Задание 18 из ЕГЭ по английскому языку: задача 2

The Youngest Person to Travel Every Country

On May 31, 2019, a 21-year-old American woman named Lexie Alford stepped foot in North Korea, becoming — as she claims — the youngest person to travel to every country on Earth. In doing so, she’s attempting to break the Guinness World Record held by James Asquith, who won the title in 2013 at the age of 24, and join the historic ranks of other travellers like Cassie De Pecol, who broke the Guinness World Record for being the fastest woman to visit every country. Alford is in the process of having nearly 10,000 pieces of evidence verified by Guinness.

Travelling to each one of the world’s 196 sovereign nations is an achievement that Alford has been working on since she was a child — though she didn’t know it at the time. Alford grew up in a family that owns a travel agency in California. “Travel has been a part of my life since before I can remember,” says Alford. “My parents would take me out of school and place me on independent study for weeks and months at a time every year.” While she was growing up, her family travelled everywhere from the floating villages of Cambodia to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, from Ushuaia at the tip of Argentina to the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. “My parents placed a lot of importance on exposing me to every way of life around the world and that had a very profound impact on the person I am today,” she says. “I’ve always had a curiosity about other people’s ways of life and how they find happiness.”

Alford originally wasn't trying to break a record; she was just an intrepid traveller. “Honestly, in the beginning, I simply wanted to push the limits of what I thought I could do with my life and see as much of the world as possible in the process,” she explains. “It wasn't until things started getting really challenging that I realized I was inspiring people around me, especially young women. Feeling that support meant that I couldn't give up when things got tough. I was determined to show everyone that the world isn't as scary as the media portrays it to be and that there’s kindness everywhere.”

In 2016, Alford got serious and started working on her mission to travel to every single one of the world’s 196 sovereign nations. What sparked the idea? When she turned 18, Alford realized that she had travelled to 72 countries. “The very first time I thought about breaking the world record was in October 2016 in my home, California,” recalls Alford. “I graduated from high school two years early and had gotten an associate’s degree from a local college. I was ready to start my gap year when I dropped the idea of going back to school and began to pursue the record full-time.” Alford says that her travels are self-funded: “I always knew I wanted to take time off to travel so I've been working every job I could find and saving since I was 12 years old.

”Alford says the highlight of her travels was going to unexpected — and often dangerous — countries. “The countries that have such a bad reputation that people don’t dare to go are the places that spark my curiosity,” she says. “I experienced so much more kindness and natural beauty in places like Pakistan and Venezuela than I ever found in typical tourist destinations. Going somewhere with no expectations and being absolutely blown away by what you find there has been the most fulfilling part of this project.”

She struggled the most in West and Central Africa, due to tricky visas, little infrastructure for tourism, language barriers and the high cost of travelling safely. “There aren’t many flights, hotels or English-speaking guides so the operators have the market completely cornered,” she explains. “They can pretty much set any outrageous price they want because there aren’t many other options (besides maybe grueling and potentially dangerous bus rides). Travelling in this area of the world thickened my skin more than anything in my life ever has.”

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What does the expression ‘to thicken somebody’s skin’ (Paragraph 6) mean?

1. To make someone physically sick.
2. To become more cynical and distrustful of the world.
3. To surprise or shock someone.
4. To prepare someone for life’s challenges.