S 108 Sample Matura tasks Multiple choice: Is queuing really the British way? Read the text about queuing. Some words are missing. Choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) for each gap (1–9). Put a cross () in the correct box. The first one (0) has been done for you. Queuing, it’s what the British are famous for doing – and doing very well. It even has its own code of conduct in … 0 , heaven forbid, anyone doesn’t understand how the queue works. Yet queuing in a calm, good-natured manner has not always come naturally. “We’re … 1 to be so wonderful at it but really that reputation is built around a whole mythology,” says Dr Joe Moran, a social historian. The temporary nature of queues makes it hard to … 2 their history, but key historical events are said to have shaped how the British queue. One is the industrial revolution. “The orderly queue seems to have developed in the early 19th century, a product of more urbanised societies which brought … 3 of people together,” says Moran. People were moving in huge numbers into towns changing the patterns of daily life, including shopping. “The whole way people shopped was more informal,” says historian Juliet Gardiner. “Traders started moving from market … 4 into shops as they moved into towns. In the more formal setting of a shop people had to start to queue up in a more structured way.” Despite the mass expansion of manufacturing not everyone did well and many people were poor. “Thus queuing started to become … 5 with extreme hardship as the poor had to queue to access handouts and charity,” says Dr Kate Bradley, a lecturer in social history at the University of Kent. But what really shaped Britain’s reputation as civilised queuers was World War II. “Propaganda at the time was all about doing your duty and … 6 your turn,” says Bradley. “It was a way the government tried to control a situation in uncertain times.” The queue became loaded with meaning, and the myth of the British as patient queuers was forged, says Moran. “In reality there were arguments, and often the police had to be brought in to … 7 things out. Queuing was exhausting and frustrating. Things would go on sale in an erratic way, and people often … 8 the end of a queue without knowing exactly what it was for, they just hoped it would be something useful.” The notion of the orderly queue is a belief that is still cherished today. “It’s a story we still like to tell about ourselves,” says Moran. “We like to think it … 9 in with a particular idea we have of our national character – that we’re pragmatic and phlegmatic.” (Denise Winterman, BBC News Magazine; adapted and abridged) 0 A situation B spite C case ✘ D supposing 1 A likely B so-called C counted D supposed 2 A charge B define C draw D trace 3 A mobs B volumes C masses D piles 4 A houses B stalls C auctions D sales 5 A isolated B associated C regarded D thought 6 A waiting B queuing C standing D making 7 A sort B make C try D move 8 A came B waited C joined D added 9 A fits B comes C believes D proves 5 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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