10 October 2011

Penguin Man



Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verbs in brackets (past simple, present perfect, present perfect continuous)
One day, Alfred David’s wife ________________ (1-tell) him that he walked like a penguin. Since then, his identification with the creatures _____________ (2-become) almost total. For the past twenty-five years he ______________ (3-walk) around in a penguin suit. People in his home town in Belgium long ago ______________ (4-accept) this harmless eccentric as part of the scenery.
All this time, he ______________ (5-collect) penguin objects, and so far he ______________ (6-accumulate) over two thousand. A few years ago he ______________ (7-open) the European Museum of the Penguin.
As far as anyone knows, he ______________ (8-never go) to Antarctica but this ______________ (9-not stop) him frim making friends among the penguin population. Since his fascination ______________ (10-develop) he ______________ (11-buy) tons of fish to feed his ’friends and family’ in the local zoo. If he looks more and more like one it could be because he ______________ (12-eat) too much raw fish himself.
(from Clockwise Upper-intermediate
http://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/adult_courses/clockwise/upper-intermediate/?cc=global&selLanguage=en)

Penguin obsessed pensioner wants to be buried in Antarctic


(http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/bizarre/penguin-53923.html)

A Belgian man, who is obsessed with penguins, has revealed his wish is to be buried dressed in his black-and-white costume in the Antarctic so he can be close to the flightless birds.

A Belgian pensioner wants to be buried in the Antarctic, dressed in his penguin suit in a coffin decorated with the flightless birds.

Alfred David, 79, became obsessed with penguins after he developed a limp following a car accident in 1968, leading colleagues to dub him Monsieur Pingouin or Mr. Penguin and regularly wears a hooded black-and-white costume in homage to the creatures.

He said: "My ultimate dream is to be buried in a deep ocean close to where penguins live."

However, his obsession has cost him dearly as after setting up a museum with 3,500 items of penguin memorabilia and attempting to change his name to Mr. Penguin, Mr. David's wife dumped him.

He later donated the collection - which ranged from penguin lavatory paper to cups and toys - to a local soccer team to raise money for the club.

More:
http://mysendoff.com/2011/10/a-life-in-black-and-white/

In the last decade penguins have been making quite a cultural impact around the world.
For the last 40 years of David’s life, the man has been collecting penguin paraphernalia; everything from portraits of penguin to lavatory paper, cups and toys.

KEY:
1 - told, 2- has become, 3 - has been walking, 4 - accepted, 5 - has been collecting, 6 - has accumulated, 7 - opened, 8 - has never been, 9 - hasn't stopped, 10 - developed, 11 - has bought / has been buying, 12 - has been eating

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