Christina Goudis
TEFL ASSIGNMENT A
Comprehension worksheet
Read the following text entitled, “What made me the way I am?’ by Summer
Avery and answer the questions that follow:
What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has
affected their current life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery,
reflects on how her family history influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a
mining village in Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the
pit and that's what dad was going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing
down the mines and suddenly there was no work for young men like my dad. My
mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was a diplomat, Mum went
to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to
Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important job, but she was a
rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing
down and people from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their
hope. But in other places, new enterprises were starting up and some people were
getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream
lifestyles altogether. Among those people were the 'New Age Travellers.' They lived
in old lorries and buses and travelled from one music festival to another. These
lorries and buses used to travel together in convoys and they were unpopular with
many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and closing down the
festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used to
be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the
Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the
convoys. Two of the people who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who
had decided to run away from school and my dad, who had decided to escape
unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were
arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they
hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer
Solstice 1986 – that's why they called me Summer. Both families were really shocked
and disappointed. I didn't even meet my grandparents until I was seven. When I was
little we travelled round Europe in an old double-decker bus. My dad's a talented
musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so they joined this strange
alternative circus called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the usual
circus things – just human performers doing really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never
1
TEFL ASSIGNMENT A
Comprehension worksheet
Read the following text entitled, “What made me the way I am?’ by Summer
Avery and answer the questions that follow:
What made me the way I am?
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has
affected their current life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery,
reflects on how her family history influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a
mining village in Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the
pit and that's what dad was going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing
down the mines and suddenly there was no work for young men like my dad. My
mum, Lucy, came from a very different family. Her father was a diplomat, Mum went
to boarding school because her parents lived abroad. They expected her to go to
Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important job, but she was a
rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing
down and people from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their
hope. But in other places, new enterprises were starting up and some people were
getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream
lifestyles altogether. Among those people were the 'New Age Travellers.' They lived
in old lorries and buses and travelled from one music festival to another. These
lorries and buses used to travel together in convoys and they were unpopular with
many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys and closing down the
festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There used to
be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the
Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the
convoys. Two of the people who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who
had decided to run away from school and my dad, who had decided to escape
unemployment by going on the road. That is where they met - when they were
arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would never have met if they
hadn't gone to that festival.
They were only seventeen years old. I was born exactly one year later on Summer
Solstice 1986 – that's why they called me Summer. Both families were really shocked
and disappointed. I didn't even meet my grandparents until I was seven. When I was
little we travelled round Europe in an old double-decker bus. My dad's a talented
musician and my mum was good at gymnastics, so they joined this strange
alternative circus called 'Anarkurkus'. There were no animals or any of the usual
circus things – just human performers doing really crazy things.
I didn't have a very conventional way of life as a child. I didn't go to school. We never
1
