Part 3 . Reading

Eight sentences have been removed from the text. Read the text and write the appropriate letter in
the box. An example (0) has been done for you. Note that there are two extra sentences.
AN ITALIAN EDUCATION
Tim Parks
Sending his son to school in Italy caused Tim Parks to recall his own schooling in England and draw
some interesting comparison.
When I went to primary school, I carried no bag, because the books were all there, inside my desk. (1)… (1)
Later, when there was homework, one carried a little briefcase, which went with the collar and tie – we
were little businessmen, little accountants and executives, travelling to school on bus and tube- and inside
that bag it smelled of sandwiches because the school meals were so awful you opted out.
In Italian schools only essential textbooks are provided and only up to a certain age. (2)… They’re expen- (2)
sive. This means that if the books were left in the school, people would be afraid of their being stolen,
afraid of having to pay for them again, afraid of losing all the places they have underlined them and written
notes in the margin. (3)…
(3)
(4)
So the children carry all their books to school every day – from six years old to eighteen (4)…Instead,
they have backpacks of fluorescent pink and yellow with ‘Invicta’ written on them and shiny plastic
buckles, the same as they will carry years later about the streets of Rome and Paris and London when
their mothers finally feel able to let them go away for a few days on a school journey. (0)… Five kilos of
books…
(0) G
But however heavy they may be, their backpacks will never smell of sandwiches. The food is so good no
one would ever dream of opting out of school meals. Or rather, the mothers would never dream of letting
the authorities let the food get so bad that anyone would want to opt out.
And they’ll never smell of football boots either. (5)… There are no music lessons, no singing lessons, no (5)
school choir, no carpentry for the boys and cookery for the girls, no football, no swimming, no athletics,
no sports day, no school teams. (6)… That’s important. It doesn’t, and later on the university won’t either,
try to create in the child the impression of belonging to a large social unit with its own identity.
(6)
(7)… No hymn singing, no prayers, no speech day. Apart from the centenary, which, as the headmistress (7)
pointed out, can hardly happen every day, school, for Stefi at six, for Michele at eight, is no more and no
less than reading and writing and mathematics, geography and science, oh, and English (just introduced).
‘I Spy, A Cascades Collection of Viewpoints on Society’, London, 2002
A The school doesn’t, as it does in England, pretend to offer a community that might in any way
supplant the family, or rival Mamma.
B For school offers no games, no extracurricular activities.
C Others are bought by the parents.
D Not in briefcases, which probably wouldn’t be big enough and certainly wouldn’t go with the
casual clothing the children wear.
E There are no lockers.
F Or if I did, it was a pump bag for gym, or for games.
G I weighed Michele’s school backpack one morning.
H But apparently this was wrong.
I There is no assembly in the morning.
J They take their sport much more seriously.