Задание
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания 12–18. В каждом задании отметьте цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4,соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
My Christmas
Today is the Friday before Christmas. This would normally be relevant news, because I have Fridays off and I’d have the time to shop for traditional Christmas dinner: ham and turkey, side dishes, pie, the works. I may be a little late to the scene on that, but if you put off something long enough, you avoid the rush of the better-prepared, is my motto.
Only, it snowed last night, and I can’t get out of the driveway now. The door of my car is frozen shut, even. Good grief… I don’t have a motto for this! We almost never even get snow where I live, and so there is no local capital investment in snow ploughs, snow melters and the like. This lack of shopping capability presents a Mom-Level Opportunity for me, though, and I know we are both about to have a ton of fun trying to come up with a solution. I phone my Mom.
To go back into personal history for just a moment: when my brother, sister and I were growing up, Dad was of the prepper mentality: he subscribed to Soldier of Fortune magazine, designed all sorts of drawings for bug-out cabins, drafted plans for personal munitions and defence devices. He really lived in his head with his passion, though, and nothing practical came of it. On the other hand, Mom was the actual prepper: she gardened, canned, kept a deep larder, and was constantly adding to her skills and knowledge of things such as herbalism, handicrafts, and first aid. Mom was also a frugalist, which showed in her passions and household management.
Both of my parents were also intent on keeping our minds expanded to a world far outside of our walls, so they introduced us to extensive literature and contemporary news; they also came up with the idea of The Round The World Restaurant, which would feature cuisine and entertainment from a different country every night of the week. This was the big dream of their lives; unfortunately, they could never afford to execute that plan, but we did come close to it with our holiday dinners, which were never once the routine turkey and ham.
Like so many of this or any era, we didn’t think we had a lot growing up, but like most Moms, ours was no exception in going out of her way to make sure holidays were memorable despite an excess of gifts. Every year for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’d traipse down to our local library to pick out what culture we wanted to learn about – and that meant she was cooking their food, too! Mom was an excellent and inventive cook who could bring her frugality skills to bear, so the results were always incredible. When our dinner times for the holidays came around, we three kids would put on a little info skit about the chosen culture to entertain Mom and Dad, and Mom in turn would tell us all about the dishes we were enjoying.
Dad even tried his hand at doing the meals a couple of times: one year, and he never would tell us what country it was supposed to have been from, he invented a Curried Tuna Casserole in the practice run-up to the actual holiday. To this day, my stomach goes a little tricky around curry, and that was his last attempt to help with the creative dining portion of the holiday.
Granted, the holidays weren’t all about the food, but nostalgia and a current snow crisis are shortening this tale in the interest of a smoother flow. I still remember the numerous cat islands of Japan, and the ancient and mystical feeling I got when we read about Persia and Zoroastrianism, among other cultural wonders of the world.
12. Which is true about the writer?
1) She works on all weekdays.
2) She usually cooks the same food at Christmas.
3) She likes to prepare things in advance.
4) She often puts off doing things.
13. Being trapped in the car, the writer …
1) regrets that she can’t go shopping.
2) is getting frozen.
3) wishes she had a suitable motto.
4) thinks of a way to enjoy the situation.
14. Describing her mother, the writer does NOT say that …
1) she was the complete opposite of her father.
2) she was economical.
3) she was a good housewife.
4) she was fully developed.
15. The writer’s parents wanted their children …
1) to travel far from home and see the world.
2) to know all modern news and literature.
3) to have diverse dinners.
4) to be exposed to various experiences.
16. When it came to holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas…
1) the kids had to spend a lot of time in a library.
2) the kids got a lot of presents.
3) the parents cooked tasty dishes.
4) the parents told stories about different cultures.
17. The word ‘run-up’ in paragraph 6 is close in meaning to …
1) attempt
2) experiment
3) preparation
4) research
18. The last paragraph characterises the writer as …
1) being sensitive
2) being imaginative
3) having a good memory
4) feeling regretful