Looking Back at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships - Test 1

B2 First · Multiple Choice Reading · Cambridge B2 First 4, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an extract from the autobiography of the tennis player Rafael Nadal. For questions 1–6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

The silence, that's what strikes you when you play on Centre Court at the Wimbledon tennis championships. You bounce the ball soundlessly up and down on the soft grass surface; you toss it up to serve; you hit it and you hear the echo of your own shot. And every shot after that. The trimmed grass, the rich history, the ancient stadium, the players dressed in white, the respectful crowds, all combine to enclose and cushion you from the outside world. The quiet of the Centre Court is good for my game. What I battle against hardest in a tennis match is to drive everything out of my mind but the contest itself and the point I'm playing. The silence of the Centre Court is broken by a shout of praise when a point's done: applause, cheers, people shouting your name. I hear them, but as if from some place far off. I don't register that there are fifteen thousand people hundreds around the arena, tracking every move my opponent and I make. I am so focused I have no sense at all that there are millions watching me around the world as I year later, I was confident I'd learnt the lesson play Roger Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final – the biggest match of my life. I had always dreamed of playing at Wimbledon. My uncle Toni, who has been my coach all my life, had drummed into me from an early age that this was the biggest tournament of them all. By the time I was 14, I was sharing with my friends the fantasy that I'd play there one day and win. Before 2008, though, I'd played and lost, both times against Federer – in the final there the year before, and the year before that. The defeat in 2006 had not been so hard. I went out onto the court that time just pleased and grateful that, having just turned twenty, I'd made it that far. Federer beat me pretty easily, more easily than I'd gone out with more belief. But my defeat in 2007 left me utterly destroyed. I knew I could have done better, that it was not my ability or the quality of my game that had failed me, but my head. Looking always hurts, but it hurts much more when you have a chance and throw it away. Too, the toughest of tennis coaches, the very person you'd want in your corner for consolation; he criticises me even when I win. It is a measure of what a wreck I must have been that he abandoned the habit of a lifetime and told me there was no reason to despair, that there would be more Wimbledon and more Wimbledon finals. I told him I didn't understand, that this had probably been my last chance to win it. Every single moment of that point I'm playing. There was nothing Toni could do to ease my grief. Yet here I was again in 2008, just one year later. I was confident I'd learnt the lesson from that defeat twelve months earlier, that whatever else gave way this time, my head it would not. The best thing that my head was in the right place was the conviction I had, in advance, that I would win. At dinner with family and friends and team members the night before the final, at the house we always rent when I play at Wimbledon, mention of the match had been off-limits. I didn't expressly forbid them from raising the subject, but they all understood well enough that, whatever else I might have been talking about, I was already beginning to play the match in a space inside my head. From here on in until the start of play, that space should remain mine alone.

calms his nerves during matches.

gives him confidence in his abilities.

helps him to concentrate on the game.

makes him feel that he's respected.

The writer says that the silence at Wimbledon Centre Court

It was all that concerned him at that time.

His opponent was distracted by the behaviour of the crowd.

It proved how popular he had become.

His fans seemed almost as anxious as he was.

In the second paragraph, what does the writer suggest about the 2008 match?

Nerves let him down in the first match.

He had different attitudes to the two matches.

He was too ambitious when he played the first match.

The quality of his game improved in the second match.

What does the writer say about playing Federer in two Wimbledon finals?

encouraged him to think about how much he'd already achieved.

was unusually sympathetic towards him.

failed to recognise his disappointment.

criticised his performance unfairly.

The writer says that after he lost in the 2007 final, his coach

developed unexpectedly

became stronger

kept going through difficulties

failed to function

What does 'gave way' mean in line 65?

They take his mind off tennis.

They respect his need for privacy.

They help him in any way they can.

They see things from a different perspective.

What does the writer say about his family and friends?

Looking back at the Wimbledon tennis championships

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