Part 3

Questions 11-15
For each question choose the correct answer.

Following the Route

The coat had been hanging in the charity shop for weeks. Grey, heavy, slightly too large. I only bought it because my old jacket had lost a button and winter was arriving fast. That evening, I put my hand into the left pocket and found a folded piece of paper. It was a bus timetable, printed on thin card, yellowed at the edges. The name of the bus company had not existed for at least ten years.

I almost threw it away. But something stopped me. The route number was 47, and the list of stops ran from the old market square out to a village called Lowden, then across to the reservoir, and finally back to the city. I had never heard of most of these places. I looked up Lowden on my phone. It was still there, just about, a scatter of houses twenty miles away. The bus service that went there now was different, faster, and ran only twice a day.

I decided to follow the old timetable anyway. Not all at once, but one Saturday morning, I drove to the market square, parked my car, and walked to the stop where the number 47 used to begin. The shelter was still there, though the glass had been broken and repaired badly. I pulled out the timetable. The first bus of the day was supposed to leave at 8.47 am. I sat down and waited.

Nobody came. At 8.47 exactly, I stood up and started walking the route on foot. I followed the old road out of the city, past houses that had become offices, past a petrol station that was now a garden centre. At the edge of town, I met an old man walking his dog. He saw the paper in my hand and smiled. Following the 47? he asked. I said yes. He told me he used to drive it, thirty years ago. The reservoir stop was his favourite, he said, because the ducks would gather by the shelter every morning, waiting for the schoolchildren to feed them bread.

I walked for four hours. When I reached the reservoir, the shelter was gone. A concrete base was all that remained, with weeds pushing through the cracks. But the ducks were still there, seven of them, standing quietly by the water’s edge. I sat on a fallen tree and watched them for a while. One of them walked towards me, stopped, and tilted its head. I had no bread to give. Still, it stayed. I thought about the schoolchildren who used to come here every morning, the bus driver who remembered their names, the timetable that had been folded inside a stranger’s coat for a decade. Then I folded the paper again, put it back in my pocket, and walked home.

11 What first made the writer keep the bus timetable instead of throwing it away?
A He recognised the bus company’s name.
B He felt a sudden curiosity about the places on it.
C He wanted to check if the bus still ran.
D He thought the paper looked valuable.

12 What does the writer say about the village of Lowden?
A It has grown into a much larger town.
B It is still possible to travel there by bus.
C It no longer appears on any map.
D It has the same name as a nearby reservoir.

13 How did the writer travel the route of the number 47 bus?
A He took a modern bus that followed the same road.
B He drove his own car from stop to stop.
C He walked along the old road.
D He cycled from the market square to the reservoir.

14 What did the old man tell the writer about the reservoir stop?
A Children used to feed the ducks there.
B He had never liked driving that part of the route.
C The bus shelter was removed many years ago.
D The schoolchildren waited there for the bus every afternoon.

15 What is the main message of this text?
A Following old plans can lead to interesting discoveries.
B It is better to travel by car than by bus.
C Charity shops often contain surprising hidden objects.
D Walking is the only way to truly see the countryside.

For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary