ACTIVITY 1: READING
COMPREHENSION
Read this story and decide if the
following sentences are true or false.
The
most embarrassing moment of my life (Richard, Sussex)
When I was about nine years old, I used to go
to the cinema every Saturday morning – in those days it was very popular. After
the film had finished, I would go to a toy shop and look at model planes and
trains, and sometimes I bought them with the pocket money that I had been
carefully saving. One day after the film, I went to a big department store to
have a look at the model planes they had. I didn’t buy anything, but as I was
leaving a very large man grabbed my arm quite violently and accused me of
shoplifting. The man said that he was a store detective. As I had been
concentrating on the toys, I hadn’t noticed that he had been watching me. He
made me empty my pockets and he went through my coat, searching for stolen
goods, even though I told him very clearly that I had only been looking. Of
course he didn’t find anything, but by this time several people had stopped to
see what was happening. I felt very embarrassed and humiliated that so many
people were looking at me, and I was very glad to leave the shop when it was
all over.
An
hour or so later, when I was having lunch with my family at home, my father asked
me about the film. I then mentioned that I had been looking at toys in a
department store when a store detective accused me of shoplifting and searched me
in the middle of the shop. My father made me repeat what I had said and then
immediately jumped up from the table. Without either of us having finished our
lunch, he made me get into the car. I had never seen my father so angry! He drove
quickly to the store, parked outside, and took me to where the incident had taken
place. He then demanded to see the manager and the store detective. When the
manager came, my father started shouting at him and he told him that I had never
stolen anything in my life. He made the manager and store detective apologize
to me for having accused me of shoplifting and for embarrassing me. But the
thing is, I found this scene even more embarrassing than the first one,
especially as I could see that a lot of customers had stopped and were watching
us!
https://web.unica.it/unica/protected/244856/0/def/ref/MAT244630/