Page 74 - Grasp English B1+ (Student Book)

6 Ghost Stories

C. Read the text and answer the questions.

Looking for something a little scary for your next trip abroad? We’ve got five eerie ideas for how you can spend
your next holiday.

If you’re not interested in sleeping when you’re away, why not stay in The Ancient Ram Inn, a bed and breakfast
in the UK? They say some wicked things happened in the house in the past, and some people believe the house
is built on a 5,000-year-old burial site. The man who currently owns the house has already found two skeletons
hidden under the stairs and said that when he first moved in, he felt as if someone grabbed him in the night.

Not sure about sleeping somewhere gloomy but still want a few shocks on your holiday? How about a trip
to Monster Kabinett in Germany? It’s a creepy art exhibition which combines horrifyingly-dressed actors with
monstrous robots. Each weekend, you can take a tour of the exhibition but be prepared for scares in the shape
of spider-like robotic creatures. There’s nothing supernatural about it, but it’s definitely not for scaredy-cats!

However, if you are on the hunt for ghosts, you could take a day trip to the abandoned village of La Noria, in
Chile. It was once a busy mining town, in the heart of the Atacama Desert, but in the twentieth century, things
changed. In 1901 a dreadful fire burnt much of the town and slowly, the population began to leave. Many of
the buildings remain, as well as a large cemetery. It’s said that the ghosts of the miners and their families walk
the streets, and people say they have heard screams, footsteps and voices while visiting the town.

If you’re not keen on being scared, but fancy something a little weird on your trip, head for the Uphill-Downhill
Road near Ariccia, in Italy. This is one of a number of “anti-gravity hills” around the world. When you drive
along this road, it will look as if you’re going downhill. However, if you stop and put the car in neutral, you’ll go
backwards, seemingly uphill! In actual fact, there’s nothing unearthly about these hills – it’s just a visual illusion.

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