COMPREHENSION

©1998EnglishTeaching Systems

THE ENGLISH SPEAKER TEST 000

EXAMINATION PREPARATION EXERCISES: FIRST CERTIFICATE

Paper 3: Reading TIME: 1 hour

PART 1: COMPREHENSION

Choose the answers you think fit best according to the text.

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

“I started to lose my hair when I was 16. It kept on falling out and my confidence went. The other

blokes had great mops of hair. It was the fashion in the Seventies. By the time I was 21 it was so

bad that, when I saw this ad in the paper for a private hair clinic, I went along. I asked them how

much hair they thought I would lose and they said probably just a little at the corners, and they could

fill it in with some hair grafts.

“With these hair grafts I had to have a local anaesthetic. It was so painful. They took bits of hair from

the side and back, and replanted them into cuts made in the balding patch. The operation is very

unpleasant, especially when the anaesthetic needles are stuck into your scalp. But more hair fell

out, and I need more grafts. Over the next three years, I had more grafts, but it couldn’t keep up with

the hair loss. I had all these implants in front, and a bald patch behind. It looked worse than before

and my life was falling apart.

“My engagement was called off. My fiancee never commented about my hair, but I just didn’t feel

worthy of her. I was so fed up I went to another clinic. This time a salesman “consultant” came to

my home. He suggested more grafts, and something called a scalp reduction. I had four of these

operations over the next eighteen months. A piece of skin was taken from my scalp, and the skin on

either side was lifted and pulled inwards to be joined together with stitches. I had to have a week off

work after each operation because I couldn’t even smile. Even now my head feels tight around my

temples.

“This time I felt better, and looked better. But the hair loss persisted. It left patches and gaps. All

the time the clinic kept promising me a full head of hair. I was drinking heavily. Sometimes as many

as nine pints of beer a night, seven nights a week. It was the only way I could relax and feel confident

with girls. I became so depressed that I was sent to see a psychiatrist.

“But I kept on with the grafts. This was at the same clinic. In the end I developed scars that wouldn’t

go away. They tried twice at the clinic to scrape the scar tissue away, but each time the scars

returned. Then they tried steroid injections, but that didn’t work either. Then I started to really worry

about the hair at the back of my head. I’d had so many grafts that it had been severely thinned

down.” [At this point, not surprisingly, the specialists at the clinic decided there was nothing more

they could do. They did, however, recommend an expensive hair growth lotion. It had no effect.]

“If only someone had listened to me. I feel cheated. Not just financially. I lost my youth living in a

limbo, hopping from transplant to transplant. I would give anything to be able to walk down the street

with long hair blowing in the wind.

“I mean, things are better now. I have a doctor who has got me off the steroids and tranquillisers I

was taking. Then I have cut down on my drinking. I have a girlfriend who is sympathetic, and we get

along really well with each other. But, I don’t know, it won’t go away. Only a few months ago, I

ordered an expensive wig from another clinic, and then cancelled. I still have to use this spray-on

scar camouflage and a hair thickener every morning. I cut my own hair. I mean, I just couldn’t go to

a hairdresser. And I always wear a hat when I’m out of doors.”

01. Why did he choose this hair clinic?

A. It advertised.

B. His hair was falling out.

C. His friends had a lot of hair.

D. He wanted to be in fashion.

©1998EnglishTeaching Systems

02. The implant operations were not successful because

A. in the end his hair looked unnatural.

B. his life was going to pieces.

C. of the anaesthetic.

D. he needed more grafts.

03. He had this tight feeling at the side of his head because

A. his girlfriend had left him.

B. he couldn’t smile.

C. hair had been implanted..

D. skin had been taken away.

04. He could only feel confident if he

A. had a full head of hair.

B. took steroids.

C. drank to excess.

D. saw a psychiatrist.

05. What did he develop after so many operations?

A. deep depression.

B. permanent scars.

C. thin hair.

D.

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