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                                              Listening Comprehension                        Form 10

A slow run

Sometimes people ask me: “What is the strangest thing that has ever happened to you as a taxi-driver?” Honestly, it is difficult to answer. But one of the funniest things that ever happened to me was in November 1962, the year of the Great Fog.

Foreigners always think that Britain is covered in a blanket of fog every winter from October to March. It`s not really so. But in November and December in 1962, we did have some bad fogs in England…

The first night the fog came down very suddenly. I was driving someone from Piccadilly to Richmond. I took my usual short way through Richmond Park. It`s a nice place – quite wild, with clumps of big trees, ponds and herds of deer. At weekends people go there for picnics, and every evening men go there to run. To run? Yes – men practicing for cross-country races. We call them ‘harriers’.

Well, we overtook a group of these harriers, running through the park.

“Not my favourite sport,’ I said to my fare (здесь – пассажирка).

I left my fare at her house and went off again for London. Out of habit, I turned into Richmond Park again. I soon understood that I was wrong.  The fog was really thick. The further I drove into the park, the thicker the fog became. I switched on my fog lamp. It didn`t help much.

Suddenly I saw something standing on the road in front of me. I stopped. The figure moved away. It was a deer.

Coughing slightly, I tied my scarf over my mouth and went off again. Then I saw another figure on the road. It stood there in the light of my fog lamp – wearing shorts, a white vest and running shoes. It was one of the harriers! I stopped and wound down my window. The man, coughing, put his head in.

“Terribly sorry! We are lost!’

“Jump in!” I said. “Haven`t I seen you before?”

“There are 15 of us!” he said.

“Oh well, you`d better not jump in then.” I said.

Now I could see the others – strange figures, jumping up and down to keep warm, rubbing their arms, coughing.

“Follow me,” I told them. “I`ll drive slowly – I know the way out of the park.”

So I drove a ‘slow run’ for about 20 minutes. At last the gate appeared.