Reading for week 5

Text 1: Read the following article and answer the questions

I CAN’T TRAVEL WITHOUT…

What are the things you can’t do without when you go away

A Patrick Lichfield, a photographer, never goes far without the Olympus Pearlcorder dictating machine which lets him catch up with his correspondence wherever he is. The tiny tapes are either posted to his secretary, Felicity, or he gives them to someone to bring back. The quality is very good but there are often some interesting background noises.


B Mel Calman, the cartoonist, jokes about filling his suitcase with tranquillizers and three different kinds of toothbrushes after recent, expensive dental treatment, but it is his diary and sketch-book that are always with him when he is on the move. “I don’t keep a diary except when I’m away. I start a new one each trip now since I lost irreplaceable notes on two previous trips on a bus in the States.”

C Richard Branson who recently launched Virgin Atlantic Airways, believes in travelling light. “Suntan lotion for my nose and my notebooks which are my lifeline. But I will always sling in a pack of cards. I love a game of cards, particularly bridge, canasta or spades, but I’m not a gambler.”

D Barry Norman, the film critic, never travels anywhere without his credit card. “The day of anyone being stranded abroad are now over. I remember once, before credit cards were common, the Daily Mail sent me to Italy at a moment’s notice. It was a bank holiday, I had no money and the banks were shut. There I was in Milan on a beautiful sunny day sitting in my hotel because it was the only place I could eat or drink because I could sign for it.

E Frank Muir, the TV scriptwriter and humorist, never sets off on a journey without packing his Swiss army penknife “It does everything,” he says “It has about 140 things come out. It open bottles, get things out of horses’ hooves, it had scissors, screwdrivers, tweezers. I never go anywhere without it and I have never used it”


Choose from sections A – E to answer these questions and write the letters in the boxes

Who likes to take as little luggage as possible ? 1.

Who likes to keep a record of his travels? 2.

Who takes something he hasn’t tested? 3.

Which two people seem to take their work with them when they travel 4. 5.

Which two people take something to avoid bad experiences
they’ve had in the past 6. 7.


Who takes the strangest thing, in your opinion?
Who takes the most useful thing, in your opinion?