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TRABAJO 8 |
Reading Comprehension
Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located
near Amesbury in the English
It is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large
standing stones and is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world.
Archaeologists think that the standing stones were erected between 2500 BC and
2000 BC although the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which
constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100
BC.
The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World
Heritage Sites in
Questions
Now, answer the
questions about the text.
"Mummy! Mummy!" shouted little Murna racing from the front door
through to the kitchen. "There's a parcel. The postman's brought a
parcel!"
Her mother, Savni, looked at her in surprise. She had no idea who could have
sent them a parcel. Maybe it was a mistake. She hurried to the door to find
out. Sure enough, the postman was there, holding a parcel about the size of a
small brick.
"From
It was true. In the top right-hand corner of the brown paper parcel were three
strange-looking stamps, showing a man's head. The package was addressed to
Savni, in big, clear black letters.
"Well, I suppose it must be from Great-Aunt Pasni," said Savni to
herself, as the postman went on his way down the street, whistling.
"Although it must be twenty years since we heard anything from her. I thought
she would have been dead by now."
Savni's husband Jornas and her son Arinas were just coming in from the garden,
where Murna had run to tell them about the parcel. "Well, open it
then!" said Arinas impatiently. "Let's see what's inside!"
Setting the parcel down in the middle of the table, Savni carefully began to
tear open the paper. Inside, there was a large silver container with a hinged
lid, which was taped shut. There was also a letter.
"What is it? What is it?" demanded Murna impatiently. "Is it a
present?"
"I have no idea," said Savni in confusion. "I think it must be
from Great-Aunt Pasni. She went to
"Well, open the pot, anyway," said Jornas. "Let's see what's
inside."
Cautiously, Savni pulled the tape from the neck of the silver pot, and opened
the lid. Four heads touched over the top of the container, as their owners
stared down inside.
"Strange," said Arinas. "All I see is powder." The pot was
about one-third full of a kind of light-grey powder.
"What is it?" asked Murna, mystified.
"We don't know, darling," said Savni, stroking her daughter's hair.
"What do you think?" Murna stared again into the pot.
"I think its coffee," she announced, finally. "American
coffee."
"It's the wrong colour for coffee,
darling," said Jornas thoughtfully. "But maybe she's on the right
track. It must be some kind of food." Murna, by now, had her nose right
down into the pot. Suddenly, she lifted her head and sneezed loudly.
"Id god up by doze," she explained.
"That's it!" said Arinas. "It must be pepper! Let me try
some." Dipping a finger into the powder, he licked it. "Yes," he
said, "it's pepper all right. Mild, but quite tasty. It's American
pepper."
"All right," said Savni, "we'll try it on the stew tonight.
We'll
have American-style stew!"
That evening, the whole family agreed that the American pepper had added a
special extra taste to their usual evening stew. They were delighted with it.
By the end of the week, there was only a teaspoonful of the grey powder
left
in the silver container. Then Savni called a halt.
"We're saving the last bit for Sunday. Dr. Haret is coming to dinner, and
we'll let him have some as a special treat. Then it will be finished."
The following Sunday, the whole family put on their best clothes, ready for
dinner with Dr. Haret. He was the local doctor, and he had become a friend of
the family many years before, when he had saved Arinas's life after an
accident. Once every couple of months, Savni invited the doctor for dinner, and
they all looked forward to his entertaining stories of his youth at the
university in the capital.
During dinner, Savni explained to the doctor about the mysterious American
pepper, the last of which she had put in the stew they were eating, and the
letter they could not read.
"Well, give it to me, give it to me!" said the doctor briskly.
"I speak English! I can translate it for you."
Savni brought the letter, and the family waited, fascinated, as the doctor
began to translate.
"Dear Savni: you don't know me, but I am the son of your old Great-Aunt
Pasni. She never talked much to us about the old country, but in her final
illness earlier this year, she told us that after her death, she wanted her
ashes to be sent back home to you, so that you could scatter them on the hills
of the country where she was born. My mother died two weeks ago, and her
funeral and cremation took place last week. I am sending her ashes to you in a
silver casket. Please do as she asked, and spread them over the ground near
where she was born. Your cousin, George Leary."
(MDH
1995 -- from a common urban legend)
Choose the answer you think is
correct.
As
Andrea turned off the motorway onto the road to Brockbourne, the small village
in which she lived, it was four o'clock in the afternoon, but already the sun
was falling behind the hills. At this time in December, it would be completely
dark by five o'clock. Andrea shivered. The interior of the car was not cold,
but the trees bending in the harsh wind and the patches of yesterday's snow
still heaped in the fields made her feel chilly inside. It was another ten
miles to the cottage where she lived with her husband Michael, and the dim
light and wintry weather made her feel a little lonely. She would have liked to
listen to the radio, but it had been stolen from her car when it was parked
outside her office in
She
was just coming out of the little
When
she did get in, Andrea could see that she was not, in fact, so little. Broad
and fat, the old lady had some difficulty climbing in through the car door,
with her big bag, and when she had got in, she more than filled the seat next
to Andrea. She wore a long, shabby old dress, and she had a yellow hat pulled
down low over her eyes. Panting noisily from her effort, she pushed her big
brown canvas shopping bag down onto the floor under her feet, and said in a
voice which was almost a whisper, "Thank you dearie -- I'm just going to
Brockbourne."
"Do
you live there?" asked Andrea, thinking that she had never seen the old
lady in the village in the four years she had lived there herself.
"No,
dearie," answered the passenger, in her soft voice, "I'm just going
to visit a friend. He was supposed to meet me back there at Mickley, but his
car won't start, so I decided to hitchhike -- there isn't a bus until seven, and
I didn't want to wait. I knew some kind soul would give me a lift."
Something
in the way the lady spoke, and the way she never turned her head, but stared
continuously into the darkness ahead from under her old yellow hat, made Andrea
uneasy about this strange hitchhiker. She didn't know why, but she felt
instinctively that there was something wrong, something odd,
something....dangerous. But how could an old lady be dangerous? it was absurd.
Careful
not to turn her head, Andrea looked sideways at her passenger. She studied the
hat, the dirty collar of the dress, the shapeless body, the arms with their
thick black hairs....
Thick black hairs?
Hairy arms? Andrea's blood froze.
This wasn't a woman. It was a man.
At first, she didn't know what to do. Then suddenly, an idea came into her
racing, terrified brain. Swinging the wheel suddenly, she threw the car into a
skid, and brought it to a halt.
"My
God!" she shouted, "A child! Did you see the child? I think I hit
her!"
The
"old lady" was clearly shaken by the sudden skid. "I didn't see
anything dearie," she said. "I don't think you hit anything."
"I'm
sure it was a child!" insisted Andrea. "Could you just get out and
have a look? Just see if there's anything on the road?" She held her
breath. Would her plan work?
It
did. The passenger slowly opened the car door, leaving her bag inside, and
climbed out to investigate. As soon as she was out of the vehicle, Andrea
gunned the engine and accelerated madly away. The car door swung shut as she
rounded a bend, and soon she had put a good three miles between herself and the
awful hitchhiker.
It
was only then that she thought about the bag lying on the floor in front of
her. Maybe the bag would provide some information about the real identity about
the old woman who was not an old woman. Pulling into the side of the road,
Andrea lifted the heavy bag onto her lap and opened it curiously.
It
contained only one item -- a small hand axe, with a razor-sharp blade. The
axe, and the inside of the bag, were
covered with the dark red stains of dried blood.
Andrea
began to scream.
(MDH 1994 -- From a common
urban legend)
Choose on the answer you think is
correct.