'Emergency Landing' is a very short story by Louise Cooper, from her collection of very short stories called 'Short and Scary'. Engine problems during a flight cause the crew to look for somewhere safe to land and for passengers to wonder about what might happen when they make an emergency landing. But nothing is quite as it seems.....
from the BritLit project in teachingenglish.org.uk
Step 1: Before Reading: thinking about the title
“Emergency Landing” is the title of the story we are going to read. Can you think of some reasons for an emergency landing?
1. fire on board
2. …………………...
Step 2: reacting to an emergency landing
Choose the appropriate adjectives to describe the feelings or reactions of passengers and crew.
Step 3: Building the story
Read parts of the story and answer the questions:
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking."...
The stewardess was coming down the aisle....
"The crew has been trained to do repairs."
Questions:
1. Where do you think this story takes place?
2. Which words, in your opinion, suggest the place?
Step 4: The Story - Part 1
Here is the first part of the story. Read it quite quickly. Don’t worry about any words you don’t understand. You can also listen to the author reading it.
Step 5: Reading comprehension
After reading the first part of the short story, decide if the following sentences are True or False; correct the false ones.
Step 6: Vocabulary
The following words are all in the text. Do you think they are positive or negative? Check their meaning in https://www.wordreference.com/engr/
Step 7: Imagine what happens next
Step 8: Emergency landing – Part 2
Here is the second - and last - part of the story. You can also listen to the author reading the story.
Some words you should look up in wordreference.com before you start reading:
waggle
antenna
amount to something
chuckle
porthole
What did you think of the story?
What kind of story do you think it is? (western, science-fiction, romance, thriller, comedy, horror?)
Have you ever read a book or seen a film of this kind?
You can listen to an alien version of the story, read by the writer herself here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/emergency-landing
Step 9
Would you like to learn more about the writer? Visit: https://web.archive.org/web/20090926232646/http://www.louisecooper.com/biography.html, and complete the information:
Author’s Biography
Name:
Age:
Place of birth:
Home:
Number of books published:
Some titles:
Make sentences with the words given and you will get some more information about the characters. Use the Past Simple. The first one has been done for you.
1. captain / try / calm down / passengers: The captain tried to calm down the passengers.
2. first / passenger / cannot / arrive / late / meeting
3. his / neighbour / not know / where / be
4. stewardess / be / prejudiced against / people / planet
5. she / be / very / cruel
6. communication / with people / planet / be / problem / first passenger
7. they / not know / anything / about / planet / and / they / concerned
8. second / passenger / think / they / be / in danger
