Методические указания по английскому языку для студентов 3-5 курсов исторического факультета. Часть 2. Коныгина Г.И. - 13 стр.

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Presenter: Now Anna, you spent seven and a half months travelling by yourself in
India, Indonesia, Australia and North and South America. That must have been quite an
adventure.
Anna: Yes, apart from the occasional family holiday I’d never travelled before I set out
on this trip and I was very apprehensive about going on such an ambitious journey.
What worried me most was the prospect of being lonely, and the dangers of travelling as
a single woman. But in fact I was lonely only occasionally - it was worst at the
beginning. After that I was never alone for long stretches because I made a real effort to
meet people - if I wanted company I travelled with them.
Presenter: Did you go on your own, Dan?
Dan: No, I travelled with four other people, which was almost too many, but we
avoided a lot of potential arguments by carefully planning our route before we left.
Presenter: Did you have any problems with other people, Anna?
Anna: Well, the constant stream of slightly rude comments in some countries made me
angry and I felt myself becoming more aggressive in response. Ultimately, these
irritations were just something I had to put up with.
Presenter: What about the places you visited?
Dan: Sometimes we had to be flexible about our plans. We found that places described
as ‘unspoilt and tourist-free’ in the guide book can turn out to be obscure villages with
nothing to see or do and nowhere for visitors to stay.
Anna: I went with an open mind, really. Some of the places I found myself in were
pretty horrible, but that’s all part of the experience isn’t it?
Presenter: What about places to stay?
Dan: We usually slept in campsites or arranged our journeys so that we could spend the
night on the train - that was cheap and relatively comfortable. Youth hostels were all
packed in August and much more expensive, so we kept away from them.
Anna: I ended up in some pretty rough places, the sort of places I wouldn’t even
consider staying in at home, but I didn’t mind that because it was all part of the
adventure.
Presenter: Did you feel you had to be careful?
Dan: Yes, I’d spoken to people who had lost everything - students on trains seem to be
easy targets. So, wherever we were, I always slept with my money and passport at the
bottom of my sleeping bag.
Anna: Well, being a woman alone was something I was conscious of throughout the
trip. I never felt physically threatened, though I made sure I didn’t get into obviously
dangerous situations.
Presenter: Did your trip live up to your expectations?
Dan: Well, our tickets were valid for a month but we ran out of money and energy
before they expired and came back. We’d seen a huge amount by then but we couldn’t
keep up our enthusiasm any longer.
Anna: Travelling on such a large scale is very time-consuming and seven and a half
months wasn’t long enough. If I were to do it again, I don’t think I’d try to take on so
much.
Presenter: Would you go on similar trips again?