Extract No. 04
Page No. 69 / 70
[Line, “ Abroad…………………to
chance”]
Read the extract and do all the activities that follow.
Abroad is the place
where we stay up late, follow impulse and find ourselves as wide open as
when we are in love. We live without a past or future, for a moment at least,
and are ourselves up for grabs and open to interpretation. We even may become
mysterious-to others, at first, and sometimes to ourselves-and, as no less a
dignitary than Oliver Cromwell once noted, “A man never goes so far as
when he doesn’t know where he is going.”
There are, of course,
great dangers to this, as to every kind of freedom, but the great promise of it
is that, travelling, we are born again, and able to return at moments to a
younger and a more open kind of self. Travelling is a way to reverse time, to a
small extent, and make a day last a year-or at least 45 hours-and travelling is
an easy way of surrounding ourselves, as in childhood, with what we cannot
understand. Language facilitates this cracking open, for when we go to France,
we often migrate to French, and the more childlike self, simple and polite,
that speaking a foreign language educes. Even when I’m not speaking
pidgin English in Hanoi, I’m simplified in a positive way, and concerned not
with expressing myself, but simply making sense.
So travel, for many of
us, is a quest for not just the unknown, but the unknowing; I, at least, travel
in search of an innocent eye that can return me to a more innocent self. I tend
to believe more abroad than I do at home (which, though treacherous again, can at
least help me to extend my vision), and I tend to be more easily excited
abroad, and even kinder. And since no one I meet can “place” me -no one can fix
me in my risumi – I can remake myself for better, as well as, of course,
for worse (if travel is notoriously a cradle for false identities, it can also,
at its best, be a crucible for truer ones). In this way, travel can be a
kind of monasticism on the move : On the road, we often live more simply
(even when staying in a luxury hotel), with no more possessions than we can
carry, and surrendering ourselves to chance.
A1. True or false : (02)
State whether the following statements are True or false.
a) When we travel abroad we live for the moment. (T)
b) Travelling is a desire for the unknown as well as the unknowing. (T)
c) Travel does not help in expanding the vision. (F)
d) Travelling is a wastage of time. (F)
A2. Find out : (02)
Find out the expressions that deal
with the benefits of Travelling.
1. By travelling we are born again. 2. We are able to return at moments to a younger and a more open kind of self. 3. Travelling is a way to reverse time, to as much extent and make a day. 4. Travelling is an easy way of surrounding ourselves that we can’t understand in childhood days.
A3. Infer : (02)
Infer the famous quote of Oliver Cromwell when he says,” A man never goes so far as he doesn’t know where he is
going.”
A4. Personal Response : (02)
Do you agree with the views expressed
by the writer in this extract? Narrate your own experience when you were on a
voyage.
A5. Language study : (02)
a) We live without a past or future.
(Rewrite the sentence using Present
perfect continuous tense)
We have been living without a past or
future.
b) Travelling is a way to reverse time. (Frame a Rhetorical Question)
Isn’t travelling a way to reverse
time?
c) We cannot understand. (Use be able to ) Or ( Make it
Affirmative)
We are not able/ unable to understand
or we fail to understand.
d) I can remake myself for better.
(Replace the modal auxiliary by
another showing,” Possibility’)
I may/might remake myself for better.
e) Travel can be a kind of monasticism. (make it interrogative)
Can’t travel be a kind of monasticism?
A6. Vocabulary : (02)
a) Difficult to understand = mysterious
b) Influential person = dignitary
c) Make it easier = facilitates
d) Long search = quest
e) Small bed for baby = cradle.
