Part 6
You are going to read an article about how a desert marathon runner found a pet dog. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
The desert runner and the dog
The story of how a homeless dog became an internet star and found a home in the UK begins in China, in the Gobi Desert, during an ultramarathon in which competitors cross 250 kilometres of desert in seven days. The dog ‘adopted’ Australian marathon runner Dion Leonard when it chose to join the racers on the second day. Leonard’s affection for the dog grew as it ran hour after hour with him in the harsh desert conditions, and by the last stage of the race, they could not be separated. He named her Gobi, after the desert.
37 . He claims she helped him do so well in the race. In fact, Gobi set the pace for Leonard, and the two days she didn’t run with him, his times were not as fast as when she did. He added that she sometimes beat him too – but when Gobi ran too quickly she would stop and wait for him to catch up, and then they would continue together.
Dion Leonard’s affection for the dog was so strong that he decided he would take her back to Scotland, where he currently lives. 38 . This included setting up a crowdfunding campaign (raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people) on the internet to cover the costs of medical and fitness checks for Gobi and for her to be flown to Scotland.
However, the drama of the story increased when Gobi disappeared just before she was due to travel to Beijing. 39 . She had escaped by dashing outside through an open door in Urumqi, the Chinese city where some of the ultramarathon race team were caring for her.
After hearing this news, Leonard took a flight back to China as soon as he could, and began to search for Gobi. He knew there was little chance of finding Gobi on his own, so he set up a media and social media campaign, and put posters up all over the city. Soon, groups of local volunteers were helping him hunt for Gobi all across Urumqi, looking in parks and dog shelters, and asking all the people they came across whether they’d seen the dog. Leonard became quite well-known after he was interviewed by local television, and people often stopped him in the street to wish him luck and give him encouragement. 40 .
Leonard didn’t give in, and eventually the call that he’d been waiting for came: a man and his son had seen a small dog while walking their dog in a local park. 41 . Leonard was doubtful – the man had sent pictures, but they were a bit too dark to be able to identify the dog as Gobi.
When he walked into the room where they agreed to meet the man with the dog he’d found, Leonard was not feeling at all hopeful that it was Gobi. But as soon as the dog saw him, she rushed towards him and jumped up, barking excitedly. 42 . He’s deeply grateful to the residents of Urumqi, as he would never have found her if they hadn’t helped him in his search.
A. He soon found that the process for achieving this was difficult and expensive, so he returned home and started making arrangements from there.
B. They had taken her home and thought she could be Gobi.
C. It was as if the two had never been apart, and Leonard says he felt just like he had when they were racing together.
D. She had to be monitored there for three months before she was allowed to travel out of China.
E. Leonard managed to win second place in the race, despite having to carry Gobi across rivers and giving her food and water from the supplies he had to carry.
F. Furthermore, he feared the dog could easily have run a long way out into the surrounding countryside.
G. Leonard even launched a live blog to keep people interested in and up-to-date with his search.
For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary