TEST 59
Questions 1-7. Match the following headings (A-H) to the texts (Q1-Q7).
HEADINGS:
A) City management
B) Interior of the houses
C) Bright colours
D) Busy waterway
E) Meeting the city’s everyday needs
F) City’s finance
G) City architecture
H) City’s leading position
Q1.
London was a good place to live in the fourteenth century, and all Londoners were very proud of it. It had a
population of about forty thousand and that made it as large as the next four towns in England combined.
Its political prestige was
enormous, and whatever king occupied the throne in nearby Westminster, the
opinions of Londoners had to be considered.
Q2.
In so busy a city, the problem of adequate water supply and sewage disposal
and city cleaning were
necessarily complicated. Each of the twenty-five areas of the city had at least one full-time street cleaner.
Untidy trades like that of the butchers were kept as far away as possible from the centre. Each citizen had
to have the road paved in front of his house.
Q3.
The city was democratically and intelligently run, and mostly by men who received
no pay for their
services. The mayor received a large grant for entertainment purposes, and the town-scrgeant and town-
clerk were given salaries because
theirs were full-time posts, but aldermen and members of the common
council worked for nothing. They watched over the welfare of the city because they were its citizens.
Q4.
The houses were somewhat dark, especially when the wooden
shutters had to be closed, as glass was
expensive and of poor quality. Most of the houses in London were built tightly packed together, with each
storey extending further towards the street than the last one and sometimes the
top floors of buildings on
opposite sides of the street were so big that they actually met in the middle.
