Part 4
Questions 19 – 24
For each question, choose the correct answer.
William Perkin
William Perkin was born in London in 1838. As a child he had many hobbies, including model making and photography. But it was the (19) ………… of chemistry that really interested him. At the age of 15, he went to college to study it.
While he was there, he was (20) ………… to make a medicine from coal. This didn’t go well, but when he was working on the problem, he found a cheap (21) ………… to make the colour purple. At that (22) ………… it was very expensive to make clothes in different colours. William knew he could make a business out of his new colour. Helped by his father and brother, William (23) ………… his own factory to make the colour. It sold well, and soon purple clothes (24) ………… very popular in England and the rest of the world.