Tuesday January 18, 2005
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Subway passengers in Bangkok, Thailand, can count their lucky blessings today following a morning rush hour train crash at the capital’s Cultural Centre Station. Miraculously, no one died in the accident, although over 200 were injured, including the train driver who suffered severe back injuries. An empty train somehow managed to link to the subway’s single track and ploughed into a stationary train carrying more than 700 passengers. There was no fire resulting from the collision and all of the injured were removed and taken to hospital, feeling lucky to be alive. One passenger said, “I feel like I escaped death. There was panic and chaos and at first I thought it was a terrorist attack”. Thailand’s transport minister has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the accident, but has suspended all subway operations to allow a full investigation into the causes of the incident. A computer malfunction is suspected of being the culprit.  The subway only opened last July, However, during trial runs in April there was a similar accident. The subway 20 kilometres long, has 18 stations and is used by 250,000 people each day.

Lesson & plan in Word.doc     Example Class Handout in .pdf

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Bangkok / subways / rail safety / rush hour / lucky escapes / computer malfunctions / …
To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. BANGKOK BRAINSTORM: Brainstorm and write on the board any words students associate with Bangkok. Students use these words as a springboard for further conversation.

3. MY SUBWAY: Students talk about the subway systems in their own city / country (or the need for one if they don’t have a subway). Also talk about other subways around the world – London Underground, Paris and New York Metros, Moscow’s palatial subway, Singapore’s spotlessly clean stations, Tokyo’s people-pushers …

4. TRANSPORT SAFETY: How safe is public transport? Every day there are news reports of accidents, injuries and deaths on trains, planes, buses and boats:
(a) Rank which of the following modes of transport are safest: rickshaw, motorbike taxi, city bus, intercity bus, tram (or trolley or street car), ocean liner, subway, bullet train, airplane, hovercraft, supersonic aircraft, other (local) modes….
(b) In pairs discuss the possible dangers of three of these forms of transportation. Change partners and tell new partner of these dangers. It is the new partner’s job to dismiss all of these dangers and make reassurances that the modes of transport are 100% safe.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘subway’, and ‘passenger’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  Subway passengers in Bangkok are counting sheep.  T / F
(b)  There was an evening rush hour train crash.  T / F
(c)  Over 200 people are feared dead.  T / F
(d)  An empty train crashed into a stationery train carrying more than 700 passengers.  T / F
(e)  There was no fire after the train crash.  T / F
(f)  Thailand’s transport minister said it may be terrorism.  T / F
(g)  All subway operations have been suspended to allow a full investigation.  T / F
(h)  A computer malfunction is suspected of being the culprit.  T / F 

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	subway	incident
(b)	count their lucky blessings	test
(c)	accident	impact
(d)	severe	halted
(e)	stationary	underground
(f)	collision	serious
(g)	chaos	error
(h)	suspended	breath a sigh of relief
(i)	malfunction	parked
(j)	trial	pandemonium

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	subway	hour
(b)	count their lucky	injuries
(c)	morning rush	investigation
(d)	severe back	death
(e)	single	runs
(f)	feeling lucky to	out terrorism
(g)	I escaped	passengers
(h)	transport minister has ruled	be alive
(i)	full	track
(j)	trial	blessings

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Bangkok subway crash

Subway __________ in Bangkok, Thailand, can __________ their lucky blessings today following a morning rush hour train crash at the capital’s Cultural Centre Station. Miraculously, no one died in the accident, although over 200 were __________, including the train driver who suffered severe back injuries. An empty train somehow managed to __________ to the subway’s single track and ploughed into a stationary train carrying more than 700 passengers. There was no fire __________ from the collision and all of the injured were removed and taken to hospital, feeling lucky to be alive. One passenger said, “I feel like I escaped death. There was panic and __________ and at first I thought it was a terrorist attack& rdquo;. Thailand’s transport minister has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the accident, but has __________ all subway operations to allow a full investigation into the causes of the incident. A computer malfunction is suspected of being the culprit.  The subway only opened last July, However, __________ trial runs in April there was a similar accident. The subway 20 kilometres long, has 18 stations and is used by 250,000 people each day.

suspended count chaos passengers resulting during injured link

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘SUBWAY’/ ‘PASSENGER’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:
(a)  What do you think of this news?
(b)  Do you trust the safety of public transport?
(c)  How safe is your country’s public transport compared to other countries?
(d)  What is the safest way to travel?
(e)  Have you ever been involved in an accident while using public transport?
(f)  Have you ever experienced Bangkok’s infamous traffic problems or ridden on Bangkok’s subway?
(g)  What’s the best subway system you’ve used?
(h)  Do you have a favourite train station (subway or other)?
(i)  Are you surprised when you hear of major train, bus, ferry, plane … accidents?
(j)  What has happened to you that made you count your lucky blessings?
(k)  Do you ever travel during the rush hour? Do you like it?
(l)  Have you ever felt lucky to be alive after a near miss?
(m)  Have you ever experienced chaos and panic?
(n)  When was the last time you panicked?
(o)  Teacher’s / Students’ additional questions

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on any subway system. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. SUBWAY POSTER: Create a poster about your subway system or favourite train station.

4. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT: Imagine you were on the Bangkok subway train. Write an account of your experiences. Focus on the noises you heard while you write.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:
(a)  Subway passengers in Bangkok are counting sheep.  F
(b)  There was an evening rush hour train crash.  F
(c)  Over 200 people are feared dead.  F
(d)  An empty train crashed into a stationery train carrying more than 700 passengers.  T
(e)  There was no fire after the train crash.  T
(f)  Thailand’s transport minister said it may be terrorism.  F
(g)  All subway operations have been suspended to allow a full investigation.  T
(h)  A computer malfunction is suspected of being the culprit.  T

DEFINITIONS:

(a)	passengers (n)	(b) people who travel in a car, train, plane, taxi, boat… without driving or flying it
(b)	count one’s lucky blessings (v)	(a) to be, and feel, very very fortunate
(c)	rush hour (n)	(a) the busiest times at the beginning and end of the working day when many people are traveling to or from work
(d)	severe (adj)	(b) very very serious
(e)	ploughed into (v)	(a) to crash into something at high speed
(f)	stationary (adj)	(a) not moving
(g)	chaos (n)	(b) great disorder or confusion
(h)	suspended (v)	(a) to stop something from happening for a short period of time
(i)	malfunction (n)	(b) something that has not worked properly, or has failed to operate
(j)	culprit (n)	(a) the person or thing that has done something wrong

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	subway	underground
(b)	count their lucky blessings	breath a sigh of relief
(c)	accident	incident
(d)	severe	serious
(e)	stationary	parked
(f)	collision	impact
(g)	chaos	pandemonium
(h)	suspended	halted
(i)	malfunction	error
(j)	trial	test

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	subway	passengers
(b)	count their lucky	blessings
(c)	morning rush	hour
(d)	severe back	injuries
(e)	single	track
(f)	feeling lucky to	be alive
(g)	I escaped	death
(h)	transport minister has ruled	out terrorism
(i)	full	investigation
(j)	trial	runs

GAP FILL:

Bangkok subway crash

Subway passengers in Bangkok, Thailand, can count their lucky blessings today following a morning rush hour train crash at the capital’s Cultural Centre Station. Miraculously, no one died in the accident, although over 200 were injured, including the train driver who suffered severe back injuries. An empty train somehow managed to link to the subway’s single track and ploughed into a stationary train carrying more than 700 passengers. There was no fire resulting from the collision and all of the injured were removed and taken to hospital, feeling lucky to be alive. One passenger said, “I feel like I escaped death. There was panic and chaos and at first I thought it was a terrorist attack”. Thailand’s transport minister has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the accident, but has suspended all subway operations to allow a full investigation into the causes of the incident. A computer malfunction is suspected of being the culprit.  The subway only opened last July, However, during trial runs in April there was a similar accident. The subway 20 kilometres long, has 18 stations and is used by 250,000 people each day.