Comprehension For '0'LevelRead the passage below and then answer all the questions which follow.

Parachute JumpingAt first the training was merely physical training and the drill of jumping off a platformOn a matress, with one's feet together. One of my daughters, now aged four,Who likes showing how to jump off the nursery table, reminds me constantly of theGlee with which we practised. But all this was very much like any other form ofPhysical training, and did not give one much idea of what the actual jumping would 5Be like As the time came nearer, I certainly began to wish heartily that 1 had notGot to do it. It was clean too, from the talk of the others that we were all thinkinghard about it, and the instructor kept emphasising that, no matter how often youjumped, you always felt frightened. So I watched the face of the instructor whenhe was about to do a demonstration jump before us. Although he seemed as tough 10and matter-of-fact a sergeant as one could meet, I felt sure from his look as thewarning bulb lit up that he too felt the strain.

I knew I was going to be very frightened indeed, but believed that somehow weshould all get through with it. That feeling increased in the plane itself. There werenine of us, and the first eight were to jump in pairs. This meant that only two left 15the plane each time it passed over the landing area and that, even if they were slow,they would still drop within the area. As I was in the fourth pair, I would have towatch most of the others go first but, although the waiting increased the lengthof strain, it also increased one's confidence. It is no criticism of the others to saythat they were all obviously frightened too. I remember watching them as we all 20 chewed away at the chewing-gum, which our sergeant with efficient but not over-concerned decency had produced as we entered. He explained that it was alwaysbest to take it before a jump and that, apart from helping one when feeling strained,it prevented one from getting thirsty.

The plane circled over the landing-ground. The door through which we were to 25jump was open and we could hear the air rushing past outside. The plane circledagain, the warning light went up by the doorway, the first man took hold of eitherside of it, with his feet together almost out of the plane, ready to wrench himselfthrough. He had to wrench hard to get out before the airstream knocked him againstthe side of the door. Then the green light went on; the dispatcher gave him the 30order and he vanished through the door, followed a moment later by his companion.The dispatcher looked out behind the plane and turned at once with a grin and histhumbs up. We could hear little because of the noise of the engine and the slipstream,but we knew that the first two parachutes had opened, and that the pair were already 35drifting down, hundreds of yards away from us

When my turn came I was thinking hard about how to junp out property and notasking myself whether to jump or not. Then the green light went up. the man infront of me shot out: I clutched the sides of the doorway, while the air outsidethe plane - and in fact the whole of space - seemed to be screeching past. One,two - the dispatcher was beside me counting with his arm like a boxing referee 40- then the order to jump and, looking fixedly ahead so as not to look down, Iwrenched with both arms.

5. The next half-second - for it could have been no longer - is something which anyonewho has experienced a first jump can ever forget, or indeed contemplate calmly -I find for instance that I have been driving my pencil with several times its usual 45

pressure on to the paper as I write about it) - nor, I fear, is anyone likely to beable to imagine it merely from a description. The parachutist jumps from a staticatmosphere inside the plane into the slipstream flowing past outside of perhaps 250to 300 kilometres an hour, and immediately it seems that a rushing mighty wind orraging torrent has struck one side of his body. I have never felt so helpless in the 50power of blind physical forces, completely beyond the control of my own will. Tobe rolled about and knocked over by waves might feel something like it, if you couldimagine the sea about you moving at twice the pace of a racing motorist.

6. Then suddenly there was a hard tug at my shoulders, and the sensation of beinga snowflake in a blizzard ceased as abruptly as it had begun. The parachute had 55opened I looked up and felt inside me a great surging gratitude. I seemed to besuspended snug and safe, as I had lain years before rocking gently in a garden hammock,and the contrast and the relief was so sudden and over-whelming tharl still wishthey had never ended. Craning back, I could see the parachute swaying above me.My shoulder cords were twisted and I was spinning slowly round and round like 60someone with ropes twisted on a swing.Section:2

Reading for Meaning

From Paragraph I

Explicit meaning

5. Why did the men jump off a platform on to a mattress during their training? [I]

6. Why did the instructor stress that "you always felt frightened?"[2] 7. What two qualities of the instructor are mentioned here?[2]8. Pick out one word, which shows that the instructor was frightened.[1]

From Paragraph 2

Explicit meaning

9. Pick out a phrase from the paragraph, which is paradoxical. [2]

Implicit meaning

10. The sergeant had given them the chewing gum with "efficient but not over-concerneddecency." Explain how he behaved with particular reference to the bold words:

[2]Explicit meaning11. What were the two effects of chewing gum?[2]

From Paragraph 3

Explicit meaning

12. Pick one word that suggests a lot of effort was required.[I]

From the whole of Passage

Explicit meaning

19. Choose five of the following words. For each of them give one word or short phrase(of not more than seven words) which has the same meaning that the word has inthe passage.

1. glee (paragraph I, line 4) ______________________________

2. obviously (paragraph 2, line 20) ______________________________

3. drifting (paragraph 3, line 35) ____________________________

4. clutched (paragraph 4, line 38) _____________________________

5. fixedly (paragraph 4, line 41) __________________________

6. contemplate (paragraph 5, line 44) __________________________

7. static (paragraph 5, line 47) ____________________________

8. surging (paragraph 6, line 56) ___________________________