B) Read the passage and find out if she is at the beginning, middle or end of her journey

I have set out to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the foothills of the Bolivian Altiplano, from the once famous coffee town of Santos to Santa Cruz de la Sierra. I have made other great railway journeys by chance, but never by design; this is to be a ‘proper’ journey with a beginning and a prearranged destination. It is early March and I have just left the sharp frosts of a late Italian winter for the steamy heat of the tail end of a tropical rainy season.

Santos is the club Pele, the King of Football, played for. Beyond the heat, haze and the pounding rhythm of transistor radios on the beach, and beyond the sinister lines of grey cargo ships on the horizon, there is a halo: Pele’s. His fame is the achieved dream of every Brazilian boy and the pride of his nation.

Every few minutes, people come up and ask my name and if I like Santos. Between assuring strangers how fond I am of their city, I think about it and decide that I really like the sight of so many people enjoying the sun and the sand and their celebration of themselves.

I have bought a guide-book and map of Brazil which I study. I am lulled by the general feeling of well-being, of drifting with the tide. I have never had any sense of direction, which is, perhaps, why I feel so safe on a train. Trains move implacably along their own tracks, pausing only at predestined places.

I feel at home in Brazil; I can even evoke my paternal grandfather, a moustachioed Señor Mendoca from Belem, to put me further at ease. Bloated as I am with coconut water and roasting under 100⁰ F (38⁰ C), the sensual hum of warring radio stations is lulling me to sleep. I have a train to catch, though. I have been wanting to make this journey for so many years that I am resolved to make it now, no matter what.

C) The writer uses quite a literary style. Find a word or phrase in the passage which means the same as the following (they are in the order in which you’ll find them):

on purpose, calmed, call to mind, swollen, fighting

D) Complete the sentences 1-4 with a phrase a-f. There are two extra phrases.

1) The other railway journeys she has made were not ‘proper’ ones...

2) She tells people she likes Santos without really thinking about it...

3) She likes travelling by train...

4) She feels at home in Brazil...

a) as she wants them to go away and stop bothering her.

b) as trains will take her effortlessly to where she wants to go.

c) because she wants to be polite.

d) because her grandfather was Brazilian.

e) because she didn’t plan them.

f) because she likes the people and she had a Brazilian grandfather.