| Choose from the sentences A-H the one that fits
each gap 1-7. There is one extra sentence which you don’t need to use.
I wish
you’d met my Uncle Bill. He was a tall man — so tall that he could change the
bulbs in the light sockets while hardly reaching above his head. He said that
ye wasn’t supposed to reach up — it was something to do with a heart condition
— and that being tall made life much easier. 1………. Those accessible bulbs were
an easy target for that lofty, blundering head of his.
I realized from the start that his
problem was not so much tallness as clumsiness. He blundered into anything and
everything and often had injuries (though not in fact burns) to prove how
accident-prone he was.
A miserly man, my uncle always stuck
replacements on his shoes as the old ones wore through, no matter how shabby
the uppers became — or how badly he injured himself in the process. 2………..
Well, strictly it wasn’t the sticking that did it but the razor blade
adjustments that followed. In his clumsiness, he nearly always stuck the soles
slightly out of position. Once firmly glued
they couldn’t be moved but at least the protruding parts could be neatly
trimmed away. 3…………
I can see him now in my mind’s eye!
There was the sole, slightly out of position, and there was my uncle, his
fingers encrusted with firmly set glue. 4………… Then he’d blunder round his house
in search of lint and sticking plasters. Vases would topple, otnaments would
get knocked of walls. He lived alone but his frequent visitors were used to the
commotion my uncle made as he hurried round his untidy house. 5………. Even going to answer the phone could
cause calamities and a trail of damage.
6……… No, they were due to injured fingers,
banged heads and falls down stairs. As a matter of fact he survived so many
serous injuries that in the end I came to doubt that there was anything wrong
with his heart at all. 7…………
- I think he preferred to claim a
bad heart than admit to bad eyesight or total and utter clumsiness!
- He would set to work with his
razor blade, and a minute later we’d hear his cry of pain and frustration.
- My uncle’s visits to hospital
never resulted from that famous heart condition of his.
- But how could even a clumsy man
suffer injuries sticking soles on his shoes?
- And that’s where the razor blades
came in, and all the consequent injuries to fingers and thumbs.
- However, it also created
problems for him.
- The slightest haste was enough
to cause an accident.
- You should have seen him when
he really for going!
Keys: 1. F; 2. D; 3. E; 4. B; 5. G; 6; C; 7. A;
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