Fill in the blank with a suitable word.

The person that I gave it to was a very good friend of mine at the time. His name was Kaliya (1) ________ he came from India. I knew him (2) ________ we studied together at a language school in Cambridge. (3) ________ we were from different backgrounds and cultures, we got on really well and we had the same sense of humor (4) ________ we became very good friends.

The present was a picture that had been painted of the River Cam in Cambridge. It was not so big - maybe around 10 inches by 14 inches, but it was very beautiful. It came in a gold plated frame and the picture had been drawn by a particularly well-known Cambridge artist. It had been signed by this person as well.

It’s the first time I have given this person a present, and I guess it’s quite different from presents (5) ________ I have given to other people before – I don’t recall ever giving someone a picture actually. If I’m buying for family then I’ll usually buy clothes or maybe some jewelry if it is a special occasion. Normally when I’ve bought something for friends it’s something more jokey so we can have a laugh about it, nothing that serious.

The reason (6) ________ I decided to give this particular gift is because we had spent a lot of time together in Cambridge and we had had some really fun times punting on the River Cam – that’s obviously why I thought this was an appropriate present. We used to go punting at least once a week, sometimes a couple of times. On one occasion there was a group of about ten of us that went down there, and we spent the whole day sitting by the river in the sun (7) ________ as usual we went on a boat trip together. We all have a lot of photos to remind us of this great day.

So my friend, Kaaliya, is the person that I gave a present to and this was because I felt it would always remind him of the fun times that we had and also of Cambridge.

I tried so hard to swim 5,000 metres but _______ I gave up