MOUNTAIN MYSTERY

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I always asked myself why the people in Milan go to the mountains.

For me mountains are big boring rocks but many Italians love going up them so there must be a reason.

I thought.

So when my friend Marco invited me to a week end in the mountains I went. The day went like this.

Marco woke me up with a very bright torch in my face. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 5 o’ clock in the morning.

“it’s 5 o’ clock” I shouted “I have never woken up at 5 o’ clock in the morning in my life Is it legal? “come on” he says “we must go”

 “Ok I'll just have my shower” I said.

 “No you can’t” He shouted “there is no time”

I looked at Marco and with complete horror I saw that he was wearing a green Alpino hat with a feather in it.

I put my big bag on my back and when we opened the door I immediately felt the terrible cold. It was also raining.

“Aren’t you happy?” Marco smiled “It’s raining like in England”.

Now I knew I was with a complete psychopath.

 “Ok I said “I need my umbrella, please wait a moment”

Marco shouted again"Umbrella"? You can’t take an umbrella up in the mountain. Here put this on” Now this is very hard to believe, but M. was offering me another green Alpino hat with a feather in it.

 “You don’t seriously think I will wear that, do you?” I said “Somebody might see me”. “John there’s nobody outside at five in the morning” he said.
“Of course there isn’t” I said “Nobody else is so stupid”
When we were outside we started walking. It was horrible. My shoes were useless and my feet were wet after 5 minutes.

 “can we stop and rest?” I asked.

Marco started shouting again: “We’ve only been walking for 10 minutes! We still have hours to go”. This was very bad news, of course, but I really wanted to see why people did this, so I was patient and walked. Up and up we went and all I could see was rock. I continued to ask myself why oh why people did this. I was wet, cold and tired

 “Please Marco” I said “can we go back, please?”

 “We’re almost there” he said “I want to show you something. Do you know why we are here? Soon You will see.” After another 3 hours of incredible fatigue we stopped. We were there we had arrived at the place where I could finally see the reason for being there.  

Marco was looking down with a big smile on his face. Slowly I looked down too and I saw the magical reason for this torture.

“Mushrooms?” I shouted there were 3 mushrooms on the ground, that’s all there was “we risked Our life in the rain and cold for 5 hours for mushrooms?

Marco took one of the 3 mushroom and ate it. . .I took one too and ate it.

 “No Marco shouted “that one was poisonous” Marco immediately started to call someone.

 Oh, my God was I going to die? I looked down the mountain and thought: “Well at least I won’t have to walk another 5 hours walking down the mountain in the rain.”

The helicopter arrived about 30 minutes later and took me to the hospital. Only one week in Milan And this was the second time for me in hospital.

They pumped my stomach and I was fine.

But guess what time the nurse woke me up for my injections’
Five o’ clock in the morning.

1. What are mountains in John’s opinion?

2. Who invited John for a week end in the mountains?

3. What time did Marco wake up John?

4. What did John want to do before leaving?

5. What was Marco wearing on his head?

6. What happened to John’s feet?  

7. For how long did they walk before they stopped?

8. What was the magical reason for being there?

9. What did Marco do with the mushrooms?

10. After how long did the helicopter arrive?