A short intermediate level English resource.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS with a Twister
Tornado ! Paul Denman tells about the day he came face to face with America's most frightening meteorological phenomenon
Until last
year, I'd always wanted to see a tornado. A few years ago, in
Oklahoma, I saw one of those violent dark green storm skies, with small
cones
hanging down from its underside; but the tornado that people feared at
that moment never materialized.
The cones were sucked
back into the clouds, and eventually the sun came out again.
Then last year I met my first (and thankfully only) tornado.... and it was not in the south. We were in Montana - tranquil old Montana - enjoying our summer vacation, when the twister struck. The day had begun like any ordinary July day in Montana, with a bright blue sky, and hot sunshine. A few bubbling clouds were blowing across, as we made our way in the footsteps of Calamity Jane , towards an ancient mining town called Castle. In the days when the West was Wild, Castle was a rough and busy town, full of miners looking for silver and gold. Jane stayed there for a few years, running a bar. Today, Castle is a "ghost town", a collection of old wooden buildings, some still standing, others just a pile of fallen boards and planks of wood. Abandoned over 100 years ago, when the mines ran out of precious metals, Castle now lies in the middle of nowhere, miles from a paved road, miles from civilisation.
That morning,
Castle was deserted. Few visitors make
the journey to this distant part of
Montana, and even fewer want to drive ten miles on a dirt-track
to visit a place like Castle. The sun was shining brightly when we
arrived, and it was still shining when we found the house where Jane
used to live. It wasn't until the sun went behind a cloud that we
looked up at the sky.
"Hey!" said Sarah, "Look, there's a storm
coming..." Indeed, to the south, the sky had turned an inky
black. A storm was coming, and it looked like a big one.
"Let's get
back to the main road," Sarah added. "These tracks will be unpassable
if there's a storm."
"Sure, that's a good idea, let's get
going!" I said
"If we go north, we'll
come out near White Sulphur Springs," said Robbie.
The track wound
upwards through a forest of pine trees, then divided, then divided
again.
"Which way?" I asked.
"Take the track to the right," said Julie
who had the map.
"Are you sure?"
"No, I'm not sure exactly where we
are... the map doesn't show all these tracks... but I think so."
The
time was just about midday, yet somehow, in the space of ten minutes,
all the blue had vanished from the sky, and the light was fading
fast, as if evening was coming on. The track twisted and turned, up and
down, through woods and over streams, and then, at last, out onto an
open, treeless, hilltop. Suddenly Sarah shouted. "Look, a tornado!"
I
pulled the car to a stop, and looked back; and there it was. Just like
in the movie: the clouds were hanging like a dark ceiling above our
heads, slate
gray with tinges of brown and green. And
there, just a few miles to the south, was the tornado, an inky funnel
of twisting cloud coming right down to the ground. Beside it, several
other menacing cones were hanging downwards, ready to strike. We could
see them moving in our direction.
"Let's get out of here!" I
said, and threw the car into
gear.
I don't usually
drive cars at 50 m.p.h along dirt tracks, but this time I did; as we sped
across the open hilltop, it seemed like there were three different
storms coming towards us at once, from three different directions. By
now we could see waves of wind gusting
across the grassland, and by the time we reached the trees again,
branches were blowing in all directions. Then, beside the track, we
came across a group of tourists on quad
bikes, enjoying a cross-country trip. We
stopped the car for a moment to warn them, but the tour-guide laughed.
"Tornado?! No! We don't get tornados here!" I wasn't going to hang around arguing
with him,
so we just set
off again, hoping to find a real road
where we could move faster than the storm. But it was not to be. We had
come out of the woods, and were going down into a valley when suddenly
the hills in front of us vanished. It all happened in the space of
about two minutes.
"It's coming this way," shouted Sarah.
"Find some shelter!"
said Julie.
There was none - not a tree, not a building, not a bridge,
until, just as we were giving
up hope, like a mirage in the desert, we spotted
an old abandoned church. Just beyond it, the sky seemed to touch the
ground. As we raced towards the shelter of this - probably the most
solid building for miles around - the first hailstones
hit us, as big as golf balls, blowing almost horizontally across the windscreen.
We reached the church, and pulled to an abrupt halt. Shelter! By then
we could see nothing - or at least nothing further from us than about
fifteen meters; and although there were four of us in the car, and it
was a heavy car too, the vehicle was jumping up and down on its springs,
as if someone was trying to push it over. The noise of the wind and the
hailstones on the roof was deafening,
and conversation was impossible, so we just sat there in silence hoping
and praying that our car was not going to be picked up like a leaf, and
thrown across into the unknown that we could not see.....
It probably lasted
about ten minutes - but sitting in that bumping noisy car, it seemed
more like ten hours until, almost as suddenly as it had started, the
wind stopped, and the hail stopped falling. Normality returned.
"Phew!", said Sarah. "I thought
we'd had it!"
"Me too," said Robbie.
Fortunately, the tornado had missed us, and we'd
just been through the very violent storm that accompanied it. But just
short distance down the road, the twister had caused chaos and
destruction, flattening a farm and a garage as it rolled across the
prairies of Montana. A week later, a similar twister crashed into a
camp ground in Alberta, Canada, killing a dozen people, and wrecking
hundreds of tents and caravans. With hindsight,
I felt that we'd been quite lucky. I'd seen my twister, I'd been on the
edge of it, but fortunately not in the middle. Frankly, that was quite
enough.
TORNADO ALLEY
Perhaps you saw the movie "Twister". Remember, it was the film about scientists who wanted to measure the forces in the middle of a tornado. It was a frightening movie, which illustrated the incredible strength of this terrifying natural phenomenon. Though small tornados can happen in many parts of the world, it is only in North America that the real big "twisters" attack. "Tornado Alley" stretches from the Gulf of Mexico in the south, as far as the plains of Alberta, Canada, in the north. The further north you go, the rarer they are; but in the southern states of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, Tornados strike every year, destroying houses and mobile homes, cars and trees, and anything else that gets in their way.
Notes:
Calamity Jane
Jane was one of the very few women who became famous in the very masculine world of the Wild West. She was really Martha Jane Burke, 1852-1903. She spent most of her life in mining towns of South Dakota, and working on the wagon trains that brought supplies to the wild and isolated towns. She was an excellent shot with a revolver or a rifle.The
days
when the
West was Wild:
Generally, the second half of the
nineteenth century, as
the new territories, between the Mississippi and the Pacific, were
opened up. In particular, the short period between about 1850 and 1880,
the "heyday" of the legendary West.
board: plank of wood - cone: a rounded pyramidal form - deafening: very loud indeed (it can make you deaf) - dirt track: a road with no hard surface - fade: diminish, disappear - get going: leave, depart, start - give up: abandon - gust: a violent movement of the wind - hailstones: small balls of ice - hang around: stay - hindsight: retrospect - inky: like ink, very dark - into gear: gears come between the engine to the wheels - make one's way: go - make the journey: come, travel - materialize: become real, appear - quad bikes: four-wheeled motor scooters - rough: violent, dangerous - run out of: come to the end of, have no more of - run: to manage, to own, to operate - set off: move away - shelter: protection - slate gray: almost black (gray US = grey GB) - sped:past tense of to speed, go very fast - spot: see - spring: a mechanism that absorbs bumps and jolts - struck:past tense of to strike, to hit - suck: pull - we'd had it: we were in serious danger - windscreen: front window of a car - wound: past tense of to wind, twist, turn - wreck: destroy -
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Close Encounters with a Tornado - Worksheet
Exercise 1:
Interactive gap-fill exercise. Use on screen or on paper : prepositions
Fill in the missing prepositions in this extract . You will find a list of the missing prepositions in the left hand column. The number indicates how many times each one is needed. (To save your answers, take a screenshot when you have made your choices)| List
of missing prepositions to replace:
About: 3 , above 1, across 4, along 1 , at 4, beside 2, beyond 1, by 3, down 3, for 2, from 3, in 7 , into 1, of 10, off 1, on 2, out 3, over 1, through 1, to 10, towards 2, up 2, with 2, |
The
time was just midday, yet
somehow, the
space ten minutes, all the blue had vanished the sky,
and
the light was fading fast, as if evening was coming . The track twisted and turned, and , woods and streams, and then, last, onto an open, treeless, hilltop. Suddenly Sarah shouted. "Look, a tornado!" I pulled the car a stop, and looked back; and there it was. Just like the movie: the clouds were hanging like a dark ceiling our heads, slate gray tinges brown and green. And there, just a few miles the south, was the tornado, an inky funnel twisting cloud coming right the ground. it, several other menacing cones were hanging downwards, ready strike. We could see them moving our direction. "Let's get here!" I said, and threw the car gear. I don't usually drive cars 50 m.p.h dirt tracks, but this time I did; as we sped the open hilltop, it seemed like there were three different storms coming us once, three different directions. now we could see waves wind gusting the grassland, and the time we reached the trees again, branches were blowing all directions. Then, the track, we came a group tourists quad bikes, enjoying a cross-country trip. We stopped the car a moment warn them, but the tour-guide laughed. "Tornado?! No! We don't get tornados here!" I wasn't going hang around arguing him, so we just set again, hoping find a real road where we could move faster than the storm. But it was not be. We had come the woods, and were going a valley when suddenly the hills front us vanished. It all happened the space two minutes. "It's coming this way," shouted Sarah. "Find some shelter!" said Julie. There was none - not a tree, not a building, not a bridge, until, just as we were giving hope, like a mirage the desert, we spotted an old abandoned church. Just it, the sky seemed touch the ground. As we raced the shelter this - probably the most solid building miles around - the first hailstones hit us, as big as golf balls, blowing almost horizontally the windscreen. We reached the church, and pulled an abrupt halt. Shelter! then we could see nothing - or least nothing further us than fifteen meters. |
Exercise 2:
Read the article, and decide which of the three alternatives suggested is the best synonym for the following words or phrases:
- Eventually .
- Funnel
- At once
- We came across
- Warn them
- It lasted
Exercise 3:
Make up eight questions that you would like to ask Sarah, using eight different structures or questions words, including two from each of these groups:
* Group 1: Questions with NO question word.
* Group 2: Questions with how much or how many.
* Group 3: Questions with how often, how long, or how + adjective.
* Group 4: Questions with what, where, how, when or why.
Imagine Sarah's reply in each case.
Exercise 4:
Teachers, a) using exercise 3 as a starting point, have students script an imaginary interview involving Sarah or Paul and a radio reporter; this interview can be acted out in class, or recorded.
b) Note tense usage in this article, notably use of the past perfect (with had). this is only used in English, when it is necessary to place one action or event further in the past (i.e.before) than another that is mentioned.
Until (i.e.before) last year (past event), I HAD always wanted to see a tornado.
Grammar point - the present participle and -ing forms
This text is very rich in -ing forms – words like hanging, enjoying, bubbling, blowing. Most of the examples in this text are present participles (on their own, or indicating a continuous verb form), and there is only one verbal noun in -ing and that is building.The past progressive tense: In particular, this text has over a dozen examples of verbs used in the continuous or progressive aspect, most frequently in the past progressive tense, as in A few bubbling clouds were blowing across.
For a full explanation of -ing forms with lots of examples, see Gerunds and -ing forms in A Descriptive Grammar of English, section 1.9.
Further suggestions submitted by Annette Engelmann, from Switzerland.
A/ Find the synonyms (look only at the bold and italicized words)
To go
To have no more of
Four-wheeled motor scooters
Protection
To appear, become real
B/ Answer the following questions about the text (full sentences, please)
1. What was the weather like when Paul Denman experienced a tornado in
Castle? Explain the development of the weather.
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2. How many people were there in the car? Give the names.
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3. What were the reactions of the various people in the car?
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4. Who and what saved them?
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C/ Your opinion (number of words is the minimum expected)
1. What do you think happened to the group of tourists? (30 words )
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2. How do you think you would react in a similar situation? (30 words)
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3. Do you think anything like this could happen in your country? Why (not)? (25 words)
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Other ideas?
EFL teachers: Help develop this resource by contributing extra teaching materials or exercises.
To contribute click here for further details
Reading comprehension in the English class
(Version française : Petite méthodologie de la compréhension écrite )
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