Open cloze
For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap.
By the 1. most people go to bed, Tom Reid has already been at work for an hour. Every night at eleven o'clock, he climbs into the driver's seat of a night bus and spends the next eight hours crossing the city. 'People often ask me if I get lonely,' he says. 'In fact, it's 2. opposite.' His passengers include nurses going home after a long shift, cleaners heading to offices and groups of students on 3. way home from parties. Tom has got to know many of the regulars by name. Night driving is not without its difficulties, 4.. Now and then a passenger becomes difficult, and Tom has had to learn how to calm people down without losing his temper. 'If you shout, things only get worse,' he explains. The hardest part of the job, he says, is sleeping during the day because 5. the noise of traffic and neighbours. He has bought thick curtains and always wears earplugs, 6. which he would never manage to sleep at all. Despite this, Tom has no intention of 7. up night work. 'The city is completely different at night,' he says. 'It's quieter and calmer. I wouldn't swap it for 8..'