Gaby to the Rescue Swimming the

English Channel

An Encounter at Sea

Reading
Booklet
2017 key stage 2 English reading booklet
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Contents
Gaby to the Rescue pages 4 – 5

Swimming the English Channel pages 6 – 7

An Encounter at Sea pages 8 – 10

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 Gaby
to the Rescue
A Siamese cat crouched on a tree branch, peering down at Gaby with brilliant
blue eyes. It cried out. The cat was stuck in the tree in front of her house and, as
luck would have it, she had on the nicest cardigan she owned. Gaby pulled the
cardigan tighter around her. This was her last good school cardigan until who-
knows-when her father would have enough money to buy her a new one. The
poor cat cried again. Gaby looked back at her small yellow house. If her mother
were here, that cat would already be out of the tree and purring – safe and sound,
in her mother’s arms.
Mind made up, Gaby pulled off her cardigan and tossed it onto her porch. ‘You’re
out of luck, gato!’ she yelled. ‘My mom, master tree climber and cat rescuer, isn’t
back yet.’ She rolled up the sleeves of her white shirt. ‘But until she is, you’ve got
me.’ Gaby grasped the nearest branch and pulled herself up. ‘Gaby to the rescue.’
The cat meowed.
‘I am hurrying.’
The last time Gaby had climbed the tree was when she and her best friend,
Alma, had challenged the boys to a water-balloon fight last summer. Up high
was the perfect spot for a full-blown assault on the boys below. Those guys
never had a chance.
Gaby secured her feet and hands and climbed higher, until the cat was within
arm’s reach. ‘See? You aren’t the only one who can climb.’ But then she looked
down. Mistake number one.

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She knew the universal rule of tree climbing said don’t ever, ever look down,
but she couldn’t help it. This was the highest she’d ever climbed. If she fell,
she’d definitely end up looking like an Egyptian mummy. Gaby imagined herself
bandaged from head to toe and sipping dinner through a straw.
Well, she’d just have to not fall. Simple as that. ‘Here, kitty, kitty!’ she called out,
the same way she had heard her mom call for stray cats hundreds of times.
But this was no stray. The cat was too shiny. Too chubby. Around its neck,
a rhinestone collar with gold charms sparkled. Someone loved that cat. She
reached out toward it. ‘Almost got you.’ Mistake number two.
The cat arched its back and hissed.
Gaby pulled back, startled. ‘Nice teeth.’ She resettled on the branch, considering
her options.
When Gaby was younger, she had seen her mom climb the same tree many
times to rescue a cat. All the way up, her mom had giggled and sweet-talked the
cat in Spanish. ‘Que bonita eres gatita. You’re so pretty, little cat.’ Her mom told
her that when dealing with cats you should speak softly and pick them up by the
loose skin at the back of their neck, because that’s how their mothers carried
them. Her mom had always made it look so easy. Once she had the cat nestled
against her chest, she would manoeuvre down through the branches, comforting
the cat with kisses on the ears and soft words with rolling Spanish r’s like purrs.
There were never any arched backs, hisses, or sharp teeth.
Gaby took a deep breath and reached out for the cat again. ‘It’s okay, little kitty,’
she said sweetly. This time the cat latched on to her, digging its claws into her
arm and shoulder. ‘Ooh, ouch!’ She couldn’t quite get it by the scruff of the neck
like her mom had shown her, but at least she had the animal. That was progress.
Now she just had to get down.
Without falling.

5
 Swimming the
English Channel
from Dover in England to Calais in France

The first Channel swimmer

On a foggy August afternoon in 1875, a lone swimmer
dived from Admiralty Pier in Dover into the cold waters
of the English Channel. Nearly twenty-two hours later,
the exhausted man staggered onto French soil at Calais
and became an instant hero. Captain Matthew Webb
had become the first person to swim across the
English Channel.

Twenty-seven-year-old Webb was a merchant seaman

from Shropshire. He had always been a powerful swimmer
and, hearing of J.B. Thompson’s failed attempt to swim the
Channel in 1872, he was inspired to give up his job and
Captain Matthew Webb
train as a long-distance swimmer. Webb’s first attempt had
to be abandoned due to bad weather, but he returned to
the icy Channel waters two weeks later.

Many of the hardships that

Matthew Webb had to deal London
with during his pioneering swim
are still faced by modern-day
Channel swimmers. In fact, some Dover
of his methods for dealing with Calais
these hardships are still used
today. Webb coated himself in
oil for protection against the
cold and jellyfish stings. He was
also accompanied by boats so his
friends could protect and feed
him. It must be said, however, that
the ale, brandy and beef tea they
supplied are not standard for
today’s cross-Channel swimmers!

Paris

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 Frequently asked questions
Q: How cold is the water?
A: The water temperature can range from 12°C to 18°C. Most people would consider
water below 20°C too cold for swimming.
Q: How far is it from England to France?
A: The direct distance from Dover to Cape Gris Nez near Calais is approximately 21 miles,
but a swimmer always swims further than that due to the movement of tides.
Q: How long does it take to swim across the Channel?
A: How fast do you swim? The faster you are, the more direct your swim will be. A slower
swimmer will not only take longer but will have to swim further because of the tides and
currents. Swimmers also have to plan stops for feeding. The fastest recorded crossing
is 7 hours; the slowest is nearly 29 hours. An average swimmer doing two miles per hour
would be in the water for up to 16 hours, but a stronger swimmer may take only 10 hours.
Q: Will you succeed if you train hard?
A: Preparation for a Channel swim involves months of training in very cold ocean water. But
even this does not guarantee success. Fewer people have swum the English Channel than
have climbed Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain! Some hazards of the swim include
hypothermia (dangerous loss of body heat), seasickness and jellyfish. Unforeseen obstacles like
rubbish floating in the sea can also cause problems no matter how hard you train.
Q: Why do people swim the English Channel?
A: That isn’t a question with a single answer! The motivations for such a venture are as
varied as the swimmers. Some people do it for glory, some to raise money for charity, but
most do it to challenge themselves and for the satisfaction of being one of a select few to
achieve this feat.

Safe to swim? Celebrity swimmer

The French and UK coastguards are The author, comedian
responsible for search and rescue and actor, David
operations in the English Channel. The Walliams, says that
French authorities outlawed swimming he was never sporty
from France to England in 1993 for safety at school but he did
reasons. Then in 2010 the deputy director enjoy swimming.
of the French coastguard, Jean-Christophe
While preparing for his Channel swim,
Burvingt, said he was in favour of a complete
Walliams didn’t miss a single training session
ban on swimming in either direction. He
in nine months. He knew that more than
pointed out that the swim uses the same
90 per cent of people who attempt the
stretch of water as 500 vessels each day.
swim fail. Walliams took 10 hours and
Critics compare the swim to crossing a
34 minutes to cross the Channel. His
motorway on foot; supporters say the swim
swim raised more than £1 million in
is well regulated and comparatively safe.
donations for the charity Sport Relief.

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 Michael is a young fisherman. He often takes out his boat, the ‘Louisa May’, for a
day of fishing.

An Encounter at Sea
It was hot. Really hot. There wasn’t the slightest breeze to cool the skin or
make even a baby-finger crease on the surface of the sea. The Louisa May
floated like a toy sitting on a glass table.

For the first time in over a week, Michael hadn’t seen a dolphin all day.
He was two miles offshore now, motoring along his daily survey course.
The Louisa May pulled the reflection of the sky and the island into pleats
behind her, and the putt-putt of her engine was lost in the big, quiet
stillness of the afternoon.

Michael shut off the outboard motor and stopped. He leaned over the side
to scoop up a bucket of seawater to cool himself, and looked down. Long
fingers of sunlight slanted into the clear water, shifting slightly in arcs of
radiating lines, and were swallowed up at last into the perfect blueness of
the depths.

He poured the water over himself, savouring the delicious coolness.

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Pppfffffwwwwraa! The sound came from close behind him, and made him
spin round so fast he lost his balance and fell into the bottom of the boat.

Pppfffff – shorter and louder, even closer.

Michael picked himself up and looked over the side.

A black shape, much, much bigger than the biggest dolphin, showed about
five metres from the boat. It was like a polished rock. On its rounded side
was a slit like a flattened S, bigger than a man’s two clenched fists, with a
raised lip around it. As Michael watched, astonished, not understanding
what he was seeing, the lips pinched together, the hole closed, and the
black shape sank rapidly beneath the sluicing water.

A whale! Its dark head and blowhole! That’s what he had seen.

Pppfffffwwwwraa!

Now it had surfaced on the other side of the boat. This second surfacing
was hardly less shocking than the first, although Michael just managed to
stay on his feet and cross the boat this time.

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 Carefully, Michael leaned over to look: on one side of the boat lay the
whale’s tapering tail; on the other side, the head with its scarred lines lay
like a piece of huge, dark wreckage. This close, Michael could see that big
sections of skin had peeled off in straight lines, giving the whale’s head
a patchwork look in greys and blacks. Closest of all to the boat, only just
submerged, was the whale’s eye. Michael looked right into it, and the whale
looked back. It was so very, very close. He leaned out further and further,
stretching his hand slowly towards it. The whale didn’t draw away.

He reached down, until his fingertips touched the crease of skin that gave
the whale a kind of eyebrow. It was cool and smooth, like a carved stone
covered in a finely stretched coat of rubber.

And as his fingertips touched the whale, he looked into its eye. It was
impossible to say what colour it was: dark but with rays of brightness. It
was like a window into a whole galaxy, with stars and planets, comets and
supernovae moving inside.

Effortlessly, as if movement and thought were the same thing, the whale
submerged out of reach of Michael’s hand. There was a last shushing
sigh as the flipper caressed the boat one more time, and then they were
separate again.

The setting sun made a path over the sea, bathing Michael in golden light.
He felt as if he were lit up inside too. He had touched a whale and looked
into its eye! Like a sleeper waking from a dream, he looked around, dazed.

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 [BLANK PAGE]

Please do not write on this page.

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2017 key stage 2 English reading booklet
Print version product code: STA/17/7731/p ISBN: 978-1-78644-270-3
Electronic PDF version product code: STA/17/7731/e ISBN: 978-1-78644-290-1

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Third-party content
Gaby to the Rescue extract from Gaby, Lost and Found, by Angela Cervantes. Scholastic Press, 2013.
Encounter at Sea extract from Whale Boy, by Nicola Davies. Yearling, 2013.
Swimming the English Channel illustrations: photograph of Matthew Webb on page 6 from
www.telegraph.co.uk. Photograph of David Walliams on page 7 from www.metro.co.uk. Map showing
Dover and Calais on page 6 from www.googlemaps.com. Background image on pages 6 and 7 of the
white cliffs of Dover (6612721) EnglishChannel_shutterstock.com.

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