The Guinness World Records lists some very surprising activities - 2012

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The Guinness World Records lists some very surprising activities among its records. One of the stranger ones has to be blindfolded waterskiing. This activity involves someone waterskiing while blindfolded. The skier cannot see the route or water over which they are skiing. The record also involves skiing over open sea. Conditions on the open sea are much more challenging than on a lake. This makes blindfolded waterskiing a truly difficult sport that only the bravest and most experienced waterskiers dare to do. Now a British blind waterskier, Steve Thiele, has set a new world record in an effort to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Thiele is 100% blind and waterskiing is his favourite sport. Mr Thiele has been blind since falling from a tree when he was eight and damaging his optic nerve. In the past, Thiele waterskied without a blindfold and most spectators found it hard to believe he was blind. However, for the world record, Thiele needed to wear a full blindfold to qualify for the event as Guinness World Records do not distinguish between able-bodied persons and disabled persons. Talking of his record-breaking stunt, Thiele said: “It’s great to get a world record and I am very happy to have completed the challenge”. But, he adds, “It must have been weird to watch a blind person wear a blindfold.” Thiele broke the existing blindfolded waterskiing record by a big margin. He waterskied around the island of Anglesey in North Wales. The total distance was 38.4km and the time one hour. The previous record was for a distance of 32km. However, the currents around Anglesey are very strong and dangerous. So this Guinness record was set in some of the most difficult open sea waterskiing conditions in the world.

READING COMPREHENSION

1. Write a summary of the text in English, including the most important points, using your own words whenever possible (maximum 50 words).

• The text is about Steve Thiele, who established a Guinness World Record in blindfolded waterskiing. This record was particularly notable because Thiele was actually blind, and because he achieved the record in very difficult conditions on the open sea.

2. Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given here.

• a) requiring full use of your abilities or resources, difficult: challenging
• b) collect: raise
• c) peculiar; odd: weird
• d) a measure, quantity, or degree of difference: margin

3. Complete the second sentence of each pair so that it has the same meaning as the first one.

• a) Blindfolded waterskiing is a difficult sport and only the bravest and most experienced waterskiers dare to do it.
• Blindfolded waterskiing, which only the bravest and most experienced waterskiers dare to do, is a difficult sport. 
• b) The skier cannot see the route or water over which they are skiing.
• The skier isn’t able to see the route or water over which they are skiing.
• c) Steve Thiele has set a new world record in an effort to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
• A new world record has been set by Steve Thiele in an effort to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
• d) Thiele said: “It’s great to get a world record and I am very happy to have completed the challenge”
• Thiele said that it was great to get a world record and that he was very happy to have completed the challenge.

4. Answer the following questions in your own words.

• a) Why does he say “It must have been weird to watch a blind person wear a blindfold.”?
• Because a blind person can’t see, so s/he doesn’t need a blindfold.
• b) What factors made this particular waterskiing record especially notable?
• That the person who set it was blind, and that the conditions in which it was set were very difficult, as it was open sea with very strong currents.

WRITING 

5. Some famous athletes earn millions of dollars every year. Do you think these people deserve such high salaries? Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. (Approximately 120 words).

• A really successful athlete, like a really successful musician, has to work very hard for long hours a day and is also exposed to the stress of competition, so from this point of view maybe they do deserve to earn a lot of money. Also, in many cases, like that of Rafa Nadal and the players in the Spanish football team or Cristiano Ronaldo, it must be admitted that they provide a lot of entertainment and escapism for a lot of people. But in spite of this, I really think that the enormous amounts of money which some of them get are almost indecent, especially today, when many normal people are losing their jobs or having their salaries reduced.

Source: CiUG

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