Question

 

Read the following text, then choose the best phrase from A-G to fill in each of the gaps. There is one extra phrase you don’t need to use. Write your answers in the numbered table. There is an example at the beginning. (1.0 point)

A. Choose your author

B.   f necessary, be brutal

C.   You don’t have to finish every book

D.   You can read wherever you are

E.  Change your free time

F.  The importance of reading

0.	…F. The importance of reading………………………………………..

Nobody would argue that reading books is a bad thing. We may feel that Arnold Bennett was going slightly over the top when he said that the man who does not read books is merely not born. He can’t see, he can’t hear, he can’t feel, in any full sense. He can only eat his dinner but more often than not, we would agree, reading a book is normally better than watching television. So, most of us would really quite like to read.

1.	…………………………………………………………………………..

          A recent government survey of what we actually do revealed that the average woman spends the equivalent of only five days a year reading ( the average man four days), compared to 56 days watching television. Cutting down on time spent in front of the box should give you some spare hours, and if you are male you’re even luckier. The same survey also discovered that the average man spends 17 days a year ‘doing nothing at all’.

2.	………………………………………………………………………….

          If you examine your day for reading opportunities, you will discover lots of free time. Standing at the dentist’s waiting room, queuing up for things: the occasional 10-20 minutes here and there quickly add up. But the time will fly if you always have your book with you.

3.	………………………………………………………………………….

          Books are there to be read. You can generally buy classics for £1, so don’t be overprotective with them. Read in the bath (in the shower may not be such a good idea). I once found myself with 75 pages of a Dickens novel left to read, and a plane to catch. Rather than spend a two-week holiday lumbered with a 900-page book I pulled the last 100 pages out and took them with me.

4.	………………………………………………………………………….

          There are 106,000 books published in Britain every year. The best of seven centuries worth of literature is published in paperback. There has to be something you would like. Identifying it may take time. Be guided by what you have enjoyed in the past and branch out from there: Roald Dahl ? Then try R. L Stine. Stephen King ? Then try Clive Barker. Agatha Christie? Then try Patricia Highsmith or Ruth Rendell.

5.	………………………………………………………………………….

If you are not particularly enjoying a book, you are guaranteed to find 143 other things to do instead of reading. Consequently, it will take months to finish and put you off picking up another. When you find this happening, stop reading this book and start another immediately.

 

Answer 1

1. E

2. D

3. B

4. A

5. C