Reading Variant 1 Task 1 Read the stories and match each sentence (1-5) to a story (A-C). You can choose each story more than once. 1 There was an unexpected extra night's travelling. 2 The other passengers made it special. 3 The plan to save time didn't work. 4 Delays and discomfort weren't what I was expecting. 5 I chose this form of transport because it was the most convenient. 1 5 Task 2 Write if the sentences are true or false: 1 People in passage A say that they usually use cheap airlines. 2 Unfortunately, they weren't at the family party last winter holiday. 3 The last travel across Europe wasn't so comfortable as it was expected. 4 The food was awful and they had to wait long hours. 5 The travellers in the last passage live not far from the airport. 6 The traveller enjoyed travelling by coach. TRAVELLERS' TALES A We often travel by plane but we don't use budget airlines, even though they are cheaper and often fly to the places we want to go. I'd rather pay more for a bit more comfort. Last Christmas, we wanted to spend the holidays with family and friends and we had a change of flight in Frankfurt, Germany. The time between flights was 45 minutes and we soon realised that we weren't going to make it. The airline was good to us and the other passengers and gave us food and a comfortable hotel to sleep in. We got a flight the next morning but, unfortunately, it meant that we missed a big family party. I thought I'd been clever and found a quick way to get to Canada but I was very wrong. Now I know that I need to leave at least two hours between flights if I want to be safe. That's much better than missing a flight or arriving without your luggage. B We decided to travel across Europe by train. Train travel always looks so romantic in films. I imagined leisurely meals in the dining car and meeting exotic people, followed by a comfortable night's sleep. Things started to go wrong before we had even left. The security and check-in for the train from London was just like at an airport, except that the queues were longer. Then, when we got to Brussels, we found that our night train was three hours late and there was nowhere to leave our bags. After a very long and not very good meal at the station, it was finally time to get on the night train. It was OK but the compartment was too hot and when we opened the window, it was too noisy to sleep. The beds were hard and there was no dining car so everyone went straight to their own compartments and didn't socialise at all. It wasn't quite as I had imagined it! C We wanted to go to England but weren't sure how to travel. We live a long way from an airport and, anyway, none of us like flying. If we went by train, we would have to change three times. In the end, we went by coach. It left our home town at five o'clock in the afternoon, as planned, and arrived in London, exactly on time, twenty-two hours later. I wasn't expecting to sleep well and it wasn't as comfortable as a bed but it was better than I had imagined. The bus stopped every four hours for a rest and we all got out. Everyone was very friendly and chatted and the atmosphere was almost like a party. Then, at about eleven o'clock, it all went quiet as people tried to sleep. When I got out in London, half asleep but happy, I felt as if I was saying goodbye to old friends. I'm now planning on doing more travelling by coach.
