When Lightning Struck

Unit 3 Text 1 When Lightning Struck

Before Reading Global Reading Detailed Reading After Reading

Thunderstorms can have very strong winds called updrafts and downdrafts that cause what is called turbulence. Turbulence makes it very difficult to control the airplane. Wind from a thunderstorm near the ground can also be very dangerous to planes. These winds can change speed and direction quickly. These winds are called wind shears. During bad storms there may be hail stones. These can break the plane's windshields and damage the plane and its engines. Heavy rain can sometimes get into the engine and cause it to fail. Lightning at the height the plane is flying can be very bright and it might even temporarily blind the flight crew. Before Reading Background InformationWhat are the dangers of a thunderstorm to a plane?

What has been done to keep planes safe from lightning? At any given time there are more than 2,000 thunderstorm throughout the world, producing 100 flashes of lightning per second. Planes can not totally avoid lightning and thunderstorms but due to learning more about severe thunderstorms and how they might affect the safety of those in flight, scientists and engineers have helped developed ways to make flights safer.

Many planes have their outer areas (called skins) made from aluminum. This is a metal that is a very good conductor of electricity. If lightning strikes the plane, most of the lightning current remains on the exterior of the aircraft and flows along the exterior and then away from the plane. • Systems have been designed to help protect all of the computers and instruments that control everything in the airplane. Lightning protection engineers make sure that damaging surges can not reach the equipment inside the aircraft.

In addition, we now have more sophisticated instruments to help detect lightning and predict weather conditions. This can help those in the airport's flight control centers know where the storms are located. Lightning detection networks have also been developed which can track lightning strikes all over the country using the National Lightning Detection Network. If a supercell (the most dangerous type of thunderstorm) is spotted, pilots and airport personnel are alerted • Even though the passengers and crew may see a lightning flash and hear a noise if lightning strikes their plane, nothing serious should happen because of the lightning protection built into the aircraft. Pilots sometimes report a temporary flickering of cabin lights or some brief interference with their instruments.

A Latest News Report • No survivors in Russian plane crash: (Wednesday, August 23, 2006. 5:01am (AEST) • Russia's Emergencies Ministry says there are no survivors after a Russian airliner, carrying 170 holidaymakers home from a seaside resort, crashed and burst into flames in a field in Ukraine. • Flight 612 took off from the Black Sea resort of Anapa and was bound for its home base of St Petersburg. • "According to initial information there was a lightning strike on the plane," a Russian Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman said. • Vasily Nalyotenko, deputy head of Pulkovo Airlines, which operated the Soviet-designed Tu-154, says the dead includes 10 crew and 39 children.

Airline officials say the crew tried desperately to steer the plane to safety from a high altitude. • "An SOS was issued from 11,700 metres and then again at 3,000 metres," Anatoly Samoshin, another deputy chairman of the airline, told reporters. • "There was an incomprehensible sentence. We didn't understand what was said. At 3,000 metres, communication ceased." • Rescue teams were at the scene within 10 minutes of the impact. • Helicopters whirred overhead despite stormy weather which abated as more crews arrived. • "The plane was in the air and all of a sudden there was a flash of lightning," a man told Russia's NTV television. • "Then I saw the plane veering sharply downwards before it fell in a field over there." • Officials had earlier blamed the crash on severe turbulence. • David Learmount, operations and safety editor with Flight International magazine, told Reuters from London that a lightning strike could have damaged the plane's instruments. • "The Tu-154 is a pretty damned robust plane," he said. • "It would take an awful lot to damage it so it would not survive."

Before Reading Warm-up Questions: • Among the many transportation vehicles, do you have preference for plane? Why or why not? • Have you any past experience of great danger? Which part of that memory impresses you most? • Ask the students to use three adjectives to describe their feeling.

Global Reading Is this a piece of narration, description or argumentation? Why does the writer regard the lightning-stricken flight as a fateful and lucky one? How many parts can this passage be divided into? Structural Analysis

Detailed Reading • Paragraph 1-4 • Paragraphs 5-9 • Paragraphs 10-12 • Paragraphs 13-14

Paragraph 1-4 Question: Why did the young businessman look worried? What did the pilot decide to do?

Paragraph 1 Language work I was in the tiny bathroom in the back of the plane when I felt the slammingjolt, and then the horribleswerve that threw me against the door. Oh, lord, I thought, this is it! Somehow I managed tounbolt the door and scramble out. The flight attendants, already strapped, waved wildly for me to sit down. As I lunged toward my seat, passengers looked up at me with the stricken expression of creatures who know they are about to die.

“I think we got hit by lightning,” the girl in the seat next to mine said. She was from a small town in east Texas, and this was only her second time on an airplane. She had won a trip to England by competing in a high school geography bee and was supposed to make a connecting flight when we landed in Newark. In the next seat, at the window, sat a young businessman who had been confidently working. Now he looked worried. And that really worries me---when confident-looking businessmen looked worried. The laptop wasput away. “Something’s not right,” he said.

The pilot’s voice came over the speaker. I heard vaguely through my fear, “engine number two---emergency landing---New Orleans.” When he was done, the voice of a flight attendant came on; reminding us of the emergency procedures she had reviewed before takeoff. Of course I never paid attention to this drill, always figuringthat if we ever got into the point where we needed to use life jackets, I would have already died of terror.

Paragraphs 5-9 Question: • Why did the writer feel proud of her fellow passengers?

Language work Now we began a roller-coaster ride through the thunderclouds. I was ready to faint, but when I saw the face of the girl next to me, I pulled myself together, I reached for her hand and reassured her that we were going to make it, “what a story you are going to tell when you get home!” I said. “After this, London is going to seem like small potatoes.” .

I wondered where was getting my strength. Then I saw that my other hand was tightly held by a ringed hand. Someone was comforting me---a glamorous young woman across the aisle, the female equivalent of the confident businessman. She must have seen how scared I was and reached over.

“I tell you,” she confided, “the problems I brought upon this plane with me sure don’t seem real big right now.” I loved her southern drawl, her indiscriminate use of perfume, and her soulfulsqueezes. I was sure that even if I survived the planecrash, I’d have a couple of broken fingers from all the TLC. “Are you okay?” she kept asking me.

Among the many feelings going through my head during those excruciating 20 minutes was pride---pride in how well everybody on board was behaving. No one panicked. No one screamed. As we jolted and screeched our way downward, I could hear small pockets of soothing conversation everywhere.

I thought of something I had heard a friend say about the wonderful gift his dying father had given the family: he had died peacefully, as if not to alarm any of them about an experience they would all have to go through someday.

Paragraphs 10-12 Question: What acts of kindness were done after the safe landing?

Language work And then---yes! ---we landed safely. Outside on the ground, attendants and officials were waiting to transfer us to alternative flights. But we passengers clung together. We chatted about lives we now felt blessed to be living, as difficult or rocky as they might be. The young businessman lamented that he had not a chance to buy his two little girls a present. An older woman offered him box of expensive Lindt chocolates, still untouched, tied with a lovely bow. “I shouldn’t be eating them anyhow,” she said. My glamorous aisle mate took out her cell phone and passed it around to anyone who wanted to make a call to hear the reassuring voice of a loved one.

There was someone I wanted to call. Back in Vermont, my husband, bill, was anticipating my arrival late that night. He had been complaining that he wasn’t getting tosee very much of me because of my book tour. I had planned to surprise him by getting ina few hours early. Now I just wanted him to know I was okay and on my way. • When my name was finally called to board my new flight, I felt almost tearful to be parting from the people whose lives had so intensely, if briefly, touched mine.

Paragraphs 13-14 Question: What does the author think is the most important thing she ought to do?

Language work Even now, back on terra firma, walking down a Vermont road, I sometimes hear an airplane and look up at that small, glinting piece of metal, I remember the passengers on the fateful, lucky flight and wish I could thank them for the many acts of kindness I witnessed and received. I am indebted to my fellow passengers and wish I could pay them back.

But then, remembering my aisle mate’s hand clutching mine while I clutched the hand of the high school student, I feel struck by lightning all over again: the point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on. .

slam v.tr. • To shut with force and loud noise: • slammed the door. • To put, throw, or otherwise forcefully move so as to produce a loud noise: • slammed the book on the desk. • To hit or strike with great force. v.intr. • To close or swing into place with force so as to produce a loud noise. • To hit something with force; crash: • slammed into a truck. • n. A forceful impact that makes a loud noise; a noise so produced.

Jolt • A sudden jarring or jerking, as from a heavy blow or an abrupt movement. • The sudden braking caused a severe jolt. • A sudden, strong feeling of surprise or disappointment; the cause of such a feeling: • The news came as a jolt.

swerve tr. & intr.v • To turn aside or be turned aside from a straight course. • a gaze that never swerved n.The act of swerving. SYNONYMS : swerve, depart, deviate, digress, diverge, stray, veer

Unbolt:To release the bolts of (a door, for example); unlock Scramble • To move or climb hurriedly, especially on the hands and knees. • The boy scrambled over the wall. • To struggle or contend frantically in order to get something: • scrambled for the best seats

Strap n. • A long narrow strip of pliant material such as leather. • A thin flat metal or plastic band used for fastening or clamping objects together or into position. tr.v. • To fasten or secure with a strap. • He strapped the bag onto his bicycle. • To beat with a strap.

Lunge: • To move with a sudden thrust. • She lunged at me with a knife. Bee: (old- fashioned) friendly competition Laptop: a personal computer small enough to be put on one’s lap for use (antonyms-desktop ) put

Put (phrasal verb) put about To change or cause to change direction; go or cause to go from one tack to another. put across • To state so as to be understood clearly or accepted readily: • put her views across during the hearing. put away • Put sth in the place where it is belonged • He is in the habit of putting books away after he reads them • Save for later use • As an economical wife, she puts away certain amount of money each week.

put by • To save for later use: • “Some crops were so abundant they could even be put by” (Carole Lalli). put down • To write down. • To bring to an end; repress: • put down a rebellion. • To render ineffective: • put down rumors.

put forth / put forward • To offer for consideration: • put forth an idea. put off • To delay; postpone: • put off paying the bills. • To take off; discard: • put off a sweater. put on • To clothe oneself with; don: • put on a coat; put socks on. • To add: • put on weight. • To produce; perform: • put on a variety show. put out • To extinguish: • put out a fire.

put through • To bring to a successful end: • put the project through on time; put through a number of new laws. • To cause to undergo: • He put me through a lot of trouble. • To make a telephone connection for: • The operator put me through on the office line. put together • To construct; create: put together a new bookcase; put together a tax package. put up • To erect; build. • To nominate: put up a candidate at a convention. • To provide (funds) in advance: put up money for the new musical. • To provide lodgings for: put a friend up for the night. • To offer for sale: put up his antiques.

Vaguely: • Not thinking or expressing oneself clearly. • These clauses are rather vaguely worded. • Lacking definite shape, form, or character; indistinct: • saw a vague outline of a building through the fog. Emergency: A serious situation or occurrence that happens unexpectedly and demands immediate action. • An emergency exit

procedure • A manner of proceeding; a way of performing or effecting something: • standard procedure. • A series of steps taken to accomplish an end: • a medical procedure; evacuation procedures

Figure n. • A written or printed symbol representing something other than a letter, especially a number. • Mathematical calculations: • good at figures. • An amount represented in numbers: • sold for a large figure. • A person, especially a well-known one: • a famous historical figure. • A person's public image or presence: • became a tragic figure overnight.

v. • Mathematics. To calculate with numbers. Informal. • To conclude, believe, or predict: • I never figured that this would happen. • To consider or regard: • figured them as con artists.

Pull (phrasal verbs:) pull ahead • To move ahead, as in a race. pull away • To move away or backward; withdraw: • The limousine pulled away from the curb. • To move ahead: • The horse pulled away and took the lead in the race. pull back • To withdraw or retreat. pull down • To demolish; destroy: • pull down an old office building. • To depress, as in spirits or health. pull in • To arrive at a destination: • We pulled in at midnight. • To arrest (a criminal suspect, for example).

pull out • To leave or depart: • The train pulls out at noon. • To withdraw, as from a situation or commitment: • After the crash, many Wall Street investors pulled out. pull over • To bring a vehicle to a stop at a curb or at the side of a road: • We pulled over to watch the sunset. pull round • To restore or be restored to sound health. pull through • To come or bring successfully through trouble or illness. Put together • Control oneself ;become calm after being excited or disturbed • She was able to pull herself together in the face og dang er and hardship. pull up • To bring or come to a halt.

Reassure: restore confidence to • The mayor reassured all the citizen that the difficulty would be overcome Glamorous: full of or characterized by charm • Her smile was so glamorous that no one could resist the charm. Equivalent: • adj. Equal, as in value, force, or meaning. • Changing jobs like that is equivalent to giving him a sack. • n. Something that is essentially equal to another: • “Prejudicing vital foreign policy considerations in order to rescue individuals finds its domestic equivalent in the inflated awards paid to … accident and malpractice victims” (Moorhead Kennedy).

Scared: frightened Antonyms: calm, confident, encouraged, laidback, unafraid Confide: disclose private matters in confidence • He came to confided to me that he had spent 5 years in prison Bring up • Raise from childhood, rear. • Bringing up children is both difficult and rewarding. • Vomit • She still felt sick but couldn't bring up anything.

Drawl: v. To speak with lengthened or drawn-out vowels. n. The speech or manner of speaking of one who drawls: a Southern drawl Indiscriminate: • Not making or based on careful distinctions; unselective: • an indiscriminate shopper; indiscriminate taste in music. • Confused; chaotic: • the indiscriminate policies of the previous administration. • Unrestrained or wanton; profligate: • indiscriminate spending.

Soulful: profoundly emotional; expressing deep feelings • At the concert, the singer sang a soulful song. Squeeze: v.tr. • To press hard on or together; compress. • To press gently, as in affection: • squeezed her hand. • To exert pressure on, as by way of extracting liquid: • squeeze an orange. • To extract by or as if by applying pressure: • squeeze juice from a lemon; • squeezed a confession out of a suspect. • To force one's way: • squeeze through a crowd; • squeeze into a tight space. n. • The act or an instance of squeezing.

Crash v. • To undergo sudden damage or destruction on impact: • Their car crashed into a guardrail. • The airplane crashed over the ocean. • To make a sudden loud noise: • breakers crashing against the rocks. • To undergo a sudden severe downturn, as a market or economy. n. An act of crashing • Economic crash • Car/airplane crash

excruciate: • To inflict severe pain on; torture. • To inflict great mental distress on. Excruciating: • Intensely painful; agonizing. • She received an excruciating letter from her former boy friend. • Very intense or extreme: • wrote with excruciating precision.

Panic: • affect or be affected with a sudden, overpowering terror • The crowd panicked at the sound of the explosion. Screech n. • A high-pitched, strident cry. • A sound suggestive of this cry: • the screech of train brakes • v.tr. To utter in or as if in a screech. • To make a sound suggestive of a screech: • Tires screeched on the wet pavement.

When Lightning Struck