Worksheet
Answer Key
Wild Country Margaret Johnson
Summary
Tess Marriot is the daughter of the owner of a holiday
company called Wild Country. She has been very close
to her father since the death of her mother, and has
worked as a tour leader for the company for the past
year. However, she knows that she is not very good
at the organisational side of the tours, and often gets
things wrong. She would actually rather be a painter,
but hasn’t had the courage to tell her father this yet.
The story begins in Nice, where Tess meets up with
Grant Cooper, a very handsome and successful tour
leader. Her father has arranged for her to work with
Grant on this tour in the hope that she can learn from
him. She and Grant don’t seem to get on very well.
He is always making unpleasant comments about her
abilities, and she is embarrassed to confront him.
On this particular mountain walking tour, there are
five people, each of whom has his or her own problem.
Ellen is a forty-something Canadian woman looking
for romance; Astrid is a broken-hearted teenager who
should have been on the tour with the boyfriend who
just left her; David is an older man with an injured
leg; and Sarah and James are on their honeymoon
and should really have chosen a holiday where they
could be alone. All these problems are made worse by
the weather – it rains all the time – and by the conflict
between Tess and Grant.
Cambridge English Readers © Cambridge University Press 2009
Level 3
A series of mishaps occur on the tour, which upset Tess
and cause her to take control of her life. At the end
of the story, she manages to phone her father and tell
him she wants to become an artist. She and Grant also
realise that they have complementary skills – people
like his ability to organise things, and they like her
people skills. They also realise that they actually like
each other very much, and start a relationship.
The final chapter takes place a year after the main
part of the story where they are happily leading a tour
together.
Before reading
1. A young couple. They’re sitting on the top of a
mountain.
2. Countryside which doesn’t have many people in
it and which isn’t cultivated.
3. They are tour leaders. They don’t get on with
each other very well.
4. Perhaps they are the people in the picture, as the
story is about a walking holiday in France.
5. In France, in the mountains of Provence, not far
from Nice.
6. It is the name of a holiday company.
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 Worksheet
Answer Key
Level 3

Wild Country Margaret Johnson

Check your reading
Chapter 5
Chapter 1
1. b, e
1. In the flower market in Nice. 2. They want a painting of the countryside for their
2. She draws a picture of what she sees. new house.
3. b, d, c, a 3. Her boyfriend arranged the tour, but then left her
4. Tess’s father. a week before the holiday to go to Australia with
5. No, because she keeps making mistakes. his new girlfriend. Astrid had dreamed of going
6. He is very good-looking. He always seems to to Australia with him.
laugh at Tess. 4. Terrible – it rains all the time.
7. No, she isn’t. She doesn’t want to be with Grant.
She resents her father making her do it. Chapter 6

Chapter 2 1. c, f, a, d, g, c, e
2. They argue about Tess’s leadership (she has
1. a 4, b 3, c 5, d 2, e 1 allowed the group to eat and drink at a café
2. To tell him she doesn’t want to do the tour with instead of bringing them straight to the campsite
Grant. to put up their tents). Grant and Tess have to put
3. He thinks she is stupid and always makes up all the tents alone, and they argue because
mistakes. Tess doesn’t know how to do it.

Chapter 3 Chapter 7
1. Tess: c, e, f; Grant: a, b, d 1. She couldn’t get people out of bed.
2. That Grant is concerned with the organisation 2. She wanted to kiss him, but she disliked him at
of the tour, whereas Tess is concerned with the the same time.
places and the beauty. 3. One and a half hours.
3. To buy the food for the holiday. Grant decides 4. Tess missed the path and they had to go back.
everything. 5. She had to ask for help. Because it was raining
4. She paints a picture of the woman in the flower and they were lost.
market. 6. Terrible. It was raining heavily.
5. Because her father is the boss. 7. That she would always be a bad tour leader.
6. She wants to be an artist.
Chapter 8
Chapter 4
1. Mr Clock, because he was so well organised and
1. She thinks he is an attractive man. She feels always on time.
jealous of the other woman. 2. b
2. It means camping in the country with no 3. That Astrid was very sad.
facilities like restaurants and toilets.
3. She feels unhappy.

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 Worksheet
Answer Key
Level 3

Wild Country Margaret Johnson

Chapter 9 Chapter 11
1. She draws two pictures. Because the first is a 1. In the restaurant of a hotel in the village.
portrait not a caricature. 2. Because he thinks they all dislike him.
2. It shows him as half big cat, half bull. 3. The owner of the hotel.
3. a, d, e, g 4. Tess will give Marie the painting of her in the
4. The fact that he is upset when Astrid doesn’t Nice flower market if Sarah and James can have
believe he is just checking to see that she is OK. a room for two nights.
5. That she likes him. 5. She tells Astrid that Grant came to help the
6. Student’s own answer. night before; she tells Ellen that even if Grant
isn’t interested in her, she will find romance
Chapter 10 with another man; she tells David that the climb
would have been nice on a sunny day and that
1. It’s hot and sunny. They’re wearing too many
Grant can’t control the weather; she tells James
clothes.
and Sarah about the hotel room.
2. It starts to rain again.
6. b
3. Because he makes them climb up a mountain;
7. His girlfriend.
they didn’t need to climb in the rain for a view
which is hidden by clouds and rain.
Chapter 12
4. Ellen is angry because she thinks Grant flirted
with her. 1. A year later.
5. That they are all criticising him for different 2. Painting the landscape.
things. He says Tess will be the leader. 3. Love birds.
4. He organises and she makes people happy.

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