are some notes from the book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
Вопрос от пользователя
Reading comprehension
1) Below are some notes from the book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend.
a) For statements 1-4, choose the correct variant which you think means the same. Circle the corresponding letter.
Monday June 1st
My father had a letter that made his face go white: he has been made redundant from his job! He will be on the dole! How can we live on the pittance that the government will give us? The dog will have to go! It costs thirty-five pence a day for dog food, I am a single-parent child whose father is on the dole! Social Security will be buying my shoes!
Wednesday September 9th
My father can easily spare a hundred pounds. His redundancy payment must have been huge, so why he is lying on his bed moaning [стонать, охать) I don’t know. He is just a mean skinflint! He hasn’t paid with real money anyway! He used his American Express card.
Wednesday March 3rd
I had to lend my father enough money for a gallon of petrol, he had an interview for a job. My mother cut his hair and gave him a shave and told him what to say and how to behave. It is pathetic to see how unemployment has reduced my father to childish dependence on others. He is waiting to hear from Manpower Services.
Friday March 5th
He got it!!! He starts on Monday… He is in charge of a gang of school-leavers. To celebrate he bought my mother sixty Benson and Hedges* and himself sixty Player’s.* I got a family pack of Mars bars. Everybody is dead happy for once.
1. How can we live on the pittance that the government will give us?
a) How can we live on that small amount of money the government will give us?
b) How can we live if the government doesn’t feel pity for us?
c) How can we live without having pity on the government?
2. Social Security will be buying my shoes!
a) Social workers will be buying shoes for me, because my parents do not have money enough to do it.
b) My family will receive money from Social Security and spend it on whatever we like, shoes included.
c) Social Security will be buying my shoes in case I don’t want to wear them anymore.
3. He (Adrian’s father) is just a mean skinflint!
a) He is skin and bone!
b) He is mean!
c) He is just!
4. … unemployment has reduced my father to childish dependence on others.
a) My father’s behaviour is not childish anymore because he’s become unemployed.
b) My father’s unemployment made him dependent on me.
c) My father is unemployed and that’s why he depends a lot on other people like children usually do.
b) Choose from statements 1-7 those which have evidence in the diary notes.
Circle the corresponding numbers.
1. Adrian’s father got a redundancy notice.
2. Adrian’s father will have to queue in the breadline.
3. Adrian’s family are going to get rid of the dog.
4. Adrian’s father’s unemployment benefit must have been huge.
5. Father had to turn to Manpower Services for a job.
6. His future work must be hard and boring.
7. Father will have to work with a gang of school-leavers.
c) On the basis of Adrian’s notes one can make some conclusions about the state of things for the unemployed in Great Britain.
Choose from generalizations 1-6 those which you think are valid. Circle the corresponding numbers.
1. People who are made redundant from their jobs are entitled to the dole.
2. The unemployed can hardly live on the pittance they get from the government.
3. The organisation, which is in charge of the unemployed, is called Social Security.
4. Manpower Services is the organisation that helps the unemployed to get a new job.
5. Unemployment reduces grown-up people to childish dependence on others.
6. When the unemployed get a job they buy sixty Player’s for themselves and sixty Benson and Hedges for their spouses.
Ответ от эксперта
1. Как мы можем жить на скудное жалование, которое государство дает нам?
а) Как мы можем жить на это маленькое количество денег, которое дает нам правительство?
2. Социальное страхование будет покупать мне обувь!
b) Моя семья получит деньги от социального страхования и потратит их на что захочется, включая обувь.
3. Он (отец Адриана) ужасный скупердяй!
b) Он скупой!
4. … безработица привела моего отца к детской зависимости от других.
c) Мой отец безработный, и вот почему он сильно зависит от других людей, как обычно делают дети.
b) Выберите из высказываний 1-7 те, улики на которые есть в дневниковых записях.
Обведите соответствующие номера.
1. Отец Адриана получил уведомление о сокращении.
3. Семья Адриана собирается избавиться от собаки.
4. Пособие по безработице отца Адриана должно быть огромным.
5. Отец должен был обратиться в службу Мэнпауэр за работой.
6. Его будущая работа должно быть трудная и скучная.
7. Отец должен будет работать с группой выпускников.
с) Исходя из заметок Адриана, можно прийти к заключению о положении вещей для безработных в Великобритании.
Выберите из обобщений 1-6 те, которые, по вашему мнению, веские. Обведите соответствующие номера.
1. Люди, которых сократили с их предыдущих работ, имеют право на пособие.
3. Организация, которая ответственна за безработицу, называется Социальное страхование.
4. Учреждение Мэнпауэр это организация, которая помогает безработным получить новую работу.
