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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?
               _______________________________________        ________________________________________

               _______________________________________
                                                              ________________________________________
               4. 'Then I saw three of my mates near the raft.'
                                                              ________________________________________
               Who were the three shipmates Velasco saw?
                                                              ________________________________________
               _______________________________________
                                                              ________________________________________
               _______________________________________
                                                              rigging: __________________________________
               5. Could Velasco save Ramon Herrera? Why?
               ________________________________________       ________________________________________

               ________________________________________       desolate: _________________________________
               ________________________________________       ________________________________________


               English VIII                                                                            47
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