READING TASK.

KEY
TYPE: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION TOPIC: PHOTOGRAPH

Exercise 1: Read about a famous photo, then answer the questions about the text, choosing
either A, B, C or D as the best answer.
It is perhaps the most reproduced, recycled and ripped off image of the 20th Century. Che
Guevara, his eyes framed by heavy brows, a single-starred beret pulled over his unruly
hair, stares out of the shot with glowering intensity. It's now more than 50 years since the
Argentine-born rebel was shot dead, so any young radicals who cheered on his revolutionary
struggles in Cuba and Bolivia are well into middle age.
But the image has been infinitely repeated - emblazoned on T-shirts and sprayed on to walls,
transformed into pop art and used to wrap ice-creams and sell cigarettes - and its appeal has not
faded. "There is no other image like it. What other image has been sustained in this way?" asks
Trisha Ziff, the curator of a touring exhibition on the iconography of Che. "Che Guevara has
become a brand. And the brand's logo is the image, which represents change. It has
becomes the icon of the outside thinker, at whatever level - whether it is anti-war, pro-
green or anti-globalisation," she says.
The unchecked proliferation of the picture - based on a photograph by Alberto Korda in 1960 -
is partly due to a political choice by Korda and others not to demand payment for non-
commercial use of the image. Jim Fitzpatrick, who produced the ubiquitous high-contrast
drawing in the late 1960s as a young graphic artist, said he actively wanted his art to be
disseminated.
"I deliberately designed it to breed like rabbits," he says of his image, which removes the
original photograph's shadows and volume to create a stark and emblematic graphic portrait. "I
was determined that the image should receive the broadest possible circulation," he adds.
For Ms Ziff, Che Guevara's murder also marks the beginning of the mythical image. "The birth
of the image happens at the death of Che in October 1967," she says. "He was good-looking, he
was young, but more than that, he died for his ideals, so he automatically becomes an icon."
The story of the original photograph, of how it left Cuba and was carried by admirers to
Europe before being reinterpreted in Mr Fitzpatrick's iconic drawing, is a fascinating
journey in its own right. Alberto Korda captured his famous frame on 5 March 1960 during a
mass funeral in Havana. A day earlier, a French cargo ship loaded with ammunition had
exploded in the city's harbour, killing some 80 Cubans - an act Fidel Castro blamed on the US.
Korda, Fidel Castro's official photographer, describes Che's expression in the picture, which he
labelled "Guerrillero Heroico" (the heroic fighter), as "encabronadao y dolente" - angry and sad.
Unpublished, the picture was seen only by those who passed through Korda's studio, where it
hung on a wall.
One man who brought the image to Europe was the leftist Italian intellectual, Giangiacomo
Feltrinelli, who distributed posters across Italy in 1967. After that, Korda's photograph made an
appearance in several European magazines. Mr Fitzpatrick first came across a tiny version of it
in the German weekly. Only months later, when he finally got his hands on a larger version of
 the photograph, was he able to produce the image that has such universal appeal. "I'd got an
original copy of the image sent to me by a guy involved with a group of Dutch anarchists, called
the Provo."
After Che Guevara's death, an outraged Mr Fitzpatrick furiously reprinted originals of the
poster and sent it to left-wing political activist groups across Europe. Part of his fury
stemmed from vivid memories working behind a bar in Ireland as a teenager, and seeing
Che walk in. The revolutionary was briefly exploring the homeland of his Irish ancestors during
a stopover on a flight to Moscow. "I must have been around 16," Mr Fitzpatrick remembers. "It
was a bright, sunny morning. I knew immediately who he was. He was an immensely charming
man - likeable, roguish, good fun and very proud of being Irish."
Mr Fitzpatrick's version of Che arrived on the continent as many countries were in a state of
flux, says Ms Ziff. "His death was followed by demonstrations, first in Milan and then
elsewhere. Very soon afterwards there was the Prague Spring and May '68 in France. Europe
was in turmoil. People wanted change, disruption and rebellion and he became a symbol of that
change."
As time went on, the meaning and the man represented by the image became separated in the
western context, Ms Ziff explains. But in Latin America, she points out, Che Guevara's face
remains a symbol of armed revolution and indigenous struggle. Combining capitalism and
commerce, religion and revolution, the icon remains unchallenged, Ms Ziff says. "There is no
other image that remotely takes us to all these different places."
1. How does Che appear in the famous image?
A. he seems content
B. he's not looking at the photographer
C. he's wearing something around his neck
D. he looks clean-cut and tidy
2. According to Trisha Ziff, who does the image represent well?
A. ice-cream and cigarette sellers
B. those supporting military intervention
C. ones who may be looking for revolutionary change
D. the poorest generations
3. What didn't the graphic image's creator try to make money out of its use?
A. he didn't need the money
B. to help its spread
C. he considers profit to be 'anti-revolutionary'
D. he didn't know it was being used without permission
4. Where was the original photo in the years after it was taken?
A. in the possession of the photographer B. on a tour throughout Europe
C. in Fidel Castro's office in Havana D. it remained undeveloped
5. What persuaded Jim Fitzpatrick to create the image?
A. Ambition B. greed C. sadness D. anger
6. What is the meaning of the word "flux" used in the ninth paragraph?
 A. Chaos B. war C change D. struggle

7. What is Ms Ziff's point at the end?

A. the image created revolutionary change in Europe
B. the image's legacy lasts because it means many things to many people
C. the image is used to sell many things in Latin America
D. the image is losing its appeal in the West

Exercise 2: Read about a wildlife cameraman, then answer the questions about the text,
choosing either A, B, C or D as the best answer.
Wildlife cameraman
Doug Allan films wild animals in cold places. If you’ve ever been amazed by footage of polar
bears in a nature documentary, it’s probably been filmed by him. His perfect temperature, he
says, is -18°C. Allan trained as a marine biologist and commercial diver. Diving was his first
passion, where he learned about survival in cold places. His big break came when a TV crew
turned up in Antarctica, where Allan was working, to film a wildlife documentary. ‘I ended up
taking the crew to different places, and after 48 hours I realised that being a wildlife
cameraman ticked all the boxes: travel, adventure, underwater.’
He is now a top cameraman and has worked on many major TV wildlife series. ‘I came along at
a good time. When I started, hardly anyone had been to the Antarctic. You had coral
people, elephant people, chimpanzee people. I just became the cold man. It was like all
these amazing sequences were just waiting to be captured on film.’ The camera and
communications technology was very basic when he started 35 years ago. ‘It is certainly easier
to film today. If you shot something then, you had to remember it. Today, with digital
technology, you can shoot a lot and look at it immediately. You used to have to think what shots
you needed next, and what you had missed. You shot less. Film was very expensive. Today you
can have too much material.’
‘My value is field experience in cold conditions. I have a feel for it. I have spent so much
time on sea ice it now feels like crossing the street. I do get cold toes but the poles are
healthy places. There are no leeches, no diseases or mosquitoes.’ Wildlife filming, Allan
says, is full of great successes, but also failures and embarrassments. Once, he was in the
Orkneys to film kittiwakes. Unfortunately he could not identify which birds they were.
When Allan recently got permission to film sequences for a major TV series in Kong Karls
Land, a group of islands in the Arctic Ocean, he did not expect an easy assignment. It is a world
of polar bears and is strictly off limits to all but the most fearless or foolish. Usually -32°C in
April, the wind is vicious and hauling cameras in the deep snow is a nightmare. After walking
five or more hours a day and watching polar bear dens in the snow slopes for 23 days,
however, Allan had seen just one mother bear and her cub. By day 24, though, he says, he
was living in bear world, at bear speed, with bear senses.
‘We find a new hole and wait. We shuffle, hop, bend, stretch and run to stay warm. Five hours of
 watching and then with no warning at all I catch a glimpse so brief that I almost miss it. But the
camera’s locked on the hole on full zoom and my eye’s very quickly on the viewfinder. Nothing
for a couple of seconds and then an unmistakable black nose. Nose becomes muzzle, grows
bigger to become full head and in less than a minute she has her front legs out and is resting on
the snow in front of the hole. She’s looking at me but she’s not bothered. I’ve just taken a close-
up, thinking this can’t get much better … when she sets off on a long slide down the slope. I’d
swear it’s partly in sheer pleasure,’ he recounts, adding that two cubs then appeared at the den
entrance. ‘Clearly it’s their first view of the world … It’s show time on the slopes and we
have front-row seats.’
Now Allan would like to make his own film about climate change in the Arctic, talking to the
people who live there and experience the impact of it first hand. He says he would be (line 80)
able to make an extraordinary documentary.
1 What do we learn about Allan in the first paragraph?
A He had to train as a diver in order to become a wildlife cameraman.
B Becoming a cameraman suited the interests he already had.
C He was given the chance to work as a cameraman by a TV crew he met.
D Finding work as a cameraman allowed him to remain in Antarctica.
2 What does Allan say about the first documentaries he worked on?
A He has very clear memories of them.
B Most of what he filmed was new to viewers.
C They were shorter than those he makes nowadays.
D He would have liked to have been able to choose where he worked.
3 Why does Allan compare spending time on sea ice to crossing the street?
A It is an ordinary occurrence for him.
B He thinks it presents a similar level of danger.
C He has learnt to approach it in the same way.
D It requires skills that can be used in winter conditions anywhere.
4 When Allan had been on Kong Karls Land for a while, he began to
A stop worrying about the dangers he was facing.
B feel a deep understanding of how polar bears lived.
C get used to the terrible conditions for filming.
D be more hopeful that one bear would lead him to others.
5 What feeling does Allan describe in the fifth paragraph?
A panic when he nearly fails to film a fantastic sequence
B concern that he has disturbed an adult female with her young
C amazement at being lucky enough to capture some great shots
D delight at being able to move around after waiting quietly for ages
6 What does it refer to in the last paragraph?
A Allan’s film B climate change C the Arctic D living there