Example
During the baking hot months of the summer holidays my mother and I used to escape to one of the scattered lakes north of Prince Albert. In its magic surroundings we used to spend the long summer days in the open air, swimming and canoeing or just lying dreaming in the sun. In the evening the lake was always a bright, luminous grey after the unbelievable sunset colours had faded.
The last summer before we returned to England was particularly enchanted. For one thing, I was in love for the first time. No one will ever convince me that one cannot be in love at fifteen. I loved then as never since, with all my heart and without doubts or reservations or pretence.
My boyfriend Don worked in Saskatoon, but the lake was ''his place'' – the strange and beautiful wilderness drew him with an obsessive urgency, so I suspected it was not to see me that he got on his motor-cycle as many Fridays as he possibly could, and drove three hundred-odd miles along the pitted prairie roads to spend the weekends at our place.
Sometimes he couldn't come, and the joy would go out of everything until Monday, when I could start looking forward to Friday again. He could never let us know in advance, as we were too far from civilization to have a phone or even a telegraph service. Three hundred miles in those conditions is quite a journey. Besides, Don was hard up, and sometimes worked overtime at weekends.
One Friday night a storm broke out. I lay in bed and listened to the thunder and the rain beating on the roof. Once I got up and stood looking out over the treetops, shivering. I tried not to expect Don that night hoping he would have enough sense to wait until the storm ended. Yet in my frightened thoughts I couldn't help imagining Don fighting the storm. His motorbike, which had always looked to me so heavy and solid, seemed in my thoughts frail enough to be blown onto its side by the first gust that struck it. I thought of Don pinned under it, skidding, his face pressed into the mud.
I crawled back into bed, trying to close my throat against the tears. But when my mother, prompted by the deep sympathy and understanding between us, came in to me, she kissed my cheek and found it wet.
"Don't get upset, Jane,'' she said softly. ''He may still come.''
When she had tucked me in and gone, I lay thinking about Don, about the danger of the roads … you couldn't ride or walk along them safely after heavy rain; your feet would slip from under you. The roads in Northern Canada are not like the friendly well-populated English ones, where there are always farmhouses within walking distance and cars driving along them day and night.
It was hours later, that I suddenly realized the sound of the roaring engine was real. The storm was dying. I lay absolutely still, relief and pain fighting for ascendancy within me, each in itself overwhelming enough to freeze the breath in my lungs as I heard Don's heavy tired footsteps on the wooden stairs.

A8
The last summer was particularly fascinating for Jane because she

1) spent it in the magic surroundings.
2) had a lot of fun in the open air.
3) enjoyed unbelievable sunsets by the lake.
4) fell in love for the first time.


A9
Jane believes that love at fifteen is

1) a sincere deep feeling.
2) associated with doubts.
3) full of reservations.
4) connected with pretence.


A10
Don travelled three hundred-odd miles every weekend because he was

1) desperate to see the author before she left.
2) fond of riding his motorcycle.
3) attracted by the beauty of the lake.
4) fond of spending weekends with his friends.


A11
Sometimes Don didn't come to see Jane and her mother on Friday because he

1) thought they were too far from civilization.
2) had given up hope of seeing the author.
3) worked to make some extra money.
4) hated travelling in exhausting conditions.


A12
Mother came into Jane's room during the storm because she

1) felt Jane was afraid of the thunder.
2) felt Jane was worried about Don.
3) heard Jane walking in the room.
4) heard Jane crying in her bed.


A13
According to the author the roads in Northern Canada were

1) slippery.
2) muddy.
3) lonely.
4) busy.


A14
“… relief and pain fighting for ascendancy within me…” means that the author felt

1) overwhelming pain.
2) relief and pain alternately.
3) relief as a prevailing emotion.
4) neither relief nor pain.

Example
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания А14-А20, обводя цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую номеру выбранного вами варианта ответа.

My friendship with Kathy wasn’t a perfect friendship. I learned very soon in our relationship that Kathy was jealous. We would have great fun going out shopping but if I bought, say, a dress for a party and she thought my dress was better than hers, she would start to say slightly unkind things about it. She would be keen to come out with me to buy the dress. She would give me a lot of helpful advice while I was trying on the various dresses in the shops. Her advice would be good. She would even tell the shop assistant if she thought the price was too high. I can remember one occasion when she said this and, to my surprise, they knocked the price down so that I could afford to buy it. The trouble would come later. When we were actually going to the party and we were both dressed up and she was looking marvellous (for she was very beautiful) she would suddenly say, “I think, Sarah, we were both wrong about that dress. It looks a bit cheap, doesn’t it!”
Once or twice I “dropped” Kathy. I told her I was too busy to see her. Or I told her I had to see another friend. All these lies hurt me because I had no other friend and I was so lonely. But they never hurt her. She just smiled sweetly and said she’d see me next week. And of course, within a week or so, I’d be on the phone asking her to come out. She never minded this. She never sulked at me and pretended that she was too busy.
Students always celebrated the end of the college year with a fancy-dress ball. It was a big event. But as luck would have it, Kathy and I had made another arrangements for the day of the ball. We had booked to go to the theatre. We had talked for ages of going, and at last we had our tickets. For us it was a big event. It was a musical and our favourite singer star was in it, so our hearts were set on the theatre.
Then Kathy came round to see me. Mother was in at the time, and I had to speak to her on the doorstep because Mum had just been having a go at me for seeing too much of Kathy.
“I don’t want that girl coming in this house and nosing around.” So I told Kathy I couldn’t invite her in because my Mum had a bad headache.
Kathy didn’t mind. She smiled and said she was sorry about my mother’s bad head. I was sure she knew what had really happened.
But she carried on smiling, and then she said: “I’m sorry, but I can’t come to the theatre with you after all. My brother’s come home and he wants to take me to the fancy-dress ball at the college. I can’t let him down.” I couldn’t believe that she would let me down. She knew how much I had looked forward to the theatre trip. We had talked about it together for months.
I was almost in tears by the time I had said goodbye to her and closed the door. My Mum was kind and understanding. She made me promise I would never see Kathy again. I agreed, and felt that was the least I could do by way of revenge for my disappointment. I told myself that I would never so much as talk to Kathy if I saw her. Our relationship was at an end. I would never forget what she had done to me.

A14
When Sarah says that Kathy was jealous she implies that Kathy didn’t like it when Sarah

1) had fun going out.
2) managed to buy the dress cheaply.
3) wore expensive clothes.
4) wore clothes smarter than her own.

A15
When Sarah was buying a dress in a shop Kathy would

1) start to say slightly unkind things about it.
2) do her best to ensure that Sarah made the best buy.
3) insist that Sarah should buy a cheap dress.
4) be keen to buy a marvellous dress for herself.

When Sarah tried to “drop” her, Kathy
A16
1) pretended to be busy.
2) went to see another friend.
3) felt hurt and lonely.
4) always took it easy.

“But as luck would have it” in paragraph 3 means Kathy and Sarah
A17
1) had the luck to get the tickets for the musical.
2) were happy to have made arrangements for the ball.
3) were looking forward to hearing their favourite singer.
4) had by chance two events on the same day.

A18
Sarah couldn’t invite Kathy to come in because
1) their house was in a mess.
2) her mother was suffering from a bad headache.
3) her mother disapproved of her daughter’s friend.
4) Kathy had come to their house to nose around.

Kathy said she didn’t mind speaking to Sarah on the doorstep because she
A19
1) didn’t want to make Sarah feel uncomfortable.
2) believed that Sarah’s Mum had a headache.
3) did not want anyone to overhear them talking.
4) was in a hurry to see her brother.

A20
Sarah decided not to see Kathy again because
1) her mother forbade her.
2) she couldn’t forgive Kathy.
3) her mother was disappointed.
4) she wanted to revenge for her mother.