VIII. Fill the gaps with the correct prepositions.

During the long vacation I was accepted as a trainee bus conductor. I found the job fiercely demanding even …..(1) a short route …..(2) a total of about two dozen passengers. I pulled the wrong tickets, forgot the change and wrote …..(3) my log …..(4) the end of each trip …..(5) a way that drew hollow laughter …..(6) the inspectors. The inspectors were likely to swoop …..(7) any time. A conductor with twenty years' service could be dismissed if an inspector caught him accepting money …..(8) pulling a ticket. If a hurrying passenger pressed the fare into your hand as he leapt …..(9) of the back door, it was wise to tear a ticket and throw it …..(10) after him. There might be a plain-clothes inspector following in an unmarked car.

I lasted about three weeks all told. The routes …..(11) town were more than the mind could stand even …..(12) the off-peak hours. All the buses from our depot and every other depot would be crawling nose to tail …..(13) the town while the entire working population of Sydney fought to get aboard. It was hot that summer: 100° Fahrenheit every day. Inside the bus it was 30° hotter still. It was so jammed inside that my feet weren't touching the floor. I couldn't blink the sweat out …..(14) my eyes. There was no hope …..(15) collecting any fares. …..(16) each stop it was all I could do to reach the bell-push that signalled the driver to close the automatic doors and get going. I had no way of telling whether anybody had managed to get …..(17) or …..(18). My one object was to get that bus up Pitt Street.

…..(19) these circumstances I was scarcely to blame. I didn't even know where we were, but I guessed we were …..(20) the top just before Market Street. I pressed the bell, the doors puffed closed, and the bus surged forward. There were shouts and yells from down the back, but I thought they were the angry cries of passengers who had not got on. Too late I realized that they were emanating …..(21) within the bus. The back set of automatic doors had closed around an old lady's neck as she was getting on. Her head was inside the bus. The rest of her, carrying a shopping bag was outside. I knew none …..(22) this at the time.

When I at last cottoned …..(23) to the fact that something untoward was happening and signalled the driver to stop, he crashed to a halt and opened the automatic doors, whereupon the woman dropped to the road. She was very nice …..(24) it. Perhaps the experience had temporarily dislocated her mind. Anyway, she apologized …..(25) me for causing so much trouble. Unfortunately, the car behind turned …..(26) to be full of inspectors. Since it would have made headlines if a university student had been thrown …..(27) the buses for half-executing a woman …..(28) advanced years, I was given the opportunity to leave quietly. Once again this failed to coincide …..(29) my own plans …..(30) the sense that I had already resigned. In fact, I had made my decision at about the same time as the old lady hit the ground.