Paul Lay dances with death in the mountains of southern Spain

TEXT 1

WHY DO WE RISK IT?

Ordinary people all over the world are willing to risk their lives for the ultimate experience – an 'adrenaline buzz'. What basic human need is driving them to do it?

Risk sports are one of the fastest-growing leisure activities. Daredevils try anything from organized bungee jumps to illegally jumping off buildings. These people never feel so alive as when they are risking their lives. In their quest for the ultimate sensation, thrill-seekers are thinking up more and more elaborate sports. 'Zip wiring', for example, involves sliding down a rope from the top of a cliff suspended by a pulley attached to your ankle.

So why do some people's lives seem to be dominated by the 'thrill factor', while others are perfectly happy to sit at home by the fire? Some say that people who do risk sports are reacting against a society which they feel has become dull and constricting. David Lewis, a psychologist, believes that people today crave adventure. In an attempt to guarantee safety, our culture has eliminated risk. 'The world has become a bland and safe place.' says Lewis. 'People used to be able to seek adventure by hunting wild animals, or taking part in expeditions. Now they turn to risk sports as an escape.'

Risk sports have a positive side as well. They help people to overcome fears that affect them in their real lives. This makes risk sports particularly valuable for executives in office jobs who need to stay alert so that they can cope when things go wrong. They learn that being frightened doesn't mean they can't be in control.

Of all the risk or adrenaline sports, bungee jumping is proving the most popular. Worldwide, one-and-a-half million people have tried it. You hurtle towards the ground from 200 metres up and at the last moment, when you are about to hit the water or land and death seems certain, a rubber band yanks you back to life. You can decide whether to jump from a crane, a bridge or a balloon. Attached to a length of elastic rope, jumpers experience a free fall of nearly 100 mph. before they're slowed by a quickly increasing pull on their ankles.

After five or six bounces jumpers are lowered on to a mattress and set free. Almost inarticulate, they walk around with idiotic grins on their faces. Their hands can't stop shaking, they can only use superlatives and say repeatedly how amazing it was. 'As you're falling, all you see are things flying around as you turn.' says one breathless bungee jumper. 'You don't think you're ever going to stop and when you rebound, it's like weightlessness. You feel as if you're floating on air. My legs are like jelly, but I feel so alive! '

I. Find these expressions in the text, translate them and memorize.

to drive smb to do sth

bungee jumping

to risk one′ s life

in the quest for the ultimate sensation

to think up

to feel alive

to sit at home by the fire

to crave adventure

to guarantee safety

to eliminate risk

to take part in an expedition

to seek adventure

to hunt wild animals

to turn to sth as an escape

to have a positive side

to overcome fear

to stay alert

to experience a free fall

to float on air

II. Look at each word in context and choose the correct meaning a) or b).

III. Find all possible derivatives to the following words.

sense

elaborate

suspend

attach

eliminate

value

articulate

decent

luxury

convention

predict

caution

addict

IV. Try to name as many advantages and disadvantages of doing extreme sports as possible.

V. Translate the following into English:

1. Почему же рискованные виды спорта настолько популярны? В современном обществе полностью уничтожен дух приключений.

2. Люди чувствуют однообразную и подавляющую атмосферу и ищут выход для своих эмоций в экстремальных видах спорта. Говорят, что экстремальные виды спорта – идеальный способ преодолеть страхи и получить много полезной энергии для повседневной работы.

3. Что заставляет тебя рисковать своей жизнью и сочинять предлоги, чтобы покинуть дом в поисках предельных ощущений и приключений?

4. Я с нетерпением жду приключений, мир стал тихим и безопасным местом. Лишь немногие обращаются к рискованным видам спорта как к спасению, чтобы преодолеть свои страхи и бросить вызов обществу.

5. Хочешь почувствовать свободное падение и чувство невесомости? Попробуй прыжок с тарзанкой. Не бойся, фактор риска минимален, безопасность гарантирована.

6. Только после того, как я спустился по веревке с вершины утеса, я почувствовал себя живым, хотя и с трудом мог дышать.

7. Смерть кажется неминуемой, когда мчишься к земле с высоты 200 метров, но это не сравнимо с охотой на диких животных, когда постоянно надо быть на чеку.

8. Я предпочитаю сидеть дома у камина и лишь в мечтах плыть по воздуху и принимать участие в экспедициях, а потом мысленно говорить об этом в превосходной степени с глупой улыбкой на лице.

9. Я не могу выносить жужжание этой пчелы, отпусти на волю бедное насекомое.

TEXT 2

DON'T LOOK DOWN

Paul Lay dances with death in the mountains of southern Spain

'I have always enjoyed walking. When I was a boy, I used to go walking at weekends with my father. We went camping and climbing together.

I try to visit a new place every year. Last year I decided to walk a path in Spain called El Camino del Rey, which means the King's Way. It is one of the highest and most dangerous footpaths in Europe. It used to be very safe, but now it is falling down.

I took a train to the village of El Chorro and started to walk towards the mountains. I was very excited. Then the adventure began.

The path was about three feet wide and there were holes in it. It used to have a handrail, but not any more. I didn't know what to do – should I go on my hands and knees, or stand up. I decided to stand up and walk very slowly. At times the path was only as wide as my two boots. I stopped to have a rest, but there was nowhere to sit.

I was very frightened. It was impossible to look down or look up. I was concentrating so hard that my body started aching. There was no thrill of danger, no enjoyment of the view. I thought I was going to die.

I finally managed to get to the end. I was shaking, and I was covered in sweat from heat and fear. I fell to the ground, exhausted.'

I. Find these expressions in the text, translate them and memorize:

to dance with death

to go camping

to go climbing

to walk a path

to go on smb′ s hands/knees

the thrill of danger

enjoyment of the view

to be covered in sweat

to be exhausted

INTO THE WILD

In April 1992, Chris McCandless, a young man from a wealthy American family, hitchhiked to Alaska. Four months later, his dead body was found by a group of hunters. Jon Krakauer investigated the story.

When Chris McCandless graduated from Emory University, Atlanta, in June 1990, he sent his parents a letter containing his final reports. His letter ended 'Say 'Hi' to everyone for me.'

No one in Chris's family ever heard from him again.

He drove west out of Atlanta, and invented a new life for himself with a new name. He left his car in some woods and burned all his money, because, as he wrote in his diary, 'I need no possessions. I can survive with just nature.'

For the next two years, he hitched to various parts of the United States and Mexico. He wanted the freedom to go where he wanted and to work when he needed. For him, his life was very rich. 'God, it's great to be alive. Thank you! Thank you! ' his diary reads.

Chris came from a comfortable background. His father had a business, which he ran efficiently, and he controlled his own family in a similar way. Chris and his father didn't get on. When his parents didn't hear from him for several months, they contacted the police, but they could do nothing. In July 1992, two years after Chris left Atlanta, his mother woke in the middle of the night. 'I could hear Chris calling me. I wasn't dreaming. He was begging, 'Mom! Help me! ' But I couldn't help him because I didn't know where he was.'

Chris's dream was to spend some time in Alaska, and this is where he went in April 1992. In early May, after a few days in the Alaskan bush, Chris found an old bus which hunters used for shelter. It had a bed and a stove. He decided to stay there for a while. 'Total freedom' he wrote. 'My home is the road.'

However, reality soon changed the dream. He was hungry, and it was difficult to find enough to eat. He shot ducks, squirrels, birds, and sometimes a moose, and with these he ate wild potatoes, wild mushrooms, and berries. He was losing a lot of weight.

On July 30 he wrote, 'Extremely weak. Fault of potato seed. Can't stand up. Starving. Danger.' It seems that Chris was eating a part of the wild potato plant that was poisonous. He couldn't get out of the bus to look for food. 'I am trapped in the wild, ' he wrote on August 5.

He became weaker and weaker as he was starving to death. His final note says, 'I have had a good life and thank the Lord. Goodbye and may God bless all! '

Then he crawled into his sleeping bag and lost consciousness. He probably died on August 18. One of the last things he did was to take a photo of himself, one hand holding his final note, the other hand raised in a brave goodbye. His face is horribly thin, but he is smiling in the picture, and the look in his eyes says 'I am at peace.'

I. Find these expressions in the text, translate them and memorize:

to come from a comfortable background

to run a business

to get on with smb

to contact the police

to wake in the middle of the night

to use for shelter

reality soon changed the dream

to lose weight

to be trapped in the wild

to starve to death

to lose consciousness

to take a photo of smb/sth

II. a) Translate the following into English:

1) Мой брат любит путешествовать по горам, ходить в походы и ездить автостопом. Он может изголодаться до смерти, но всегда потратить последние деньги на пленку, чтобы снять себя возле дикорастущих зарослей в обществе белок, американских лосей и уток.

2) Их отец происходит из состоятельной семьи и успешно управляет семейным бизнесом. Он закончил Гарвард в 1970 году.

3) Иногда мне хочется начать новую жизнь, слиться с природой, путешествовать по разным местам, забираться на ночь в спальный мешок или использовать в качестве укрытия сломанный автомобиль… Но реальность неизменно приходит на смену мечтам.

4) Ты готов поиграть со смертью? Проползти на четвереньках по узкой тропинке, обливаться потом от жары и страха, или попасть в ловушку диких лесов, чтобы почувствовать как все тело ломит, и упасть замертво на землю? Тогда садись на поезд до деревушки Эль Чорро и приключение начнется.

DIVING WITH SHARKS

They are ten metres down in the Pacific. The wall of grey flesh which has just swum by silently and swiftly is almost two metres of hungry shark. They are in a protective cage but that is no protection if a big shark decides to attack.

One of the divers in the cage is Robert Ashley, a twenty-year-old student from Liverpool. He was listening to Radio One last month, when he decided to enter a competition. He filled in the forms and was delighted when DJ Jakki Brambles told him that he had won first prize. That was the good news. The bad news began to sink in as Jakki told him the prize...

A free trip to San Diego to take part in the craziest of all crazy Californian crazes - shark diving.

The idea is very simple. A boat takes you out and begins dropping bait. When a dozen sharks have collected, you dive over the side and swim down to the spectator cage.

The brochure boasts: 'It's the longest ten metres you will cross in your entire life.' Not for the first time, they wonder if they can really go through with it. They are forty kilometres out at sea. The only training they have had is an hour in the hotel swimming-pool and they have just found out that a tourist was badly injured last year. Their instructor reminds them that this is a real ocean with real sharks, but adds that most sharks will go away if you hit them on the nose. They think seriously about making up a story and calling it off, but they decide to carry on.

They are ready. For two hours the crew have been throwing fish into the water and there are now several fins circling the boat. Jakki's and Robert's hands are trembling so much that they can hardly put on their masks.

Robert hits the water first. He swallows sea water and panics. He clings on to the side of the boat, paralysed with fright, and struggles to calm his nerves. After five minutes he is fit to move off and they disappear underwater. Fifteen minutes pass, then Robert is the first to come up. He can barely speak.

How many were down there? Did they come very close? How big were they?

'I saw about four at one time, but they come and go. They came right up to the cage, but I didn't touch them. I held out pieces of fish but I dropped them when they came too close.'

Jakki was next. She was smiling behind her mask, 'It's brilliant. I really enjoyed it! '

More than 1, 000 people have now taken up shark diving, paying S300 a time. So far no one has been killed, but scientists fear it is only a matter of time. You cannot keep on fooling around with something like a shark without someone being attacked, but at present people don't care.

I. Find these expressions in the text, translate them and memorize:

to swim by

to enter a competition

to fill in the forms

to be delighted

to win first prize

shark diving

to drop bait

to go through

to be badly injured

to hit smb on the nose

to make up a story

to call sth off

to carry on

to put on a mask

to be paralyzed with fright

to calm smb′ s nerves

can barely speak

to come right up to sth

to hold out smth

to be a matter of time

to fool around with sth