Chain Reaction

Teachers Notes and Key

Dear Teacher,

This BritLit kit was researched and written by two Portuguese teachers of English,
Celeste Simões and Helena Oliveira. It was originally designed for presentation at a
seminar for teachers, held in Coimbra, Portugal, in October 2009. The seminar was a
called ‘Language and Literature in the Language Classroom’ and was run jointly by
APPI, the Portuguese teachers’ association, and the British Council in Portugal.

The text for the story was donated by writer Louise Cooper, and was a previously
unpublished tale, and one that she had written especially for the BritLit project earlier in
the same year. While the kit was being prepared and thus before the seminar took
place, Louise died suddenly and unexpectedly. The presentation at the seminar was,
therefore, something of a tribute to Louise, and the pleasure and encouragement that
she has given over the years –and in the years to come – to young readers.

The final version of the kit which is published here was edited by Fitch O’Connell, in
line with the latest thinking which underpins the BritLit project, but all the work belongs
to Celeste and Helena.

The kit contains four sections, plus and audio of the story being read. The sections
are:

Pre-reading Activities. This is the essential part of the whole process. If you have no
time to do anything else then please do this work!

Post Reading Activities. Once the story has been read there are some activities which
help to consolidate the context and the language that has been used.

Supplementary Activities. This is the largest file, and contains a wealth of additional
material to be used, mainly as a resource for follow up (post reading) activities.

Teacher’s Key. This is the part you are reading! It contains all the answers you will
need to the questions, but more importantly a little guidance on how to carry some of
them out.

We hope that you enjoy using these resources. If you have any suggestions, such as
new activities or want to share the work of your students, then we shall be only too
pleased to hear from you.

With very best wishes

Celeste, Helena and Fitch

Portugal 2009
Pre-Reading Activities
Activity 1

cruise

deck

Private
cabin

ship
Engine sea
room

Anchor
winch

propeller
blades

Activity 2

1. 2.
1 e F
2 g B
3 d C or E
4 c E or C
5 f D
6 a (A),B,C,D,E
7 b A

Activity 3 – Prediction

This is an opportunity for students to create their own stories based on the information they are
given. They should not be expected to create the same story as in ‘Chain Reaction’, in fact part
of the joy of this activity is in the diversity of applications the same information can divulge.
They should be encouraged to make notes as they go alone but not to write the story down as
this will change the dynamic. They then have a chance to tell their stories, or predictions, in
other groups.

Post Reading Activities

1. The list can be any intelligent guess of what a cruise ship has on board and will no
doubt have a lot of translation required. Basics that should be included are:
Restaurants; bars; swimming pool(s); cabins; gymnasium; casino; shops; cinema; sun deck.
2.

Excerpt 1

Carol Thatcher: There are a lot of wow factor (1) innovations on board this ship which I’d never
thought I’d see at sea. A stunning ice rink, a boxing rink, 8 (2) restaurants, massive chandeliers
and I’m delighted to report for the thirsty (3) passengers a choice of 13 bars.
One TV Show: That’s quite a bar crawl you could do there Carol, if you’re so minded to. You’re
a (4) cruising type of person yourself?
Carol Thatcher: I do enjoy it, I’ll tell you why. This ships operates out of Southampton, as many
of them do, so you don’t have to battle your way to Terminal 5, which is a blast these days. And,
you know, you can stop in a few (5) ports around the (6) Mediterranean It’s actually quite
relaxing. There’s loads to do; the (7) entertainment is quite good; plenty of fresh (8) sea air.

Excerpt 2

One TV Show: Carol has been there on (9) board all day, so let’s take a look at what she’s
seen so far.
Carol Thatcher: This really is a (10) ship of extremes. Size and scale allow more on board than
any passenger line has seen before. It oozes (11) luxury. There were (12) 62430 squares feet
of windows. The best view of all is from up here, the (13) Bridge. It’s crammed full of cutting
edge (14) technology.
Carol Thatcher: Captain, what’s this ship like to drive?
Captain Teo Strazic: You definitely don’t want to scratch it; you don’t want to have any dust on
it. You keep polishing and making it pretty, but also very careful when you draw it. I have
convenient use of the (15) propellers. They can turn round 360º. She’s quite fast; she can do
(16) 24 knots.
Carol Thatcher: Not bad when you think it’s going to have (17) 4375 guests on board when it’s
full.
Can you believe it? There’s even a (18) climbing wall. And this is a true first. Never before has a
cruise ship had a surf pool on board.

Excerpt 3
Carol Thatcher: Hello again from the ship’s (19) helipad. I’m here with the travel journalist,
Kelly Ranson, who specialises in (20) cruising. Kelly, it seems to me flavour of the month,
cruising, at the moment.
Kelly Ranson: Cruising is definitely flavour of the month, at the moment, especially there has
been a number of other cruise (21) lines having high profile launches, and the Passenger
Shipping Association have said that this year there’s 1.555 million (22) Brits expected to cruise,
which is a 14% increase on last year’s. So it’s definitely on the (23) up.
Carol Thatcher: Quite a number. Why is cruising so popular?
Kelly Ranson: I think because it’s got everything. You know, it’s (24) accessible and the cruise
lines are putting money into innovation. They really wanna go for (25) families.

Excerpt 4
Carol Thatcher: It’s got a bit of an (26) elderly image, though. Is the average age of
passenger’s age coming down?
Kelly Ranson: It’s definitely coming down, the age. On a ship like this is the summer, (...) the
average age of around (27) 45 to 55 and you’re gonna probably have around a 1000 (28)
children on a general cruise. That’s definitely not just for elderly, no.
Carol Thatcher: A 1000 children on board, uh oh! Now then, what about the (29) cost of
cruising, because it has a bit of a pricey image, doesn’t it?
Kelly Ranson: Hum well, you know, you get on board this ship and once you pay, pretty much
everything is covered: your entertainment, your food and then you get to see all these
destinations. You (30) unpack once and you travel, like you said, into 5 or 6 different ports.
Supplementary materials
1. As an introduction to reading the story, this activity may be useful.
1. ‘Cruise’ indicates on board a ship
2. Passengers, possibly crew as well!
3. Good weather, lots to do, good entertainment etc

Q – General feeling was very positive. No one complained.

2. Song – Summer Holiday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbNP5yqg7hc

1. holiday 2. fun 3. sun 4. blue 5. everybody 6. dreams

3. Holidays

Free choice, but may include some of the following:

COMPANY: Family; friends (names)

TIME OF YEAR : Summer, Winter, Weekends
WEATHER: Sunny, Snowy
PLACES: Beach, Mountains, lakes (names of resorts)
TRANSPORT: Car, plane, bus, ship
ACCOMODATION: Caravan, hotel, apartment, tent

4. 1. People did like going on cruises.

2. The sun did shine
3. The captain does seem worried
4. He did want to discover the problem
5. The chain did become harder to winch in.

5. 1. was dotted / (was) fringed / broke / shone

2. past passive / simple past
3. a) The sea wasn’t dotted with small islands nor fringed by white beaches on which
waves broke gently. The sun didn’t shine from a cloudless sky.
b) Was the sea dotted …….? Did the sun shine ………….?
4. was | could | was | There was | could | swung | was | stood | thought | would | set

6. Monitor use of simple past – but don’t discourage use of past continuous or past perfect if
they occur naturally!

7. a) would not feel

b) had not been
c) will write
d) were / was
e) would have happened
f) there will not be