first, the friends tried to open the metal door all together, but it was ***** for them to open it.
4 The door was solid as a rock and the dogs were not ***** to bash it open.
5 The only possible way to get out was to unlock it. But the padlock was ***** for the dogs to slip it.
6 Having tried for several hours to open the door, the dogs were ***** to do anything and just fell asleep.
7 Everybody was sleeping like a log when Kit woke up and tried to undo the lock on his own. His claws were ***** to get inside the lock.
8 The kitten’s claws turned out to be ***** to slinky the lock.
9 When everybody woke up, they were ***** to say anything. The door was wide open. There was no Kit anywhere.
10 He was ***** to go further alone.
QUITE – FAIRLY – RATHER – PRETTY
Quite (= fairly, to some degree) is used in favourable comments: Kit is quite clever for his age.
Quite also means completely. It is used with adverbs, verbs and certain adjectives such as: alone, amazing, brilliant, certain, dead, dreadful, different, exhausted, extraordinary, false, good, horrible, impossible, perfect, ridiculous, right, sure, true, useless, etc.
The dogs were quite exhausted. (completely exhausted).
Rather is used in unfavourable comments: It was a rather tough day. It is also used in favourable comments when it means “to an unusual degree’: The end of the trip was rather successful. (It was more successful than the dogs expected.)
Rather is also used with comparative degree: The dogs were rather more relaxed after sleep.
Fairly and pretty are synonymous with quite and rather.
Quite is used before a/an.: Kit is quite a smart kitten.
Rather is used before or after a/an: It was a rather tough experience. It was rather a tough experience.
Fairly and pretty are used after a: The lynx seemed to be a fairly/pretty good friend.
EXERCISE 8
Underline the correct item (sometimes both options are possible):
1 Luna was rather/quite angry with Kit because he had run away quite/pretty alone again.
2 Moreover, Luna is quite/rather more bad-tempered in the mornings.
3 While all the dogs were quite/rather happy with the opportunity of going further, Luna was rather/fairly gloomy worrying about her pet.
4 Chilly was quite/fairly certain that everything would be fine with Kit, as usual.
5 He tried to calm Luna down by saying that Kit is quite a/a quite clever kitten, who knows quite/rather perfectly what to do in emergencies.
6 Finally, the friends managed rather/pretty hard to persuade Luna to continue going and got through the door.
7 The door was rather/a rather small and the lynx had to duck to get through it.
8 Surprisingly, the corridor turned out to be rather/fairly wide and high, so the friends could go quite/rather comfortably.
9 The only problem was that the corridor was rather/quite dark, which made it quite/pretty impossible to go fast.
10 After a couple of hours the dogs were quite/pretty sure that they had been going around the mountain all the time.
EXERCISE 9
Fill the gaps in the story with missing words:
At the point the dogs realised they had ***** going round in a circle, they bumped into Kit, who was ***** and speaking to somebody excitedly. The dogs could ***** believe their ears and eyes – there was ***** lying in a kind of wooden cage. He looked ***** but happy at the same time. Of course, everybody was flurried and couldn’t help ***** interrupting each other.
After calming down the friends tried ***** to break the cage and at this moment Kudjo suddenly saw the ***** hiding cowardly behind the dogs. Never before had the friends ***** Kudjo so furious! He roared absolutely ***** at the lynx and made such an incredibly ***** effort to attack her that broke the *****. The lynx was rather ***** than the dogs, who seemed deeply ***** by Kudjo’s behaviour, so she was able to make a quick get-away. After ***** the cage Kudjo was quite exhausted to follow her and lay down ***** to his friends and closed his eyes. He looked ***** worn-out. Luna immediately took out a bottle with ***** and poured it right into his *****. Everybody could hardly breathe with ***** anxiety. Kudjo opened his eyes very ***** and said that a piece of meat would make a miracle as well. After such words the friends sighed with ***** relief and gave him a ***** hug.
EXERCISE 10
Find and correct 15 mistakes in the sentences:
1 The story that Kudjo told his friends sounded absolutely unbelievably.
2 Everything started that night when last Chilly saw Kudjo following the blue glowing ball into the middle of nowhere.
3 Actually, at that time Kudjo hadn’t got very far, not farer than a kilometre from the car until he tripped over something and fell down into a very huge pit.
4 Having tried quiet hard to get out of the trap, Kudjo started barking as loud as he could, but nobody seemed to hear him.
5 Feeling very helpless, Kudjo lay down to sleep on a very enormous pile of leaves, which, actually, had helped cushion his fall.
6 The morning came with somebody’s loudly purring above. He looked up and saw a pretty huge wild cat watching him close.
7 The lynx looked nicely and friendly and helped him get out of the trap.
8 She told him the story about a crazy scientist and promised to take him to his underground secret laboratory.
9 Before going there, she suggested having breakfast in her cave near and Kudjo agreed wholehearted to follow her.
10 In the cave while having a hearty breakfast, openly
