Работа с текстом JOE AND HIS LONDON TAXI
материал для подготовки к егэ (гиа) по английскому языку на тему

JOE AND HIS LONDON TAXI

Sometimes people ask me, “What is strangest that has ever happened to you, as a taxi driver, something typical of England?” It’s difficult to answer. But one of the strangest things that ever happened to me was during the great fog.

Foreigners always think that Britain is nothing but fog every winter from October to March. It’s not like that really. But in November and December of that year we did have some rather bad fog in England.

The first night the fog came down very suddenly. I was driving someone from Piccadilly to Richmond. I took my usual short-cut through Richmond Park. It’s a lovely place with big trees, trees lakes and herds of deer. At week-ends people go there for picnics, and every evening men go there to run. To run? Yes, to run. Running for health is rather popular nowadays.

Well, we met a group of those men, running through the park.

“Not my favourite sport,” I said to my passenger.

I left my passenger at her house and drove back to London.

I turned into Richmond Park again. I soon realized that it was a mistake. The fog was really think. The further I drove into the park, the thicker the fog became. I turned on my headlights. It didn’t help much.

Suddenly I saw something standing on the road in front of me. I braked and stopped. The figure moved away. It was a deer, I was sure. Then I saw another figure on the road, but it was a stranger deer. It stood there in the light of my fog lamp…wearing short, a white shirt and running shoes. It was one of those runners. I stopped and opened my window. The man put his head in.

“Terribly sorry!” he said. “We’re lost!”

“Jump in!” I said. “Haven’t I seen you here before?”

“There are 15 of us here!” he added.

“Oh. Well, you’d better not jump in then,” I said. Now I could see the others – strange figures in the fog, jumping up and down, now on one the other, to keep warm.

“Follow me,” I told them. “I’ll drive slowly – I know the way out of the park.” So I drove at a ’slow run’ for about half an hour. At last we came to the way out of the park – the runners were safe now.

Words and word combinations  

a fog – туман, a thick fog – густой туман

a foreigner – иностранец

rather – довольно

short – cut – кратчайший путь

herds of deer – стада оленей

headlights – фары

to keep warm – чтобы согреться

follow me – следуйте за мной

Questions

1. Who is the main character of this story?
2. What do foreigners always think of Britain’s weather?
3. What is said about Richmond Park?
4. Why do men go to Richmond Park every evening?
5. Why was driving through Richmond Park a mistake that evening?
6. Whom did the drive meet suddenly on the road?
7. How did he help the people?