Question 1 2 English GCSE
Read Source 1, the online travel article called Rafting on the Grand Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde.
1) What do you learn from Elisabeth Hyde’s article about where she has been and what she has been doing?
From the article, we learn that Elisabeth Hyde went rafting on a ’13 day, 225-mile trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.’ She describes the trip as a ‘Disneyland’ like experience with ’a white-knuckle, roller-coaster ride’. Hyde also comments on how she found it quite scary but ‘exhilarating’. While Hyde was on the trip, we learn that she was joined by her husband, her three children and 17 other strangers. They are all placed onto ‘6m rafts’ with ‘masses of gear’ which is also packed onto the rafts. She also describes how the group of people alternates, ranging from her ‘13-year-old twin daughters’ to ‘a couple in their mid-70s’. From this information, we can assume that the trip would be appealing to all ages due to the variety of age range between the people on the trip.
Due to Hyde being with so many strangers, it meant that she would have little privacy as she was to be ‘eating, sleeping and bathing together’ with the strangers. This is one of the things the group had to get used to. Even though there is little privacy, the group were on the water for ‘five to eight hours a day’ in ‘one of the most spectacular environments on earth’. From this we can gather that the group would have amazing memories from the rafting experience.
Elisabeth Hyde also comments about how helpful the river guides were because they helped with their learning about the Grand Canyon. In the article, it shows that she has good knowledge of rock formations due to Hyde describing the different layers of rock like ‘terracotta sandstone’. Hyde also gives the reader a description of the ‘roller-coaster’ ride of the rapids where the passengers are ‘perched on the side tubes’. This adds sense of danger and risk because they are not secured, meaning they could come out of the
1) What do you learn from Elisabeth Hyde’s article about where she has been and what she has been doing?
From the article, we learn that Elisabeth Hyde went rafting on a ’13 day, 225-mile trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.’ She describes the trip as a ‘Disneyland’ like experience with ’a white-knuckle, roller-coaster ride’. Hyde also comments on how she found it quite scary but ‘exhilarating’. While Hyde was on the trip, we learn that she was joined by her husband, her three children and 17 other strangers. They are all placed onto ‘6m rafts’ with ‘masses of gear’ which is also packed onto the rafts. She also describes how the group of people alternates, ranging from her ‘13-year-old twin daughters’ to ‘a couple in their mid-70s’. From this information, we can assume that the trip would be appealing to all ages due to the variety of age range between the people on the trip.
Due to Hyde being with so many strangers, it meant that she would have little privacy as she was to be ‘eating, sleeping and bathing together’ with the strangers. This is one of the things the group had to get used to. Even though there is little privacy, the group were on the water for ‘five to eight hours a day’ in ‘one of the most spectacular environments on earth’. From this we can gather that the group would have amazing memories from the rafting experience.
Elisabeth Hyde also comments about how helpful the river guides were because they helped with their learning about the Grand Canyon. In the article, it shows that she has good knowledge of rock formations due to Hyde describing the different layers of rock like ‘terracotta sandstone’. Hyde also gives the reader a description of the ‘roller-coaster’ ride of the rapids where the passengers are ‘perched on the side tubes’. This adds sense of danger and risk because they are not secured, meaning they could come out of the