Inisiasi 1/2015 Reading II/BING4104

11. Planing a Robbery

After a few minutes Tony said, `One oclock, and began to drive. He went quite
slowly, perhaps even more slowly than a lorry would go, but he wanted to be sure
that, even with slight traffic delays, he was not going to be late on that Friday
afternoon, 13th, that was going to unlucky for someone. He followed the main road
until he reached a second and a larger main road, where he turned left. The wheels
hissed on the still-wet roads and there was nothing to say.
`How would you get back to Wicester to get the lorry?
`Bus.
`Dont like it, said Mills. `The sand quarry sounds better.
`Ill still have to get a bus.
`Its a weak spot, suggested Mils. `People round here will notice strangers.
`Ill walk to the new housing estate. It will still be dark. The buses from there will
be packed. This is where we turn left. A mile down here is the sand quarry. Its up a
side lane.
There was no one about, not even the hum of distant traffic or the bark of a dog.
Tony braked the car, they stepped out and walked to the pit, which was simply a semi-
circular bowl to cut out of a rise in the ground. Its entrance was thick with the bushes
and small trees that had grown since its abandonment. The chances of anyone entering
it, even of passing it, between the darkness of early morning and two oclock on that
Friday the 13th were infinitesimally small. It would not even be a time of a day or
year when lovers might seek privacy there.
Not much farther along they joined a stream of cars on a wider road. The power
station was very near now as they came into the village of Strawberry Whitacre, quite
in its early afternoon pause; a few shops, an inn, cottages and a garage and there, two
hundred yards ahead, the level crossing, open.
Tonys was the last car in a group of five. He drove very slowly so that both he and
Mill could identify an remember the essentials. There were two lines and as Tony
bumped across the second set he said, `I stop on these, and, with Mills, looked left
along the straight railway. Immediately in his line of vision was the long, heavy gate
of the level- crossing, but through its bar Tony could see, quite near, the small signal-
box. Beyond it the rails stretched to infinity, and it was impossible to see where-
abouts the railway curved over the road. the signal-box and the first of several shops
obscured the view somewhat; he would be sitting higher from the ground in the lorry,
Tony realized. It did not matter greatly. he looked right and through the other gate of
the level-crossing was Strawberry Whitacres small station, a few figures on the left-
hand platform, one of which he identified as the uniformed man who met the clerks
from the Electricity Authority in Wicester, an additional proof that today was going to
be the same as all the other Fridays on which a part of the process had been observed.
`The time! hissed Mills, now laughing. `For once youve forgotten to look at your
watch. (James Barlow, The Patriots)

In each case, only of the four statements labelled A, B, C, and D is correct in the
context of the passage. Choose which one it is.

(1) Tony drove slowly because

A. he was driving a lorry
B. there were traffic delays
C. he was superstitious
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D. he was driving a car at the speed he thought a lorry would go

(2) What mattered most to Tony and Mills on their drive to Strawberry Whitacre was
A. the sixe of the lorry
B. the number of cars on the road
C. the route
D. the time it took

(3) When they started their journey

A. it was raining
B. it had stopped raining not long before
C. it was starting to rain
D. it had not been raining

(4) Tony
A. was going to walk to Wicester to get the lorry
B. was going to get the lorry at the housing estate
C. wanted to catch a bus at the housing estate
D. thought it would be wiser to catch the bus at the sand quarry

(5) Mills did not like Tonys plan because

A. he thought Tony would look foreign
B. the buses would be crowded
C. it would be dark
D. people living near the bus stop might recognise him afterwards

(6) The sand quarry was

A. near a turning off the main road
B. beside the main road
C. in the middle of wood
D. at the end of the housing

(7) The sand quarry seemed a suitable place to Tony and Mills because
A. it was circular
B. no one was likely to go near it on the morning of the 13th
C. lovers would not go there on an unlucky day
D. it was next to the main road

(8) Lovers
A. never went near the quarry
B. were not likely to go there at that time of year
C. only went to the quarry in the afternoon
D. only went to the quarry at night

(9) Strawberry Whitacre was especially quiet when Tony and Mills approached it
because
A. there was no traffic
B. it was lunch time
C. it was a village
D. the power station was closed
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(10) Tony
A. drove slowly across the level-crossing because there were other cars in front
B. had to stop at the level-crossing because a train was coming
C. had forgotten what the level-crossing looked like
D. wanted to make sure that he and Mills would have a clear mental picture of
the crossing.

Good Luck!