B2 Air travel

B2 VOCABULARY: AIR TRAVEL

Eleven Miles Up

PICTURE

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"Twenty years, and I still can't quite believe the office."

The airport journey · on board · travel / trip / journey · phrasal verbs of flying

Reading

Speaking

A · LEAD-IN

Airport confessions

Discuss in pairs.

1. What kind of airport traveller are you - the three-hours-early type, or the gate-is-closing sprinter?

2. What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you - or to your luggage - in transit?

3. Which airport in the world would you happily never see again?

PICTURE

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B1 · VOCABULARY

Put the airport stages in order for a departing passenger.

Then decide: where do baggage reclaim and customs fit - departure or arrival?

security · gate · check-in desk / bag drop · departures board · boarding · runway (take off) · baggage reclaim · customs

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

B2 / B3 · VOCABULARY

Travel, trip or journey? And life on board

1. ______ is normally uncountable (or a verb): the general activity. ______ = going somewhere, staying and coming back. ______ = the movement from A to B itself.

2. Have a good ______! Send photos! · How was the ______ from the airport - did you hit traffic?

3. Does your job involve much ______? · We're planning a short ______ to the mountains.

4. On board - match the definition: the people who look after passengers · a flight with no changes · a flight where you must change planes · shaking caused by rough air · the tiredness caused by time zones · a line of seats · the seat with easy escape · a flight of six hours or more.

5. Use: aisle seat · row · turbulence · jet lag · cabin crew · long-haul · connecting flight · direct flight.

C · BEFORE YOU READ

Two thousand Atlantic crossings

Marisol Duarte has worked long-haul routes for twenty years and can sleep in any position except horizontal. People at parties always ask her the same three questions.

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. What does she say passengers get wrong about turbulence?

2. About jet lag - and about the crew themselves?

3. First: what would you ask a member of cabin crew?

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C · READING

Eleven miles up: notes from twenty years of cabin crew

"The flight hasn't even taken off, and you've already told me who you are."

Marisol Duarte has spent two decades working long-haul routes, which means she has crossed the Atlantic more than two thousand times and can sleep in any position except horizontal. People at parties always ask the same three questions. She has answers ready.

"Is turbulence dangerous?" "No - uncomfortable, yes; dangerous, almost never. The plane is built for far worse than anything you'll feel. What is dangerous is people ignoring the seat-belt sign because the air looks smooth. Clear-air turbulence arrives without an invitation. That's why crew keep their belts half-fastened even on the jump seat, and why the only passengers who ever get hurt are the ones standing in the aisle when the floor drops. Sit down, buckle up, keep it loosely fastened even when the sign is off. That single habit is ninety per cent of everything I know about flying safely."

"How do you survive jet lag?" "You don't beat it; you negotiate with it. Set your watch to the destination the moment you board - eat and sleep by that clock, not your body's. Water, not wine, though I say this while fully aware of what everyone orders. On arrival: daylight, a walk, and stay awake until a respectable local bedtime. And never make an important decision in the first twenty-four hours after a long-haul flight. I've watched people buy property."

C · READING (continued)

Eleven miles up: notes from twenty years of cabin crew

"What's the job actually like?" "Everyone thinks it's a glamorous waitress role at altitude. The tray service is maybe a tenth of it. We're trained for fires, medical emergencies, evacuations - I've delivered first aid at 38,000 feet more often than I can count, and once, memorably, over Greenland, helped deliver something considerably more exciting than first aid. Mother and daughter are both doing beautifully; the airline sends a birthday card."

Her pet peeves are few but firm. Passengers who stand up before the plane has finished landing, "as if the doors are a race". People who pack their entire lives into hand luggage and then look wounded when it won't fit. And anyone rude to crew during boarding: "The flight hasn't even taken off, and you've already told me exactly who you are for the next eleven hours."

What she loves has never changed. "The window over the wing at sunrise, somewhere over the ocean. Two hundred strangers asleep, trusting the night to us. Twenty years, and I still can't quite believe the office."

D · COMPREHENSION

True, false, or not mentioned?

1. Turbulence itself frequently injures seated passengers.

2. Crew keep their seat belts partly fastened on the jump seat.

3. Marisol recommends alcohol as a jet-lag remedy.

4. She advises setting your watch to destination time before landing.

5. She once assisted at a birth during a flight.

6. Her airline pays for her hotel in every destination.

E · LANGUAGE FOCUS

Phrasal verbs, and the departures board

1. Complete the journey, using each phrasal verb once: check in · drop off · fill in · get on · get off · pick up · take off.

2. My neighbour ______ me ______ at the terminal. I'd already ______ ______ online, so I went straight through security. We ______ ______ the plane on time, and it ______ ______ only ten minutes late. Before landing I ______ ______ the immigration form. When I ______ ______ the plane I was shattered - but my sister was there to ______ me ______, and my bag actually appeared at reclaim. A miracle.

3. Two of those are used with an object between the verb and the particle. Which two?

4. Take off appears twice in this lesson with different meanings - what are they? (Hint: a plane, and a jacket.)

5. Board language: what do on time, boarding, delayed and closed mean? Put them in the order you'd ideally see them.

F1 · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Complete with one word.

1. Your flight leaves from ______ 42 - but check the departures ______ in case it changes.

2. We sat in row 38, right at the back, next to the toilets. The ______ crew were lovely about it.

3. I hate window seats; I always book an ______ seat so I can walk around.

4. There's no direct flight, so we've got a two-hour wait for our ______ flight in Doha.

5. Fasten your seat ______ - we're expecting some ______ over the mountains.

6. After a ______-haul flight east, the jet ______ is always worse. Science and suffering agree.

7. At ______ reclaim, grab a ______ for the cases - we've got four.

8. They stopped me at ______ and searched my bag. It was the jam. It's always the jam.

F2 · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Travel, trip or journey?

1. The ______ from the airport into the city takes about forty minutes by train.

2. She's away on a business ______ until Thursday.

3. Air ______ has changed completely since the nineties.

4. It was a nightmare ______ - three delays and a missed connection.

5. We're taking a weekend ______ to the coast.

6. ______ broadens the mind; airports narrow it again.

G · FREER PRACTICE

The announcement

In pairs, script and perform a 45-second gate announcement for a badly delayed flight.

• It must include the flight status vocabulary, an apology, instructions involving at least three airport nouns, and one attempt at charm.

• The class votes: which announcement would keep two hundred tired passengers calm?

• Discussion: is flying still exciting, or just a bus with worse legroom? What would make air travel civilised again - and what one rule would you impose on all passengers?

• Homework (optional): write "Notes from seat 38B" (100-140 words) - twelve target items, two phrasal verbs, one correct trip and one correct journey.

PICTURE

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TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B1 check-in desk / bag drop -> security -> departures board (checked throughout) -> gate -> boarding -> runway / take off. Baggage reclaim and customs both belong to arrival.

B2 travel (uncountable, or the verb) · trip · journey. 1 trip · 2 journey · 3 travel · 4 trip.

B3 1 cabin crew · 2 direct flight · 3 connecting flight · 4 turbulence · 5 jet lag · 6 row · 7 aisle seat · 8 long-haul.

C GIST Turbulence: uncomfortable, not dangerous - the danger is being unbelted or standing. Jet lag: switch to destination time immediately, drink water, get daylight, no big decisions for 24 hours. The job: safety and medical training, not glamorous tray service.

D 1 False - only unbelted or standing passengers get hurt. 2 True. 3 False - water, not wine. 4 False - the moment you board. 5 True. 6 Not mentioned.

E 1 dropped me off / checked in / got on / took off / filled in / got off / pick me up. 2 Drop off and pick up take the object between verb and particle. 3 A plane leaves the ground; you remove a jacket (bonus: a career "takes off"). 4 on time -> boarding -> closed; delayed is the one nobody wants.

F1 1 gate / board · 2 cabin · 3 aisle · 4 connecting · 5 belt / turbulence · 6 long / lag · 7 baggage / trolley · 8 security (accept customs - but the jam suggests a security search, and liquids).

F2 1 journey · 2 trip · 3 travel · 4 journey · 5 trip · 6 Travel.