Intermediate Reading Exercise
The Fishing Champion
In the following text, four paragraphs have been removed. Above the extract you will find the four removed paragraphs PLUS one paragraph which doesn't fit. Choose from the paragraphs (A-E) the one which fits each gap in the text (1-4). Remember, there is one extra paragraph you do not need to use. Write the correct letter in the empty boxes in the text.
A. "I was at this tournament in Oregon last autumn and it had been left back in the motel by my father. I tell you, not a single fish came near the hook that day. I wouldn't go anywhere without it now."
B. But it was mainly his mother who saw his potential and decided to buy Mattie his first rod for his ninth birthday. The rest, as they say, is history.
C. Oh, and he's the Western USA Under-16 Freshwater Angling Champion. Which, considering he's up against kids who have been fishing for some ten years while Mattie has had a rod in his hand for a mere three, is pretty impressive.
D. "I went to Florida for the national Under-13's. I won that with a barracuda and it was caught in about 3 feet of water. Everyone else was casting out to 20 foot. I just seem to have a knack for finding fish."
E. This explains the wise head he seems to have on his shoulders. Fishing runs wide and deep in the Jackson family, who live near the mountain resort of Mammoth in the north of the state of California. "So much of what I know about fishing has been given to me by my father, my brothers, my uncles and aunts. It's a team effort I like to say."
