UNIT 6. 6F, page 53
Exercise 1
1 over
2 bits
3 walking on
4 joy
5 come
6 an honour
7 world
8 believe
Exercise 2
Photo 1: she’s an elderly woman who’s just graduated
Photo 2: he’s / she’s managed to get to the top of a very challenging mountain
LISTENING 12
In the case of the climber, he is clearly driven by a desire to push himself to the limit, physically and psychologically. I expect he does it for the amazing feeling of achievement that he must feel when he reaches the top having got through the experience
unharmed. Doing something like that must really make you feel alive. Perhaps he is a thrill-seeker by nature or perhaps he has a boring job and feels he needs more excitement in his life.
As for the woman, she appears to be in her eighties or nineties so she obviously didn’t do the degree to advance her career. She must have done it because she has a real passion for the subject that she studied. Given her age, it’s quite possible that she missed out on a university education when she was younger and since then it’s been her lifelong dream to get a degree.
Exercise 5
1 case
2 for
3 Given
Exercise 6
1 though
2 Having said that
3 yet
4 Much as
5 Granted
LISTENING 13
Much as both achievements without a doubt require great strength of character and dedication, if I had to choose, I would say the woman has encountered the most challenges.
Granted, the climber will have faced huge challenges, such as extreme temperatures, avalanches, lack of oxygen, dangerous terrain, and to deal with these he must be very fit, alert and mentally very strong. Nevertheless, mountain climbing is a hobby available to many people, whereas for a woman in her eighties to get a degree is extremely rare. If she didn’t have any
previous education, it would have been hard to summon up the confidence to apply for a place at university.
Also, it must have been very difficult for a person of her age to have the energy to keep up with her studies and the mental capacity to learn new things. Having said that, some older people still have phenomenal minds and we shouldn’t assume that they don’t want to keep on expanding them.