Reading test. 8th form.

Reading Test 8^th form

An III Turn

Miss Martha Marple was 40 years old but she was not married. She had a shop where she sold bread both fresh and stale. Stale bread was cheaper than fresh bread. One man came to Miss Martha's shop two or three times a week. The man was not young but he was very pleasant. He wore cheap clothes but they always looked nice on him. The man was not healthy. He coughed, his eyes were red. Miss Marple wanted him to recover but she understood that it was difficult for him to go and see the doctor. Doctors and medicine were expensive but the man, Miss Martha decided, was poor. He always bought stale bread and' ne­ver fresh.

Miss Martha liked the man very much. She wanted to help him but didn't know how. Once she had an idea. She put some butter in the stale bread. When the old man came to her and asked for his usual stale bread she gave him the stale bread with butter.

The next day the poor man came to the shop. He was very angry. He said he was an architect. "I used stale bread to take away pencil lines. Last night I finished a plan for a new office and began to take away the pencil lines. But your butter! Now I can't show my plan to anybody!" he said.

Task 1

Read the text "An 111 Turn" and agree or disagree with the state­ments.

1.Miss Martha Marple was a middle-aged woman.

2. She was married.

3. She was a green-grocer.

4. The man who came to the woman's shop was not healthy.

5. The man never bought fresh bread.

6. The man liked eating stale bread.

Task 2

Choose the correct item.

1. The woman sold _ .

a) vegetables;

b) bread;

c) medicine

2. The man _.

a) sneezed;

b) had a running nose;

c) coughed.

3. Miss Martha decided that the man was_.

a) poor;

b) happy;

c) lucky.

4. Miss Martha wanted _ .

a) to marry the man;

b) to ask him for help;

c) to help him.

5. The woman put some _ .

a) honey in the stale bread;

b) butter;

c) jam.

6. The next day the man was

a) angry;

b) healthy;

c) unhappy.

Task3

Answer the questions.

What kind of shop did Miss Martha Marple own?

How much was stale bread?

Who was Miss Marple's permanent customer?

What kind of clothes did the man wear?

What did the man always buy in Miss Martha's shop?

What did the man use stale bread for?