Read the text below. For questions (23—32) choose the correct answer

(A, B, C or D). Write your answers on the separate answer sheet.

Afel was only a very small boy when he (22) saw snow. But it wasn’t (23) snow that he saw. No, there was no real snow (24) he lived. He saw the snow in a picture book. The book had lots of

pictures of children playing in big white fields. He (25) his mother, «What are those white fields?» and his mother laughed and said, «That’s snow!» She tried to explain to him what snow was, but Afel didn’t really understand. (26) there was rain where he lived, but not very much, so it was very difficult for him to understand what this cold, ice rain that his mother described was.

He dreamed about snow all the time, trying to imagine how it really was.

Then, when Afel was twelve years old, the following thing happened. One day he was watching TV at his uncle’s house, and a programme came on, and there were people flying across the snow. They looked (27) strange animals, or fantastic birds. They had hats which covered all their heads and

big goggles over their eyes. And on their (28), they had things that looked like strange shoes.

«What are those?» he asked his uncle excitedly. «Skis», replied his uncle, «and those people are called (29)». At that moment, Afel decided. He wanted to be a skier.

He asked his uncle what the programme was. «The Winter Olympics», said his uncle. «It’s like the normal Olympics, but for sports where you need snow — skiing, ice skating, bobsleigh, those

sorts of things. They have it every four years». Afel (30) out that the next Winter Olympics were in Vancouver in Canada, in 2010.

«Perfect», he thought. «Enough time for me to become a brilliant skier. Then I’ll go to the Winter Olympics, and win the gold medal for skiing». «But there’s no snow here!» people told him. «Where are you going to ski?» Afel didn’t care. He (31) himself a pair of skis from two pieces of wood. He tied them to his feet and practised skiing holding two sticks in his hands. At first he couldn’t move, but he practised, and practised, and practiced until he could move quite quickly across the sand or the earth where he lived. He tried to fly down the hills like the people on TV, but he couldn’t. He

could only move slowly.

«Never (32)», he thought. «It’s just a start...» So every night, out in the middle of the desert, Afel now practises skiing down sand dunes. He dreams that the yellow sand and brown earth of the desert is the white, white snow of the mountains he saw (33) the television. He dreams that the yellow sand and brown earth are as gold as the medal he will bring home with him, when he is the world champion.

Task 4/376