Complete the text with the correct forms of the verbs in brackets and answer the questions. Where do you go when you want to know the latest business news, follow commodity prices, оr stay abreast of the latest scientific and technological developments? Today, the answer is obvious: you log on to the internet. Three centuries ago, the answer 1(be) just as easy: you2 (go) to a coffee-house. There, for the price of a cup of coffee, you 3(can) attend scientific lectures, or chat with like-minded people about literature or politics. Like today's websites, coffee-houses 4(be) lively. Collectively Europe's interconnected web of coffee-houses 5(form) the internet of the Enlightenment era.
The contrast between coffee and alcoholic drinks was reflected in the decor of the coffee houses that 6(begin) to appear in European cities, London in particular. They7(decorate) with bookshelves, mirrors, gilt-framed pictures and good furniture, in contrast to the rowdiness and gloom of taverns. According to custom, social differences 8 (leave) at the coffee-house door and anyone who started a quarrel had to atone for it by buying an order of coffee for all present.
Coffee9( be) the ideal drink. Its popularity owed much to the growing middle class оf information workers, who 10(do) mental work in offices rather than performing physical labour in the open, and found that coffee sharpened their mental faculties. Such men 11)be) not rich enough to entertain lavishly at home, but 12(can) afford to spend a few pence a day on coffee. Coffee-houses were nicknamed "penny universities" in a contemporary English verse which observed: "So great Universitie, I think there ne'er was any; In which you may a Scholar be, for spending of a penny."
"Сколько им сейчас? Будь я проклят. Привет, дети!"
"Кто это?" - спросил сын Бафкинсов Генри.
"Это твой отец" - сказала миссис Бафкинс.
"Я рада познакомиться" - сказала дочь Бафкинсов Мэри, смущенно.
Последовало неловкое молчание.
"Слушайте, - сказал Бафкинс наконец, - я знаю, что я не самый лучший отец, но теперь, когда телевизор не работает, я хотел бы чтобы вы узнали меня лучше."
"Как?" - спросил Генри.
"Ну, давайте просто поговорим" - сказал Бафкинс, - "это лучший узнать друг друга."
Стояла мертвая тишина.
Бафкинс сказал: Разве у меня нет еще одной дочери?"
"Это Сьюзи," - сказала миссис Бафкинс.
- Где она?
- Она вышла замуж год назад, в то время, когда ты смотрел Мировые Серии.
"Как насчет этого?" - сказал Бафкинс, довольно, - "вы знаете, я надеюсь, что они не закрепят антенну ещё пару часов. Не существует ничего лучшего, чем затемнения для человека."
2. Where are you going? - I'm going to the library.
3. Where is Nicholas? - He's in the reading room. Is doing his homework there. Nicholas often does his homework in the reading room.
4. Is Lena at home? - No, it's not at home. She is having a music lesson. She always has music classes at this time.
5. Do not make noise. Kovalenko is speaking on the telephone.
6. Do not go into that room. There's a group of our students sitting a Maths exam.
7. Students sit examinations twice a year.
8. His son is going to become an economist.