ХIII. Try your hand at teaching.

A Sea Trip

"No", said Harris, "if you want rest and change, you can't beat a sea trip."

I objected to the sea trip strongly. A sea trip does you good when you are going to have a couple of months of it, but, for a week, it is wicked.

You start on Monday with the idea that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave an airy adieu to the boys on shore, light your biggest pipe and swagger about the deck as if you were Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake, and Christopher Co­lumbus all rolled into one. On Tuesday you wish you hadn't come. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, you wish you were dead. On Saturday you are able to swallow a little beef tea, and to sit up on deck, and answer with a wan, sweet smile when kind-hearted people ask you how you feel now. On Sunday, you begin to walk about again, and take solid food. And on Monday morning, as, with your bag and um­brella in your hand, you stand by the gangway, waiting to step ashore, you begin to thoroughly like it.

I remember my brother-in-law going for a short sea trip once for the benefit of his health. He took a return berth from London to Liverpool; and when he got to Liverpool, the only thing he was anxious about was to sell that return ticket.

It was offered round the town at a tremendous reduction; so I am told; and was eventually sold for eighteen pence to a youth who had just been advised by his medical man to go to the seaside, and take exercise.

"Seaside!" said my brother-in-law, pressing the ticket af­fectionately into his hand; "why, you'll get enough to last you a lifetime; and as for exercise! why, you'll get more ex­ercise, sitting down on that ship, than you would turning somersaults on dry land.

He himself — my brother-in-law — came back by train. He said the North-Western Railway was healthy enough for him. (From "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome. Adapted)

b) Answer the following questions:

1. What made the narrator object to the sea trip? 2. Why did his brother-in-law sell his return ticket? 3. How did he describe the advantages of a sea trip to the youth who bought his ticket?

c) Point out the Hues and passages that you consider humorous. Is it humour of situation or humour of words! (Analyse each case separately.)

XII. Speak individually or arrange a discussion on the following:

1. What attracts people in the idea of travelling?

2. Is the romantic aspect of travelling still alive in our time?

3. The celebrated travellers of the past.

4. Where and how would you like to travel?

1. Arrange and run aconversation on the following text:

The Only Way to Travel Is on Foot

When anthropologists turn their attention to the twenti­eth century, they will surely choose the label "Legless Man". Histories of the time will go something like this: "In the twentieth century people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. The surprising thing is that they didn't use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable railways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge moun­tain."

The future history books might also record that we did not use our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to an­other, we failed to see anything on the way. Air travel 0ves you a bird's-eye view of the world. Car drivers in particular, never want to stop. The typical twentieth-century traveller is the man who always says 'I've been there' — meaning, "I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to some­where else."

When you travel at high speeds the present means noth­ing: you live mainly in the future, because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. The traveller on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. He experiences to present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of his body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travellers.

Arguments:

2. Think of some other arguments and counter-arguments to carry on the discussion. (See "Classroom English", Section IX.)

XIV. A. Do yon know how to act sensibly when out in the wilds? If not, the text below might help you:

If you are setting off on a walking tour, take a compass, a map and first-aid equipment with you. Even the most ex­perienced can lose their way in the vast uninhabited areas. If you get lost don't lose your head. Instead be sensible, try to give some indication of where you are and keep yourself warm. And remember: never go off alone, and inform some­one at your point of departure where you intend to go, and what route you intend to take.