Examination Specification Level B2 (Grade 11)

Festivals and traditions

Read the text and circle the correct answers.

We had just had the living room decorated and Mum and I were looking at the results. It looked really good and there seemed to be so much more light in the room. I looked at the bare wall above the fireplace. There had been an old photo of my uncle John there but the frame had got broken while we were having the work done and anyway, Mum said, it was time for a change.
We carried on putting things back in place and doing jobs like hanging the curtains, and pretty soon the place was looking really nice. I put the tray on the coffee table and sat down on the settee next to Mum. But all the time, she kept looking at the empty space on the wall. ‘It’s no good’, she said, ‘We’ll have to get a nice painting to go there.’
I thought no more about it, but the next morning, Mum woke me up early. She seemed really excited about something. ‘Get up! We’ve got work to do!’ She said, smiling. ‘But Mum, we’ve finished the living room – we did it all yesterday, remember?’ I complained. ‘I don’t mean that,’ she said, ‘We’re going to be art dealers today!’ She said she had been lying in bed thinking about … guess what? The wall above the fireplace!
After a hasty breakfast, Mum hurried me out to the car. But she wouldn’t tell me where we were going. She just drove into town with a silly smile on her face. (I ought to explain that my mum is slightly nuts and when she decides to do something, well …!)
We pulled up outside an antique shop. Mum frowned as she noticed the sign saying the shop was closed. Then her face lifted when she realised it would be open in half an hour. ‘Coffee and cake?’ she asked, pointing to a nearby café.
When the shop owner arrived, we were there to meet him. We both fell in love with the painting at the same time. ‘I can let you have it for ten pounds,’ the owner said. Well, that was exactly the amount we had just paid at the café. It was unbelievable. A work of art for the price of two coffees!
So that was how we came to get the painting in our living room. We both still love it and I keep telling Mum we should have it valued in case it’s worth a lot of money.

She just grins. I think she enjoys the memory of the day we bought it almost as much as she loves the painting itself.

1. 
   The writer and her mum had done some decorating / had some decorating done.
   
2. 
   There used to be a painting / photo above the fireplace.
   
3. 
   They were pleased with / unhappy about the results of the decorating.
   
4. 
   They got up early because the writer’s mum wanted to go out / work in the living room.
   
5. 
   They went to a café to get some information / because the shop was closed.
   

ANSWERS FOR THE READING