Matura 2008

ROZUMIENIE TEKSTU CZYTANEGO I ROZPOZNAWANIE STRUKTUR LEKSYKALNO-GRAMATYCZNYCH

Zadanie 7. (5 pkt)
Przeczytaj poniższy tekst. Z podanych możliwości odpowiedzi wybierz właściwą, zgodną z treścią tekstu. Zakreśl literę A, B, C lub D. Za każdą poprawną odpowiedź otrzymasz 1 punkt.

I used to have these dreams about being a career woman. I wanted shoulder pads, briefcases and mobile phones. I wanted designer clothes and a flat which had wooden floors and white sofas and enormous bowls of lilies on every polished fruitwood table. I wanted a Mercedes sports car and chunky gold jewellery. Unfortunately, life in PR is probably not the best way of going about it because PR seems to be one of the worst paid professions in the world. I know what I should have done, I should have gone into the City, because I graduated at the tail end of the eighties boom, and I could have made a mint, but I never had a very good brain for money, or numbers, and I would have been hopeless. And PR seemed like the easiest option. It sounded glamorous, exciting, and I wouldn’t have to start as a secretary, which I was loath to do, because I would hate to have people asking me what I did for a living. In PR I was able to start as a Public Relations Assistant.

I answered an ad in the Guardian, and I went along for the interview. The offices of Joe Cooper PR were in a back street in Kilburn, not the most pleasant of areas, and from the outside it just looked like a big warehouse, but inside it was magnificent. A huge loft, wooden floors, brightly coloured chairs and velvet cushions, and a constant buzz of phone conversations from some of the most beautiful people I’d ever seen in my life.
And I looked completely wrong. There they were, everyone in jeans, super trendy T-shirts and big motorbike boots (which was the look at the time), and there I was in my little Jigsaw two-piece cream suit, with matching high heels and a briefcase clutched in my hand to look more professional.

I remember thinking when I walked in, ‘Why oh why didn’t I research this before I came,’ but then Joe Cooper came to shake my hand. ‘You must be Libby,’ he said, and as soon as I met him I knew I’d like him, and, more importantly, I knew he’d like me. And he did. And I started next week on a pittance, but I loved it. God, how I loved it. Within a month, all my friends were green with envy, because I was already on first name terms with some of the hottest celebrities on TV, and I spent my days helping the executives, typing press releases, occasionally babysitting those celebrities on their excursions to radio and television shows where they plugged their latest book, or programme, or film. And I was so excited, and I met so many people, and my Jigsaw suit was placed firmly at the back of my wardrobe as I dressed like the others and fitted in.

My social life is swings and roundabouts. Sometimes I’m on a social whirl, out almost every night, grateful for the odd night in, watching television and catching up on my sleep. But then everything will slow down for a while, and I’ll be in every night. I talk to Jules every day, about five times, even if we don’t really have anything to say to each other, which we don’t usually, because what news can you possibly tell someone you last spoke to an hour ago? We usually end up talking nonsense. She’ll phone me up and say, ‘I’ve just eaten half a packet of biscuits and a cheese and pickle sandwich. I feel sick.’ Or I’ll phone her and say, ‘I’m just calling to say hi.’ And she’ll sigh and say, ‘Hi. Any news?’
‘No. You?’
‘No.’
‘Okay, talk to you later.’
‘Okay.’
Jules is my sister, my friend, my touchstone. Not that she is, of course, she just feels like it, and Jules is the wisest woman I know. I’ll sit and bore her with my latest adventure, and she’ll listen very quietly, wait for a few seconds when I’ve finished before speaking, which used to bother me because I thought that she was bored, but actually what she is doing is thinking about what I have said, formulating an opinion, and when she gives me advice it’s always spot on, even if it might not be exactly what I want to hear.

abridged from Jane Green, ‘Mr Maybe’

7.1. The first two paragraphs make you think that the narrator wishes she
A. were a secretary in the City.
B. were able to earn more money.
C. had more understanding friends.
D. had not left university in the 80s.

7.2. On the day of the interview, the woman
A. realized that it was wrong to wear jeans to work.
B. admired the exterior of the company main building.
C. was overwhelmed by the interior of the company offices.
D. regretted the fact that nobody noticed her elegant clothes.

7.3. Her job in PR involved, among other things,
A. interviewing celebrities.
B. issuing public statements.
C. looking after celebrities’ kids.
D. accompanying famous people.

7.4. The woman’s social life
A. is rather varied.
B. always exhausts her.
C. is spoilt by her sister.
D. has changed recently.

7.5. The narrator presents Jules as a person
A. whose opinions do not make much sense.
B. whose life stories she always finds boring.
C. who persists in talking about unhealthy diets.
D. who tends to provide her with the right counsel.