1 Read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space.
If you (1) ever to sit down and work out the chances of your never having been born, you might (2) yourself thinking that the fact you are here at all is nothing short of a miracle. You start asking questions along the lines of 'What may (3) such and such (4) happened?' or 'What (5) have been the consequence if my great grandfather (6) to have carried out his threat of emigrating to Canada in 1893?'. Of course, (7) you be tempted by this slightly pointless exercise, you will soon find that your existence depends on an almost infinite series of 10 coincidences. What prompted these musings? (8) it to say my father recently gave me a small lump of jagged metal and (9) me a brief explanation of its significance. My grandfather had fought in the First World War and was wounded many times. This tiny lump of metal was a piece of shrapnel that (10) entered his neck just below one ear and been dug out by surgeons just below the other ear. (11) path (12) its a mere fraction of a millimetre to either the right or the left, he would have been (13) outright. Which in turn would mean that my father would (14) have been born. Nor, obviously, me. It serves as a reminder that we (15) all count our blessings occasionally.
