Men rescued after writing ‘HELP’ in the sand (13th April, 2016)

SURVIVAL:What are the most important things to do to survive these? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.

	Difficulties	How to survive them
Being on a desert island
Exams
Being in a jungle
Being in the desert
Loneliness
A broken heart

1. READ AND COMPLETE:

capsized-style-sand-remote-beach-tiny-spotted-reach

initially-resources-missions-remote-lives-combined-recently-notified

Three men were rescued from a (1) ____________ desert island in adventure-book (2) ____________ on Thursday. The three sailors became marooned on the (3) ____________, uninhabited island of Fanadik in the South Pacific Ocean after their boat (4) ____________. The island is several hundred kilometres north of Papua New Guinea. Even though they lost their vessel at night, the men managed to swim for nearly three kilometres to (5) ____________ land. They remained on the island for three days and believed they were modern-day castaways. They wrote the word 'HELP' in the (6) ____________ using palm leaves so they might be (7) ____________ by a plane. Their prayers were answered when a U.S. Coast Guard plane spotted their message on the (8) ____________.


A Coast Guard spokesman spoke about the rescue. He said: "Our (9) ____________ efforts, coupled with the willingness of many different (10) ____________ to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very (11) ____________ part of the Pacific." Once the men were found, their families were (12) ____________ and they were put on a boat back to the island of Pulap, from where they had (13) ____________ set out to sea. The Coast Guard said none of the men was injured. The rescue is one of many the U.S. Coast Guard has undertaken (14) ____________. Officials say that in the last two weeks, they have coordinated seven search-and-rescue (15) ____________ in the South Pacific, saving the (16) ____________ of 15 people.

2. TRUE / FALSE:Read the headline. Guess if  a-h  below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	Three men wrote an adventure book about being rescued.	T / F
b.	The men ended up on the island after their boat capsized.	T / F
c.	The men swam for almost three kilometres to get to the island.	T / F
d.	The US Coat Guard found the men on the island.	T / F
e.	The Coast Guard said many people were unwilling to join the rescue.	T / F
f.	The men were flown straight back to the USA.	T / F
g.	One of the men had a broken leg.	T / F
h.	The Coast Guard saved 15 people in the same area in the past 2 weeks.	T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH:Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	rescued	a.	noticed
2.	marooned	b.	overturned
3.	capsized	c.	distant
4.	reach	d.	readiness
5.	spotted	e.	saved
6.	combined	f.	get to
7.	willingness	g.	at first
8.	remote	h.	stranded
9.	initially	i.	worked together
10.	coordinated	j.	joint

4. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	rescued from a remote	a.	rescue missions
2.	after their boat	b.	land
3.	reach	c.	part of the Pacific
4.	palm	d.	lives of 15 people
5.	Their prayers	e.	capsized
6.	a very remote	f.	notified
7.	their families were	g.	leaves
8.	set out	h.	were answered
9.	search-and-	i.	to sea
10.	saving the	j.	desert island

Three men were rescued from a remote desert island in adventure-book style on Thursday. The three sailors became marooned on the tiny, uninhabited island of Fanadik in the South Pacific Ocean after their boat capsized. The island is several hundred kilometres north of Papua New Guinea. Even though they lost their vessel at night, the men managed to swim for nearly three kilometres to reach land. They remained on the island for three days and believed they were modern-day castaways. They wrote the word 'HELP' in the sand using palm leaves so they might be spotted by a plane. Their prayers were answered when a U.S. Coast Guard plane spotted their message on the beach.
A Coast Guard spokesman spoke about the rescue. He said: "Our combined efforts, coupled with the willingness of many different resources to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very remote part of the Pacific." Once the men were found, their families were notified and they were put on a boat back to the island of Pulap, from where they had initially set out to sea. The Coast Guard said none of the men was injured. The rescue is one of many the U.S. Coast Guard has undertaken recently. Officials say that in the last two weeks, they have coordinated seven search-and-rescue missions in the South Pacific, saving the lives of 15 people.