I was totally shocked by the story.
“The funny thing is...”, she laughed “is that he joked with me when he finally staggered out of all that mess on top of him. He told me that he was thinking of me because there were quite a lot of aluminum cans in the skip and he thought if I ever get out of here, I´ll give them to the nice lady that passes by every day!”
So, that was Maria´s job. She picked up aluminum cans every day and sold them to a recycling depot. And every Friday she came to my salon to get her nails done.
Answer the questions in pairs.
1. How did the narrator (the manicurist) know Maria?
2. Why did Maria like the man who worked at the petrol station?
3. What did the girl at the petrol station say had happened to the man?
4. What object did she find that belonged to the man?
5. How did the man end up in the skip?
6. What did the man say he would give to Maria?
7. What was Maria´s job?
Answers
1. The manicurist knew the old lady because she came to her salon every Friday to get her nails done.
2. Because the man smiled at her every day she passed by the petrol station.
3. She said that he hadn’t turned up for work that day. She didn't know what had happened to him and she was filling in for him.
4. His red cap with “Orlando” written on it.
5. He was fixing a hole on his roof. Suddenly he fell and landed in a lorry that was passing by. He was tipped into a skip with stones and rubble. The driver didn´t see him.
6. The aluminum cans that were in the skip.
7. Maria collected aluminum cans to sell to a recycling depot.
STORY THREE – AN UNUSUAL DAY
Published in Exercícios para Falar Melhor em Inglês (Speaking Activities) by Jane Godwin Coury, Editora Disal, São Paulo, Brazil – p39-43.
LEVEL: B1
BACKGROUND: This story is set in the huge metropolis of São Paulo city in Brazil. It tells the story of a woman who has an unusual day at work.
INSTRUCTIONS: Show the students a picture of a helicopter and a black box as below:
Ask the students what the possible connection could be between the helicopter and the black box in a story that is set in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Now ask the students to read Part 1 of the story individually.
In pairs, the students should tell the story so far to their partner. Then, they should discuss what they think will happen next and how the story could possibly finish. Afterwards, ask them to read Part 2 and then talk to their partner again to check if their predictions were correct.
Part 1
São Paulo is a huge city in the Southeast of Brazil, which spreads out over miles in every direction. If you are looking out the window on the top floor of one of its many tall skyscrapers, you will see many different buildings of various shapes and sizes and people bustling here, there and everywhere. It is a modern and dynamic city where business deals take place seven days a week in posh offices and expensive restaurants all over the city.
Maiara is one of Sao Paulo´s 18 million inhabitants. Although she lives in this busy metropolis, she was not born here. She is from a nearby city called Campinas and her parents still live there. Maiara is tall, slim and has dark wavy hair which is shoulder length. She has been married to José for six years.
Every morning, Maiara wakes up at 5am when her alarm clock goes off. After having a long warm shower, she makes some strong coffee and lays the table for breakfast. José normally joins her for the first meal of the day and they usually eat papaya with honey and a bread roll with cheese. At around 6am, José kisses his wife goodbye and goes to work by car. It takes him an hour to arrive at his company as there are often intense traffic jams at this time of day.
Maiara also sets off for work. She is a helicopter pilot and works for a company which provides helicopter shuttle services from a suburb called Tamboré to many places in the centre of São Paulo. Her clients are successful businessmen and women who are smartly dressed and carry leather briefcases.
It was a sunny Tuesday morning and Maiara drove to work as normal and left her Fiat Uno in the parking lot next to the heliport in Tamboré. After greeting her colleagues, she met her client and took him to the helicopter she was to use that day. She noticed that her client was carrying a strange black box. When they got to the helicopter, they sat down next to each other and Maiara went through the pre-flight checking procedure before taking off. Everything seemed to be fine.
At 8am, the helicopter rose up over the buildings and Maiara headed in the direction of Avenida Paulista where her client, a rather chubby man with a dark moustache, had an important meeting at a multinational company. His name was Fernando Silva and he was from Angola. He had told Maiara that he was just visiting Brazil on business. They had few problems communicating as they both speak Portuguese. As they were chatting, Maiara thought that she could hear a hissing noise. However, it soon stopped and she forgot about it.
On top of some of Sao Paulo´s tall office towers are numbers which indicate where helicopter pilots must land. Maiara had been told by radio that she must go to Helipad 167, which was the headquarters of a company called Rainer. Maiara circled around the tower and gently lowered the helicopter until it stopped on top of the roof of the building. Fernando jumped out of the helicopter and said goodbye to her in a thick Angolan accent. Maiara waved at him as she lifted the helicopter off the ground.
As she was flying back, she suddenly realised that her passenger had left the strange black box on the seat beside her.
Tell the story so far to your partner. Discuss what will happen next and how the story will finish.
Part 2
Maiara wondered what to do. If she turned back now, it would be dangerous to suddenly change course. She may cause an accident by doing that. She decided to go on her way and ring her passenger when she arrived back at the heliport.
She dialled the number, but there was only an answering machine so she left a message.
“Senhor Silva. This is Maiara, your helicopter pilot. I am calling to say you left your belongings in the helicopter. Please ring me.”
Maiara put the box inside a safe in the company´s office. Having woken up early and eaten her breakfast some hours ago, she thought it was time for a coffee and a cheese bun so she went to the heliport café to buy one. Just as she sat down to enjoy her mid-morning snack, her mobile phone rang. She picked it up and said:
“Hello.”
“Maiara. This is Fernando Silva. Thanks for your message. I don´t know what to do. I need the box I left in the helicopter, as there is something very important inside. Can you fly back to Avenida Paulista and bring me it? I will pay you for your services, of course.”
“OK, Senhor Silva. I´ll check with my boss. I don´t think there will be any problem.”
Maiara got the go-ahead from her boss and was soon flying back the same way she had previously flown some hours ago. Fernando´s box was on the seat next to her. By this time, she was really quite curious to know what was inside it.
Maiara landed on the tower and saw Fernando waiting anxiously for her. He came running over to her and thanked her for coming all this way. After paying her for the extra trip, he turned round to go back to the door leading to the stairs of the building.
“Senhor Silva,” Maiara called out. “Just one thing! Could you please tell me what is inside your box. I am a bit of a busybody or should I say curious!”
“Well, ok. Please do not tell anyone though.” Fernando opened the strange black box slowly and Maiara saw a 20cm bright green snake. It had been eating a small lizard which was lying dead next to the snake.
“This is a rare snake from Angola”, explained Fernando. “I am taking it to this company to show them. In fact, they are interested in buying it. I had to transport the snake in an inconspicuous way as it would have looked too suspicious.”
Now, Maiara underst
ood what the hissing sound was!
STORY FOUR – THE MYSTERY OBJECT
Published in Exercícios para Falar Melhor em Inglês (Speaking Activities) by Jane Godwin Coury, Editora Disal, São Paulo, Brazil – p48-51.
LEVEL: B1
BACKGROUND: This story is set in the UK and tells the story of two people who meet each other again after some time in unusual circumstances.
INSTRUCTIONS: Ask the students to read Part 1 individually. When they have finished, ask them to tell the story so far to a partner. They should then discuss what will happen next and how the story could possibly finish. Ask them to read Part 2 individually and at the end discuss in groups of three if they had predicted this ending.
Part 1
Abigail liked getting up late. She taught Spanish evening classes to adults and normally went to bed late. On this particular day she was awoken by her young neighbours who were playing music very loudly. This was normal on a Friday in the street where she lived in Southampton. There were many student houses nearby and Friday at 11am was party time for them.
Abigail, who was in her thirties, got out of bed and stretched her arms. She brushed her long dark hair and went downstairs to make herself some breakfast. She put a bowl of cornflakes and a carton of milk on the table. Then, she sat down on her favourite chair still feeling half asleep. There was a local newspaper on the table. She hadn’t had time to read it yesterday so she started flicking through the pages. Suddenly, she saw something that caught her eye on page six. There was a person in a picture that she recognised. Underneath the picture, there was an article. It went like this:
Edward Banks, a landscape designer from Lymington, decided to remodel his garden. This 42-year-old man wanted to plant some apple trees and so he dug some holes in his back garden. While he was digging, he came across something hard.
He said “Luckily I didn’t break the object. I knew it must have been something precious as I could see a shining gold colour gleaming from the ground.”
Edward tried to make a bigger hole and felt the object with his hands. At that very moment, his telephone rang and he hurried quickly into the house to answer it. When he picked up the phone, there was no one there.
“I thought it was strange,” exclaimed Edward.
He put the phone down and went back outside. When he got to the hole, he looked inside and noticed that there was no golden coloured object there anymore.
Abigail was very interested in the story and wanted to know the end. She became very frustrated, though, when she realized that the end of the story was missing. Her dog, Rover, had picked up the newspaper and had chewed up a piece of it. She was very curious to know what had happened to Edward.
Tell the story so far to your partner. Discuss what will happen next and how the story will finish.
Part 2
Abigail thought for a moment about where she had met Edward.
“Now I remember,” she said out loud. “He was in my cooking class I took last year at college.”
She tried to visualize what he looked like. A picture came to mind of a tall man who had blond hair. During the course at college, the students had exchanged phone numbers. Abigail got her notebook that she had used at that time and found Edward’s number. She decided to ring her former classmate to see what had happened.
They arranged to meet up at a nice café on King’s Road the following Saturday. Both Abigail and Edward arrived on time and were pleased to see each other again. Edward told Abigail the story that she had already read in the newspaper. He added that he had ended up in hospital that day because he’d got very anxious about the whole story and had experienced a nervous breakdown. He had told his family and friends about what had happened in the garden but no one had believed him.
Abigail asked Edward if he would like to look for the object again. She would help him if he agreed. Edward was very happy because someone finally believed him. They went back to his house and Edward found two spades, one for him and one for Abigail. They started digging.
“Look!” yelled Abigail suddenly. “I’ve found something.”
Edward quickly rushed over to see what she had discovered. It was a yellowish box with a hole in it. They both pulled it out of the ground. Inside the hole, there was a piece of paper with a plastic bag wrapped around it. By this time, Edward and Abigail were very excited.
“You open it,” suggested Edward.
“OK,” Abigail said tearing the plastic bag. The piece of paper was a little brown, but they could still read it. It said:
Pupils from St. John’s School in Southampton buried this box on 23th March, 1965. Whoever finds it will see 3 things that reflect our life at the time of writing.
1) a cassette of the Beatles
2) a mini skirt
3) a Beatles wig
Edward looked at Abigail and they both burst out laughing. What a pity they didn’t have a cassette player!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jane Godwin Coury is from the UK and has been living and working as an English teacher and teacher trainer in Brazil since 1994. She is an ELT writer and has written many publications focusing on helping English teachers. In 2013, Editora Disal from Brazil published her book called Exercícios para falar melhor em inglês (Speaking Activities), which has 32 speaking activities for English language teachers to use with their students. Since 1987, she has worked in different teaching institutions in Brazil, the UK, the USA, France and Germany. She is a Cambridge Speaking examiner and holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL.
www.janeeltblog.wordpress.com
[email protected]
Four short stories to use in the ELT classroom Page 2