READ THE PASSAGE BELOW AND CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER FROM A, B, C OR D

5. 10.

SECTION C: READING

I. Read the passage below and choose the best answer from A, B, C or D.

A WALK IN THE MIDDAY SUN

When the heat is on, walkers need to be on their guard.

The heat can create serious heath problems for walkers.

Hot weather makes your heart pump harder, and if you’re not very fit, you start to understand why the

majority of mountain rescue statistics are made up from summer walkers suffering heat attacks. Heat

exhaustion is quite easy to get when you’re making great physical effort. It happens when your body can’t

get enough sweat to keep you cool.

Take enough water and drink it sensibly.

The answer is to keep up your water intake. It’s a good idea to drink a pint of water for every 10

degrees Fahrenheit every 24 hours. So, if the temperature is in the 70s, and you are doing a five- hour walk,

you’ll need a minimum of around one and a half pints of water. It’s vital that you don’t wait until you

develop a raging thirst before you stop for a drink- keep taking regular swigs from your water bottle.

There are several alternatives to just water.

Many walkers flavor their water with fruit juice, which makes it a lot more palatable. You could even

use one of the isotonic drinks made for athletics, which replace the body’s salts lost through sweating.

Powders such as Dioralyte, which you may have in the house as a treatment for diarrhea, will do the job just

as well, as its main aim is also effective rehydration.

Getting wet is one way of keeping temperatures down.

Given that evaporation is your body’s cooling mechanism, you can help things along with an external

application of water. Soaking your hat with water is a great way to cool the head, though if the sun is

beating down, it will probably dry off almost immediately. Better still then if you can plunge into a river or

the sea fully-clothed. And if that’s not possible, then at least take off your boots and socks and paddle in a

cool stream.

One part of your body which can suffer is your feet.

Walking in the heat increases the rate at which your feet swell, which can lead to them feeling tight in

your boots. Cool water from a stream reduces any swelling and helps general foot comfort. At the same

time, you can check out your feet for signs of blisters. Extra sweating makes the skin softer and increases

the chance of blisters forming, in the same way as when water leaks into your boots and gets to your feet.

The wrong clothing can cause problems.

As for what clothing you can wear, this should be lightweight and reasonably loose-fitting. Tight

clothing will feel uncomfortable and may even lead to the formation of an irritating rash as “quickly heat”

on your skin. The answer, if it does develop, is to try and stay cool as much as possible. Do this by either

keeping in the shade, or washing the affected area with cold water, but without soap. But prevention is by

far the best approach, so keep your clothing light.

Your clothing acts as an important defense against the sun.

It’s understandable to want to remove any extraneous clothing when it’s extremely hot, but it doesn’t

really make much sense to take off T-shirts. The sun’s rays can be quite strong, and shoulders are always

very sensitive to sunburn. This is the worst place to be red and sore when you are wearing a heavy rucksack

on your back. Wearing shorts can also create problems for walkers, as the backs of the legs can catch the

sun very easily.

Always protect those parts of your body which are not covered by clothing.

In fact, those days when an apparently harmless breeze is blowing can be the most deceptive. It might

not feel so hot, so you probably won’t notice the damage being done so soon. As on every other day then, a

good strong sun cream should therefore be applied to any skin which is exposed. Make the most use of the

summer, but the sun with the respect it deserves.