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Reading project
My big adventure 1 Before you read What might an adventure story be about? Collect ideas.
pirates?
a dangerous storm?
a trip to the moon?
… ?
Every year there is a competition for schools in Commonwealth countries. This year the competition is: Write an adventure about yourself and the characters of a favourite book. This is what Jade wrote: I felt so excited when we started to move! This was my big adventure. Three thousand, seven hundred and eighty-six miles, all the way from San Francisco to New York. The railway had been completed in 1869, and I had always wanted to make the journey. Now, three years later, I was a stewardess on the train! We left the station at six o’clock in the evening. There were all kinds of passengers in the carriage I was looking after. One group of three looked especially interesting. While I was turning the seats into beds for the night, I talked to the younger of the two men in the group. He told me that his name was Passepartout and that he was French. He was the servant of the other man, Phileas Fogg, a rich Londoner. The beautiful young woman with them was Aouda, a princess whose life they had saved in India. India! Maybe my big adventure wasn’t as big as I had thought … The next morning we were in Nevada, and for a long time the railway track followed a river. Then the landscape changed, and we travelled over great prairies. Far away a long line of high mountains came into view. Suddenly the train slowed down and stopped. There was a strong smell. Then a loud bellow. I almost jumped out of my skin! What was it? Aouda stood up and looked out of the window. “Buffalo!” she cried. “Ten thousand of them! They’re crossing the track.” “Oh no! We don’t want any delays. Drive the train through those cows!” shouted Passepartout. Then he explained to me, “Mr Fogg has made a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days. We mustn’t arrive late in New York because the ship to England leaves on the same day. If we aren’t back in London on the twenty-first of December, he’ll lose twenty thousand pounds!” The train tried to push the buffalo out of the way, but there were too many of them. We had to wait until they had all gone, and it was dark before we were able to continue. After Nevada came Utah, and then on the third day Wyoming, with the tall Rocky Mountains in front of us. Slowly we started to climb. Passepartout was worried we might lose more time, but the train carried us over the mountains without any more delays. “Now you can relax,” I told him. I had spoken too soon.
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