Chapter 5: Comprehension

Worksheet
Practice questions:
5.3a (1)
comprehension questions
Student’s Book Read the text below and answer the questions that follow.
Q1–5

Kratié town and its surrounds

Few tourists stray into Cambodia’s “wild east” where, beyond Kampong Cham, the
main roads are dirt tracks or just poorly surfaced. Yet this sparsely populated
region offers a quintessential slice of Cambodian rural life largely unaffected by the
world beyond.
Kratié is a little market town 216 miles north-east of Phnom Penh. A spattering
of tourist-friendly cafes and hotels has sprung up near the central market place or
facing the Mekong river. An evening stroll is the ideal time to absorb the spectacle
of sunset. It’s like watching a giant blood orange fall from a tree in slow motion. As
the sun dips behind the treeline it turns the sky a dazzling vermilion, tinting purple
the French colonial villas, traditional wooden stilt houses and Wat Roka Kandal – a
beautiful temple that dates back to the 19th century.
The nearby river island of Koh Trong boasts the alluring possibility of seeing
Cantor’s giant soft-shell turtles in the wild. After a short ferry ride from an
unsheltered wharf, the Preah Soramarith Quay (preceded by a long, hot wait),
visitors enter a bucolic world of fruit plantations and rice paddies still tilled by
Cambodia’s iconic white cows, the humped zebu.
The local community office advertises rural homestays organised by NGOs,
bicycle hire and ox cart tours. The 8.5-mile perimeter route takes you right around
the island’s edge. It’s unchallenging and climaxes with the sight of a floating
Vietnamese village buoyed-up just off the south-west tip of the island. The
Vietnamese are a recognised ethnic minority in Cambodia and this community lives
offshore, though they’ve established a Vietnamese-style temple on the island. An
unexpected treat after a hard day’s pedalling is Rajabori Villa Resort in the north-
east of the island, where it’s possible to cool off in the pool for just $5 (doubles from
$65 a night).
The route north out of Kratié is so breathtakingly scenic one almost forgives the
dismal quality of the roads. It’s a necessarily bumpy tuk-tuk ride in order to take in
Kratié’s rare ecological treasures. In Phnom Sambor, 22 miles north of Kratié,
visitors are guaranteed a sight of the soft-shell turtles. In the hallowed grounds of
the Pagoda of One Hundred Columns, a small breeding centre aims to return the
turtles to the river.
Closer to Kratié the fishing village of Kampie offers boat trips to view Kratié’s
other aquatic marvel, the Irrawaddy dolphins. Though locals have long revered the
dolphins, believing them to be half human, half fish, their numbers have
diminished in recent years due to electric rods and explosives used for fishing.
Don’t expect any flipper-style antics, these retiring creatures only surface to
breathe.
From ‘Undiscovered South-East Asia’ by Thomas Bird, The Guardian

© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018 217

 Chapter 5: Comprehension

218 © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018

 Chapter 5: Comprehension

Worksheet
Practice questions:
5.3a (2)
comprehension questions
1 Give two facts about Kratié according to the second paragraph.

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2 Using your own words, explain what the text means by:

a) ‘climaxes with the sight’ (paragraph 4)

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b) ‘breathtakingly scenic’ (paragraph 5)

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3 Reread paragraph 3. Give two reasons why people might visit the island of Koh Trong.

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4 Reread paragraphs 2 and 6.

a) Identify two things that tourists can enjoy in the town of Kratié.

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b) Explain some of the different attitudes displayed towards dolphins.

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5 Using your own words, explain why some people may find visiting Kratié and its surroundings too
challenging.

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© HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018 219