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GENERAL ENGLISH · BREAKING NEWS · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

SUPERSTITION
CAUSES PLANE
DELAY

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1 Warm up

In pairs, answer the following questions.

1. When was the last time you flew somewhere? Where did you go? Why did you go?
2. How do you feel before you fly somewhere? Do you enjoy flying? Do you feel nervous?
3. What do you do to prepare for a flight?
4. Do you take anything or do anything for good luck on the plane flight? What do you do or take?
Why?

2 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Match the following words to the correct definitions.

1. recover (v): a. a belief that doing certain actions can bring good or bad luck, without
using reason or science
2. inspection (n): b. an event, usually something negative or surprising

3. take-off (n): c. a test to make sure something, such as a car or a school, is working in
the way it should
4. superstition (n): d. good luck, especially when it has a positive effect on someone’s life

5. fortune (n): e. something that doesn’t cost very much money compared to other
things of the same type
6. incident (n): f. the point when a plane leaves the ground

7. budget (adj.): g. to get something back which was lost or missing

8. instruct (v): h. to tell a person to do a specific action

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Part B: Now put the words from Part A in the correct gap in the following sentences.

1. We managed to find a hotel to stay in, so the cost of the holiday won’t be too
expensive.
2. I always get a little nervous before when I’m flying anywhere.
3. I always wear the same shirt for good luck when I watch my football team play. My wife says it’s
just , but they haven’t lost yet this season!
4. Did you hear the noise last night? Apparently, there was an with a cow and a
goat.
5. I had the good to meet Alice on holiday when I was younger. We’ve since married
and raised three children together.
6. I lost my passport on holiday, but fortunately, the police were able to it.
7. When you reach the station, the police will you on what to do.
8. I always clean my bike carefully and give it a bit of an every weekend. I don’t
want it breaking down while I’m using it to get to work during the week.

Now in pairs, answer the following questions.

1. How do you feel during take-off on a flight?

2. Have you ever flown with a budget airline? What was the flight like? Would you use them again?
Why/Why not?
3. When someone is lucky, we say that "fortune smiles on them". When has fortune smiled on you?
4. Have you ever lost something important, but then managed to recover it? What happened?
5. What is the most unusual incident you have been involved in?
6. When did you last instruct someone to do something? Why did you have to do that?
7. When was the last time you were involved in an inspection? Were you inspecting or being
inspected? What happened?
8. Can you give an example of a superstition that you have?

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3 Listening for details

Listen to the recording and write down what the following numbers represent.

1. 28
2. 13,100
3. 8

Now in pairs, discuss the following questions.

• What do you think about what Mr. Wang and Mr. Chao did?
• What do you think should happen to them?
• What can the airline do to stop it from happening again?
• Do you think the airline is responsible for what happened?

4 Listening comprehension

Listen to the recording again and decide if the following statements are True or False.

1. Staff on the plane saw the man throw the coins.

2. The coins were found before the plane left the airport.
3. The passengers had to fly on another plane later that day.
4. Mr. Wang was trying to stop the plane from flying.
5. Engineers were very concerned about the result of Mr. Wang’s actions.
6. A similar incident happened in April 2019.
7. Mr. Lu acted for the same reason as Mr. Wang.
8. Mr. Lu told the court that the airline was responsible for the problem.

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5 Rephrasing

Find vocabulary in the text (on page 5) which means the same as the following.

1. an evil being or spirit (paragraph 1)

2. a disease which kills a lot of people or animals (paragraph 2)

3. existing since a particular time (Para. 3)

4. money used for an organisation or a project to work (paragraph 5)

5. to have to give back something to someone because you’ve already borrowed

it (paragraph 5)

6. to say someone has done something wrong or illegal (paragraph 5)

7. when you feel worried or nervous in a situation (paragraph 6)

8. to feel or believe something in a strong way (paragraph 6)

Now use the vocabulary in the following sentences. You may need to change the form of the word
to fit the sentence.

1. I always feel really just before a job interview.

2. In my country, religion in society.
3. My capital city has buildings to Roman times.
4. The police him of murder, but he wasn’t even in the country at the time.
5. Between 1346 and 1353, between 75 and 200 million people died in the worst
in history.
6. I need to talk to my brother. He still me 20 from the restaurant last week when
he forgot his wallet.
7. My company is borrowing money from the bank to help with its .
8. I saw this great horror film about a which caused problems for an American family
in New York City.

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INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)
SUPERSTITION CAUSES PLANE DELAY
Superstitions - why do we do that?
This week we’re looking at superstitions. We asked Ben and Jenna about superstitions they know
about. Here’s what they said:
1.
Ben, 25: My girlfriend sneezed the other day, and of
course, I said "Bless you" because it’s polite. But then
we started talking about why we do that. She thought
it was because people used to believe that the sneeze
was a demon that you pushed out of your body. So,
saying "Bless you" was supposed to protect you from
the evil spirit re-entering your body.
2.
To be honest, I thought it was from the days of the
plague, or the "Black Death" as they call it, which was
in the 1300s. We learned about it in school. It was
scary but fascinating. Back then, if you sneezed, you
were probably ill, so when you sneezed, people would
say "Bless you" because you were going to die. It was
a kind thing to say.
3.
I looked it up and apparently, there are references to
people saying "Bless you" dating back as far as 150
AD. So, my theory about the Black Death is clearly
wrong. Apparently, people used to think your heart
stopped when you sneezed. Saying "Bless you" was
like saying "Congratulations for not dying". The truth
is, we don’t really know why we say it. None of those
old records give any reason why it happened, just that
it did.
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4.
Jenna, 23: A few of us were watching the film Friday
the 13th a few weeks ago. We started talking about
why Friday the 13th is meant to be such bad luck.
Kirsty said that it was about Christian tradition and
superstition. Jesus had 13 guests at the Last Supper,
which was on a Thursday. One of those guests was
Judas who told the authorities where Jesus was. As
a result, Jesus was killed the next day, on a Friday.
5.
Jada said it was Christian, but it was more to do with
an ancient group of Knights, the Knights Templar who
protected the Church and also dealt with its finances.
The King of France at the time, King Philip IV, owed
them a lot of money. He accused them of crimes and
had a large number of them arrested so he could clear
his debts. The day they were arrested was Friday
13th October, 1307.
6.
Of course, it was all so long ago that it’s hard to really
know if it’s true or not. But I still feel anxious if the
13th day of the month falls on a Friday, even though
I’m not very superstitious. I know a lot of large hotels
will not have a 13th floor; the floors will go from 12
to 14. And some people won’t do business on Friday
the 13th or have 13 people at a party. So, it’s not just
me. Fears about Friday the 13th obviously run deep.
5/7
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6 Reading comprehension

Complete the following sentences with no more than three words from the text.

1. One theory about sneezing is that it released a demon from your body, so saying "Bless you"
stopped it from .
2. During the 1300s, the plague was also known as .
3. There’s evidence of people responding to a sneeze with "Bless you" as long ago as
4. Unfortunately, there’s no explanation given in the of why we do this, so it’s still
a mystery.
5. In the , Friday the 13th is connected with bad luck.
6. The Knights Templar organised the money for the Church and it against enemies.
7. King Philip IV of France wanted to , so he had many of the Knights Templar
arrested.
8. Superstitions around Friday the 13th mean that some people will refuse to on
that day.

7 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What superstitions do people have in your country?

2. Do you know the reason any of these superstitions started?
3. What superstitions do people in your family have?
4. What superstitions do you have personally?
5. What do you think of superstitions? Do you think they are a problem, or not? Why?

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8 Extended activity/homework

Choose a superstition or two from your country that you would like to write about. Explain what that
superstition is and why people have this superstition.

• Write about 150 words.

• Remember to check your spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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