Section D Directions:You are going
to read a passage. Seven sentences have been removed from it. Choose from the
sentences A-H the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you
do not need to use.
I wish you’d met my Uncle Bill. He was a tall man--so tall that he could
change the bulbs in light sockets while hardly reaching above his head. He said
that he wasn’t supposed to reach up--it was something to do with a heart
condition--and that being tall made life much easier. (72)
Those accessible bulbs were an easy target for that lofty, blundering head of
his. I realized from the start that his problem was not so much
tallness as clumsiness. He blundered into anything and everything and often had
injuries (though not in fact burns) to prove how accident-prone he
was. A miserly man, my uncle always stuck replacement soles on
his shoes as the old ones wore through, no matter how shabby the uppers
became--or how badly he injured himself in the process. (73)
Well, strictly it wasn’t the sticking that did it but the razor blade
adjustments that followed. In his clumsiness, he nearly always stuck the soles
slightly out of position. Once firmly glues they couldn’t be moved but at least
the protruding parts could be neatly trimmed away. (74)
I can see him now in my mind’s eyes! There was the
sole, slightly out of position, and there was my uncle, his fingers encrusted
with firmly set glue. (75) Then he’d blunder round his house
in search of lint and sticking plasters. Vases would topple; ornaments would get
knocked off walls. He lived alone but his frequent visitors were used to the
commotion my uncle made as he hurried round his untidy house. (76)
Even going to answer the phone could cause calamities and a trail of
damage. (77) No, they were due to injured
fingers, banged heads and falls down stairs. As a matter of fact he survived so
many serious injuries that in the end I came to doubt that there was anything
wrong with his heart at all. (78)
Sentences: A. I think he preferred to claim a bad heart
than admit to bad eyesight or total and utter clumsiness! B. He
would set to work with his razor blade, and a minute later we’d hear his cry of
pain and frustration. C. My uncle’s visits to hospital never
resulted from that famous heart condition of his. But how could even a clumsy
man suffer injuries sticking soles on his shoes E. And that’s
where the razor blades came in, and all the consequent injuries to fingers and
thumbs. " F. However, it also created problems for
him. G. The slightest haste was enough to cause an
accident. H. You should have seen him when he really got
going!