Task 2
Elevation Record for Dogs
When Seattle-based mountain guide Don Wargowsky was leading an expedition in Nepal’s Himalayas, he picked up an extra member on his team. A stray dog noticed the climbers somewhere around 5,333 m and decided to stick around. When she came up to Don, he gave her a bit of beef jerky and she didn’t leave for three and a half weeks. The team called their four-legged member “Mera”. Wargowsky realised he had seen her in the town of Kare a few days earlier. She had made no effort then to get close, but now Mera decided to join the expedition. The first night, Wargowsky tried to encourage her to sleep in his tent, but she wouldn’t come inside. The next morning, he found her curled up outside covered in a layer of snow. After that, he was able to trick her inside. He gave her a coat to keep her warm.
Wargowsky was in a difficult position. He was worried about the dog that had no protection for her paws or her body in conditions that sometimes reached minus 30 degrees Celcius. “Obviously, my responsibility was to the group, but I was happy to have her with us,” he says.
When the team went to make the climb, Wargowsky tried to keep Mera at base camp because he didn’t want her to make the steep climb. He tied her up but she got out of her rope and quickly caught up with them. Wargowsky couldn't leave his human clients to take her back, so Mera stayed with the group. “I have no clue what her motivation was,” he says. “We were feeding her at base camp, so it wasn’t the food.”
Once Mera started to slide and Wargowsky was able to catch her and save her from what could have been a dangerous fall. “There were certain slopes very early in the morning or late at night when the snow was very crusty and icy, when it was very slippery”. He says it was also hard to believe she didn’t go snow-blind. The humans were all wearing expensive glacier goggles while she moved along with no protection.
After all that climbing, Wargowsky was tempted to bring his new friend home to the US. “I really would have loved to adopt her. But I live in a tiny apartment in Seattle and this dog wants to climb mountains. I gave it a lot of consideration. I didn’t care what it cost.” But he didn’t want to leave Mera out on the streets. Fortunately, the expedition’s base camp manager was impressed by the adventurous dog and got her to his home in Kathmandu.
Which statement is TRUE of Mera, according to PARAGRAPH 1?
AMera’s sleeping place was made from a coat beside Wargowsky’s tent.
BThe dog accompanied the expedition from the town of Kare.
CThe name “Mera” means “four-legged” in the Nepalese language.
DThe dog stayed with the expedition after receiving a meat treat.
