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.

The plan was thought to be too costly to implement (at the beginning of/ in the beginning) but Mr. Fukusi proved that opinion was completely wrong