Rafting Through the Grand Canyon and Beyond - Test 4

C1 Advanced · Gapped Text · C1 Advanced Trainer 2, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an article about a rafting trip along the Colorado River in the USA. Six paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A–G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

Rafting through the Grand Canyon and beyond

We’d been made aware of this when we booked the trip. But 16 of us had eagerly signed up for the adventure of a lifetime, renting four rafts, with all the necessary provisions included.

Fierce winds threatening to blow our rafts backwards and vicious sandstorms driving grit into our eyes, nostrils and cameras were two of the worst. Our hands, feet and lips were soon cracked from the constant exposure to water and the dry desert air.

It was no use. We were quickly drawn towards a rock the size of a bus. Then the raft was sucked around the wrong side of the boulder and into an eddy. Our paddles were now being bashed against the rock.

Eventually, we just had to go for it. Nervously, we let the waters pull us towards the boiling foam, and one by one the four rafts entered the fray. Our raft rocked and creaked and smashed through waves the size of a car; at one point it was almost vertical. There were 20 seconds of sheer terror.

In the quieter stretches of this magical setting, we’d fish off the rafts, and at night on the river bank, there were jokes and storytelling before we fell asleep under the stars. The internet became a distant memory as the Canyon closed in and the signal disappeared. It was a digital detox to the extreme.

I wondered if I could hold my breath long enough to survive underwater, and then saw my friend John being hurled off the raft and into the crashing waves. Suddenly, I too was flung headfirst into the freezing water. Bad thoughts filled my mind. But somehow we all survived.

As we progressed, the Canyon grew grander in scale, cutting a deep gorge, over a kilometre deep in places. It’s a geologist’s dream, with layers of rock dating back almost two billion years and ancient lava fields that are some of the oldest exposed rock on earth.

‘Go for the channel!’ I yelled, pointing towards a narrow opening. Our guides had said this way was ‘unrunnable’ and we were about to find out. I felt the boat twisting into a whirlpool and knew we were about to flip.

Bearing in mind our inexperience, I’m not sure how we did it. As we had prepared to leave from Lees Ferry on the banks of the Colorado in Arizona, our lead guide had asked: ‘How many of you have done anything like this before?’ Two of the group raised their hands. Our guide explained that ahead of us lay 450km of white water through one of the most formidable environments on earth – and no phone signal for 17 days.

For the next two and a half weeks, we’d see few other humans; the Canyon may be one of the world’s biggest attractions, but it’s also one of the most inaccessible places in the US and is usually only seen from above. We negotiated nearly 90 major rapids in all, and only flipped once, although several of us ended up in the water on different occasions.

Humans hadn’t been there as long, of course, but well before tourists came, it was the land of the Navajo and Hualapai American Indians. Their ancestors left buildings carved into the cliff faces, and prehistoric stone engravings in the warren of caves and gorges, accessible only from the river. Some of these were filled with luscious palms and others were so narrow you could touch both sides.

As a result, we had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world, not that we cared. There, on the river, we were completely focused on the here and now and were extra vigilant every time we encountered a significant rapid. Even the guides were nervous as we approached the infamous Lava Falls, which has a terrifying 9/10 difficulty rating. Before attempting Lava, we stopped and scrambled up a nearby cliff. From the top, we looked down anxiously at the crashing roar of white water and tried to work out our route.

Then, as soon as it had begun, it was over. There were whoops of joy and relieved high fives. We were soaked – but we’d all got through it safely. There were still a couple more days to go, but after Lava nothing could defeat us. We were a team, united by a river and a great sense of accomplishment.

The fierce sun had little effect on the freezing-cold water of the Colorado River as it splashed over the sides of our raft. Ahead lay a rapid called Bedrock. The four of us on our inflatable raft had already conquered numerous cascades in the Grand Canyon, but I was very nervous about this one. ‘Go right,’ we shouted at Rick, our pilot for the day, who was desperately trying to steer against the powerful current. ___ ‘Go for the channel!’ I yelled, pointing towards a narrow opening. Our guides had said this way was ‘unrunnable’ and we were about to find out. I felt the boat twisting into a whirlpool and knew we were about to flip. ___ Bearing in mind our inexperience, I’m not sure how we did it. As we had prepared to leave from Lees Ferry on the banks of the Colorado in Arizona, our lead guide had asked: ‘How many of you have done anything like this before?’ Two of the group raised their hands. Our guide explained that ahead of us lay 450km of white water through one of the most formidable environments on earth – and no phone signal for 17 days. ___ For the next two and a half weeks, we’d see few other humans; the Canyon may be one of the world’s biggest attractions, but it’s also one of the most inaccessible places in the US and is usually only seen from above. We negotiated nearly 90 major rapids in all, and only flipped once, although several of us ended up in the water on different occasions. ___ Humans hadn’t been there as long, of course, but well before tourists came, it was the land of the Navajo and Hualapai American Indians. Their ancestors left buildings carved into the cliff faces, and prehistoric stone engravings in the warren of caves and gorges, accessible only from the river. Some of these were filled with luscious palms and others were so narrow you could touch both sides. ___ As a result, we had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world, not that we cared. There, on the river, we were completely focused on the here and now and were extra vigilant every time we encountered a significant rapid. Even the guides were nervous as we approached the infamous Lava Falls, which has a terrifying 9/10 difficulty rating. Before attempting Lava, we stopped and scrambled up a nearby cliff. From the top, we looked down anxiously at the crashing roar of white water and tried to work out our route. ___ Then, as soon as it had begun, it was over. There were whoops of joy and relieved high fives. We were soaked – but we’d all got through it safely. There were still a couple more days to go, but after Lava nothing could defeat us. We were a team, united by a river and a great sense of accomplishment.

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