Click to return to main page

'A Mobile Drama'

This story is taken from the Gulf News. Before you read it, look at the following words and check you
understand them


wreckage = broken parts e.g. after the accident, they moved the wreckage of the car. 
threaten = behave in a negative and sometimes aggressive way e.g. The match threatened to
be a disaster. The teacher threatened to give them a test every week!
ominous=Something very bad will happen e.g. I smelled something ominous, it was the dinner
burning!!!
batter = Hit very hard e.g. The monsoon battered the coast of Indonesia.
disintegrate= to fall into small pieces e.g. The glass bowl disintegrated when I dropped it onto
the floor.
cling/clung/clung= hold on very very tightly. e.g. the child clung to the edge of the seat when
the monster came into the film!
duo= a word meaning two people e.g. a singing duo entertained the audience.

Now read the text and then answer the questions below 

A Mobile Drama                    
By Tahseen Shaghouri Fujairah

Clutching on to a piece of wreckage from their stricken boat as mountainous waves threatened to swallow them, two sailors sent an SOS from their mobile phone that saved their lives.' Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Abboud, 21, and Khamis Saeed Mohammed Al Badi, 20, both nationals, set out fishing on Monday. The weather was fine at first, but suddenly it turned ominous. No sooner had they realised that they were in trouble than high waves and strong winds began to batter their boat just off the Murbeh Coast. In a matter of minutes, the fibre-glass craft started disintegrating.As the stricken boat fell apart, the two men grabbed a piece of the wreckage and clung for dear life, bobbing about in the angry sea.
There was no help in sight, and all seemed lost. Then they had an idea.' Could their mobile phone perhaps still be in working condition? It was, and in seconds they were through Abboud's uncle, pleading for help. Abboud's uncle knows the sea well and instructed them to hold on to the plank. They gave him their precise location and he notified the CoastGuards, who raced off to the rescue in four speed boats, but Abboud's uncle grew restless and set out to sea himself. As he got nearer the wreckage he saw that the Coast Guard boats had already reached the duo, and the two were
exhausted but safe.

Choose the correct answer 

                                                    

1. The weather                                                             

a) The weather was bad when the boys went fishing.  
b) The weather became bad slowly 
c) The weather changed fast .


2.The boat
a) was made of wood
b) was fibre glass
c) was a very old boat.

3.They used the mobile phone

a) Immediately

b) As soon  as they could

c) When they thought no help could reach them.

4.How many boats went to rescue the guys?

a) Four boats

b) One boat

c) Five boats

5. The guys in the story

a) Were good fishermen

b) Were very lucky

c) Called the coastguard