Read the text. For questions 7.1.–7.5., choose the word or phrase which fits best in each
gap. Circle the appropriate letter (A, B, C or D).

A SUCCESSOR TO DAVID ATTENBOROUGH?

As David Attenborough, the nation’s voice of science and natural history, nears retirement, a host of presenters prepare to take up the job. This week Attenborough gave the clearest 7.1. of who he sees as his natural successor – Brian Cox, the physics professor turned presenter. Cox declared himself “lost for words”. He insists that Attenborough could still 7.2. his great programmes. But the compliment has focused attention again on the challenge facing programme makers: how they fill perhaps the biggest shoes in British broadcasting history once Attenborough decides to 7.3. .

For Kim Shilling, the BBC’s commissioning editor for science and natural history, discussions of “the new Attenborough” are 7.4. the point. “None of us go on forever, but as the person who looks after science and natural history, David isn’t the sort of person that you ‘replace’.” 7.5. , that is because of Attenborough’s history in a genre he almost single-handedly invented, “You can’t replace someone who has had 60 years of conversation with the nation.”

adapted from www.guardian.co.uk