Text 7A - Unit 7 : Down to Earth

A rattling experience
There was a rattlesnake sunning itself on my back porch yesterday morning, a western
diamondback about a metre long. I walked out there barefoot and half asleep,
clutching coffee and newspapers, and almost stepped on its head. My right foot was
beginning its blind descent when I heard the rattle, and, before my conscious brain
had time to react, my body leaped back into the house and slammed the door. The
snake, of course, was as startled as I was and beat a slithering retreat.
For the past two months I have lived on five acres of unfenced desert outside Tucson,
Arizona. There are dozens of isolated houses dotted around but the land in between
has been left largely intact since primeval times. Through my study window I have
seen dozens of varieties of lizards; I have shaken a scorpion out of my shoe and
chased a tarantula out of the kitchen.
But it’s the rattlesnakes that dominate my perception of this landscape. Their venom,
although seldom fatal to a healthy adult within reach of hospital, causes excruciating
pain, sickness and permanent tissue damage. They won’t bite unless severely
provoked – or trodden on- but the threat never leaves one’s mind. I am often asked
why on earth I live in such a place, but I enjoy the presence of rattlesnakes and the
wilderness it implies.
At present, the rattlesnakes are preparing for hibernation and increasingly I am finding
them in the house, attracted by the heat and the rodents that come here to gnaw,
nest, burrow and steal my food. That is a little too close for comfort, but what to do?
In the absence of an ideal solution, I now keep one or two rattlesnakes around and
relocate the others. I fashioned a noose at the end of a long pole and snared a snake
around its middle. It struck at the pole and I saw a blur of pink from its mouth and felt
the sharp knock of its fangs against the wood. I lowered it into an ice chest and
slammed the lid shut with the pole.
My plan was to release the snake in a beautiful canyon in the mountains where I
camped last summer. I got there and found it had been bulldozed of its vegetation,
closed to the public and littered with hideous condominiums and giant concrete
carports. I let the snake go at the entrance gate.
Richard Grant
A Read Text 7A. Using your own words, answer the following questions.
1. What happened when the writer heard the rattle of the snake, as described in
paragraph 1?

2. Why do rattlesnakes bite and what are the effects, as described in paragraph 3?

3. How did the writer capture a snake, as described in paragraph 5?

B Give synonyms for the five words in bold in Text 7A. Choose the word which fits
best into the passage and is the right part of speech.

Word Synonym
a
b
c
d
e

C Find and quote the words in the passage which mean:

meaning of word from passage

downward movement
aware
sliding
ancient
govern
way of seeing
long-lasting
seriously
made angry
winter sleep