READING: NO TIME LIKE THE LAST MINUTE

Here you also have a reading for further practice.
The answers are below the text.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 
Answer the multiple choice questions below by circling the best answer, A, B, C or D. 

NO TIME LIKE THE LAST MINUTE 

As I boarded the train at Paddington Station one night, I was delighted by the unexpected sight of three friends also boarding. 'Hurray!' we cried as we bagged a table for four in the dining car and settled down to the prospect of a delicious meal and stimulating conversation.
But with about three minutes to departure, I looked through the window to see one of our party wandering along the platform. 'Where's Rupert going?' I asked his wife. 'Oh, probably going to get a newspaper or something' she shrugged. 'He likes to give himself these little thrills. He never actually boards a train until the whistle has actually blown'. Three agonising minutes after the train had started rolling down the tracks, Rupert came gasping back to the table, having just managed to get into the last carriage and walked all the way through the train.
Our friend Lucy's husband, John, derives a similar thrill from not arriving at airports at the stated latest check-in time. 'Even when we are there, says Lucy, 'he carries on shopping after the flight is called and says, "Don't worry. Once you have checked in, it's OK. They always call out your actual name''.
Rupert and John's penchant for 'competing' against time is unfortunately a vice I share. The thrill of 'just making' a train is addictive, and what is more depressing than hanging around a railway station or sitting in a motionless train? With life racing by so quickly, one wants to maximise every moment's potential.
Yet this is not the whole story. As a child I always walked through the school gate at the exact moment before I would be punished for being late, and experienced the thrill of triumph at having 'made it'. Now, in adult life, I find that each day holds the potential for a whole galaxy of bogus achievements of this nature. I never start packing for a holiday until an hour before we are due to set off. I never get my clothes ready for a party until twenty minutes before I have to leave home. I never send off my tax return until the last post on the day before it is due, even though it requires a thirty-minute drive to the nearest 7 p.m. collection box, when I could have posted it in my own village at 3.15 p.m.
Looking back, I realise the habit probably set in during adolescence, when I noted that my mother was always ready at least half an hour before she went out. On Tuesday nights when she set off to see friends, she used to be collected by car at 7.30 p.m. From 7 p.m., she would be pacing the garden, If she was giving a dinner party, she would have the table laid with cutlery the day before. Once she even said she could not see a long-lost cousin who wanted to drop in on December 9th because she would be 'too busy in the run-up to Christmas'.
We like to prove we can do things better than our parents, and therefore I stupidly window-shop in Oxford Street so that I have to take a taxi rather than a bus to Paddington Station, and arrive with my heart thumping. 1 cut it so fine when going to catch a train that, when I leave from home, I regularly have to finish getting dressed in the car on the way to the station. Old habits die hard but I'm beginning to see the advantages that might accrue from being ready in time. Think how much money I could save on taxis if I took buses in plenty of time instead. Think how much less panicky I would be at every party if I weren't doing up my buttons as I walked through the door. Think how much less anxious I would be if only I could be ready on time. One might even live longer without the stress of constantly competing against time.
With any luck my two little daughters will want to prove that they can do things better than I can and will take precisely the opposite line, deriving a thrill from being well-prepared, like both their grandmothers.

1 When the writer saw her friends getting on the train, she 
A was worried that someone was missing.
B looked forward to a good trip.
C wondered why they were late.
D hoped they would find a table for four.
2 Why did Rupert leave the train? 
A He had forgotten something important.
B He had changed his mind about the trip.
C His wife had asked him to get something.
D It was what he usually did.
3 When thinking about Rupert and John, the writer 
A appreciates why they act as they do.
B is depressed by their behaviour.
C is determined to make better use of her time.
D realises the potential dangers of their behaviour.
4 The writer considers her 'achievements' to be 
A worthwhile.
B illusory.
C childish.
D a sign of boredom.
5 The writer considers that her mother 
A set a bad example.
B controlled her own anxiety.
C was inhospitable to relatives.
D provided a model to react against.
6 What does the writer hope for her own daughters? 
A They will have better lives than her.
B They will not be influenced by family members.
C They will trust to luck.
D They will not follow her example.

HINTS FOR SUCCESS 
Read the text first to get a general understanding. The information in the text is very detailed and often contains opinions, reasons or ideas which are very similar to one another. You need a reasonable understanding of the text before you look at the questions. If you look at the questions first, you may choose an answer because you think it looks right or is the most likely answer. This doesn´t always work! After reading the text, highlight the key words in the question and the four possible answers. The questions and answers are written in a very precise way. Only one answer can be correct; the other answers contain ideas or vocabulary which make them wrong.

KEY
1. B 2. D 3. A 4. B 5. D 6. D