Personal challenges - Module 4A

B2 First · Multiple Choice Reading · First Expert Coursebook, Pearson Education

You are going to read an article about a man who welcomes a challenge. For questions 1–6, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Brought up on a diet of stories about Ernest Shackleton, Captain Cook and Sir Edmund Hillary, Lewis Pugh's childhood dreams were filled with his heroes' ground-breaking expeditions to the Poles, Australia and Mount Everest. The son of a Royal Navy officer, Pugh was 17 before he learned to swim but he took to it literally like a duck to water and from then on the future law student decided he would combine his passion for adventure with his other love: swimming. Just one month after his first lesson, Pugh decided to do something normally reserved for experienced athletes: the five-mile crossing from Robben Island to Cape Town in water of 16 degrees Centigrade. Twenty years ago, a large chunk of the world's waters had still not been swum, so Pugh decided that, at the same time as studying maritime law, he'd spend as much time as he could going around the world to collect firsts. Some of these achievements are impressive because of their distance, like the longest cold water swim (204 kilometres down Norway's longest fjord). Others would make anyone tremble with fear: swimming round the southernmost tip of Africa in shark-infested waters. But for Pugh, each challenge has to be greater than the last. In August 2005 Pugh made worldwide headlines when, ignoring the threat of polar bears, he broke the world record for the most northern swim, as he plunged into the near-frozen waters of the Arctic near the North Pole and swam for a kilometre. Four months later, he went on to do the same for the most southern part of the Antarctic. This time there were icebergs around, the water was at freezing point and it was snowing. The first dive in Antarctica was an unforgettable experience. 'You get a terrible headache and your breathing speeds up until you can't control it. Then the skin gets terribly burned. After five or ten minutes, you start losing the feeling in your fingers and toes,' says Pugh, known as 'the Polar Bear' because of his ability to swim in temperatures which, physiologically, should be impossible. Like the seals and polar bears that live in these freezing conditions, Pugh has to insulate his body by putting on 15 kilos before a swim in order to up his fat levels. However, it is his unique ability to raise his core body temperature by as much as two degrees in anticipation of the water by the power of his mind that has made him a medical phenomenon. It is incredible enough that anyone would choose to put themselves through the experiences he does, especially as, to raise the game, he wears only swimming trunks, a cap and goggles. So what drives him? 'Sometimes we set boundaries for ourselves in life or, even worse, we allow others to do so. In many cases, these boundaries are just in our mind and need to be pushed away. If you get frightened of sharks and things like that, it will paralyse you. You have to do maths problems or think about something else, otherwise you will fail.' He insists that everyone, however ordinary, is capable of extraordinary things if you can do this. Swimming down the Thames in London might seem a little tame in comparison, until you realise that this was the full length of the river - 325 km in 21 days - in a heatwave. He used this as a publicity opportunity for a concern very close to his heart: to educate passers-by about ways of preventing global warming. He remains tight-lipped about future plans. 'It may be that I'll quit the aquatic world for a change,' he told us. 'But trust me: no matter what I do, it'll be something that no one has ever seen before.'

a sailor.

a lawyer.

a swimmer.

an explorer.

As a child, Pugh's ambition was to be

to improve his knowledge of the seas

to achieve things never done before

to find out how far it was possible for him to swim

to swim amongst the world's most dangerous animals

Why did Pugh make travel a priority?

He broke the record for the fastest cold water swim.

He swam in absolutely dreadful weather conditions.

He was the first person to swim so near both the North and South Poles.

He is the only human ever to dare to swim near polar bears in the Arctic.

What was so extraordinary about Pugh's achievement in 2005?

He is able to warm himself up when he needs to.

He is able to put on weight before an important swim.

He has the kind of skin which can tolerate extreme cold.

He has trained his body not to be affected by freezing water.

What is so unusual about Pugh?

his determination to do what seems impossible

his love of competitive swimming

his obsession with any form of sport

his fascination with the Polar regions

What motivates Pugh to do what he does?

He no longer feels the need to beat world records.

He is putting all his energy into saving the environment.

He feels he has achieved all he wants to as a swimmer.

He is not prepared to say what he might be doing next.

What do we learn about Pugh from the last paragraph?

In at the deep end

Lewis Pugh wants to conquer some of the most inhospitable, dangerous places in the world in his own unique way - by swimming through them.

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

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