Fire Talks Still in Deadlock

Talks (1) _______________ (to aim) at (2) _______________ (to avert) further strikes by firefighters ended yesterday with little sign of a breakthrough. A brief statement (3) _______________ (to issue) by the authorities said: “Both sides (4) _______________ (to hold) two days of frank discussions and (5) _______________ (to report) back later today.”

Firefighters (6) _______________ (to plan) two 48-hours strikes from next Tuesday and again from Saturday unless the deadlock (7) _______________ (to break). The Union’s executives (8) _______________ (to meet) on Monday to decide whether to press ahead with the strikes or to suspend the action to allow talks to continue.

(From ‘The Guardian’, abridged)

C.

Credit Card That Tells You When You’re Drunk

A credit card that tells you “Don’t spend any more, you’re too drunk” (1) _______________ (to develop) by Tesco for those whose thrift is addled by alcohol.

When (2) _______________ (to breathe) upon, the card will change colour to show different levels of alcohol intake. Its use as a sobriety test in Tesco supermarkets may reduce the store’s takings. But the chain (3) _______________ (to hope) that the do-it-yourself breathalyzer (4) _______________ (to lead) more people to apply for it.

Research, which follows a survey of drunken (5) ______________ (to overspend) by the police, aims to add a hi-tech breathalyzer-style band to the rear of cards. A spokesman for Tesco Personal Finance said: ‘If (6) _______________ (to breathe) on it turns it red, then it’s time for people to put the card back in their pocket. We have a team (7) _______________ (to work) on this idea. We have to make sure it is safe and the security of the cards (8) _______________ (not to compromise).

The survey claims to have found that one third of a sample of 3,000 people spoke of (9) _______________ (to be) so drunk that they had no recall of how they used credit cards on nights out.

The survey found that 28% of the sample group (10) _______________ (to lose) their credit card while (11) _______________ (to drink).

(From ‘The Guardian’, abridged)

D.

The Guardian. Letters to the Editor

Sir,

For the second time in a week a British academic (1) ______________ (to award) a Nobel Prize (reports, October 7 and 8). What a pity it is that Professor Anthony Leggett, (2) _______________ (to begin) his academic career in the UK, now (3) _______________ (to teach) in the United States.

The Government repeatedly (4) _______________ (to state) that it is committed to (5) _______________ (to provide) the best possible education for our children. Perhaps it might have a chance of (6) _______________ (to achieve) this if it (7) _______________ (to do) something to stop our best university educators (8) _______________ (to take) their skills elsewhere.

Yours faithfully,

N.W.P. Cole

Sir,

At last the Nobel Prize committee (9) _______________ (to return) to its former ways and (10) _______________ (to award) a prize to a discovery that actually helps sick people.

For too long the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (11) _______________ (to go) exclusively to esoteric aspects of physiology, while the medicine part (12) _______________ (to neglect). Perhaps we will see future prizes (13) _______________ (to award) to those who pioneer real medical benefits like hip replacement or the link between stomach ulcers and bacteria.

Yours faithfully,

Milton Wainwright

(From ‘The Guardian’)