12. Read the texts and answer the questions on them: Steinbeck on travelling

When years described me as a mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. I fear the disease is incurable.

When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. He has a bunch of reasons to choose from. Next he must plan his trip in time and spade, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay. This part of the process is invariable and immortal.

Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is something different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness.

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. The trains, schedules, reservation dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized, can the lazy-bones relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage.

The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it.

Wayward – своенравный, капризный, упрямый

wreckage – крушение

frustration – чувство разочарования

Why did the author need remedies? What was his disease?

What are the stages of preparation for the trip?

Can you prove that a journey is like marriage?

Is it possible to control a journey?

Have you got the same disease? Can it be cured?

What happened to us during our hiking trip

I’ll tell you a story about our outing which, to my mind, was not well prepared. But everything ended well and it was very funny in the long run.

Our class decided to go on hiking trip to the lake. It’s about 30 kilometres from our town. Of course, our route through the woods and hills had been carefully marked on the maps long before. So we started on Sunday in the afternoon right after classes. First, everything went off without a hitch. But then…

To begin with, one of our boys fell behind and finally got lost in the wood. It took us almost three hours to find him. It turned out that he had lost his rucksack full of the sugar for the whole group. We couldn’t find it either.

Then Ann, our photographer, climbed a high rock to take a group picture. She slipped on a wet leaf and had a bad fall, hurting another girl’s arm and breaking the camera.

All of a sudden it began to rain. It was a shower. We had to put up our tents and shelter in them. We sat in them till it became dark. Soon we grew hungry and cold. When we started to make a fire it turned out that the boy who was responsible for it had forgotten to take matches. “It just slipped my mind”, he said smiling. Some of us got very angry with him.

On the next morning …

In the long run – в конечном счете

Route – маршрут

Without a hitch – без сучка и задоринки

Where did the group decide to go?

Had the rout been carefully marked on the maps long before?

What happened to one of the boys in the middle of the trip?

Why did Ann climb the high rock?

Where did the students shelter when it began to rain?

Did they make a fire? Why not?

Was their outing well prepared?

What do you think is the end of the story?