A Long Drive

Gap-fill exercise with a reading text. Read the text, and fill in the gaps in the exercise

agrees     are     are     are     are     are     are     can     cost     drive     drove     gave     go     has     is     is     is     is     is     is     is     like     love     mind     notice     reach     said     seem     spend     thought     told     was     was     was     was     wasn't     wasn't     were     will

'You going to DRIVE to Placentia? But it's so far - it be horrible.' This is what my friends when I them I wanted to to Placentia by car.       The Belizeans taking planes. Domestic flights reliable and cheap and there lots of them. So people it a little strange that I wanted to hire a car and drive, what is only a few miles to the coastal town of Placentia. Besides, the road a "fair-weather" road, and it the rainy season.       But the journey horrible at all. The roads in good condition, there not much mud for part of the way and regular petrol stations (where petrol less than water). There even a roadside self-service restaurant between Dangriga and Placentia.       I out of Belmopan, and its mixture of new, but already old-looking buildings and old, poor housing, on a mountainous highway. At first, the scenery Caribbean: bananas, small villages, coconut trees. When you Belize, orange trees mix with sugar-cane. A little further on, past the zoo, the country changes into the mangrove, or coastal region. This real cowboy country, with large isolated farms and occasional roadside stops where you buy something to eat.       Everyone that the views when you near Placentia the best, so it's a good idea to the night in Dangriga and the remaining few kilometres in the morning. An hour or so out of Dangriga and the Mangroves to appear suddenly around the corner.       To your left is the Caribbean Sea, and to your right the cold, windy mountain range with the rain forest. Although there lots of trees in these mountains, there also lots of plants and flowers. It is rain forest, so you that the air is getting more and more humid. After a strong cup of good coffee at the next village, my heart seemed to beat much faster than usual.       Then the road started getting muddy. My car didn't the mud and slowed down. I didn't - this me time to look at the mountains.       The scenery on the way down into Placentia spectacular. Most of it lush, thick and green with its small, stilt villages and some coastal with its rivers full of fish, and inviting hotels. Placentia itself a pleasant holiday town. It three claims to fame: the fishing, the beaches - and the diving out on the coral reef. But this why I had come. Exercise keyed in by Lilliam Hurst Using Hot Potatoes Software Created by Martin Holmes