Question

Read the following text and answer the questions that follow. Borge Ousland crossed the North Pole from Russia to Canada. He walked. He skied. He swam. And he did it alone. Here is an excerpt from his journal. The first week of the last big solo expedition of my life nearly defeated me. I had prepared for two years. I was in top shape. I was motivated. I was battle tested. (I had trekked alone to the North Pole and across the South Pole in the previous years). I was ready for a triathlon from hell: a 1,240-mile ski, walk, and swim from Russia to Canada, making me the first person to cross both Poles alone. But only days after pushing off alone, the sledge with all my supplies began to break; its runners came loose, and its Kevlar coating cracked and was worn by the sharp edges of new pack ice. I'd already survived one brutal night when the Arctic Ocean nearly swallowed my first camp. The next morning I couldn't find snow to melt for fresh water. Finally I spotted patches of frozen condensation on the leeward side of some ice blocks and scraped together enough for a cooking pot. A close call. But what about the sledge? I spent day three trying to repair it with improvised tools, hand-drilling 262 holes and sewing damaged parts together. It didn't work. I was torn: Do I call in a chopper from Siberia to fetch me and try again next year? Or do I order another sledge? I wanted to complete this trek without support. I called for a new sledge, and on day twelve it arrived. The delivery unsettled me. The helicopter crew represented home and warmth. Over the next few days I struggled to regain a sense of purpose. Iset small goals. I tried to find joy in solitude again. That's the key to success on the ice. The right equipment also helps. I use a mix of the traditional and the high-tech. My boots are copies in synthetic material of those worn nearly a century ago by Roald Amundsen, while journeying to the South Pole, I navigate with the help of GPS and most days I call home on a satellite phone My sledge is loaded with food and fuel. This time I've also packed two items no one has used before on an expedition like this. a dry suit so I can swim across leads and a sail to let the wind pull me along on my skis when conditions are right. The Arctic is so much more forbidding than the Antarctic: I am always walking on frozen seawater. There's no land anywhere beneath me. I have to take off my skies and walk through rough sections. It's like scrambling through bomb wreckage. When I find fresh pack ice, I measure its thickness with marks on my ski poles. The data I collect will help the Norwegian Polar Institute study global warming, I measured ice in 1994 too; it's thinner now, I've started to feel the layers of civilization peel away; it takes weeks to find your animal self. I wake up, perform the day's tasks, sniff the north wind and automatically pick out the best route and campsites-all without thought. I've found the rhythm. I think I can do this. A Answer the following questions in your own words. 1. What difficulties did the author encounter during the first two days of the expedition? 2. Which words in the passage mean the same as the following? (a) not calm or relaxed (b) an organized journey with a particular purpose 3. What does the author mean when he says, 'I was torn? 4. What is the meaning of the idiom a close call? 5. Why did the delivery of the new sledge unsettle the author? 6. In what ways is the Arctic more forbidding than the Antarctic? 7. How would you interpret the author's observation about the decreased thickness of ice in the Arctic? 8. Comment on the difference between the author's tone in the first and the last lines of the excerpt.​

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