......Mrs. Rumbold was a large, unsmiling lady     1     a tight black dress. She did not     2     look up when I took my seat beside her. Her eyes     3     on her plate and in a short time, she was busy eating……

...he asked his doctor to tell him whether his operation had been successful, but the doctor refused to do so. The     1     day, the patient asked for a bedside telephone. When he was     2    , he telephoned the hospital exchange and asked for Doctor Millington. When the doctor     3     the phone, Mr. Gilbert said he     4     about a certain patient…

So I decided to make some meat pies. In a short time I was busy     1     butter and flour and my hands were soon covered with sticky pastry. At exactly that moment, the telephone rang. I picked up the receiver between two sticky fingers and was dismayed when I     2     the voice of Mrs Bates. It took me ten minutes to persuade her to ring back later. I had     3     got back to the kitchen     4     the door-bell rang loud enough to wake the dead. This time it was the postman and he wanted me to sign for a registered letter!

This morning, however, a fireman accidentally discovered the cause. He noticed the     1     of a snake which was wound round the electric wires of a 16,000-volt power line. In this way, he was able to solve the mystery. The     2     was simple but very unusual. A bird had snatched up the snake from the ground and then     3     it on to the wires.

We have just moved into a new house and I have been working hard all morning. I have been trying to get my new room     1    . This has not been easy because I own over a thousand books. To make matters worse, the room is rather small, so I have temporarily put my books on the floor. A short while ago, my sister helped me to carry one of my old bookcases up the stairs. She went into my room and got a big surprise     2     she saw all those books on the floor. This is the     3     carpet I have ever seen, she said.

It was warm last Sunday, so I went and sat on the river     1     as usual….The ball     2     me so hard that I nearly fell into the water. I turned to look at the children, but there weren’t any in     3    : they had all run away! I laughed.    4    I realized what had happened.

This wonderful plane can     1     seven passengers. The most surprising thing about it, however, is that it can     2     anywhere: on snow, water. … The man wanted to fly to Rockall, a     3     island in the Atlantic Ocean, but Captain Fawcett did not take him….

He has just     1     a new house in the city, but ever since he moved in, he has had trouble with cars and their owners….It is one of the     2     faces I have ever seen….Jasper hopes that she will turn cars and their owners to stone. But     3     of them has been turned to stone yet!

He slept very well for the first two nights, but on the third night, a storm    1    .A gust of wind    2    the bed off the roof and sent it    3    into the courtyard below. The young man did not wake up until the bed    4    the ground.

I sat in the front of the bus to get a good    5    of the countryside. After some time, the bus stopped.    6    , I realized with a shock that I was the only passenger left on the bus. “You’ll have to get off here,” the conductor said. … “We are going back now,” said the conductor.“Well, in that case, I    7    stay on the bus,” I answered.

First of all, he wrote out a long list of all the foods which    8    . The list    9    most of the things Herbert loves: butter, potatoes, rice, beer, milk, chocolate, and sweets. Yesterday I paid him a visit. I rang the bell and was not surprised to see that Herbert was still as fat as ever. He led me into his room and hurriedly hid a large parcel under his desk. It was    10    that he was very embarrassed.

Their sleeping bags were warm and comfortable, so they all slept     1    . In the middle of the night, two boys woke up and began     2    . The tent was full of water! They all leapt out of their sleeping     3     and hurried outside... The stream wound     4     way across the field and then flowed right under the tent!