I'm sorry but this is a Reading one...TnT: You are going to read an extract from a novel. For questions 1-8, choose the answer (A, B, C or
D) which you think fits best according to the text.
On the very last day of a bad year, I was leaning against a pillar in the Baltimore railway station,
waiting to catch the 10.10 to Philadelphia. There were a lot more people waiting than I had
expected. That airy, light, clean, polished feeling I generally got in the station had been lost.
Elderly couples with matching luggage stuffed the benches, and swarms of college kids littered the
floor with their bags.
A grey-haired man was walking around speaking to different strangers one by one. Well-off, you
could tell: tanned skin, nice sweater, soft, beige car-coat. He went up to a woman sitting alone and
asked her a question. Then he came over to a girl standing near me. She had long blond hair, and I had been thinking I wouldn’t mind talking to her myself. The man said, ‘Would you by any chance
be travelling to Philadelphia?’
‘Well, northbound, yes,’ she said.
‘But to Philadelphia?’
‘No, New York, but I’ll be ...’
‘Thanks, anyway,’ he said, and he moved toward the next bench.
Now he had my full attention. ‘Ma’am,’ I heard him ask an old lady, ‘are you travelling to
Philadelphia?’ When the woman told him, ‘Wilmington,’ he didn’t say a thing, just marched on
down the row to one of the matched-luggage couples. I straightened up from my pillar and drifted
closer, looking toward the platform as if I had my mind on the train.
Well, / was going to Philadelphia. He could have asked me. I understood why he didn’t, of
course. No doubt, I struck him as unreliable. He just glanced quickly at me and then swerved off
toward the bench at the other end of the waiting area. By now he was looking seriously stressed.
‘Please!’ he said to a woman reading a book. ‘Tell me you’re going to Philadelphia!’
She lowered her book. She was thirtyish, maybe thirty-five - older than I was, anyhow. A school teacher sort. ‘Philadelphia?’ she said. ‘Why, yes, I am.’
‘Then could I ask you a favor?’
I stopped several feet away and frowned down at my left wrist. (Never mind that I don’t own a
watch.) Even without looking, I could sense how she went on guard. The man must have sensed
it too, because he said, ‘Nothing too difficult, I promise!’
They were announcing my train now. People started moving toward Gate E, the older couples
hauling their wheeled bags behind them like big pets on leashes. Next I heard the man talking. ‘My daughter’s flying out this afternoon for a study year abroad, leaving from Philadelphia. So I put her
on a train this morning, stopping for groceries afterward, and came home to find my wife in a state.
She hardly said “hello” to me. You see my daughter’d forgotten her passport. She’d telephoned
home from the station in Philadelphia; didn’t know what to do next.’
The woman clucked sympathetically. I'd have kept quiet myself. Waited to find out
where he was heading with this.
‘So I told her to stay put. Stay right there in the station, I said, and I would get somebody here to
carry up her passport.’
A likely story! Why didn’t he go himself, if this was such an emergency?
‘Why don’t you go yourself?’ the woman asked him.
‘I can’t leave my wife alone for that long. She’s in a wheelchair.’
This seemed like a pretty poor excuse, if you want my honest opinion. Also, it exceeded the
amount of bad luck that one family could expect. I let my eyes wander toward the two of them. The
man was holding a packet, not a plain envelope, which would have been the logical choice, but
one of those padded envelopes the size of a paperback book. Aha! Padded! So you couldn’t feel
the contents! And from where I stood, it looked to be stapled shut besides. Watch yourself, lady, I
said silently.
2. Why does the narrator show an interest in the grey-haired stranger?
A. He was fascinated by the stranger’s questions.
B. He was anxious about the stranger’s destination.
C. He was jealous of the stranger’s appearance.
D. He was impressed by the stranger’s skill with people.
3. What does the writer mean by ‘she went on guard’?
A. The woman was employed by the railway company.
B. The woman was ready to call the police.
C. The woman was surprised by the man’s attitude.
D. The woman was cautious in her response.
4. According to the stranger, how was his wife feeling when he got home?
A. relieved to see him
B. annoyed by their daughter’s phone call
C. upset about their daughter’s situation
D. worried about planning the best course of action
5. What does the bold ‘this’ refer to?
A. the story B. the passport
C. the station D. the telephone call
6. When the narrator had heard the stranger’s explanation, he felt
A. sympathetic towards the stranger’s daughter.
B. willing to offer his assistance.
C. doubtful about the combination of events.
D. confused by the story the stranger told.