The pilot of a light aircraft gave New Zealand a scare on the night of its national elections by threatening to crash his airplane into Auckland’s tallest building. The threat was reminiscent of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Authorities quickly evacuated the 328-meter-high Sky Tower, as 500 terrified occupants scuttled down 57 flights of stairs. The plane circled Auckland’s harbor and made several close range passes of the landmark building. After a tense 15 minutes, the pilot ditched the plane into the water 50 meters from the shore. He managed to make his own way to the beach and was immediately arrested by police. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Police are now interviewing the man, flying instructor David Turnock, 33, regarding his motives for the aborted “attack”. Sources have revealed Turnock had no political motivation for his actions and the fact that the incident occurred on election night was pure coincidence. It is now coming to light that the whole affair was a stunt designed to reconcile with his wife, who had apparently just split up with him. Turnock stole the plane from a local university, where he used to work as a flight instructor. He flew over the city for several hours before notifying air traffic controllers of his intention to crash into the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. He is unlikely to be charged under terrorism laws.

WARM-UPS

1. LOVE: In pairs / groups, talk about love. What is love? What would you do to prove your love to your partner? How much money would you spend on a present to show your love to your partner?

2. SENTENCE STARTERS: In pairs / groups, agree on an ending to the following sentence starters about love. Talk about them. Change partners and compare your sentence endings.

1. Love is _________________________________________________________.
2. Being in love is __________________________________________________.
3. My partner is  ___________________________________________________.
4. My perfect partner is ______________________________________________.
5. To show my love, I _______________________________________________.
6. My love is ______________________________________________________.

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Pilots / light aircraft / New Zealand / tall buildings / terror threats / evacuations / harbors / beaches / stunts / police / marriage break ups / southern hemisphere

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. OUR STORY: In pairs / groups, look at the words in the “Chat” activity above and speculate on what the story might be. Change partners and tell each other your stories.

5. NEW ZEALAND: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with New Zealand. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

6. THE ENDS OF THE EARTH: Which of the actions below would you take to prove your love to your partner? Talk about them in pairs / groups.

1. Steal a light aircraft and threaten to crash it into a tall building.
2. Follow him / her to the ends of the earth.
3. Sell everything you own.
4. Give up your job to be with him / her.
5. Buy him / her flowers every day of your lives together.
6. Scream “I love you” in front of all of your family and friends.
7. Put his / her dreams in front of your own.
8. Promise to do everything he / she says without question, forever.
9. Other.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	A suicide bomber threatened to attack a New Zealand polling station.	T / F
b.	Auckland’s tallest building was evacuated.	T / F
c.	A light aircraft flew around the tall building for 15 minutes.	T / F
d.	The pilot crashed the plane into a 50-meter-wide ditch.	T / F
e.	The pilot has said he was unhappy with New Zealand politics.	T / F
f.	The whole incident was a stunt to reconcile with his wife.	T / F
g.	The building is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere.	T / F
h.	He faces charges of terrorism.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	scare	informing
b.	reminiscent	hurried
c.	scuttled	emerging
d.	tense	stimulus
e.	ditched	terminated
f.	motives	evocative
g.	aborted	reunite
h.	coming to light	fright
i.	reconcile	crashed
j.	notifying	nerve-racking

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	light	for the aborted “attack”
b.	reminiscent of the attacks	down 57 flights of stairs
c.	occupants scuttled	reconcile with his wife
d.	made several close range passes	on New York’s World Trade Center
e.	the pilot ditched	to light
f.	regarding his motives	the plane into the water
g.	pure	aircraft
h.	now coming	under terrorism laws
i.	a stunt designed to	coincidence
j.	charged	of the landmark building

WHILE READING / LISTENING

WORD ORDER: Put the underlined words back into the correct order.

New Zealand’s election terror scare

The pilot aircraft of gave a light New Zealand a scare on the night of its national elections by threatening to crash his airplane into Auckland’s tallest building. The threat of attacks was the reminiscent on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Authorities quickly evacuated the 328-meter-high Sky Tower, as 500 occupants down scuttled terrified 57 flights of stairs. The plane circled Auckland’s harbor and passes several close made range of the landmark building. After a tense 15 minutes, the pilot ditched the plane into the water 50 meters from the shore. He managed to own his way to make the beach and was immediately arrested by police. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
 

Police are now interviewing the man, flying instructor David Turnock, 33, regarding his “attack” for the aborted motives. Sources have revealed Turnock had no political motivation for his actions that the fact and the incident occurred on election night was pure coincidence. It is light now that coming to the whole affair was a stunt designed to reconcile with his wife, who had apparently with just him up split. Turnock stole the plane from a local university, where he used to work as a flight instructor. He flew over the city for several hours before notifying air traffic controllers of his intention to crash into the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. He is charged to be under unlikely terrorism laws.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘close’ and ‘range’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. WORD ORDER: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity.

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “CRAZY LOVE” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about love and the crazy things people do for it.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

light reminiscent scuttled passes shore serious

aborted pure stunt split notifying southern

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. What were your initial thoughts on this headline?
2. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
3. What do you think of Mr. Turnock’s actions?
4. How much do you think he loves his wife?
5. Do you think he should be charged as a terrorist?
6. What kind of punishment do you think he should receive?
7. What would you be thinking now if you were Mrs. Turnock?
8. Is Mr. Turnock a hero?
9. What would you think of Mr. Turnock if you had been one of the people evacuated from the Sky Tower?
10. Do you think the owners of the Sky Tower should sue Mr. Turnock?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. Mr. Turnock flew around Auckland for several hours and was not intercepted by security forces. Could this happen in your country?
4. Do you think the expression “all’s fair in love and war” is appropriate in this story?
5. Do you think Mrs. Turnock should reconcile with her husband?
6. What question would you like to ask Mr. Turnock?
7. What do you think his answer would be?
8. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done for love?
9. Have you ever wanted to reconcile with ex-partners?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

THE MOVIE: In pairs / groups, create the movie story for New Zealand’s election terror scare. Use the hints in the table as a guide. You may add more.

HINTS	STORY
Opening scene
How the Turnocks met
The circumstances around their break-up
David’s phone call to his wife before he stole the plane
His wife’s response
In the cockpit as David flies around the Sky Tower
Mystery scene
His wife watching on TV at home
Ending scene

Change partners and share your stories. Tell each other how you can make the stories more dramatic.

Return to your original partners and report on the feedback you received. Decide on revisions to your story to make the final version. Would it be a great movie? Choose the actors.

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

New Zealand’s election terror scare

The pilot of a light aircraft gave New Zealand a ______ on the night of its national elections by threatening to crash his airplane into Auckland’s tallest building. The threat was ____________ of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Authorities quickly ____________ the 328-meter-high Sky Tower, as 500 terrified occupants ________ down 57 flights of stairs. The plane circled Auckland’s harbor and made several close range ________ of the landmark building. After a tense 15 minutes, the pilot ________ the plane into the water 50 meters from the ________. He managed to make his own way to the beach and was immediately arrested by police. He was taken to hospital with ________ injuries.

Police are now interviewing the man, flying ________ David Turnock, 33, regarding his motives for the ________ “attack”. Sources have revealed Turnock had no political motivation for his actions and the fact that the ________ occurred on election night was ________ coincidence. It is now coming to light that the whole affair was a ________ designed to reconcile with his wife, who had apparently just ________ ___ with him. Turnock stole the plane from a local university, where he used to work as a flight instructor. He flew over the city for several hours before ________ air traffic controllers of his intention to crash into the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. He is unlikely to be ________ ________ terrorism laws.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information about the story in the article. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson.

3. EVACUATED: You were evacuated from Auckland’s Sky Tower because of David Turnock’s terror threat. Write down your feelings during and after the “attack”. Read what you wrote to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all have similar feelings?

4. DIARY / JOURNAL: You are David Turnock. Write your diary / journal entry for the day of your aborted attack on Auckland’s Sky Tower. Read your diary / journal to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. T

d. F

e. F

f. T

g. T

h. F

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	scare	fright
b.	reminiscent	evocative
c.	scuttled	hurried
d.	tense	nerve-racking
e.	ditched	crashed
f.	motives	stimulus
g.	aborted	terminated
h.	coming to light	emerging
i.	reconcile	reunite
j.	notifying	informing

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	light	aircraft
b.	reminiscent of the attacks	on New York’s World Trade Center
c.	occupants scuttled	down 57 flights of stairs
d.	made several close range passes	of the landmark building
e.	the pilot ditched	the plane into the water
f.	regarding his motives	for the aborted “attack”
g.	pure	coincidence
h.	now coming	to light
i.	a stunt designed to	reconcile with his wife
j.	charged	under terrorism laws

WORD ORDER:

New Zealand’s election terror scare

The pilot of a light aircraft gave New Zealand a scare on the night of its national elections by threatening to crash his airplane into Auckland’s tallest building. The threat was reminiscent of the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Authorities quickly evacuated the 328-meter-high Sky Tower, as 500 terrified occupants scuttled down 57 flights of stairs. The plane circled Auckland’s harbor and made several close range passes of the landmark building. After a tense 15 minutes, the pilot ditched the plane into the water 50 meters from the shore. He managed to make his own way to the beach and was immediately arrested by police. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Police are now interviewing the man, flying instructor David Turnock, 33, regarding his motives for the aborted “attack”. Sources have revealed Turnock had no political motivation for his actions and the fact that the incident occurred on election night was pure coincidence. It is now coming to light that the whole affair was a stunt designed to reconcile with his wife, who had apparently just split up with him. Turnock stole the plane from a local university, where he used to work as a flight instructor. He flew over the city for several hours before notifying air traffic controllers of his intention to crash into the Sky Tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. He is unlikely to be charged under terrorism laws.

 

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