WEEK1. READING ACADEMIC ENGLISH TEXTS 1. GETTING STARTED.

Juan Camilo Escobar -1860142-2712

I.- Reading

You will do a short quiz about lightning. You will then read an article about lightning and answer some questions.

How much do you know about lightning? Answer these questions. Find out if you are right in the next exercise.

True False

1. If you are struck by lightning, light can come out of your body. True

2. Lightning hits more than half a million people every year. True

3. There is always lightning, somewhere in the world. True

4. Lightning is hotter than the sun. True

5. About 50% of people struck by lightning die. False

6. Lightning burns you very badly. False

7. When there is lightning, it is safer to stand on one foot. False

8. In 1998, lightning killed 11 players in a football team. True

9. Planes are never hit by lightning. False

10. You can be struck by lightning when you are in your house. True

Vocabulary

You will look at a new idea for learning words. You will look at how putting extra letters at the beginning and
end of words can change the meaning.

Searching the Internet: You will search the Internet to find the weather in different places.

Then read the article and check and correct your answers above.

Struck by lightning. It is a rainy day in Jackson, Florida. David Barnes, a telephone company engineer, is mending
a telephone line. Suddenly he jumps backwards. There is a very loud bang, and light comes out of his hand. He
stands up, but he can't feel anything on his right side. He can't hear with his right ear. But he can walk to his
truck and get in. He sits in his truck and feels very frightened. He knows he has been struck by lightning. Every
year, lightning kills 24,000 people and injures half a million. Right now, there are 2,000 storms somewhere in
the world, and there is lightning every second of every day. Rwanda has the most lightning in the world, and in

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the US, Florida has more lightning than any other state. How hot is lightning? Scientists say that it is three times
hotter than the sun. It sounds very dangerous, but 90% of the people struck by lightning do not die. Usually,
lightning does not burn people. If you are wearing a metal watch, lightning will heat the metal and the metal
will burn you, not the lightning. But lightning can hurt the brain. David Barnes, for example, can’t work now. ‘It
is difficult to stand up’, he says, ‘and I usually have to hold something. I am learning to walk again. The big
problem is that I can’t remember anything. Sometimes I can’t remember my wife´s name’.

How does lightning strike people? Imagine you are standing in a field. Lightning hits the ground and travels
along until it arrives at your foot. Then it goes up your leg and down your other leg back into the ground. If it
hits the ground close to you, there is more electricity and it is more dangerous. In 1998 in Democratic
Republic of Congo, lightning killed all eleven members of a visiting football team in this way (Nobody
from the home team was hurt – amazing, but true)

So how can we avoid lightning?

- Don’t worry about flying. Most airplanes are struck by lightning two or three times a year. They are very
safe because they are made of metal. Lightning travels along them and back into the air.
- Don’t use the telephone. Three people in the US are struck every year while they are on the phone.
- The best advice comes from David Barnes. He says, ‘Stay inside. If you hear it, fear it’

READING SKILLS

1. Make question
• is it safe to stay under a tree?
• can lightning strike 2 times in the same place?
2. Authors purpose
the author's purpose is to teach about lightning counting anecdotes and solving some doubts.
3. main idea
Lightning strikes every second anywhere in the world; Scientists say that lightning strikes 3 times as hot
as the sun, but 90% of the people struck by one survive, and the best advice is to stay home during an
electrical storm.
4. causes
• They fall when there are thunderstorms and it doesn't need to rain for them to fall.
• the odds of hitting increases when you're under a tree.
Effects
• lightning can kill you immediately.
• if you survive you can forget about things like walking.

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5. Drawings

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