ЕГЭ-2325

 

Задания 12-18

 

 

Прочитайте рассказ и выполните задания 12–18. В каждом задании обведите букву ABC или D, соответствующую выбранному вами варианту ответа.

 

 

Hazlitt’s Hotel

 

I took a cab to Hazlitt’s Hotel on Frith Street. I like Hazlitt’s because it’s intentionally obscure — it doesn’t have a sign or a plaque or anything at all to betray its purpose — which puts you in a rare position of strength with your cab driver. Let me say right now that London cab drivers are without question the finest in the world. They are trustworthy, safe and honest, generally friendly and always polite. They keep their vehicles spotless inside and out, and they will put themselves to the most extraordinary inconvenience to drop you at the front entrance of your destination. There are really only a couple of odd things about them. One is that they cannot drive more than two hundred feet in a straight line. I’ve never understood this, but no matter where you are or what the driving conditions, every two hundred feet a little bell goes off in their heads and they abruptly lunge down a side street. And when you get to your hotel or railway station or wherever it is you are going, they like to drive you all the way around it so that you can see it from all angles before alighting.

 

The other distinctive thing about them, and the reason I like to go to Hazlitt’s, is that they cannot bear to admit that they don’t know the location of something they feel they ought to know, like a hotel, which I think is rather sweet. To become a London cab driver you have to master something titled The Knowledge—in effect, learn every street, hospital, hotel, police station, cricket ground, cemetery and other notable landmarks in this amazingly vast and confusing city. It takes years and the cabbies are justifiably proud of their achievement. It would kill them to admit that there could exist in central London a hotel that they have never heard of. So what the cabbie does is probe. He drives in no particular direction for a block or two, then glances at you in the mirror and in an overcasual voice says, “Hazlitt’s —that’s the one on Curzon Street, innit, guv? Opposite the Blue Lion?” But the instant he sees a knowing smile of demurral forming on your lips, he hastily says, “No, hang on a minute, I’m thinking of the Hazelbury. Yeah, the Hazelbury. You want Hazlitt’s, right?” He’ll drive on a bit in a fairly random direction. “That’s this side of Shepherd’s Bush, innit?” he’ll suggest speculatively.

 

When you tell him that it’s on Frith Street, he says. “Yeah, that the one. Course it is. I know it – modern place, lots of glass”.

 

“Actually, it’s an eighteenth-century brick building.”

 

“Course it is. I know it.” And he immediately executes a dramatic U-turn, causing a passing cyclist to steer into a lamppost (but that’s all right because he has on cycle clips and one of those geeky slip stream helmets that all but invite you to knock him over). “Yeah, you had me thinking of the Hazelbury” the driver adds, chuckling as if to say it’s a lucky thing he sorted that one out for you, and then lunges down a little side street off the Strand called Running Sore Lane or Sphincter Passage, which, like so much else in London, you had never noticed was there before.

 

 

 

12. The narrator said that he liked London cab drivers because they

A) know all the hotels and streets in the city.

B) can be trusted and nice to deal with.

C) can drive in a straight line.

D) make friends easily.

 

 

13 Which of the following statements about London cab drivers is true according to the narrator?

A) They have little bells in their cars.

B) They let you see your hotel from all angles.

C) They prefer side streets to main streets.

D) They prefer driving in a straight line.

 

 

14. A reason why the narrator liked to go to Hazlitt’s was that

A) it was in the center of the city.

B) cab drivers didn’t know where it was.

C) cab drivers liked driving there.

D) it was an old brick building.

 

 

15. According to the narrator, to be a London cab driver, one has to

A) know all streets and places in London.

B) be proud of the city.

C) be knowledgeable.

D) be ready to study the city for years.

 

 

16. According to the narrator, if the cab driver did not know a hotel in London he would

A) panic.

B) ask the passenger.

C) never admit it.

D) use a map.

 

 

17. According to the narrator, when the driver finally knows where to go, he would

A) speed up.

B) turn the car in the opposite direction.

C) admit he was confused at first.

D) say you are lucky he knew the place.

 

 

18. What is the narrator’s general attitude towards London cab drivers?

A) Ironic.

B) Critical.

C) Aсcusatory.

D) Supportive.

 

 

 

  • This passage is from the novel Notes from a Small Island, written by Bill Bryson (1995)

 

 

 

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