Chris Foster, a 48 year old teacher from SouthernCalifornia,has just competed the first part of a solo motorcycle journey around the world.

He roared his way through 14,343 miles, across three continents and eleven countries, starting his journey in late June, by dipping his feet in the Pacific Ocean

To him, travelling by motorcycle is a one of a kind experience, to get close to everything

One of the main motivations for this journey is to gain a first hand knowledge of

➢What does the travel experience of this teacher tell us?

➢What do you think interests him more: where to travel or how to travel?

How does the earth look when viewed from a different angle?

THE TRIP OF LE HORLA(A Chronicle)

GUY DE MAUPASSANTThe French writer

Session=meeting

Manoeuvres = operations

Gasworks = factory

Courtyard = an area wholly or partly surrounded by walls or buildings

Cargo = goods carried by a large vehicle

GASWORKS

Undulate = move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion

Enormous = big

Attendant = someone who waits on or tends to or attends to the needs of another

Le Horla was lying in the courtyard like an enormous worm

Fortification = defensive structure consisting of walls or mounds built around a stronghold to strengthen it

Affirm = establish

Novel = new

Sway = move back and forth

Transparent = transmitting light

Prodigious = of great size

The balloon is swaying like a fantastic pear

Basket is attached; barometer, siren, trumpets, raincoats, overcoats and eatables are taken

Aboard = on a ship, train or other vehiclestar board = the right side of a ship or aircraft to someone who is aboard and facing the bow or noseGallant = displaying great dignity

M. Joliet cuts the ropes that hold the balloon to the ground and gives Le Horla its liberty.

Liberty = freedom

Glee = happiness

Applaud = clap

Traverse = travel across

Paris spreads beneath us, a dark bluish patch with its domes, towers, steeples, then

around it the plain, the country traversed by long roads, thin and white amidst green fields of a tender or dark green, and woods almost black.

The earth looks like a coloured map

We hear the sound of the wheels rolling in the streets,the snap of a whip, the whistling of trains and the laughter of small boys running

We begin to hear the country voices ....Double cry of the quailMewing of the catsDogs baying at the moon

Barn = an outlying farm building for storing grain or animal feed and housing farm animals

We can hear the cows lowing

Delicious = greatly pleasing or entertaining

Odour = smell

Verdant = green

Descend = fall

Ballast = any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship

Docile = easy to control

synesthetic metaphor = a metaphor that exploits asimilarity between experiences in different sense modalities

(A strong and continuous odour of gas can be plainly observed)

A silvery light appears before us and... rises the moon from the edge of a cloud

We are now alone in space with the moon

We float along the space through delicious inertia

Something is running along the ground with great speed

Foundry = factory

polar star = the brightest star in Ursa Minor;at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper;the northern axis of the earth points towardit

Bellow =to shout

Bewildered = confused

Precede = to move before

Rigging = gear consisting of ropes etc. supporting a ship's masts and sails

Nudge = push gently

Pursue = follow

Tinged with = touched with

Brooks = small streams

Immense = great

I think myself transported into a fairyland

The sky is growing lighter, becoming clear blue tinged with red. It is dawn...

showing us all the details of the earth

The voice of ducks drowns everything

Flee = run away quickly

Descent = movement downward

Mast = a vertical spar/pole of wood or metal for supporting sails

Rumble = make a low noise

guy rope = a cable, wire, or rope that is used to brace something (especially a tent)

Rapidity = speed

Overboard = from on board(here the basket)

Grapple = a tool consisting of several hooks forgrasping and holding; often thrown with a rope

Mast

Guy rope

Anchor

Deflated = release contained air or gas

Astonishment = the feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising

Accommodating = obliging; willing to do favours

Hospitable = disposed to treat guests and strangers with cordiality and generosity

We drag this grapple behind us through a field of beets

The basket does indeed strike the earth

Thanks to Captain Jovis we were able to see in a single night from far up in the sky