A2 Reading Comprehension

​Family Castle

My name is Will, and our family decided that we all wanted to live together, so we looked online. We eventually found a castle we could buy. There are 20 of us altogether, including my aunts, uncles and grandparents, and we all have a room each. The castle is huge, it takes about ten minutes to walk from one side to the other. It's really cold inside the castle, especially in winter. My gran wears a coat inside as it's so cold. We had no heating at first and only one toilet when we moved in either!

When I lived in Manchester, the shops and the school were very near. Here at the castle, the nearest village is 10 minutes away, and it takes 30 minutes to get to the nearest town to do our weekly shopping. At first, I took the bus to school, but it took too long. Now my mum takes me there as she has just got a job at the school.

The best thing about living in the castle is that there is a lot of space - I can ride my bicycle all day on our large ground. I don't play online games as much as I did. We now have heating and bathrooms along with a modern kitchen, so things are much better than they were. I love living in a castle with my whole family, and I hope to stay here for a long time.

​London Police Force

Today there are police officers everywhere, but in 1700 London had none at all. A few old men used to protect the city streets at night, and they were not paid very much.

About 300 years ago, London was starting to get bigger. The city was very dirty, and many people were poor. There were so many thieves who stole money in the streets that people stayed at home as much as possible.

In 1750, Henry Fielding started to pay a group of people to stop thieves. They were like police officers and were called 'Bow Street Runners' because they worked near Bow Street.

Fifty years later, there were 120 Bow Street Runners, but London had become very big and needed more police officers. So, in 1829, the first Metropolitan (or London) Police Force was started with 3000 officers. Most of them worked on foot, but a few rode horses. Until 1920 all the police in London were men.

Today, London police are quite well paid, and for the few police officers who still ride horses, the pay is even better for them.