ГДЗ по английскому языку 11 Класс класс упражнение - 64 р. 2

The  following  phrases  appear  in  the text. What do you think the text is about? Read to find out.  

• life or death decision 
• faced with an agonising decision  
• send friend to certain death  
• slipped
• incredible tale of survival  
• against all odds  
• British mountaineers  
• 21,000-foot peak  
• reached the summit  
• frostbitten fingers 
• lowered his friend over crevasse  
• hold weight  
• cut the rope  
• determined not to die  

Against all odds  

Imagine having to make a life or death decision, but one that affected not only your own life, but someone else’s as well! This is exactly what happened to Simon Yates. When he was just twenty-one years old, Simon found himself faced with an agonising decision: save his own life but in doing so send his friend, Joe Simpson, to almost certain death, or try to save his friend, but almost certainly die in the attempt to do so. The story of Simon’s choice, A ….., is a truly incredible tale of survival! 

In the summer of 1985, British mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb Siula Grande, a 21,000-foot peak in the Peruvian Andes. The mountain had never been conquered before. So for two adventurous and bold young men, B ….. .

Joe and Simon chose the most difficult way up the mountain for their ascent. Nevertheless, they reached the summit without any problems. For their descent, however, they decided to take an easier path. But it was on this supposedly simpler route that disaster struck. Joe slipped and broke his leg in three different places. In severe pain, he was completely crippled, unable to go on. Both climbers knew what this meant. With no food or water left and a real threat of hypothermia, C ….. . So, against all odds, Simon decided to try to get his injured friend down to safety using a rope. He began lowering his friend down the mountain … one hundred incredibly painful metres at a time.

At first, things went well. But then, after one particular drop,Simon got no sound or signal back from Joe. Without knowing it, in the pitch black of the night, Simon had lowered his friend over the edge of a deep crevasse. Hanging over the cliff, Joe’s fingers were so frostbitten that he was unable to climb back up the rope. Neither could he grab hold of the cliff, D ….. . Both climbers were too far away from each other to communicate. Simon held on to the rope for over an hour,trying to hold Joe’s weight on the other end. But his strength grew weaker and weaker, and he felt himself being slowly pulled down towards the edge of the crevasse.  

Simon knew he could not hold onto the rope forever without being pulled to his death himself. So, shaking with cold, he made the painful decision – later strongly criticised by some other mountaineers – to save his own life. He took a knife and cut the rope that tied him to his friend. Then, believing his friend would never have survived – the fall, E ….. . But miraculously, Joe was not killed by his fall! He was badly injured, close to death in fact,and he had no food or water … but he was alive! And he was determined not to die alone! In an unbelievable display of willpower, Joe managed  F ….. . It took him four days. Joe’s great courage and extraordinary determination saved him.  

If you want to learn more about Simon and Joe’s extraordinary tale of adventure and survival, you can read Joe Simpson’s book ‘Touching the Void’. A film of the same name has also been made based on Joe’s book!