Day: 18.11.2024

Ex. 4

a. I have had this computer for more than ten years, so I’m thinking of getting a new one.
b. You’re half an hour late! I have been waiting here for ages!
c. I like these black trousers better than those blue ones.
d. Can I borrow a pen? I have lost mine.
e. I’d like to dance with you, but I am waiting for my friend.
f. Kate has been staying in Poland since last October. She’s really enjoying it.
g. Carol’s great, isn’t she? Have you known her long?
h. Paul has been working in all day today, so now he feels like going out.
i. You’d better borrow this umbrella — it has been raining really hard.
j. I have been working on my project all morning, and I need a break.

Ex. 5

a How do you get on in Paris?
b Sorry I haven’t written before but
c I’ve been training hard for my basketball team.
d We played in a tournament last week — we
e came third! I really
f enjoyed taking part, but
g I haven’t done anything else for the past month.

h Unfortunately, when Sarah’s big day arrived, things
i went disastrously wrong at first. For a start, it
j was raining and as the traffic was so heavy, she
k arrived nearly ten minutes late for her interview.
l Then while she was crossing the road, a passing bus
m splashed her with water.

n But inside the building her luck changed.
o ‘Mr Fortescue is expecting me,’ she
p told the receptionist.
q ‘He hasn’t arrived yet,’ she was told. ‘Just take a seat. Perhaps everything would be all right after all!’

r An art historian has discovered two missing paintings by Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455) in the home of a pensioner from Oxford who
s died earlier this year. Jean Preston
t bought the paintings when she
u was working in America in the 1960s. Shortly before her death, a friend
v recognized them as part of a group of six small paintings which Angelico
w painted in 1439. Miss Preston
x paid about £200 for the pair, but experts
y say they are now worth around £1 million.

Text

Mozart was born in 1756, the son of a professional musician. His father soon gave up composing when he recognized his son’s musical talent. By the age of three, the young Mozart had learned to play several pieces of music. While he and his father were traveling around Europe, Mozart met many famous musicians and composers. Before he was 17, he had composed several operas. While he was visiting the Vatican in Rome, he listened to a piece of music which, up to this point, the Vatican authorities had kept secret. No one had published a copy of the piece before, but Mozart managed to write it down from memory after he listened to it once.

By the age of 30 he had become one of the most famous composers in Europe, and had a large apartment in Vienna, which is now a tourist attraction. It was here that he wrote his famous opera The Marriage of Figaro. In 1791, while he was working on his Requiem, he fell ill and died at the age of 35.