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An amazing Tongan tsunami survival story

I like to use genuinely interesting stories from time to time on my website. In January 2022 an undersea volcano erupted not far from the islands making up the nation of Tonga. Reports were slow to emerge owing to broken undersea cable links and the layer of ash deposited on the island, making it hard for aircraft to land.

The story below was reported in various outlets. I saw it in The Guradian, then sought other versions of the story. I put together this text, together with some vocabulary to find, and a choice of two written tasks.

This would suit a very high-achieving Y11 class (four years minimum, CEFR level B2) or an advanced level group. I would happily have set it for my top set Y11 classes (aiming for GCSE Levels 8-9).

You'll see that I have scaffolded the vocabulary-finding exercise since there is a fair amount of new vocabulary.

You may be interested to read that when I tested this on the NCELP MultiLingProfiler tool, 85.5% of the words come in the top 2000 frequency list (the figure would be a little higher if proper names were not included).

Help yourself if you like it. The original is on the Y10-11 page of frenchteacher.net. The formatting of the vocab list will be dodgy on this page.


Une remarquable histoire de survie

En janvier 2022, une éruption volcanique sous-marine a provoqué un énorme nuage de cendres et un tsunami qui ont touché les îles voisines de Tonga. Un premier rapport a révélé une histoire étonnante de survie. Un Tongien handicapé a nagé pendant 27 heures sur 12 kilomètres d'océan afin de survivre après avoir été emporté par le tsunami dévastateur qui a frappé les îles.

Lisala Folau, 57 ans, menuisier à la retraite, était chez lui sur l'île d'Atata avec son fils et sa nièce vers 18 heures samedi, lorsqu'une vague de 6 mètres les a emportés à des kilomètres du rivage.

À la dérive et seul, il a passé les 27 heures suivantes à nager entre des îles inhabitées. Il a essayé en vain de signaler les bateaux qui passaient avant d'arriver finalement sur une autre île, où il a été récupéré par une voiture qui passait.

Lisala a des problèmes aux deux jambes qui le font "marcher plus lentement qu'un bébé". Il a dit qu'il avait décidé de ne pas appeler à l'aide parce qu'il ne voulait pas que son fils ou sa nièce risquent leur vie en essayant de le sauver.

Lisala a expliqué à la station de radio tongane Broadcom FM que c’est son frère qui l’avait d'abord averti du tsunami.

Il a dit que la famille est sortie de la maison et a grimpé à un arbre pour échapper aux vagues.

La famille est descendue de l’arbre – mais l'île a ensuite été frappée par une deuxième vague, que Lisala estime à plus de 6 mètres de haut, qui les a emportés tous les trois vers la mer.

Lisala a expliqué qu'il ne voyait pas son fils ou sa nièce dans l'eau parce qu'il faisait noir, mais il pouvait les entendre l'appeler.

Lisala a déclaré qu'il avait décidé d'ignorer les cris et de rester silencieux, car il ne voulait pas que son fils ou sa nièce risquent leur vie en essayant de le sauver.

Lisala a finalement trouvé un arbre cassé et a décidé de s'y accrocher en pensant que, s'il mourait, sa famille avait au moins une chance de retrouver son corps.

Mais, au lieu de mourir, il a dérivé vers l'île voisine de Toketoke - qui est inhabitée - où il est arrivé tôt dimanche matin.

 

Vocabulaire

to cause – p_______            cloud – n_____ (m)                to affect – t______

report – r______ (m)            to reveal - _______                 amazing – é________

survival – s______ (f)          in order to – a___ __              to carry away – e_______

to strike, hit – f______          carpenter – m_________       retired - _ __ _______

wave – v_____ (f)                 shore – r______ (m)               adrift – à __ _______

to swim – n_____                   to try – e_______                    before – a_____ _

to pick up, rescue – r______ slowly – l__________             to save – s_______

to warn – a_______               to climb – g______                 to escape – é_______ _

it was dark – i_ _____ ____  shouting – c___ (m.pl.)           tree – a_____ (m)

broken – c_____                    to cling on to – s’a_______ _ to die – m_____

to find – r_______                 instead of – a_ l___ __           to drift – d______

uninhabited – i________       early – t__

 

Writing task

Either

1.    Write a first-person account of the events from the point of view of Lisala Folau.

Or

2.    Write an interview between a journalist and Lisa Folau.

For both tasks it’s recommended to reuse the language in the article as far as possible.


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