51
GREAT RAILWAY JOURNEYS
5.3
8
Choose the most appropriate alternative in the text.
Sometimes both alternatives are correct.
When we read a fantastic review about the Quinghai–Tibet line, we
knew we
1
weren’t able to / had to
go on it. We were so busy before we
left London that we didn’t
2
manage to / succeed
in
organise the train
journey. Once we were in China, we didn’t have much access to the
internet and
3
weren’t able to / didn’t have to
get much information.
Still, we found a good travel agency and
4
could / managed to
get
tickets. We travelled first to Golmud and stopped there for only one
day, but we
5
managed to / were able to
pack a lot into it.
The train journey from Golmud to Lhasa takes a day. Although
most of it is really high, we didn’t have any altitude problems and
we
6
were able to / had to
enjoy the fabulous scenery. It’s so high,
they have to heat the water in the toilets to stop it from freezing,
but we
7
didn’t need to / had to
use them anyway. Our train
attendant was very helpful. Her English was not great, but she still
8
had to / succeeded in
getting her message across and pointing out
interesting sights to us, such as herds of wild Tibetan antelopes.
In the past, you
9
could / were able to
travel to Lhasa from Golmud,
but you
10
couldn’t / didn’t have to
get there in comfort – you
11
could / had to
take a slow, uncomfortable bus.
SPEAKING
9
a
Think of a memorable journey you have been on. Make
notes on how you prepared and planned it, and any difficulties
you had during the journey.
9
b
Work with a partner. Tell your partner about the journey.
6
Which of the railway journeys in the article
would you most like to go on? Why?
GRAMMAR
ABILITY, POSSIBILITY AND OBLIGATION (PAST)
7
a
Look at the article and underline different
ways of talking about ability, possibility and
obligation in the past.
... a time when passengers were able to choose
a northern route.
7
b
Which of the verbs in Exercise 7a are full
modals? (Full modals do not change in the third
person and are followed by the infinitive.)
7
c
Choose the correct verb forms.
1
We use
can / was able to / could
to talk
about general abilities in the past.
2
We use
must / had to
to talk about
obligation in the past.
3
We use
managed to / could
to suggest that
we had difficulty in achieving the action.
4
The verb
manage to
is similar to
must
/
succeed in
.
5
We use the
-ing
form of the verb after
manage to / succeed in
.
GRAMMAR TIP
We do not use
could
to talk about a single
action that we did in the past. Instead we
use
was able to
or
managed to
.
I could get my visa for the States yesterday.
I was able to / managed to get my visa for
the States yesterday.
¬
Language reference and extra practice,
pages 126–149
MEET THE EXPERT
Watch an interview with Monisha Rajesh, a travel
writer, about her Indian train journey.
Turn to page 151 for video activities.
