GRAMMAR I inversion VOCABULARY I collocations READING AND VOCABULARY 1 Work in groups and discuss the questions. I Do you think travel can broaden your horizons? How? 2 Would you like to travel around the world on a motorbike? 3 What do you think would be the good/bad things about an experience like this? 2A Match 1-7 with a)-g) to make collocations. I an epic a) at border crossings 2 an obsession b) by the kindness of strangers 3 physical c) journey 4 the depths d) with motorbikes 5 (be) humbled e) privations 6 (be) held up f) mobsters 7 gun-wielding g) of depression B Discuss. How do you think the phrases above could relate to a story about two people travelling around the world on motorbikes? 3A Read the article to check your ideas. What were Change your life the good and bad things about the journey? Take your time. Take the Long Way. B Put sentences a)-g) in the correct places 1-6 in the ong /MIy Round, filmed for the BBC, is the gripping article. There is one extra sentence. L account of an epic round-the-world motorcycle journey a) Hearing everyone was all right freed us to get on with undertaken by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, during what we were doing. which they covered 20,000 miles and crossed twelve countries b) The idea grew into a plan for an epic road trip, which and nineteen time zones in just 115 days. would also highlight the global work of the children's When Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman first met on charity UNICEF. a film set in Ireland, it wasn't the experience of co-starring in c) They were just curious and looking to be friendly. a little-remembered costume drama that bonded them. 1 ~ Rather, it was mutual love of - obsession with, some would d) 0, tneil botn being young Britisn actors .. no nad say - motorbikes and bike-riding. eacn n iar! ied 1 ecently, and .. ere tnen tne prouc} £atnel s of n iontns old baby girls. 'It was like discovering you had another brother,' says McGregor. 'So I asked Charley to be my daughter's godfather e) I just couldn't stay on the bike! and we and our families have been involved pretty much f) In remote Mongolia, for example, one of the bikes constantly ever since.' broke down. The idea for Long Way Round all began when McGregor and g) And although McGregor has owned bikes ever since Boorman first thought of taking off on their bikes together - he bought his first - a 100cc Honda - at nineteen initially (with their wives riding pillion) to Spain, and then a while studying drama in London, he still needed a bit far as China. 2 __ And when M cGregor mentioned it to a of help with his off-road technique. TV producer, the proposal to film their journey soon followed . But were the two actors ready for the challenge? One nearly 4 Work in pairs and answer the questions. wasn 't. 'Charley was far better at riding off-road than me, I What did Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor having had much more experience,' admits McGregor. Even have in common? though he first sat astride a 50cc Honda at the tender age of 2 What previous biking experience did the two men six, for years, he says, he was a 'biker without a bike'. (Boorman, have? by contrast, had been riding bikes on the family farm since he 3 Why did their attitude towards strangers change was a boy.) 3 __ during the trip? 'Two days' pre-training with BMW was supposed to bring 4 How did the two men keep in touch with their me up to speed,' says McGregor, 'but actually began by sinking families? Why was this important? me into the depths of depression. 4 __ Here I was, about to 5 How did the Ukrainian shopkeeper surprise them? embark on this awesome journey, and I couldn't even master the key core skill!' SPEAKING SA Work in groups and read the leaflets below. Would you like to go on one of these trips? Why/Why not? B Plan your own dream adventure. Where would you go and what would you do? Read the information below and plan a trip for your group. There is one constraint: you can only make one journey by commercial aeroplane. For the rest, you can use any other means of travel. Think about the following questions. • How are you going to travel? • What countries will you visit? • What will be the main aim of your trip? • How long will the trip take? • Could you use the trip ~Zebra BuS :l to highlight any particular Company issues? Which ones? How? • What problems do you think you might have? How • will you deal with them? C Tell the class about your plans. Which group has the Luckily, by the end of day two, latent ability had kicked in. most interesting idea for a And that, plus their close relationship and a small technical dream adventure? support team, saw the pair through a journey involving more than 20,000 miles, on and off road, across three continents. 'We promised before leaving that we'd always be honest with each other,' says Boorman of the potential stress on their friendship. 'If something started to bug me about Ewan's behaviour, he knew I'd tell him. And vice versa.' Both admit to having been humbled by the kindness so often shown to them by strangers who had no idea who they were. 'Early on,' says McGregor, 'passing through the Czech Republic and Slovakia, we became aware of just how suspicious we were. If someone approached us, our hard, city-based response would be, "Who is this guy? What does he want?" But they didn't want anything. 5 ___ So, gradually, we found ourselves relaxing and looking at others in a different way.' There were, of course, physical privations - in the more remote areas they had to camp, live on rehydrated packet foods and wash in river water, or not at all - but being apart from their families was the toughest trial. Most nights, a fifteen­ minute phone call was possible. 'That call home became such a highlight,' says McGregor. ,6___ Without it, I'd have been travelling through some of the most desolate, beautiful > J' < , landscapes on earth with my mind elsewhere.' ExperienCe the world s largest Along the way, they'd experienced the extremes of camping thering of humpback whales alongside nomads and staying in luxury with gun-wielding ga and a fabulous diversity of marine wildlife with mobsters (a Ukrainian shopkeeper, who offered them a bedbug-free room, turned out to own a mansion complete with swimming pool and he and his mates eagerly showed off a Kalashnikov and other scary weapons). Occasionally McGregor and Boorman fumed, as they were sometimes held up at border crossings for up to fifteen hours. But it was, they agree, the adventure of a lifetime. 'Now we're back, I almost can't believe we did it,' admits McGregor. 'I went all the way around the world? On a motorbike? Surely not. But I did. We did.' GRAMMAR inversion VOCABULAR~ I'WS synonyms 6A Read the text. What was similar about the two journeys? SA Look at six extracts from the article on page 116. Can you think of words/phrases When Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travelled around with similar meanings to the words in bold? the world on their motorbikes, it was a life-changing feat. Not I Long Way Round is the gripping account ... only did the Long Jit.0y Round journey challenge their view of the 2 ... of an epic round-the-world motorcycle world, it also tested their physical endurance. Had they known journey ... how difficult the journey would prove, they might never have 3 The trip would also highlight the global work started. But their shared passion for adventure and the kindness they of the children 's charity UNICEF. encountered on the way kept them going. Never before had they experienced such hospitality from complete strangers. It was the 4 I was about to embark on this awesome trip of a lifetime but, three years later, they fixed up their bikes and journey ... embarked on a second journey together. For the Long Jit.0y Down, S ... and I couldn't even master the key core the two men travelled 15,000 miles through two continents (Europe skill! and Africa) in eighty-five days. 6 If something started to bug me ... B Which word in each set has a different B Read the sentences. What do you notice about the word order? meaning? Rewrite the sentences beginning with If. gripping: thrilling, exhilarating, dull I Had the first journey not been such a success, they never would have 2 journey: trip, tracker, expedition considered the second. 3 highlight (v): stress, overemphasise, 2 Had he been a more experienced rider, he might not have fallen so often. accentuate C Choose the correct alternative to complete the rule. Then find 4 embark on: undertake, complete, set off on another example of inversion in a conditional clause in the text above. S master(v): train, grasp, get the hang of 6 bug (v): excite, irritate, get on (my) nerves Rule: In formallinformalwritten texts, the word order in conditional clauses may be inverted. Use a thesaurus. A good learners' dictionary will often give you a thesaurus to help you expand Look at sentences 1-4.