【明報專訊】Cassie De Pecol (迪佩科爾), a 27-year-old woman from the US, embarked on her journey on 24 July 2015 to travel to all 196 countries in the world. She named the adventure "Expedition 196". As of November 22 this year, she had visited 183 of them.

"Since school, I've had this desire to visit every country in the world, intrigued to learn more about every culture, natural habitat, and religion," said De Pecol. She plans to break a Guinness World Record by becoming the fastest female to travel to 196 countries.

During the journey, De Pecol works as a peace ambassador for the International Institute For Peace Through Tourism, a non-profit organisation. Part of her job is meeting with university students to discuss responsible tourism and economics. She is also a volunteer for Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, responsible for collecting water samples for tests. The whole journey has cost her approximately US＄198,000 (around HK＄1,536,000). She said it is not an easy task to obtain the capital needed from sponsors during the journey.

(sources: Ming Pao, Daily Mail, Expedition 196 Facebook page)

■ Photo Story

De Pecol walked for an hour and 15 minutes uphill to the Paro Taktsang (塔克桑寺) in Bhutan (不丹), a Himalayan Buddhist temple in July this year.

■ Quiz

Answer the following questions.

(Answers on next text)

1. Is the following sentence true or false?

Cassie De Pecol had travelled to 196 countries as of 24 July 2015.  (True/False)

2. What has De Pecol been interested to do since school?

____________________________________________.

3. According to the passage, which of the following is not what De Pecol does during the journey?

a. Collecting water samples for tests

b. Working as a peace ambassador

c. Being the first person to travel around the world

d. Finding sponsors to provide funds

4. Find in paragraph three a word that has a similar meaning to "get"._________.

■ English highway﹕embark on

This phrasal verb means "to start to do something new or difficult".

e.g. The Smarties are embarking on a new journey.

■ Glossary

desire (n) 渴望

intrigued (adj) 好奇的

ambassador (n) 大使

capital (n) 資金