PART 3

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Is paradise forever lost?

A

These days, it has almost become a cliche – the notion of travelling on a shoestring is far too common for the liking of the free spirited hippie types who started the craze off. And, besides, with the cost of travel having plummeted in recent years, it no longer entails enduring the kinds of hardships experienced by the budget travellers of yesteryear. And, in some ways, this has taken the enjoyment out of the experience of ‘roughing it’ as you travel around the world in search of new and ever more unique experiences. Why? Because there aren’t that many new and unique experiences left. Once everyone started doing it, this whole globe-trotting idea started to look a lot less attractive. It was supposed to be for a select few adventurers daring enough to take the dusty roads less trodden. But those roads are now crowded highways of overexcited youths trying desperately to make their holiday adventures special. There is something very artificial about the whole experience. Part of the reason people used to go backpacking to the ends of the earth was to, well, escape the maddening crowd, not join it. Is there nowhere that is safe anymore? Is there no escape from the masses?

B

Rex, 25, from Kensington, dropped out of Engineering in his second year at Oxford to travel the world. An idealist and romantic, Rex had become disillusioned with life in the big smoke, having lived in London for most of his 25 years, and decided it was time to branch out. His parents were understandably distraught to learn of his decision to quit university, but they gave him their full support once it was clear this was the only thing that would make him happy. So Rex started down the by now well-documented road to Asia and the Far East. At first brimming with enthusiasm, his passion for the journey soon dried up when Rex realised things were not exactly as he had imagined they would be. No matter where he went, a dedicated army of foreigners like himself would follow; there was no escaping them, and so, Rex felt, the experience of local culture was very artificial, almost deliberately extreme to impress the eager eyes of his mainly American travel buddies.

C

Having almost given up on ever finding the authentic experience, Rex prepared to come home. You can hear it from the horse’s mouth from here: ‘I got this deal with a stopover in Greece on route back to London, so I figured I might as well spend a few days there if for no other reason than to avoid having to face the music from my parents when I arrived home. I’d heard the Ionian islands were nice, but horribly overcrowded. Still I thought: “What’s the point of fighting it? Everywhere’s crowded.”

So, a couple of days later, I found myself in Corfu on a beautiful spring day in March. It was 25 degrees outside; the sky was clear and the sea a picture-postcard turquoise. Surprisingly, there weren’t that many tourists on the island either. Suddenly my spirits got high. That first evening, I dined in the old town on some exquisite local fare at a small, family-owned taverna where the owner – a chubby, middle-aged man of very good nature – proceeded to introduce me (his only customer) to the rest of his family one-by-one, then sat down and chatted by my side in his broken English for the rest of the night.’

D

‘I told him where I was going next and the man’s eyes beamed. Kefalonia, he explained, was where he had grown up. Indeed, his village was only a mile or two from the hostel where I would be staying. It was settled then; I would stay with his brother Nikos, who would give me a “royal” tour of the island, instead. Nikos, it turned out, was every bit as helpful as his older brother, and, somehow, by accident, I found myself spending the next two months in the company of his family as they showed me from one part of Kefalonia to the next, exploring land and sea, caves and rivers, waterfalls and lakes, forests and mountains. This was real; Nikos was real; his wife and children were real; their hospitality was real and Kefalonia was real. The turtles I swam with were real; it was just me and Nikos’ daughter Eliza who’d chanced upon them by accident in the fishing boat. There were no crowds to spoil this moment; everything was real. One evening, as I sat looking out onto the sunset, totally relaxed and at home on my little island paradise, a bus came bumping up the uneven road that led to the beach. Then, within minutes, there were 20 or 30 bodies on my beach, throwing balls, kicking sand, drinking beer, lighting fires… “Summer has arrived”, I thought. And with it, I made a hasty retreat back to London. It occurred to me then, that, even in the most commercialised of tourist destinations like the Greek Islands, if you know what to look for, where to look and, more importantly, when, you can still find paradise, if only for a few moments.’

E

Rex’s story is a reminder to keep searching until you find what you are looking for. Rex found his paradise in the most unlikely of places. Greece has a reputation for attracting hoards of package-holiday goers. It is a place where beaches are overflowing with deckchairs and sunbeds and the stench of commercialism from June to September each year. But, as Rex found out, for the rest of the year it transforms into something magical, or, at least, a small part of it – a quiet, peaceful, little gem of an island on the shores of the Ionian Sea, does. Keep searching!

Questions 27-31

Reading Passage 3 has five paragraphs, A-E.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings (i-viii) below.

27.iiiiiiivvviviiviii Paragraph A

28.iiiiiiivvviviiviii Paragraph B

29.iiiiiiivvviviiviii Paragraph C

30.iiiiiiivvviviiviii Paragraph D

31.iiiiiiivvviviiviii Paragraph E

Questions 32-37

Complete the flow-chart below.

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Questions 38-40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

38. Why did Rex want to go to Greece for a few days?

A

• in order to escape the crowds of holidaymakers

B

• he had to choose between Greece and England and preferred Greece

C

• he wanted to put off having to go home

D

• the weather in March in Greece is typically very pleasant

39. What did Rex originally intend to do in Greece?

A

• stay in Corfu for a few days before departing for England

B

• visit Corfu and then Kefalonia, and stay in a hostel there

C

• visit Corfu and then stay with Nikos and his family in Kefalonia

D

• spend a few days cruising around the Ionian Sea

40. What message is the writer trying to put across?

A

• People should not expect to find everywhere they travel up to the standard they expect.

B

• Though you might not think so, Greece is a better holiday destination than parts of Asia and the Far East.

C

• It is almost impossible to find a holiday destination which is quiet, peaceful and private these days.

D

• People should not give up on the idea of finding their ideal holiday destination, and, if they keep looking, they might find it where they least expected to.