I. Study the text and retell it:
If you want to get the maximum pleasure and the minimum shocks and heartaches when going on a hike, leave as little as possible to chance. Camping should be planned. Plan, plan, and plan some more-and you'll enjoy every moment of it.
After you've carefully chosen your route, you must ruthlessly cut down both on the weight and the amount of the articles you take. You'll need as lightweight a tent as possible for your hiking, though it is essential that it should be absolutely damp-proof. Next you'll need a sleeping-bag and a plastic bag in which to put it so as to keep it dry in all weathers. Unless your rucksack is water-proof, put your spare clothes in a plastic bag too.
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Now you'll need something to cook on. My advice is to get a gas burner which is light and compact. A "must" is a water-container, preferably a plastic bucket, a light metal tea-kettle and a saucepan with a lid and with detachable handles. If you don't want to fry up in the lid, get a frying-pan. You'll also need plastic containers for milk, tea-bags, butter, salt and washing-up liquid; cup, knife, spoon and fork. All can be in plastic, but I prefer a metal knife.
Don't forget to take a torch-you never know when circumstances will force you to pitch your tent in the dark.
Now as to what you're going to eat. For breakfast I suggest eggs and bacon, which are easy to cook, tea, bread and butter, and jam. For lunch biscuits, cold meat, bread and butter and jam again, and for dinner and supper combined tinned meat and fish.
Thus adequately equipped and lightly clad in water-proof clothing suitable for a wide variation in temperature, you can now set off on your camping expedition, and hope for the best.
II. Study the following words and word combinations:
1. Choosing a Route. Packing. - hike, to go on a hike, to hike, to go hiking, hiker; walking tour, walker; to travel (to go) on foot; to wander; to roam; route, to choose a route; to discuss plans, to plan a trip; guidebook; light (hand) luggage, heavy luggage; rucksack; hamper, basket; to pack clothes (supplies, cooking utensils, etc.) into a rucksack, to pack a rucksack; damp-proof; sleeping-bag
2. Nature. Weather. - landscape, scenery; countryside, hilly or level countryside; picturesque; vegetation; grove; slope; steep hill; to wind, winding; the weather forecast (to forecast the weather); constant (steady) rain (wind); dull, wet, damp, cloudy, foggy, windy weather (day); it is pouring; to drizzle, it is beginning to drizzle; fog, thick fog, mist; to be (to get) wet through; the things are damp, soaked; the wind rises, drives the clouds away, brings rain, drops; it's a hot, stuffy day; the heat is stifling, unbearable; there is hardly a breath of air; not a leaf is stirring; it's 30 (degrees) above (zero) in the shade
3. Meals. - cooking utensils; frying-pan; saucepan; pot; kettle, tea pot, to get a kettle to boil; tin, tinned food, tin-opener; pocket knife; gas-burner; water-container; eggs and bacon, scrambled eggs; plain, nourishing breakfast; to peel, to scrape potatoes; to stir, to mix; to crack, to squash, to smash; to clean, to scrape out a frying-pan; to spill; odds and ends; flavour; good stuff; like nothing else on earth; to make a fire, to put out the fire; to light a gas stove; to squat down to supper; burnt and unappetising-looking mess; to give smb. a good appetite; to wash up
4. Sleep. - to camp out, to sleep out; to fix (to pitch) a tent, to strike a tent; sleeping bag; to be fast asleep, not to sleep a wink; torch
5. Bathing and Boating. - to look down at the river and shiver; to throw water over oneself; a tremendous splash; to dive; to swim, to have a swim; to run one's boat into a quiet nook; to hire a boat; to get upset; to row up (down) the river (stream); to steer; bow, stern; canoe, rowing-boat, motor-boat, yacht; to land, to get out; to scull, tow, to punt; raft, to raft; strong current
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6. Fishing. - to fish, to angle, to go fishing, angling, excellent fishing, fisherman, angler; to drop in a rod; fishing tackle; to catch fish with a minnow, with a fly, with a worm; to bite; pike, porch, trout
III. Complete the following sentences:
1. Oh, bother! I've dropped a plate and ... .2. Sculling a boat is quite an undertaking if ... . 3. I don't think it necessary to plan our trip, we'll just ... . 4. We followed a winding path going up ... . 5. When the hikers came to a puzzling choice of routes, they ... . 6. It was more like autumn than summer, it ... . 7. The three friends got together to plan ... and to choose ... . 8. To see the real country one must travel ... . 9. The rain had been ... all night and our things were ... . 10. There is hardly ... the heat is ... . II. "Do you happen to have anything to open the tin with?" - "Oh, yes. Here is ... ." 12. Stop leaning over ... the boat may ... . 13. The current is very strong here, it's no use trying to ... . 14. None of us had any experience in cooking and the porridge ... but the fresh air ... . 15. I wish we had not believed the ... and had stayed home on Sunday. 16. Do you call this ... ? Who will carry it, I wonder? 17. We'd better hurry up, it's beginning ... . 18. Why on earth did you put tomatoes on the bottom of the rucksack? Now they are ... . 19. The wind is sure to bring rain. Let's be quick ... . 20. I should never have thought so many things could be ... . 21. I wish the wind rose and drove ... . 22. It was 35 above and the heat was ... . 23. When at last we squatted down to supper we were so hungry that ... .24. I think it only fair to make him wash ... . 25. She is too fond of comfort to display any enthusiasm about ... . 26. Тhere were some cracked eggs left and we decided to have ... .
IV. Use the vocabulary of ex. II in answering the questions:
1. What do you call a long walk in the country, a book of information for travellers, a canvas bag carried by hikers on the back, a large basket with a cover, plants of all kinds as a whole, a small wood, a statement about what the weather will be like, a fine rain, pots and pans, a metal vessel with a spout, the front and the back parts of a boat, a light boat moved by a paddle, a light sailing vessel, equipment needed for fishing?
2. What adjectives may come in handy to describe a meal, a landscape, a hill, rain, wind, fog, heat, weather?
3. What will you say if your friend wants to take too many things when going on a hike, the wind is beginning to blow, it's too hot for your liking, you enjoy your meal, you don't like either the sight or the taste of a.dish, your friend complains that he is doing more than his fair share of the work?
4. What will you do before going on a hike, boiling potatoes on a camp-fire, going to bed when camping out, leaving the camping-site?
5. What may happen if you're caught in the rain, you drop an egg, put something heavy on a tomato, overfill a pot, fidget in a boat?
6. What do you do to set afloat a canoe, a rowing-boat, a yacht, a raft?
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V. Ask and answer:
1. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of a hiking tour? 2. What must you take with you if you are going on a week's walking tour? 3. What's your daily routine when on a hike? 4. How would you plan your day in hot stuffy weather? 5. What would you do in cold and rainy weather? 6. Do you take the weather forecast into account when going hiking? 7. What do you like to have for breakfast, dinner and supper when on a hike? 8. What must you do to make a fire, to cook scrambled eggs, to cook fish soup, to cook porridge? 9. Do you like sleeping out? 10. Which would you prefer: sleeping out or putting at the nearest village? Give reasons for your choice. 11. Do you make a point of having a swim every day no matter what the weather is? 12. Which would you rather choose: a hiking trip or a river trip? Why? 13. Have you or your friends
How nice, to be free of household chores!
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Always nagging!
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I like out-of-the-way places.
ever gone fishing? What is characteristic of an experienced angler? 14. What do you do of an evening during a hiking tour?
VI. Make up dialogues between:
- Two inexperienced hikers trying to pack lots of things into a rucksack.
- Two tired walkers who still have some 10 miles to cover in a hilly countryside.
- Two irritated persons trying to make a fire in the drizzling rain.
- Two hungry girls trying to open a tin without a tin-opener.
- Young men washing their clothes in the river.
- Two lazy hikers, each thinking that he is doing more than his fair share of the work.
- You. and a friend of yours who is just back from a hiking tour.
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VII. Speak of your (or your friend's) hiking experience.
VIII. Comment on the pictures on p. 46.
IX. For some people hiking is an ideal way of spending a holiday. What do you think about it? Discuss it with a partner giving your arguments for and against hiking. Touch upon the following points:
- In the twentieth century people forgot how to use their legs.
- Walking is the best way to enjoy the beauty of nature.
- Camping gives people an opportunity of being in the open air all night and day.
- The pleasure one gets from hiking is worth the trouble taken.
Try Your Hand at Teaching
I. Pick out from school vocabulary words and phrases suitable for the discussion of a hiking tour.
II. Make up exercises to be done by your fellow students in class to brush up the words and phrases.
III. Adapt the text on hiking (p. 43) for secondary school pupils.
IV. Collect jokes, short stories and pictures suitable for schoolchildren to discuss.
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