English language b earth house alternative school

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE Time hours English Language B PAPER Earth House Alternative School Extracts Booklet Do not return this Extracts Booklet with the Question Paper P A ? Pearson Education Ltd P A Turn over CText One Into The Heart of Darkness adapted from a piece of travel writing by Ben Mallalieu In this passage the writer recounts a journey he made to the Bolivian rainforest in South America It wasn ? t a good journey it was never going to be a good journey but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time ?? as most bad ideas do particularly when stuck in an unpleasant o ?ce and wanting to be somewhere else anywhere else I had put forward an idea for a travel article for a magazine about seeing how far I could get into the wilds and be back at my desk seven days later all bright and eager refreshed by the excitement of travel I should have known better As my ?nal jumping-o ? place into the heart of darkness I had chosen Rurrenabaque in the Bolivian rainforest for no better reason than it is one of those wonderfully romantic place names like Zanzibar or Timbuktu It was also the starting point for some of the better journeys of the early th century explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett He memorably described it as ? a dismal heap on the way into the jungle and a city on the way out ? From there I could take a dug-out canoe upriver But Fawcett is not a good role model not someone in whose footsteps it is wise to tread if you intend to get back in one piece he ? disappeared ? in Brazil in Furthermore I had left planning my journey much too late and even getting to the Bolivian capital of La Paz required zigzagging between a disturbingly large number of South American airports all identical except for being in a di ?erent time zone Eventually I arrived in La Paz at metres above sea level in the middle of a hot humid and very black night Fawcett was an intrepid traveller never happier than when reduced to eating his own boots or when one false step would spell certain ruin and he hardly had a day ? s illness in his life but he did warn about altitude sickness in La Paz As well as P A Ccausing almost total weakness and incapacity altitude sickness has all the disadvantages of being drunk with none of the bene ?ts ?? headache nausea disorientation ? In the morning I got up too early I had booked a taxi for ??am My hotel was impenetrably dark I couldn ? t ?nd any light switches and in my hurry to pack before leaving England I had forgotten to include a torch Outside there was no sign of my taxi and it was getting dangerously late so I waved down the ?rst taxi that came Unfortunately

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