END-OF-YEAR READING

  Read an article about the giant concrete arrows that have been found in the USA. Match sentences A–G with gaps 1–5. There are two extra sentences.

Follow the arrow

If you have even been inside the cockpit of a plane, you will have noticed the large number of instruments on the walls and ceiling around the pilot’s seat. Many of these buttons, dials and screens are used in navigation. Unlike car drivers, pilots do not have the luxury of signs and arrows telling them where to go. ¹___ So how were pilots able to find their way in the days before radio and satellite communication?

In the USA, the problem of navigation first arose when the airmail postal service was introduced in 1911. In the beginning, huge bonfires were lit to show pilots where to land in the dark. Later, a more practical solution was found: the construction of giant concrete arrows on the ground. The arrows were 21 m long and painted bright yellow. ²___ The top light turned around to attract the pilot’s attention, and two others lit up the arrow and flashed a code to identify its location.

The first of these arrows was laid in 1924, and by 1929, there were around 1,500 of them. They formed an illuminated path for airmail pilots stretching from New York to San Francisco. ³___ But by the 1940s, new navigation techniques were being discovered and soon, the arrows and their towers were no longer needed. They were gradually abandoned and some of them were removed completely.

However, not all of the arrows have disappeared. In the state of Montana, they are still used for guiding pilots through the mountains. ⁴___ Yet either because of their size or due to their bad condition, the arrows are not easy to find. In many cases, if you want to see one, it is a question of knowing where to look.

Which is where retired couple Brian and Charlotte Smith can help. The two are devoted fans of the arrows and spend much of their time hunting them down. So far, they have located more than a hundred of them. ⁵___ Their aim is to preserve the memory of these historical structures and prevent them from being lost forever.

Gap 1 is...

Read an article about the giant concrete arrows that have been found in the USA. Match sentences A–G with gaps 1–5. There are two extra sentences.

Follow the arrow

If you have even been inside the cockpit of a plane, you will have noticed the large number of instruments on the walls and ceiling around the pilot’s seat. Many of these buttons, dials and screens are used in navigation. Unlike car drivers, pilots do not have the luxury of signs and arrows telling them where to go. 1___ So how were pilots able to find their way in the days before radio and satellite communication?

In the USA, the problem of navigation first arose when the airmail postal service was introduced in 1911. In the beginning, huge bonfires were lit to show pilots where to land in the dark. Later, a more practical solution was found: the construction of giant concrete arrows on the ground. The arrows were 21 m long and painted bright yellow. 2___ The top light turned around to attract the pilot’s attention, and two others lit up the arrow and flashed a code to identify its location.

The first of these arrows was laid in 1924, and by 1929, there were around 1,500 of them. They formed an illuminated path for airmail pilots stretching from New York to San Francisco. 3___ But by the 1940s, new navigation techniques were being discovered and soon, the arrows and their towers were no longer needed. They were gradually abandoned and some of them were removed completely.

However, not all of the arrows have disappeared. In the state of Montana, they are still used for guiding pilots through the mountains. 4___ Yet either because of their size or due to their bad condition, the arrows are not easy to find. In many cases, if you want to see one, it is a question of knowing where to look.

Which is where retired couple Brian and Charlotte Smith can help. The two are devoted fans of the arrows and spend much of their time hunting them down. So far, they have located more than a hundred of them. 5___ Their aim is to preserve the memory of these historical structures and prevent them from being lost forever.

Gap 2 is...

Read an article about the giant concrete arrows that have been found in the USA. Match sentences A–G with gaps 1–5. There are two extra sentences.

Follow the arrow

If you have even been inside the cockpit of a plane, you will have noticed the large number of instruments on the walls and ceiling around the pilot’s seat. Many of these buttons, dials and screens are used in navigation. Unlike car drivers, pilots do not have the luxury of signs and arrows telling them where to go. 1___ So how were pilots able to find their way in the days before radio and satellite communication?

In the USA, the problem of navigation first arose when the airmail postal service was introduced in 1911. In the beginning, huge bonfires were lit to show pilots where to land in the dark. Later, a more practical solution was found: the construction of giant concrete arrows on the ground. The arrows were 21 m long and painted bright yellow. 2___ The top light turned around to attract the pilot’s attention, and two others lit up the arrow and flashed a code to identify its location.

The first of these arrows was laid in 1924, and by 1929, there were around 1,500 of them. They formed an illuminated path for airmail pilots stretching from New York to San Francisco. 3___ But by the 1940s, new navigation techniques were being discovered and soon, the arrows and their towers were no longer needed. They were gradually abandoned and some of them were removed completely.

However, not all of the arrows have disappeared. In the state of Montana, they are still used for guiding pilots through the mountains. 4___ Yet either because of their size or due to their bad condition, the arrows are not easy to find. In many cases, if you want to see one, it is a question of knowing where to look.

Which is where retired couple Brian and Charlotte Smith can help. The two are devoted fans of the arrows and spend much of their time hunting them down. So far, they have located more than a hundred of them. 5___ Their aim is to preserve the memory of these historical structures and prevent them from being lost forever.

Gap 3 is...

Read an article about the giant concrete arrows that have been found in the USA. Match sentences A–G with gaps 1–5. There are two extra sentences.

Follow the arrow

If you have even been inside the cockpit of a plane, you will have noticed the large number of instruments on the walls and ceiling around the pilot’s seat. Many of these buttons, dials and screens are used in navigation. Unlike car drivers, pilots do not have the luxury of signs and arrows telling them where to go. 1___ So how were pilots able to find their way in the days before radio and satellite communication?

In the USA, the problem of navigation first arose when the airmail postal service was introduced in 1911. In the beginning, huge bonfires were lit to show pilots where to land in the dark. Later, a more practical solution was found: the construction of giant concrete arrows on the ground. The arrows were 21 m long and painted bright yellow. 2___ The top light turned around to attract the pilot’s attention, and two others lit up the arrow and flashed a code to identify its location.

The first of these arrows was laid in 1924, and by 1929, there were around 1,500 of them. They formed an illuminated path for airmail pilots stretching from New York to San Francisco. 3___ But by the 1940s, new navigation techniques were being discovered and soon, the arrows and their towers were no longer needed. They were gradually abandoned and some of them were removed completely.

However, not all of the arrows have disappeared. In the state of Montana, they are still used for guiding pilots through the mountains. 4___ Yet either because of their size or due to their bad condition, the arrows are not easy to find. In many cases, if you want to see one, it is a question of knowing where to look.

Which is where retired couple Brian and Charlotte Smith can help. The two are devoted fans of the arrows and spend much of their time hunting them down. So far, they have located more than a hundred of them. 5___ Their aim is to preserve the memory of these historical structures and prevent them from being lost forever.

Gap 4 is...

Read an article about the giant concrete arrows that have been found in the USA. Match sentences A–G with gaps 1–5. There are two extra sentences.

Follow the arrow

If you have even been inside the cockpit of a plane, you will have noticed the large number of instruments on the walls and ceiling around the pilot’s seat. Many of these buttons, dials and screens are used in navigation. Unlike car drivers, pilots do not have the luxury of signs and arrows telling them where to go. 1___ So how were pilots able to find their way in the days before radio and satellite communication?

In the USA, the problem of navigation first arose when the airmail postal service was introduced in 1911. In the beginning, huge bonfires were lit to show pilots where to land in the dark. Later, a more practical solution was found: the construction of giant concrete arrows on the ground. The arrows were 21 m long and painted bright yellow. 2___ The top light turned around to attract the pilot’s attention, and two others lit up the arrow and flashed a code to identify its location.

The first of these arrows was laid in 1924, and by 1929, there were around 1,500 of them. They formed an illuminated path for airmail pilots stretching from New York to San Francisco. 3___ But by the 1940s, new navigation techniques were being discovered and soon, the arrows and their towers were no longer needed. They were gradually abandoned and some of them were removed completely.

However, not all of the arrows have disappeared. In the state of Montana, they are still used for guiding pilots through the mountains. 4___ Yet either because of their size or due to their bad condition, the arrows are not easy to find. In many cases, if you want to see one, it is a question of knowing where to look.

Which is where retired couple Brian and Charlotte Smith can help. The two are devoted fans of the arrows and spend much of their time hunting them down. So far, they have located more than a hundred of them. 5___ Their aim is to preserve the memory of these historical structures and prevent them from being lost forever.

Gap 5 is...

Mary Kingsley’s Fur Hat

Famous for her eccentric behaviour and appearance, Mary Kingsley

wore this moleskin hat during her travels in West Africa.

Often described as “an extremely amusing woman with a strange taste for odd forms of danger”, Mary Kingsley came to adventuring late in life, despite the fact that exploration seemed to be in her blood. The niece of a well-respected travel writer, she spent much of her life helping her father in his studies of African religions and laws, and nursing her mother; however, before her first trip to Africa in 1892, she had never travelled further than Paris.

All that changed when her mother and father died within a few weeks of each other when she was 30 years old. Finding herself alone for the first time, Kingsley made the radical decision to continue her father’s work in Africa. Within five years, she had travelled across large sections of equatorial West Africa. She became the first European to enter some parts of Gabon. She made extensive collections for the British Museum and climbed the region’s highest peak, 4,000-metre Mungo Mah Lobeh (literary “the Throne of Thunder”; now known as Mount Cameroon). On her return to the UK, she spent three years hosting lectures on her travels and wrote several books about her experiences.

At a time when it wasn’t appropriate for a woman to walk the streets of London unaccompanied, travelling in previously unexplored areas of West Africa entirely alone was decidedly eccentric behaviour. However, when accused of behaving improperly, Kingsley replied: “Neither the Royal Geographical Society’s list, nor any other, of articles necessary to travellers in tropical climates makes mention of husbands.”

She had equally firm views about what clothing was appropriate for travel, reportedly saying: “You have no right to go about Africa in things you would be ashamed to be seen in at home.” She gained a reputation for eccentric dress, and wore this moleskin hat, now stored within the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, throughout her travels in West Africa. She got that moleskin hat while staying with the cannibalistic Feng tribe in the Gabon.

Kingsley went on to work as a nurse in Cape Town during the Boer War, and it was here, in 1900, that she died of heart failure. Her body was taken out to sea in a torpedo boat and she was given a military and naval funeral. Burial at sea was a unique honour for woman to receive at the time, and she was further honoured when the African Society was founded in her memory in 1901.

 1. Mary Kingsley’s exploration of Africa began when she...

Mary Kingsley’s Fur Hat

Famous for her eccentric behaviour and appearance, Mary Kingsley

wore this moleskin hat during her travels in West Africa.

Often described as “an extremely amusing woman with a strange taste for odd forms of danger”, Mary Kingsley came to adventuring late in life, despite the fact that exploration seemed to be in her blood. The niece of a well-respected travel writer, she spent much of her life helping her father in his studies of African religions and laws, and nursing her mother; however, before her first trip to Africa in 1892, she had never travelled further than Paris.

All that changed when her mother and father died within a few weeks of each other when she was 30 years old. Finding herself alone for the first time, Kingsley made the radical decision to continue her father’s work in Africa. Within five years, she had travelled across large sections of equatorial West Africa. She became the first European to enter some parts of Gabon. She made extensive collections for the British Museum and climbed the region’s highest peak, 4,000-metre Mungo Mah Lobeh (literary “the Throne of Thunder”; now known as Mount Cameroon). On her return to the UK, she spent three years hosting lectures on her travels and wrote several books about her experiences.

At a time when it wasn’t appropriate for a woman to walk the streets of London unaccompanied, travelling in previously unexplored areas of West Africa entirely alone was decidedly eccentric behaviour. However, when accused of behaving improperly, Kingsley replied: “Neither the Royal Geographical Society’s list, nor any other, of articles necessary to travellers in tropical climates makes mention of husbands.”

She had equally firm views about what clothing was appropriate for travel, reportedly saying: “You have no right to go about Africa in things you would be ashamed to be seen in at home.” She gained a reputation for eccentric dress, and wore this moleskin hat, now stored within the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, throughout her travels in West Africa. She got that moleskin hat while staying with the cannibalistic Feng tribe in the Gabon.

Kingsley went on to work as a nurse in Cape Town during the Boer War, and it was here, in 1900, that she died of heart failure. Her body was taken out to sea in a torpedo boat and she was given a military and naval funeral. Burial at sea was a unique honour for woman to receive at the time, and she was further honoured when the African Society was founded in her memory in 1901.

  2. Why did Mary begin to travel?

Mary Kingsley’s Fur Hat

Famous for her eccentric behaviour and appearance, Mary Kingsley

wore this moleskin hat during her travels in West Africa.

Often described as “an extremely amusing woman with a strange taste for odd forms of danger”, Mary Kingsley came to adventuring late in life, despite the fact that exploration seemed to be in her blood. The niece of a well-respected travel writer, she spent much of her life helping her father in his studies of African religions and laws, and nursing her mother; however, before her first trip to Africa in 1892, she had never travelled further than Paris.

All that changed when her mother and father died within a few weeks of each other when she was 30 years old. Finding herself alone for the first time, Kingsley made the radical decision to continue her father’s work in Africa. Within five years, she had travelled across large sections of equatorial West Africa. She became the first European to enter some parts of Gabon. She made extensive collections for the British Museum and climbed the region’s highest peak, 4,000-metre Mungo Mah Lobeh (literary “the Throne of Thunder”; now known as Mount Cameroon). On her return to the UK, she spent three years hosting lectures on her travels and wrote several books about her experiences.

At a time when it wasn’t appropriate for a woman to walk the streets of London unaccompanied, travelling in previously unexplored areas of West Africa entirely alone was decidedly eccentric behaviour. However, when accused of behaving improperly, Kingsley replied: “Neither the Royal Geographical Society’s list, nor any other, of articles necessary to travellers in tropical climates makes mention of husbands.”

She had equally firm views about what clothing was appropriate for travel, reportedly saying: “You have no right to go about Africa in things you would be ashamed to be seen in at home.” She gained a reputation for eccentric dress, and wore this moleskin hat, now stored within the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, throughout her travels in West Africa. She got that moleskin hat while staying with the cannibalistic Feng tribe in the Gabon.

Kingsley went on to work as a nurse in Cape Town during the Boer War, and it was here, in 1900, that she died of heart failure. Her body was taken out to sea in a torpedo boat and she was given a military and naval funeral. Burial at sea was a unique honour for woman to receive at the time, and she was further honoured when the African Society was founded in her memory in 1901.

 3. What did Mary Kingsley do in Africa?

Mary Kingsley’s Fur Hat

Famous for her eccentric behaviour and appearance, Mary Kingsley

wore this moleskin hat during her travels in West Africa.

Often described as “an extremely amusing woman with a strange taste for odd forms of danger”, Mary Kingsley came to adventuring late in life, despite the fact that exploration seemed to be in her blood. The niece of a well-respected travel writer, she spent much of her life helping her father in his studies of African religions and laws, and nursing her mother; however, before her first trip to Africa in 1892, she had never travelled further than Paris.

All that changed when her mother and father died within a few weeks of each other when she was 30 years old. Finding herself alone for the first time, Kingsley made the radical decision to continue her father’s work in Africa. Within five years, she had travelled across large sections of equatorial West Africa. She became the first European to enter some parts of Gabon. She made extensive collections for the British Museum and climbed the region’s highest peak, 4,000-metre Mungo Mah Lobeh (literary “the Throne of Thunder”; now known as Mount Cameroon). On her return to the UK, she spent three years hosting lectures on her travels and wrote several books about her experiences.

At a time when it wasn’t appropriate for a woman to walk the streets of London unaccompanied, travelling in previously unexplored areas of West Africa entirely alone was decidedly eccentric behaviour. However, when accused of behaving improperly, Kingsley replied: “Neither the Royal Geographical Society’s list, nor any other, of articles necessary to travellers in tropical climates makes mention of husbands.”

She had equally firm views about what clothing was appropriate for travel, reportedly saying: “You have no right to go about Africa in things you would be ashamed to be seen in at home.” She gained a reputation for eccentric dress, and wore this moleskin hat, now stored within the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, throughout her travels in West Africa. She got that moleskin hat while staying with the cannibalistic Feng tribe in the Gabon.

Kingsley went on to work as a nurse in Cape Town during the Boer War, and it was here, in 1900, that she died of heart failure. Her body was taken out to sea in a torpedo boat and she was given a military and naval funeral. Burial at sea was a unique honour for woman to receive at the time, and she was further honoured when the African Society was founded in her memory in 1901.

4. Mary was criticized for...

Mary Kingsley’s Fur Hat

Famous for her eccentric behaviour and appearance, Mary Kingsley

wore this moleskin hat during her travels in West Africa.

Often described as “an extremely amusing woman with a strange taste for odd forms of danger”, Mary Kingsley came to adventuring late in life, despite the fact that exploration seemed to be in her blood. The niece of a well-respected travel writer, she spent much of her life helping her father in his studies of African religions and laws, and nursing her mother; however, before her first trip to Africa in 1892, she had never travelled further than Paris.

All that changed when her mother and father died within a few weeks of each other when she was 30 years old. Finding herself alone for the first time, Kingsley made the radical decision to continue her father’s work in Africa. Within five years, she had travelled across large sections of equatorial West Africa. She became the first European to enter some parts of Gabon. She made extensive collections for the British Museum and climbed the region’s highest peak, 4,000-metre Mungo Mah Lobeh (literary “the Throne of Thunder”; now known as Mount Cameroon). On her return to the UK, she spent three years hosting lectures on her travels and wrote several books about her experiences.

At a time when it wasn’t appropriate for a woman to walk the streets of London unaccompanied, travelling in previously unexplored areas of West Africa entirely alone was decidedly eccentric behaviour. However, when accused of behaving improperly, Kingsley replied: “Neither the Royal Geographical Society’s list, nor any other, of articles necessary to travellers in tropical climates makes mention of husbands.”

She had equally firm views about what clothing was appropriate for travel, reportedly saying: “You have no right to go about Africa in things you would be ashamed to be seen in at home.” She gained a reputation for eccentric dress, and wore this moleskin hat, now stored within the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, throughout her travels in West Africa. She got that moleskin hat while staying with the cannibalistic Feng tribe in the Gabon.

Kingsley went on to work as a nurse in Cape Town during the Boer War, and it was here, in 1900, that she died of heart failure. Her body was taken out to sea in a torpedo boat and she was given a military and naval funeral. Burial at sea was a unique honour for woman to receive at the time, and she was further honoured when the African Society was founded in her memory in 1901.

 5. Which of the following is NOT TRUE about Mary Kingsley?