© Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and National Geographic via CNN News
Pre-reading questions:
I will read each question. Then, please answer them.
- When was the last time you went to the ocean? What did you do there?
- What kinds of documentaries do you enjoy watching?
Vocabulary:
I will read the words, meanings, and sample sentences. Then, repeat after me.
- explorer /ik-SPLAWR-er/
- shipwreck /SHIP-rek/
- documentary /dok-yuh-MEN-tuh-ree/
- set sail /set seyl/
- abandon /uh-BAN-duhn/
[noun] – someone who travels to places where no one has ever been in order to find out what is there
Ferdinand Magellan was a famous sixteenth-century explorer.
[noun] – an accident in which a ship is destroyed or sunk at sea, especially by hitting rocks, or a ship that has been destroyed or sunk in such an accident
Some divers discovered a shipwreck near the south coast.
[noun] – a film or television or radio program that gives facts and information about a subject
My family and I watched a documentary about the daily lives of Japanese salarymen.
[idiom] – to begin a trip on a ship or boat
The ship set sail for Europe.
[verb] – to leave a place, thing, or person, usually forever
The residents already abandoned the town.
Article reading:
Please read the whole article. Then, I will check your pronunciation and intonation.
Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s HMS Endurance has been located presumably undamaged south of the Falkland Islands more than a century after it sank off the coast of Antarctica. The Falklands History Hit, a multimedia platform co-founded by historian Dan Snow, and the Maritime Heritage Trust collaborated on the discovery. “This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact, and in a brilliant state of preservation,” Mensun Bound, the mission’s exploration director, said in a statement. A crew of scientists, historians, and filmmakers were on board to film a video for a future documentary about the Endurance search.
The Endurance set sail from the United Kingdom for Antarctica in 1914, arriving in McMurdo Sound the following year. But due to the terrible weather, the ship became trapped in thick, unbreakable ice in the Weddell Sea and sank 3,008 meters below the surface. Shackleton with 28 other men on board abandoned the Endurance and built basic camp facilities on ice floes heading north. Despite the expedition’s failure, the team’s survival and subsequent rescue months later with no casualties were considered a triumph of their bravery and Shackleton’s great leadership qualities.
The Endurance set sail from the United Kingdom for Antarctica in 1914, arriving in McMurdo Sound the following year. But due to the terrible weather, the ship became trapped in thick, unbreakable ice in the Weddell Sea and sank 3,008 meters below the surface. Shackleton with 28 other men on board abandoned the Endurance and built basic camp facilities on ice floes heading north. Despite the expedition’s failure, the team’s survival and subsequent rescue months later with no casualties were considered a triumph of their bravery and Shackleton’s great leadership qualities.
Comprehension questions
I will read each question. Then, please answer them based on the article.
- According to the article, where has HMS Endurance been located?
- How did Mensun Bound describe the shipwreck?
- Why were a crew of scientists, historians, and filmmakers onboard the discovery?
- What happened to the Endurance a year after it set sail in 1914 due to the bad weather?
- What did Ernest Shackleton and 28 other men in the ship do when it sank?
Discussion questions
I will read each question. Then, please answer them.
- What things would you like to know about oceans?
- What activities can you do in the ocean?
- Would you watch the documentary about the Endurance’s discovery? Why or why not?
- What can you say about Shackleton’s team’s survival despite the expedition’s failure?
- In your opinion, how would this discovery affect future documentaries and studies?