question 71
TEST 01 Reading
Passage 1A
I
believe I could still take that walk with my eyes closed. First of all I
used to go up the extension of Avonmore Road, past two lamp-posts, thinking
that the newer odd numbers looked more interesting houses than the stiff
line of even numbers where we lived.
However, none of the odd numbers was anything like as interesting as the
house of Hope-Pinker, who was an artist in stone, and if the door to his
workroom was open
I would
be able to catch sight of that great marble lion. Then came a quick look at
the sorting-office, always a scene of great activity, it seemed, with
postmen hurrying in and emptying bags of letters and with rows of clerks
stamping those letters with postmarks. By the sorting-office, Avonmore Road
made a sudden right-angled turn past a broken-down tarred fence. Through
gaps in this fence could be seen a large shadowy garden, covered with pale
green under trees with trunks as black as coal. Beyond the garden was a
large decayed house with big bare windows showing here and there among the
creeper which covered it.
After
this Avonmore Road continued on the right in the same direction as the
extension. The houses were smaller now, and the bricks of which they were
built were a deeper red than those of 54 Avonmore Road and its neighbours,
They had no rooms below ground level and one could see into their
dining-rooms, so close were they to the pavement. Opposite were the odd
number houses, also without rooms below ground level.
After 2
Avonmore Road there was a narrow stretch of waste ground in which was a tall
advertisement-board, the pictures on which were sometimes of great interest.
On the other side of the road was the back of a large council school. Beyond
the school were Avonmore Mansions, seeming tall and splendid with their
yellowish bricks. I knew that these were fiats and I had heard them spoken
of in our kitchen as an up-to-date but unnatural way of living. However, I
thought that the doorkeeper, sitting on a chair in the entrance hall, must
be a great protection against thieves; I used to wish that we lived in the
safety of a flat.
Then,
to the right, there came about half a dozen shops, one of them a
tobacconist's, one a second hand bookshop, one an ice-cream shop with a
barber's at the back, and one an umbrella shop which showed in the window a
row of thick heavy sticks called Night Companions. They were priced at a
shilling each. I longed for one of these Night Companions to sleep beside
me, and to my joy one afternoon Nanny, having stayed out longer than usual
on her walk, arrived with two of these Night Companions, one of which she
presented to me and the other to my brother Frank, who was not yet four
years old.
Frank's
Night Companion looked much fiercer than mine its club-head was more knotted
and it was stained a darker shade than the stem. My Night Companion looked
mild and clean-shaven beside it. When Nanny bought the sticks I was stupid
enough to show my preference for the fiercer-looking one, and that of course
ruined my chances of being given it as my protector.
Please
read the passage and choose the correct answer a, b, c or d.
Reading Pssage 1A
Question 71
As he went past Hope-Pinker's house he liked to try to look at.... .
|