The British Stiff upper Lip

Read the text through quickly to see what it is about, then read it again and choose the best option for each gap number. When in Britain, you must never complain. Complaining is very un-British. If you are (1) ___ waiting half an hour in a shop, To be kept waiting. Made to wait if a bus (2) ... is rude to you, if a waiter brings your food ice-cold - you keep your mouth shut. The (3) ____ upper lip is the British way. Other nationalities might make a (4) ____ , You cause an argument but make a fuss protest loudly or call for the manager, but not the British. Remember also that British ears are (5) ____ not tuned to hear complaints. A friend of mine was a regular (6) ___ at a famous and expensive London restaurant. Every day at 2:00pm and 9pm the (7) ___ manager would come out (as he had been doing for the last 37 years), go from table to table and (8) ____ "Did you enjoy your meal?" For 37 years, hundreds of thousands of properly (9) ___ up English people had replied to him. "Very much indeed." The man would smile, say "Thank you very much'. and (10) ____ to the next table. One day however, the lunch was so (11) ____ that my friend (Dutch mother , Albanian father) decided to tell him the naked truth. So, when the antiquated manager (12)___ at his table as usual and asked, 'Did you enjoy your meal, sir?' my friend replied: ' (13) _____ , not at all. It was appalling.' To which the manager gave his (14) ...., obsequious smile, said: "Thank you very much , sir', and moved on , quite (15) ______

Made Kept stayed held Conductor attendant assistant steward hard inflexible firm stiff discussion argument quarrel fuss simply easily utterly modestly supporter purchaser customer guest mature elderly outdated vintage inquire query request probe raised grown educated brought motion progress stride shift offensive painful abominable harrowing appeared surfaced descended joined Sincerely largely bluntly frankly customary average commonplace daily convinced fulfilled satisfied complete Listen to check

2 Select the correct alternative in each case.

1. Is that your friend/friend's car?
2. Do you like watching horse/horses races?
3. Could you pass me the bath's/bath towel?
4. Would you like some mint tea/tea of mint?
5. It was essentially a lost violin film/ film about a lost violin.
6. There are lots of kitchen's/kitchen cupboards in the new house.
7. Have you got a timetable of trains/ train timetable?
8. Look! There's a bird's nest/nest of birds in that hedge.
9. This sweater is made of lamb's wool/ lamb wool.
10. Has anyone seen a large matches box /box of matches?
11. Can you hear a child's/child voice?
12. There won't ever be a tax on educational books/an educational books tax.

drastically sincerely abominably intimately patiently neatly intuitively helplessly

1. He listened
   .....................
   patiently
   as she told her long and rather boring story.
2. He
   .....................
   sincerely
   regretted all the unpleasant things he had said to her.
3. She knew
   .....................
   intuitively
   that there was something wrong.
4. She's changed
   .....................
   drastically
   since she's left home. She's a new person.
5. He always dresses very
   .....................
   neatly
   but without much style.
6. He behaved
   .....................
   abominably
   at the party.
7. He was rude to several of my friends. He's terribly funny. We were all laughing
   .....................
   helplessly
   for ages.
8. I wouldn't say I know him
   ....................
   intimately
   We're just work colleagues.