The trip that transformed me: The university graduate By Mia Simon
Australian Vanessa Costanzo expected her university
experience to prepare her for adulthood, but in reality, she
said, it prepared her only for a job. So after she graduated
from Curtin University in Western Australia in February
2013, she decided to travel.
Costanzo hoped to gain worldly knowledge that she
craved by spending seven months exploring Europe and
parts of the Middle East. Starting in 2014, the lessons
came fast and furious.
Her first stop was Dubai. Not long after she arrived,
she recalled watching men from Pakistan and India in blue
jumpsuits working tirelessly in the sweltering heat1 to
manage the upkeep of Sheikh Zayed Road, a major city
thoroughfare2.
Unlike Costanzo, they were not in a foreign country on
holiday. A cab driver told her that most were working for
minimal pay and living in substandard conditions. Much of
the money they earned they sent home to their families.
How did he know? He had a wife and child back home
in his native India. He hadn’t seen them in a year.
The lesson hit her hard: If you have the means to
travel, as she did, you’re fortunate. And you don’t need
material possessions to be happy.
Glossary:
1. sweltering heat: oppressively hot
2. thoroughfare: a main road
Source: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150224-the-trip-that-transformed-me-the-universitygraduate. Adapted.
According to the text, it is CORRECT to affirm that the word “fortunate”, in line 22, is equivalent to:
