Reading: Holidays

1. Before you read the passage, answer these questions:

In August 1987 I went on holiday with my family, to a small Greek Island. We were going to spend two whole weeks basking in the sun, eating traditional Greek food and relaxing on the beach. Everything was going to plan until one day, in fact the eigth day of my holiday, the sky changed from being a bright blue to a dark grey colour. It started to rain. I really believed that the rain would last maybe an hour or two. I retreated back into the hotel to take a little rest. I closed the shutters, got into bed and set the alarm clock to go off in two hours time, a siesta, why not?!

When the alarm clock went off, I jumped out of bed, opened the shutters and to my total dismay it was still raining. The rain was falling quite heavily. On the ground there were huge puddles, "How strange!", I said to myself. I had been abroad many times but I had never experienced heavy rain. I decided to walk up to the entertainment room, to see if I could pass the time. On my way there, I was presented with quite a shock. The path to get there was completely flooded and covered with a thick mud.

The next day when I woke up, it was still raining and the hotel was completely flooded. The corridors leading in to the apartments were filled with water, at least 1 metre deep. People with hotel rooms next to the mountain had been evacuated because mud had fallen down from the mountain. The dining room had water running down the walls. There wasn't any food because there wasn't any electrical power. My holiday had turned into a disaster.

That day, the hotel manager announced, "Due to the circumstances, everyone is to evacuate the island as soon as possible". Later that day, boats were sent from Greece to come and collect us. As soon as I arrived at main land Greece I sighed a sigh of relief, I was safe and sound!