Reading and Use of English Part 7 - B2 - Grammar Focus: Present Perfect

Reading and Use of English Part 7

You are going to read a magazine article about people who like clothes.

For questions 1–10, choose from the people (A–D).

The people may be chosen more than once.

 A Paula, a clothes designer
 When you’re young you can get away with cheap clothes, though I think I had expensive tastes even then. In fact I’ve always spent a lot on clothes and I’ve always loved what they can do for you but I never anticipated making money from them. At one point when I didn’t have a job my husband said, ‘Surely you must be able to make something’. That was the kick I needed to get me started. I’m mad about swimsuits. Because I make my own clothes, I’m always thinking about changing a collar on something or changing a fabric, but because I don’t make swimsuits they’re free from all that. I have several. People take one on holiday and think that’s enough, yet they wouldn’t dream of wearing the same trousers day after day. I don’t understand that.
 
 B Len, a businessman
 I’ve enjoyed motorbikes since I was 16. But for a long time I didn’t own one; I rode my brother’s instead. Then about two years ago I bought one. I thought: if I don’t get one now, I never will. I always walked to work every morning until I got the motorbike, but now I ride there most days. I bought a leather jacket as a solution to the problem of needing to wear a suit to work and wanting to come in by bike. It would be impossible to be changing all the time. When I was younger I rode a bike several times without a helmet. That was in parts of the United States where it wasn’t compulsory, but it’s madness. There’s enough risk on a bike without adding more.
 
 C Marion, a singer
 When I was in a musical I wore wonderful skirts made by a designer but they were incredibly heavy, and during the first performance I fell over twice on stage dancing in them. That hasn’t happened to me again because I know now that you need much lighter clothes to dance in. A little while after that, I was singing at a friend’s wedding so I asked the same designer to make a really stunning dress for me. I’ve worn it just a few times since then – to awards ceremonies – but I feel great in it. My career’s never been structured. Perhaps it should have been but I’m hopeless at pushing myself. I went to the United States when a film I was in, Enchanted April, was really big but I never dreamed of hiring a publicist or anything. I suppose one measure of success was when I did my first TV advert and I went into the sort of shop I’d always been scared to go into before and bought something without looking at the price. That just wasn’t like me.
 
 D Tom, chief executive of a charity
 I worked as a lawyer until I was in my forties but I’ve been director of a charity for ten years now. I’m out two or three nights a week at dinners to raise money. It goes with a job like this and it’s fun too. I wear a suit and tie to most events. They’re a kind of uniform, which is helpful because I’m not naturally a stylish dresser. I like to feel comfortable and fit in, and this way I’m not conscious of my appearance. If I was, I’d probably be horrendously shy. One of my big mistakes in my early days was to make a speech that was too serious. People said afterwards that it was very powerful but that wasn’t what I’d intended. If you’re too serious in my kind of business it puts people off.

There will be at least one answer for each text, so check again if you have one text with no answers in it.

Grammar focus task

Without looking back at the text, complete these extracts with the present perfect simple or the past simple form of the verbs in the box.

anticipate | be | be | buy | enjoy | fall | get | happen | own | spend | walk | wear | work