READING 9th FORM

Read the text and do the tasks.

A Sea Story

Once Captain Brown was asked to tell us something interesting about his voyages.

That’s what he told.

It was fifteen years ago. I was a Mate on the vessel which was bound for New York from Portsmouth. One day when I was keeping watch our Master came up to me and said: “Last night I heard such a strange thing that I don’t know what to do about it. I heard a voice which told me to sail north-north-west. We must move in that direction and find out”. At first I was astonished. Then I got interested. “How did you managed to hear something while sleeping?”, I wondered. The captain got very angry. He denied being sleeping and insisted on having heard these words three times.

So the ship has changed her course and proceeded in that direction. The next day the watchman saw something black at the distance. The captain looked through his glasses and exclaimed: “ There’s a small boat with a man in it. I was right last night, wasn’t I? We must save him.”

He ordered six hands in the life-boat. When we reached the man in the boat was fast asleep. He went on sleeping while we took him on board our ship. After a while the man woke up and cried out loudly: “Where am I? Where is my boat?”

The Master welcomed the man happily. “I’m so pleased that we have been able to save you,” he said. The man looked around in despair. “Look here”, said the man, “My name is Captain Wilson and I’m taking part in a record voyage from New York to Liverpool in a small boat. And I would have won it if…” 

Task 1. Read the sentences and choose the correct variant .

1.      The number of Captains mentioned in the text is ….

2.     The described event has happened in …

3.  The narrator of the story was then …

4.      How long did it take the ship to reach the small boat?

5.      The man from the small boat woke up …

6.      The man from the small boat wasn’t happy because …

Task 2. Read the sentences and marked them True or False.

1.      The Captain of the ship didn’t believe the words which he had heard at night.

2.      The Captain of the ship did nothing about these words.

3.      The captain of the ship ordered to keep the ship’s course.

4.      The captain of the ship could see a boat and a man in it.

5.      The captain of the ship wanted three sailors to save the man from the small boat.

6.      The Captain of the ship didn’t know about the record voyage.