The night-walkers of Uganda

traffic jam 
 
crossword 
 
stressed 
 
side-street 
bad-tempered
advice
 
motorway 
 
avoid
1. If you are ____________, you get angry very easily.
2. If you are ____________, you feel nervous and worried all the time.
3. A ____________ is a wide road with several lanes of traffic in each direction.
4. A ____________ is a small street that is connected to a major street.
5. A ____________ is a situation when cars cannot move because the road is blocked.
6. If you give someone ____________, you tell them the best thing to do in a particular situation.
7. If you ____________ something, you don’t go near it.
8. A ____________ is a word game on paper where you write the answers in rows of squares.
Car boom leaves Caracas in one big jam
Level 1
Elementary
Key words
1
Look in the text and find this information.
1. What is the capital of Venezuela?
2. How many cars were sold two years ago?
3. How many cars were sold last year?
4. Who is the President of Venezuela?
5. How far is it from the centre to the airport?
6. Who is Ken Livingstone?
Find the information
2
44

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The capital city of Venezuela, Caracas, has some 
of the worst traffic jams in the world. The situation 
is so bad that psychiatrists are now giving advice 
to drivers about what to do when they are in a 
traffic jam. The advice includes the following: eat 
a snack, read a book, do a crossword, listen to 
music but don’t hit or shoot other people! 
More and more people own a car in Caracas. 
Because of this the motorways are blocked 
and the side-streets are full of cars from early 
morning until late at night. Sometimes whole 
districts of the city are completely blocked by 
cars. Doctors say the situation is making drivers 
very stressed and that this stress is causing 
both physical and mental damage. The traffic 
problems also cause fights between drivers and 
sometimes people shoot each other.
Some people try to avoid the traffic jams by 
leaving home at 5 a.m. but this often means that 
they don’t get enough sleep and cannot work 
properly as a result. They also become bad-
tempered because they are tired all the time and 
this may have a negative effect on their sex lives. 
Many people are feeling more and more worried 
and nervous, Robert Lespinasse, the former 
head of the Venezuelan Society of Psychiatry, 
told the daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias. Armed 
gangs also attack and rob drivers in traffic jams 
and this makes the situation worse because 
people are afraid all the time.
There is no easy solution to the problem. 
Doctors have advised people who are sitting 
in traffic jams to have a drink or something to 
eat and occupy their minds with music, a book, 
newspaper or crossword.
Venezuela has a lot of oil and many people 
have become rich as a result. Car sales have 
increased rapidly. Two years ago 150,000 cars 
were sold. Last year 300,000 were sold. But 
there are no new roads for the extra traffic so 
everything travels on old streets full of holes.
The government has a lot of money from the 
sale of oil. It has started a programme of building 
bridges and metro lines before the presidential 
election next month. But many of these bridges 
and metro lines are still not finished. One of them 
is a bridge that will connect the centre of Caracas 
to the airport. This means that drivers have to 
use an old road. It is only 16 miles from the city 
to the airport but the journey can take five hours. 
Everyone agrees that the traffic jams are getting 
worse every month. Taxi drivers say they are 
losing money because they can only make 
three journeys a day instead of the five journeys 
they used to make. “It’s impossible. If someone 
asks to go into especially heavy traffic I say 
no because I will lose half a day,” said Fredy 
Afanador, a local taxi driver.
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, has 
criticised former transport ministers but says the 
present minister is doing a good job. He is also 
looking to other countries for help. One idea is to 
work with the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. 
In London, drivers have to pay to enter the centre 
of the city. This means there is now less traffic. 
Mr Livingstone will give advice to President 
Chávez and, in return, Venezuela will sell fuel 
to London at a cheaper price. Perhaps this idea 
will help to solve the problem of traffic jams in 
Caracas.