Part 4
Questions 16-20
Five sentences have been removed from the text below. For each question, choose the correct answer (A-H). There are three extra sentences which you do not need to use.
The Friday Request
When I agreed to host the Friday evening shift at our local community radio station, I expected empty studios and forgotten music. The station broadcast from a small room above a bakery, and most volunteers preferred weekday mornings. 16 . My slot was 8 pm to midnight, and I played old jazz records from a dusty shelf.
The first few weeks were quiet. I announced the weather, read a local news bulletin about a lost cat, and watched the red light on the microphone flick on and off. 17 . It arrived by post, handwritten on a plain white card. The song was “Blue in Green” by Miles Davis. I played it, said nothing about the request, and continued with the next record.
The following Friday, another card arrived. Different name at the bottom, but the same handwriting – small, tidy, with no mistakes. Different song this time, but still from the same album. 18 . I started looking forward to Fridays. I would check the post before I went on air, and there it would be, like clockwork.
After two months, I decided to find out who was sending them. The return address on each envelope was a post office box, not a home. I asked the station manager, who had worked there for fifteen years. 19 . He said someone had been sending in requests every Friday for as long as he could remember, always jazz, always the same handwriting.
One evening, I stayed after my shift ended. I waited by the letterbox at the back of the bakery. At around 1 am, an elderly woman appeared. She did not see me. She slipped a card into the slot and walked away slowly, using a walking stick. 20 . I never spoke to her. But every Friday, I play her song first, before any other request.
A. He told me he had never noticed anything unusual about the requests.
B. I began to notice a pattern.
C. Then, on a Friday in late October, something changed.
D. The station manager warned me that Friday nights were usually very quiet.
E. Nobody wanted the late shift.
F. It didn’t help much.
G. She stopped at the corner and looked back at the station window.
H. The bakery downstairs closed at 6 pm every day.
For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary
