Задание
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания 12–18. В каждом задании отметьте цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4,соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
The villa was small and square, standing in its tiny garden. Its shutters had been faded by the sun to a delicate creamy-green, cracked and bubbled in places. The garden, surrounded by tall hedges, had the flower-beds, marked with smooth white stones. The white cobbled paths wound round beds in the shape of stars, half-moons, triangles, and circles, all overgrown with a shaggy tangle of flowers run wild. The warm air was thick with the scent of flowers, and full of the gentle, soothing murmur of insects.
This garden was a magic land, through which roamed creatures I had never seen before. Among the silky petals of each rose-bloom lived tiny, crab-like spiders. Their small bodies were coloured to match the flowers they inhabited: pink, ivory, wine-red, or buttery-yellow. On the rose-stems, lady-birds moved like newly painted toys. Carpenter bees, like furry, electric-blue bears, zigzagged among the flowers, growling busily. Among the white cobbles, large black ants staggered in groups round strange trophies: a dead caterpillar, a piece of rose-petal, or a dried grass-head.
At first, I was so bewildered by this profusion of life on our very doorstep that I could only move about the garden in a daze, watching now this creature, now that. Gradually, as I became more used to the bustle of insect life, I found I could concentrate more. I would spend hours watching the private lives of the creatures around me. In this way I learnt a lot of fascinating things.
I found that the little crab-spiders could change colour just as successfully as any chameleon. Take a spider from a wine-red rose, where he had been sitting like a bead of coral, and place him in the depths of a cool white rose. If he stayed there, you would see his colour gradually ebb away, until, some two days later, he would be crouching among the white petals like a pearl.
I discovered that in the dry leaves under the hedge lived another type of spider, a little huntsman with the cunning and ferocity of a tiger. He would stalk about, eyes glistening in the sun, pausing now and then. If he saw a fly settle to enjoy a sun-bath he would freeze; then, as slowly as a leaf growing, he would move forward, edging nearer and nearer. Then, when close enough, the huntsman would pause, and then he would leap, legs spread out, straight on to the dreaming fly. Never did I see one of these little spiders miss its kill.
All these discoveries filled me with a tremendous delight, so that they had to be shared, and I would burst suddenly into the house and startle the family with the news that the strange, spiky black caterpillars on the roses were not caterpillars at all, but the young of lady-birds, or with the equally astonishing news that lacewing-flies laid eggs. This last miracle I was lucky enough to witness. I found a lacewing-fly on the roses and watched her as she climbed about the leaves, admiring her beautiful, fragile wings like green glass, and her enormous liquid golden eyes.
Gradually the magic of the island settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen. Each day had a tranquillity, a timelessness, about it, so that you wished it would never end. But then the dark skin of night would peel off and there would be a fresh day waiting for us, glossy and colourful as a child's transfer and with the same tinge of unreality.
Adapted from My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell
12. According to the author, the garden around the villa was…
1) neat and cosy.
2) ugly and untidy.
3) old and neglected.
4) groomed and spacious.
13. What was the magic of the garden?
1) There were a great number of different dwellers.
2) There was wildlife in all its diversity.
3) There lived unusual species like bears.
4) You could find amazing trophies and toys there.
14. Which of the following is true about the author’s perception of the garden?
1) He loved it from the first sight and at once got used to all the inhabitants.
2) He was struck by its diversity, and it took time to get acquainted with it.
3) He tried to focus on the insects living just near his door.
4) He was hardly surprised by the great number and variety of insects.
15. In the 4th paragraph, the spider was compared with a pearl, because …
1) it adjusted its colour to white.
2) it was very beautiful.
3) it used a rose as its home.
4) it was cool in the rose.
16. While describing a little huntsman spider, the author shows his …
1) apprehension.
2) disappointment.
3) inquisitiveness.
4) bewilderment.
17. The author delivered the news to his family in a(n) … manner.
1) calm
2) agitated
3) enjoyable
4) irritated
18. What is the author’s aim?
1) To persuade the reader to go to this place.
2) To give an account of events occurred in this place.
3) To describe the family routine in this place.
4) To share his memories about the place.