Olvasott szöveg értése - Task 3

Angol emelt szintű érettségi, 2009. május

Read this article on the Queen of England’s finances. Some words have been left out from the text. Your task is to fill the gaps with expressions from the list. Remember that there are two extra phrases that you will not need.

   1st-class stamps      combined      essential work      in charge      in good repair      in maintenance projects      in pursuit      in value      increased costs      lack of attention      security bill      taxpayers' money      the size of a shoebox   
Queen asks for extra £1M to repair decrepit palaces

Pieces falling off historic buildings

The Queen is seeking an extra £1 million of (1) to save her crumbling palaces.
Matters came to a head this year when a lump of stone (2) fell from a Buckingham Palace façade and narrowly missed the Princess Royal’s parked car. Another piece fell off as guests arrived for a Palace reception for the scientific community.
At Windsor Castle an area of lead roof the size of the Wimbledon Centre Court and Court No.1 (3) is in pressing need of renewal; at Buckingham Palace two thirds of the roof is at least 120 years old, and cannot go on indefinitely with make-do patching.
Sir Alan Reid, the accountant (4) of the Queen’s money, said the annual government grant for the maintenance of the royal palaces had been frozen at £15 million in 1991 and had since declined (5) by more than two thirds in real terms.
“We are seriously behind schedule (6) , and if our historic buildings are to remain safe it is essential that the grant is increased by £1 million a year,” Sir Alan said.
Royal officials fear that unless they can keep up a rolling programme of repairs and replacement, (7) will eventually become hideously expensive. They also fear that the enormous amount of construction work involved in building London’s Olympic facilities will lead to hugely (8) for other customers seeking skilled tradesmen.
A Palace property manager, standing in the Quadrangle and gesturing at the crumbling east façade and the three other sides in dire need of cleaning, said: “There are bound to be a lot of receptions here during the Olympics; it would be nice if visitors from around the world found such a famous building (9) .”
Overall, this year the monarchy cost the taxpayer £37.3 million, marginally less than last year. Sir Alan described it as less than the cost of two (10) for every man, woman and child in the country.
The figure infuriates anti-monarchists, who point out that it ignores the huge (11) , estimated to be at least £100 million a year but never disclosed in official figures.
Phrases not used: -

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Utolsó módosítás: 2009. 09. 02.