THE HOLIDAY MAKER

1. Read the text.

Here's something else to put on your list of things to get once your rich uncle Fred dies and leaves you all his money, or when you win the lottery – your own holiday consultant. Our travel reporter, Jane Wiggs interviews Billy Andower who has been a holiday consultant for seven years now.

Billy strongly denies that he is just a fancy travel agency. 'Every individual is different, and deserves a different kind of holiday. Before I even think of planning a destination or an activity for my clients, I spend several days with them observing their lifestyle, and discussing possible alternatives for the holiday. Often what I suggest is very different from what they had in mind. For example, I had a client, Mrs. Brecon, who had suddenly come into a lot of money. She was planning to spend her holiday lying on a beach in Bermuda. But I could see at once that she was a very active person, and she had not been working for a while and was getting restless. So I sent her on an eco-tourism trip to the Galapagos islands. She loved it.

On the other hand, I had another client, Dave Darmak. Dave's internet company had made him a lot of money, and he wanted to go snowboarding and hang-gliding in the Alps. But he really needed to wind down and recharge his batteries, so I recommended a farm in Tuscany not far from the sea, where there was lovely scenery and lots of time to relax. Of course, that's also the best thing for people who have recently been ill or injured, though I don't recommend Tuscany for them in mid-summer. It's just too hot.'

Not all of Billy's holidays cost the earth. He once sent Mike Harman and another executive from the same business on a cycling holiday in Holland as a bonding exercise, and even recommended to one would-be holidaymaker – Terry Balt, an assistant manager at Vernion Electric – that he spend his holiday at home.

'He had just finished a big project, and was really tense. The last thing he needed was travel to a foreign country and have the hassle of trains, planes and taxis. So I told him to use all the money he was saving on travel and accommodation for eating in the best restaurants in his home town, and taking taxis to see the local sights. He's lived in the town for ten years, and never had time to relax in the park or see a show in the local theatre.'

The biggest challenge, says Billy, is families. Especially when the children and adults want different things. Fortunately, Billy knows many places where child-minding is an art. He suggested to our reporter 'We might take you to see cathedrals and art galleries in Paris, while the children go to Disneyworld, for example. With some recent clients, the Bellway family, the mother, Sally, wanted to spend all day, every day on the beach. I knew her son, Joe, would go crazy with boredom, as it was quite an exclusive place without many other kids about. So I arranged for him to take sky-diving lessons. Once Sally stopped worrying, everyone had a great time!'

When a Professor Lember came to Billy, he wanted something really unusual to impress his friends. Billy arranged for him to spend a holiday in a scientific undersea habitat near Florida. He could only do it because Prof. Lember is a distinguished marine biologist, whose contribution to research in the habitat was so useful that he did not even have to pay for his vacation.

But what about Billy himself? Billy laughs. 'To tell you the truth, I've been so busy these last five years, I have had time for one break. But I'd been so many exotic places researching holidays for other people, that I took week off at home watching football on the telly!'

2. Write the name of the person next to each extract on the right. Sometimes two answers are possible.

ROBERT CAPA

1. Read the text.

Robert Capa is a name that has for many years been synonymous with war photography.

Born in Hungary in 1913 as Friedmann Endre Erno, Capa was forced to leave his native country after his involvement in anti government protests. Capa had originally wanted to become a writer, but after his arrival in Berlin had first found work as a photographer. He later left Germany and moved to France due to the rise in Nazism. He tried to find work as a freelance journalist and it was here that he changed his name to Robert Capa, mainly because he thought it would sound more American.

In 1936, after the breakout of the Spanish Civil war, Capa went to Spain and it was here over the next three years that he built his reputation as a war photographer. It was here too in 1936 that he took one of his most famous pictures, The Death of a Loyalist Soldier. One of Capa’s most famous quotes was “if your pictures aren’t god enough, you’re not close enough”. And he took his attitude of getting close to the action to an extreme. His photograph, The Death of a Loyalist Soldier is a prime example of this as Capa captures the very moment the soldier falls. However, many have questioned the authenticity of this photograph, claiming that it was staged.

When World War II broke out, Capa was in New York, but he was soon back in Europe covering the war for Life magazine. Some of his most famous work was created on 6^th June 1944 when he swam ashore with the first assault on Omaha Beach in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Capa, armed only with two cameras, took more than one hundred photographs in the first hour of the landing, but a mistake in the darkroom during the drying of the film destroyed all but eight frames. It was the images from these frames however that inspired the visual style of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar winning movie “Saving Private Ryan”. When Life magazine published the photographs, they claimed that they were slightly out of focus, and Capa later used this as the title of his autobiographical account of war.

Capa’s private life was no less dramatic. He was friend to many of Hollywood’s directors, actors and actresses. In 1943 he fell in love with the wife of actor John Austin. His affair with her lasted until the end of the war and became the subject of his war memoirs. He was at one time lover to actress Ingrid Bergman. Their relationship finally ended in 1946 when he refused to settle in Hollywood and went off to Turkey.

In 1947 Capa was among a group of photojournalists who founded Magnum Photos. This was a co-operative organisation set up to support photographers and help them to retain ownership of the copyright to their work.

Capa went on to document many other wars. He never attempted to glamorize war though, but to record the horror. He once said, “The desire of any war photographer is to be put out of business”.

Capa died as he had lived. After promising not to photograph any more wars, he accepted an assignment to go to Indochina to cover the first Indochina war. On May 25^th 1954 Capa was accompanying a French regiment when he left his jeep to take some photographs of the advance and stepped on a land mine. He was taken to a nearby hospital, still clutching his camera, but was pronounced dead on arrival. He left behind him a testament to the horrors of war and a standard for photojournalism that few others have been able to reach.

Capa’s legacy has lived on though and in 1966 his brother Cornell founded the International Fund for Concerned Photography in his honour. There is also a Robert Capa Gold Medal, which is given to the photographer who publishes the best photographic reporting from abroad with evidence of exceptional courage. But perhaps his greatest legacy of all are the haunting images of the human struggles that he captured.

2. Choose the correct answer.

1. Why did Capa change his name?

a. To hide his identity.

b. Because he had been involved in protests.

c. To sound more American.

d. Because he had to leave Hungary.

2. Capa originally wanted to be

a. a photojournalist.

b. a writer.

c. American.

d. a professor.

3. Capa went to Spain to

a. fight in the civil war.

b. build his reputation.

c. have a holiday.

d. take photographs.

4. Capa’s most famous picture Death of a Loyalist Soldier

a. was taken by someone else.

b. was definitely genuine.

c. wasn’t even taken in Spain.

d. cannot be proven genuine or staged.

5. When World War II broke our Capa

a. went to New York.

b. swam ashore on Omaha Beach.

c. went to Europe.

d. went to Normandy.

6. A mistake meant that

a. only one hundred of Capa’s photographs were published.

b. Capa lost both of his two cameras.

c. Capa’s images inspired an Oscar winning movie.

d. most of Capa’s images of the D-Day landing were destroyed.

7. Capa’s private life was

a. less dramatic than his professional life.

b. spent mostly in Hollywood.

c. very glamorous.

d. spent in Turkey.

8. Capa wanted his work to

a. be very famous.

b. show how glamorous war can be.

c. show the true horror of war.

d. make lots of money.

9. Which sentence best paraphrases paragraph 5?

a. Capa had a tragic private life and was never able to settle down and find happiness.

b. Despite having many good friends and lovers, Capa always put his work first.

c. Capa wanted to make friends with important people in Hollywood so that he could move into the movie industry.

d. Capa’s private life was very complicated. He could not choose between the two women he loved, so he went off to work in Turkey.

10. Which sentence best paraphrases paragraph 4?

a. Capa never tried to avoid danger. He risked his life to take photographs of the D-Day invasion, but then destroyed most of them.

b. Capa took some of his most famous photographs during the D-Day invasion, but most were tragically destroyed in an accident.

c. Capa only kept the best eight D-Day photographs as the others were out of focus. These inspired the visual style of a Hollywood film.

d. Capa left Europe when the war broke out and went to take his most famous photographs of the D-Day invasion.

11. Which THREE sentences best summarise the text?

a. Capa’s work tried to show the beauty within the horror of war, that’s why so many photographers have tried to copy his work.

b. From the earliest years Capa was active in political journalism and reporting. This often got him into trouble with the authorities.

c. Capa was not afraid to get close to his work and often risked his life to ensure that his photographs were as good as they could be.

d. Capa wanted to have a glamorous life style and so he made friends with Hollywood film stars and even had a film, “Saving Private Ryan” made about him.

e. Capa was deeply committed to trying to stop war and he left behind him a legacy that continued to support and inspire other photojournalists to continue his work.

f. Capa had always wanted to be as American as possible, so after the war he changed his name and went to live in America.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 1820