READING exam task Read the text. Complete the text with the phrase (A-K) that best fits each gap. There is one phrase you do not need. A famous dream Although Abraham Lincoln is today one of America's best- loved presidents, that was not always so. During the American Civil War he was hated by Southerners for abolishing slavery, and that he 1 fully expected to be murdered by his political opponents, and had resigned himself to his fate. According to a close friend of his, three days prior to his assassination, Lincoln recounted a dream he'd had to his wife and a few acquaintances, 2 1 In the dream, he was lying in bed in the White House in Washington, and there seemed to be a death-like stillness around him. Then he began to hear quiet sobbing, He got out of bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but he couldn't see who was making the noise. He went from room It was light in to room but they were all deserted, all the rooms and every object was familiar to him; but where. ? He was both Lincoln wondered, were all the people puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause, he kept on walking. which he entered. There he met with a sickening surprise. Before him Around it were stationed soldiers was a platform, who were acting as guards; and there was a crowd of people. some gazing mournfully upon the coffin, others crying bitterly. 'Who has died in the White House!' Lincoln demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The President,' came the answer. 'He was killed by an assassin. Then there was a loud exclamation of grief from the crowd, ". 9 Some people have ascribed a powerful meaning to his dream. claiming that Others point out that, given the fact that he fully expected that someone would try to assassinate 10 him. A although the same mournful sounds of distress met him as he walked along B as if a number of people were crying C in which he foresaw his own death D it is hardly surprising that he dreamt of his own death E Lincoln knew that he was about to die F on which rested a coffin G such was their antipathy towards him 2 Ha dre qu an tha pu the fir 16 C th​