British Council - BBC: The Sinking of The Titanic

British Council | BBC
The Sinking of the Titanic
1. Answer the questions.

2. Complete the sentences with the third conditional of the verbs given.
3. Elaborate the missing parts of the sentences using the third conditional.
READING COMPREHENSION adapted from www.wikipedia.org
The sinking of the Titanic

The sinking of the RMS Titanic was one of the worst maritime disasters in history. On April 14, 1912, at
11:40 p.m., the ‘unsinkable’ luxury ship hit an iceberg and sank in just under three hours with the loss of
around 1500 lives. There are many different descriptions of the disaster by the surviving passengers and
crew, but few people doubt that human error played a part in the tragedy. Let’s look at some of the things
that went wrong.
On the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912 the temperature was near freezing and the ocean was completely
calm. Surviving 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller later wrote, "the sea was like glass". The ship’s course had
been changed by the captain, but other than this, he saw no reason to slow down. The owner of the ship,
Bruce Ismay, was also on board and had instructed the captain to speed up in order to break the record for
a transatlantic voyage. The captain agreed, but perhaps if he had known of the messages the ship had
received in the radio room, he would have acted differently. According to a ship ahead called the Mesaba,
lots of large icebergs were in the area. These messages did not reach him.
There were three teams of lookouts on board keeping constant watch for obstacles in the ship’s path, but as
Charles Lightoller said at the British inquiry, "Everything was against us, there was no moon, no wind, no
binoculars and with the dark side of the iceberg facing the ship, the lookouts were powerless.”
When the alarm was finally raised the crew acted very quickly but it was already too late to save the ship.
Within twenty minutes of the collision the ship had flooded, so the captain ordered the lifeboats to be
prepared, filled with women and children, and lowered into the water. This didn’t go well, regulations
about the number of lifeboats a ship should carry were already out of date when the Titanic set sail, and
even if the evacuation had been better organised, there wouldn’t have been enough boats to hold
everybody.
Meanwhile, the crew were sending out distress signals. The first message was "sinking, need
immediate assistance," and then "SOS". Several ships responded, including the Mount Temple,
Frankfurt, and the Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, but they were too far away. The closest ship to
respond was the Carpathia, which arrived in about four hours, too late to save everybody.
Various distress flares launched from the sinking ship were also ineffective, including those seen by a ship
called the Californian, whose captain, Stanley Lord, had ordered his crew to stop the ship for the night
because of the icebergs. When Captain Lord was informed of the flares he failed to respond because he did
not think they were important. Nor did the crew of the Californian wake their radio operator, who had gone
to bed for the night.
And what of Bruce Ismay, who many believe acted without regard for safety by requiring an
unprepared ship to sail at such speed in spite of the danger? History tells us that he survived, but from
the lifeboat turned his back on his beautiful ship as it sank.
That night, of a total of 2,208 people, only 712 were rescued by the Carpathia, while 1,496 perished. If the
lifeboats had been filled to capacity, 1,178 people could have been saved. If there had been enough
lifeboats, maybe everybody could have been saved. If Captain Stanley Lord had responded to the distress
signals seen by his crew, more lives could have been saved. And if the crew of the Titanic had taken better
precautions of their own, the disaster may not even have happened in the first place. Like the mystery of
the orchestra that played on to the end, this is something we may never know the truth about.
A) Now answer these questions:
1) How was the Titanic described before it set sail?
2) What do most people believe about the cause of the disaster?

3) Why was the ship travelling so fast?
4) Why didn’t the captain know about icebergs in the area?
5) Why didn’t the lookouts see the iceberg in time?
6) What two problems prevented everybody being able to get into lifeboats?
7) What was Captain Lord’s response to the distress flares his crew saw?
8) What other mistake did the crew of the Californian make?
9) How far do you think Bruce Ismay was to blame?
B) Complete Brad´s regrets with the verbs.
1. If I´d remembered to set my alarm, I………………………. in time to have breakfast before

school (WAKE UP)
2. If I………………….. to the bus stop on time, I wouldn´t have missed the school bus. (GET)
3. If I hadn´t missed the teacher´s instructions, I ………………………what to do
(UNDERSTAND)
4. If I………………………… on time, I wouldn´t have missed the teacher´s instructions.
(ARRIVE)
C) Reformulate the following situation using the third conditional:
1. I took my dog for a walk before school. I stepped on the dog´s mess. Back in class, my
classmates traced the smell to my shoes and made fun of me.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. I dropped my cell phone. The girl I liked picked it up. She saw her face was the
background on my phone and was really angry.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
3. I was dancing with a boy I liked. I did some crazy moves. I accidentally broke his nose.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
4. I was eating a hamburger with a girl I liked. A piece of lettuce leaf got stuck on one of my
front teeth. The girl laughed in my face,
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

British Council - BBC: The Sinking of The Titanic

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

British Council - BBC: The Sinking of The Titanic

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

British Council - BBC: The Sinking of The Titanic

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

British Council | BBC

The Sinking of the Titanic

1. Answer the questions.

READING COMPREHENSION adapted from www.wikipedia.org

The sinking of the Titanic

A) Now answer these questions:

1) How was the Titanic described before it set sail?

2) What do most people believe about the cause of the disaster?

B) Complete Brad´s regrets with the verbs.

1. If I´d remembered to set my alarm, I………………………. in time to have breakfast before

C) Reformulate the following situation using the third conditional:

You might also like