Reading

Fill in the gaps

Task 1.

Cat’s punctuality

Sergeant Podge, a Norwegian Forest Cat, disappears from his owner's home in a small town in Kent, every night. But what baffles his owner, Liz Bullard, mostly is the fact that the next morning, the 12-year-old cat always pops up in exactly the same place, A____________________. And every morning Ms. Bullard takes her son to school before collecting Sergeant Podge.

She said that routine had set in earlier this year, when Sergeant Podge disappeared one day. Ms. Bullard spent hours telephoning her neighbors B______________________.

An elderly woman living about one and a half miles away called back to inform Ms. Bullard that she had found a cat matching Sergeant Podge's description. Ms. Bullard picked him up but within days he vanished from sight again. She rang the elderly woman C__________________.

She said a routine has now become established, where each morning she takes her son to school before driving to collect Sergeant Podge D_______________________. It is taught Sergeant Podge walks across a golf course every night to reach his destination.

Ms. Bullard said: «If it's raining he may be in the bush but he comes running if I clap my hands” All she has to do is open the car passenger door from the inside for Sergeant Podge to jump in.

Ms. Bullard also makes the trip at weekends and during school holidays — E____________________.

She does not know why, after 12 years, Sergeant Podge has begun the routine but explained that another woman who lived nearby used to feed him sardines, and that he may be F____________________. His owner doesn't mind his wandering off at night as long as she knows where to collect him.

Variants:

1. on the look-out for more treats

2. from the pavement between 0800 and 0815 GMT

3. to discover Sergeant Podge was back outside her home

4. on a pavement about one and a half miles (2.4 km) away

5. to identify if anyone had bumped into him

6. when her son is having a lie-in

7. collected by car every morning

TASK 2

My stage

My family moved to Rockaway, New Jersey in the summer of 1978. It was there that my dreams of stardom began.

I was 9 years old. Heather Lambrix lived next door, and she and I became best friends. I thought she was so lucky A__________________. She took tap and jazz and got to wear cool costume with bright sequences and makeup and perform on stage. I went to all of her recitals and B_____________.

My living room and sometimes the garage were my stage. I belonged to a cast of four, which consisted of Heather, my two younger sisters, Lisa and Faith, and I. Since I was the oldest and the bossiest, I was the director. Heather came with her own costumes C_______________. We choreographed most of our dance numbers as we went along. Poor Faith… we would throw her around D ____________. She was only about four or five…and so agile. We danced around in our bathing suits to audiocassettes and records from all the Broadway musicals. We’d put a small piece of plywood on the living room carpet, Е______________. And I would imitate her in my sneakers on the linoleum in the hall. I was a dancer in the making.

My dad eventually converted a part of our basement into a small theater. He hung two “spotlights” and a sheet for a curtain. We performed dance numbers to tunes like “One” and “The Music and the Mirror” from A Chorus Line. I sang all the songs from Annie. I loved to sing, F______________. I just loved to sing. So I belted out songs like “Tomorrow”, “Maybe” and “What I Did For Love.” I know then, this is what I wanted to do with my life.

1. like she was a rag doll

2. whether I was good at it or not

3. wished I, too, could be on stage

4. and I designed the rest

5. and I was star struck

6. so Heather could do her tap

7. because she got to go to dance lessons

TASK 3