AD1 - READING TASK – OCTOBER 2020

You are going to read a newspaper article about four people who have written travel books. For questions
1-10, choose from the writers (A-D). The writers may be chosen more than once.

A. Eleanor Young B. Fiona Dalton

Young has written a book about a journey which When Dalton visited the bottom tip of Chile and saw the
took seven months. Beginning in Beijing, she edge of the ice-field, she decided to cross Antarctica.
headed west out of China and then south to She tried not to be discouraged by others who had done
Kashmir. The twenty years of her life until then had it. ‘The men who had skied across alone didn’t know how
been varied –she had been a correspondent for a to deal with the idea of someone happy to take a plane
French weekly magazine, she had sailed in the some of the way, but I wanted to do the trip my own way.’
She spent seven months crossing the continent, pitching
Olympics and skied internationally, but her main
tents on the sea ice. Dalton says that as a woman, her
love was travelling. She had made a similar
reasons for exploration are different from those of men.
journey in Central Asia and had a minor success ‘Men have done it to show they can win. I may go to see
with the resulting book. When she writes she thinks what the environment can teach me, or to feel the air and
of her audience as a family member or a good see what it looks like. Or just sit around and appreciate
friend. She writes what was seen and felt, the the scenery.’ She is a writer who explores the world in
way it turned up on the road –her order to write. She says ‘It also suits me to get away. I
descriptions of the camel journey are mixed with love to free myself from the bills and the bank manager.
discussions about politicians and images of a girl Antarctica is perfect for that.’ It is, however, the most
with her hair in a hundred plaits. testing environment she has ever
experienced –it could be ‘a full time job just
surviving’
C. Ruth Moore
On her first trip, aged 24, Moore hitch-hiked through
D. Sally Wade
Nigeria, canoed down the Congo and rode
Wade is probably more of an ex-explorer –her last
horseback across Cameroon. What started as a
journey has put her off. Wade was born in
year-long trip turned into a three-and-a-half-year
Queensland, Australia. She was sent to boarding
journey. ‘The emptiness that lay ahead was
school, then just wandered about –studying music,
wonderful –days waiting to be filled.’ She was
biology and later Japanese. At 25, Wade bought a
raised in the African Bush and her mother and
couple of camels and rode them over 2,000
grandmother had grown up in China. ‘I don’t know
kilometres across the Australian outback. Her
where I belong. My family thought it was totally
account became a best-seller. ‘I never intended to
normal that I had a larger view of the world.’
write about it –it was a private thing. I wanted to get
Amongst other things, Moore has devised her own
to know aboriginal culture and the desert. It was a
cure for homesickness. ‘You can always improvise
glorious trip. I went by camel because I was broke and
something. I felt homesick for eggs for breakfast
couldn’t afford a vehicle.’ Then in 1992, she joined a
while floating down the river, so I had eggs –
group of Rabari in India. Wade’s account of that
crocodile eggs –and felt much better.’ Moore does
Indian journey with them tells of failure. ‘The two trips
believe that a woman’s approach is different. She
were not comparable.’ She tried to live a Rabari
rarely undertakes journeys with an ultimate aim,
existence –however, because she could always
goal or destination –she decides as she goes along
leave, she remained an outsider.
–often with the flip of a coin.

Which of the writers

is more interested in enjoying the surroundings? 1. ________
avoids missing home by cooking? 2. ________
does not plan her trips? 3. ________
had different occupations before? 4. ________
did not take other traveller’s views into account? 5. ________
does not travel anymore? 6. ________
says that writing was not something she had planned to do? 7. ________
says she likes travelling to disconnect from daily life? 8. ________
pretends she is writing to someone she knows well? 9. ________
has a multicultural background? 10.________