UNIVERSIDAD YACAMBU
Licenciatura Virtual en Contaduría Pública.
Idioma Avanzad Intensivo
Prof. Neyda Díaz
Participante: Nelson Torcate Mendez
Trabajo Nº 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.
1. Where does
this story take place?
a)
b) Arinas
c)
d) The text doesn't say
2. How was the
parcel wrapped?
a) in brown paper
b) in silver
paper
c) in grey paper
d) in tape
3. Who was Savni?
a) a little girl
b) the Great-Aunt
c) the mother of the family
d) the son of the
family
4. Why
don't the family read the letter?
a) They
are too impatient to look in the container.
b) It
is addressed to the doctor.
c) It is in English.
d) It
is missing.
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.