E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

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III. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Choose the correct completion for each sentence.
1.
The main idea of this passage is:
a. 
backpacking through the wilderness gives you a chance to live apart 
from nature.
b. 
backpacking through the wilderness gives you a chance to experience 
nature, have a closer relationship with the earth, and realize how you are 
a part of it.
c. 
backpacking through the wilderness shows you how important good 
boots are.
communications and mass transportation, most “journeys” consist of nothing 
more than the mechanized moving of bodies from one place to another, a 
process so sanitized, safe, controlled, and so insulated from its surroundings 
that it precludes any sense of freedom, adventure, or personal involvement. 
Only when I shoulder my pack and set out into the wilderness do I feel a 
journey is really beginning, even though I may have traveled halfway around the 
world to take that irst step.
Though being in the wilderness is what matters, and the real goal of any 
hike is to experience nature, a more speciic purpose gives shape to a trip and 
provides an incentive to keep moving. Thus I always set a goal, even on day 
hikes—a summit, a lake, a distance to cover, a crag to visit, a vista to see. Once 
I’m under way, the overall goal is subordinated to the day-by-day, minute-by-
minute events and impressions that are my reason for hiking.
Walking is the only way to really see a place, to really grasp what it’s like, to 
experience all its aspects. This is true even for cities but applies much, much 
more to mountains and deserts, forests and meadows. Seen from a car, a train, 
or even a “scenic viewpoint,” these are only pretty pictures, postcard images 
for the surface of the mind, quickly forgotten. By walking through a landscape, 
you enter into it, experience it with every one of your senses, learn how it works 
and why it’s as it is. You become, for a time, a part of it. And once you stay out 
overnight and entrust your sleeping self to its care, a deeper bond is forged 
and, leetingly and at the edge of your mind, you begin to grasp that we are not 
apart
from but 
part 
of the earth.
This process of exploring the relationship between the self and the natural 
world grows and expands as you become more experienced and conident in 
wilderness wandering. It does not, I suspect, have limits.
By experiencing the wilderness directly, by being in touch with the land, we 
can learn how valuable—how essential—it is, and that we must try to preserve 
and restore our still-beautiful world.
Source:
 The Backpacker’s Handbook
, by Chris Townsend, New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1949

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Better Reading English
2.
In backpacking, the journey is important because it gives us the 
opportunity to
a. 
use modern communication.
b. 
explore our hometown.
c. 
explore a world beyond our everyday lives.
3.
Modern communication and transportation have made traveling
a. 
safe and controlled.
b. 
adventurous.
c. 
an exploration.
4.
The goal of any hike should be
a. 
returning to civilization.
b. 
experiencing modern transportation.
c. 
being in the wilderness.
5.
_______________ is the way to “really see a place” and “really grasp what 
it’s like.”
a. 
Looking at a postcard
b. 
Walking
c. 
Driving
6.
By exploring the wilderness, we learn that our land is valuable, and that we 
must try to
a. 
use more natural resources.
b. 
preserve and restore it.
c. 
build more houses on it.
IV. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Identify meaning
Choose the words that have the same meaning as the underlined words.
1.
The paper plates ar
e too limsy to hold a lot of food.
a. 
weak
b. 
strong
c. 
old
2.
We 
subordinated our desire to eat in order to continue playing the game.
a. 
raised
b. 
lowered
c. 
interrupted

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3.
My best friend and I tell each other everything; we have a very strong bond.
a. 
connection
b. 
separation
c. 
fascination
4.
We 
forged a friendship when we were in the second grade.
a. 
broke
b. 
destroyed
c. 
formed
5.
My fears of the wilderness wer
e leeting, and I quickly became comfortable 
sleeping under the stars.
a. 
short-lived
b. 
slowly
c. 
strong
6.
It is essential to drink water if you are exercising.
a. 
extremely dificult
b. 
extremely important
c. 
extremely dangerous
7.
The cookies were good incentives for getting the children to work faster.
a. 
feelings
b. 
tests
c. 
motivators
8.
The beauty of the mountains left a strong impression in my mind.
a. 
mental picture
b. 
mental turmoil
c. 
mental block
B.
Idioms
The idiom 
to be in touch with
has several different meanings. Here are two 
examples:
having a deep understanding and appreciation of something
She’s really 
in touch with
 animals and can tell when they are depressed.
being in communication with someone
Are you 
in touch with
 your friends from college, or have you grown apart?

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Better Reading English
Copy the sentence from the text that uses this idiom.
V. UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR: PREFIXES 
in-
,
 re-,

AND
 
pre-
A.
Read about preixes 
in-
,
 re-
,
 
and 
pre-
.
A preix is a group of letters that can be added to the beginning of a word or a 
“root word” to change the meaning of the word.
A root word is a word that can stand on its own. You can make a new word 
from it by adding a preix to the beginning of it.
B.
The meaning of preixes
Every preix has a meaning. For example: