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The sports ground looked a treat: with big tea-tents all round and flags flying and seats for
families – empty because no mum or dad had known what opening day meant – and boys still
running for the hundred yards, and lords and ladies walking from stall to stall, and the Borstal Boys
Brass Band in blue uniforms…
The blue (1) … and it couldn’t have been a better day…
“Come on, Smith”, Roach, the sport master called me, “we don’t want you to be late for the
big race, eh? Although I dare say you’d catch them up if you were …”
So was the big race for them, watching from the grandstand under a fluttering Union Jack
(2) …, that he had been waiting for, and I hoped he and all the rest of pop – eyed gang were busy
placing big bets on me, hundred to one to win, all the money they had in their pockets, all the
wages they were going to get for the next five years and the more they placed, the happier I’d be.
Because here was a man going to die on the big name they had built for him, going to go down
dying with laughter whether it choked him or not.
(3) … pressing into them, and out of my eye’s corner I saw Roach lift his hand and the gun
went and (4) … .
(adapted from Alan Sillitoe)
1. Four sentences/groups of words have been removed from the text. Select the appropriate
sentence/group of words for each gap in the text. There is one extra sentence/group of
words which you do not need to use. 4 points
4. For the following questions, choose the answer (A, B, C, D) which fits according to the
text. 6 points
1. What did the sports master tell the boy about being late at the race?
A. That he would lose it.
B. That he would reach the opponents.
C. That he was always late.
D. That it would not be a problem if he were late.
5. Comment on the following statement: Because here was a man going to die on the big name
they’d built for him. (100 words) 4 points