Task 1. Read the article below and fill in the gaps (1-15), putting the verbs in brackets into the correct form.

Example: Yesterday I ___went___(go) to the park.

NEIGHBOURS

“Good walls make good neighbours” is an extremely negative way of viewing the people who live next door. We all have neighbours, and it makes life so much easier if you can manage (1) _____ (get on) well with them. In Britain, over 30,000 people a year complain about noisy neighbours – their music, parties, pets, children and cars, and many of these complaints go to court.

Take the case of Peter Knowles and his wife, Pat. They (2) ______(sit) in their garden when a cricket ball came flying over the wall, narrowly missing Pat. Peter was furious. “If it (3) __________ (hit) her, it (4) ______ (kill) her.” He went to the court, and won the case, to stop his neighbours’ children (5) _______ (play) cricket in their garden. This was just one incident in the feud between the Knowles family and their neighbours, the Cunnighams.

Ken Cunnigham used (6) _____ (park) his car outside his own home, until one day Peter put a brick through the windscreen. Peter was convinced that that was his parking space. “I didn’t know I was parking in his space,” said Ken. “He should (7) _______ (speak) to me instead of smashing my car.” The case ended up in court again, and both parties (8) _______ (order) to keep the peace; but the war still goes on. “If we could afford it, we would move,” said Ken, “but we can’t. And anyway, we like it here, apart

from the old fusspot next door, who (9) _____ (bother) us for ages. I wish he (10) _____ (learn) that being good neighbours is a matter of give and take.”

All was not easy between the occupants of number 37 and 39, Johnson’s Walk, Bolton. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are a retired couple, and live at number 37. The previous occupier of number 39 was an old lady. “She was very quiet,” said Mrs. Janet Brown. “We (11) ________(not hear) anything before The Smiths moved in with their eight children. The first night they were in, they had a party. The noise was unbelievable. They must (12) ______(have) at least forty people, all dancing and singing.” The Browns complained bitterly to their neigbours. Mrs. Smiths said, “I wish she (13) _______(tell) us we were making a lot of noise. We would have invited them round! We don’t really make much noise, it’s just that they aren’t used to (14) ______ (have) children next door.”

So what are the golden rules for harmony between neighbours? Sympathy, tolerance and honesty. Don’t think that they are making a noise just to annoy you, and don’t go round when you are in a fury. Calm down first and the problem (15) ______(solve) more easily.