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A Shipwrecked Sailor
sight of the raft momentarily, but I was hadn't seen him, I would have recognised
careful not to lose my bearings. Suddenly, his cry, ‘Fatso, Paddle over here.’

a rough wave pushed the rafts alongside
5 I quickly grabbed the oars and tried to
me - it was huge, white, and empty. I
get closer to the men. Caraballo, with
struggled to grab the rigging and jump
Castillo clinging to his neck, neared the
aboard. I made it on the third try. Once
raft. Much farther away, looking small and
on the raft, panting, whipped by the wind,
desolate, was the fourth of my mates:
immobilized and freezing, I found it hard
Ramon Herrera, who was waving at me
to sit up. Then I saw three of my mates
while he held on to a crate.
near the raft, trying to reach it.
6 If I had had to decide, I wouldn’t have
4 I recognized them immediately. Castillo
known which of my mates to go after
had a firm grip around Caraballo's neck.
first. But when I saw Herrera, the happy
Caraballo, who had been on watch when
young man from Arjona, who had been
the accident occurred, was wearing his life
with me only a few moments before, I
jacket. He yelled: ‘Hold on tight, Castillo.’
began to paddle furiously. But the life raft
They floated amid the scattered cargo,
was almost two meters long. It was very
about ten meters away.
heavy in that lurching sea, and I had to
On the otherside was Luis Rengifo, trying row against the wind. I don't think I
to stay above water with his headphones managed to advance more than a meter.
aloft in his right hand. He had stripped Desperate, I looked around once more

off his shirt so that he could swim better, and saw that Herrera had disappeared.
but he had lost his life jacket. Even if I Only Rengifo was swimming confidently

3. 'I made it on the third try.' What did the narrator 6. What were Eduardo Castillo and Julio Amador
do on the third try? Caraballo doing?
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4. 'Then I saw three of my mates near the raft.'
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Who were the three shipmates Velasco saw?
________________________________________
_______________________________________
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rigging: __________________________________
5. Could Velasco save Ramon Herrera? Why?
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________________________________________ desolate: _________________________________
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English VIII 47