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Source: Pexels (David Riaño Cortés) Colombian ‘miracle’ children found alive 40 days after Amazon jungle plane crash The Indigenous children – one of whom was just 11 months old – are thought to have eaten food dropped by rescuers and used their own ancestral knowledge Malnourished and covered in insect bites , four Indigenous children were rescued alive from the Colombian Amazon on Friday afternoon, 40 days after the plane they were travelling in crashed into the jungle. In a remarkable feat of resilience , the children survived heavy storms in one of the most inhospitable parts of the country, home to predatory animals and armed groups. “They’ve given us an example of total survival that will go down in history ,” said Colombian president Gustavo Petro, calling it “A joy for the whole country!” The four siblings , aged 13, nine, four plus an 11-month-old baby, were from the Huitoto Indigenous community. Although malnourished , none of the children were in serious conditio

Source: Jonas Dücker on Unsplash   US Coast Guard rescues three Cubans stranded on desert island for 33 days   Two men and a woman swam to Anguilla Cay after boat capsized Unclear if Cubans were trying to reach United States The US Coast Guard rescued three Cuban nationals stranded on a desert island for roughly five weeks, after officers saw the group waving a makeshift flag to gain their attention.  The group, including two men and a woman, had been living on an uninhabited Bahamian island, Anguilla Cay, for 33 days after their boat capsized.  The US Coast Guard found them while flying a routine mission from the Florida Keys, and told the Florida Sun Sentinel the group lived off coconuts, conch and rats while on the island.  “We were alerted to them by the flags that they actually had in addition to a large cross that they put out there for themselves,” helicopter pilot Mike Allert told the Miami TV station WPLG.  The pilot said he then decided to fly back around Anguilla C

Source: Wikipedia 'It was brutal': Ross Edgley completes 157-day swim around Britain  After 37 jellyfish stings and a rotting tongue, the 33-year-old finally surfaces in Margate   As he hobbled on to dry land for the first time in 157 days, having become the first swimmer to circumnavigate the whole of Great Britain, Ross Edgley’s first thought was not for food, a warm blanket , or a hug . “It was so strange,” he laughed. “I was just really worried I was gonna   * stack it and * face-plant the floor.” Hundreds of spectators gathered at Margate harbour on Sunday morning to cheer the 33-year-old as he emerged from the sea after completing a record 1,791-mile swim around the mainland. Thankfully, he was not made to do a lap of honour . “I got out of the water and thought this is gonna be amazing, I’ll run in like Baywatch,” he told the Guardian shortly after completing the feat . “The reality is that I’m really chubby now, really hairy, and I had a pink tow

Source: Wikipedia 'I had to eat piece of my friend to survive': Torment of 1972 Andes plane crash survivor still haunted by his ordeal 40 years later He trekked 10 days through icy wilderness to get help 'Through the eyes of our society it was a disgusting decision' Forty years on from the plane crash that changed his life forever, Dr Roberto Canessa still vividly remembers having to eat the flesh of friends to survive. He was one of 16 men who escaped death when their chartered aircraft smashed into the bleak Andes mountains between Chile and Argentina on October 13, 1972. They were rescued 72 days later after Dr Canessa, then a 19-year-old medical student, and another survivor trekked for 10 days to get help. Source: Daily Mail   Vocabulary :    to haunt - wilderness - to smash - bleak (adj) - to grab - to swallow - huge (adj) - to shroud - mist (n) - an ordeal - an avalanche - a source - heat (n) -

Source: You Tube (Associated Press) Key Words: tsunami dog greet owner Japan tsunami dog reunited with owner A dog rescued from a roof drifting off Japan's north-east coast more than three weeks after a quake and tsunami has been reunited with her owner. The owner recognised the dog from a TV news report on the rescue on Friday. The female owner and the two-year-old dog called Ban had an emotional reunion at an animal care centre where she was being looked after. "We'll never let go of her," the owner, who wished to remain anonymous, was quoted as saying by a centre official. The dog was found by a Japan Coast Guard crew on a drifting roof some 1.8km (1.1 miles) off Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas along Japan's north-east coast. The roof is believed to have been detached and washed out to sea by the retreating waters of the devastating tsunami, which hit the country on 11 March. Ban immediately jumped up and wagged her ta

Source: You Tube (Saxonia Cicero)   Key Words: tsunami dog Japan sea Tsunami-surviving dog rescued after three weeks at sea A dog believed to have survived the tsunami and then three weeks at sea was rescued by the Japanese Coast Guard in northern Japan. Coastguards spotted the dog on the floating roof of a house that had been washed out to sea , about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) from the coast of Kesennuma in northern Japan. The dog had evaded capture for several hours as it scrambled over the large tract of floating rubble . However, once rescued, it captured the hearts of the coast guards. Initially shaken by the experience , it quickly seemed to get used to its new home on the coast guard vessel , and licked its rescuers' hands. The crew could only speculate who the dog belonged to as they could not find a name tag or ID on the collar. The Japanese broadcaster NTV said the the coast guard ha d hoped the pet would lead them to the owner. It was a rare piece

Source: GlobalAnimalTV (You Tube) Key words: dog friend Japan tsunami 'He's alive!': Spaniel somehow survives amid the wreckage of the tsunami Amid the terror of imminent possible nuclear disaster and the human death toll of the Japanese earthquake a loyal dog refuses to leave its best friend. Japanese news reports say the two animals were caught in the tsunami and magnitude nine quake on Friday. While one dog somehow survived unscathed , the other appeared to have been killed when the monster wave swept through the Arahama area in Sendai - only for rescuers to find he had miraculously survived the disaster. As this heartbreaking footage shows the brown and white coloured spaniel-cross refused to leave the side of his seemingly dead canine companion - even stopping rescuers from getting close. But then as the crew filmed the scene, believing only one dog has survived, they suddenly noticed the head of the other dog move and rejoiced , shouting: 'Ye

Source:  Matt Hardy en Unsplash We read in class about a survival story after a climbing accident. Here is a miraculous survival story from the end of last year. Three teenagers arrive in Fiji after Pacific ordeal Three teenage boys found alive after at least 50 days in a boat in the Pacific Ocean have arrived safely in Fiji. The boys, from the Tokelau Islands, a New Zealand-administered territory in the South Pacific, had been giv en up for dead after an unsuccessful search. The boys survived on coconuts, water they trapped on a tarpaulin and a seabird they managed to catch. Tanu Filo, the father of one of the boys, described the rescue as a "miracle". "The whole village, they were so excited and cried and they sang songs and were hugging   each other in the road. Everybody was yelling and shouting the good news," he told New Zealand radio. Meanwhile the head teacher of their school, John Kalolo, told BBC World TV there had been "many tears

I am just reading about the visit of the Chilean President, Sebastian Pinera, to the UK. Of course there is more media interest in his visit due to recent events in Chile. He presented the PM with rock from the mine and a copy of the first message from the miners. He was given some beer to take back to the 33 as well as  an early edition of Robinson Crusoe. I was reminded that the novel was based on the real life story of a Scottish castaway on, you've guessed it, a Chilean island. Source: Wikipedia (SylviaStanley)   Here is his story: Alexander Selkirk (1676 – 13 December 1721} was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe. Early life The son of a shoemaker and tanner  in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, Selkirk was born in 1676. In his youth he displayed a quarrelsome and unruly disposition. At an early period

Here are the front page headlines of today's newspapers . The Independent: JOY UNCONFINED Trapped miners emerge from the darkness Daily Express: RE-BORN The greatest escape of all goes like clockwork The Sun: FREED HOT CHILE FELLAS Miners saved from sweltering hell hole Daily Mirror: SALVATION! Prayer of thanks from oldest miner as world rejoices at the rescue Daily Star: DADDY'S HOME One little boy's tearful welcome that sums up this heartwarming tale of human hope The Daily Telegraph: World transfixed by the great escape Financial Times: Chile's cheers, tears and relief as miners emerge into the  spotlight after 69 days Source: You Tube (NBC News) Key Words: 33 Chilean miners Have you been following the story? Read more about the background to it . What are your feelings about it? What do you think will happen now? How will their lives change? Imagine you could interview them. What would you ask them?

Trapped Chile miners emerge to fame, movie contracts - and angry wives As freedom finally (1) beckons for the trapped miners of San Jose, some may find their homecoming party a more complicated affair than they would like. Some will emerge to fame and fortune. Others just want to (2) fade rapidly back to obscurity. And a few have some serious explaining to do. Unless an unthinkable disaster strikes , the (3) ordeal of "Los 33" - the 33 miners entombed nearly half a mile beneath the moonlike wilderness of the Atacama desert in northern Chile - will end this week. A drill carving a rescue shaft broke through the rock into their subterranean (4) dungeon early on Saturday, 65 days after they were trapped by a huge rockfall. They were feared dead for the first 17 days until a borehole reached the (5) shelter where they had eked out two days' emergency supply of tuna and peach. That "miracle at the mine" was (6) remarkable enough. But for th

Just to prove that the story about the world's luckiest/unluckiest man really was true, here is an article about the man himself: Frano Selak: 'world's luckiest man' * gives away  his lottery fortune A music teacher, Frano Selak, who was dubbed the world's luckiest man after cheating death seven times before winning the lottery has now decided to give away his fortune. The 81 year-old won £600,000 five years ago in the lottery in Croatia, to celebrate his fifth marriage, after earlier surviving plane and train crashes. He also survived other disasters including landing on a haystack after falling out of a plane door that had blown open. Now the pensioner has decided that "money cannot buy happiness" and has decided to live a frugal life. He has sold his luxury home on a private island, given away his fortune to family and friends and moved back to his modest home in Petrinja, which is south of Zagreb, in the centre of the country. He kept th

Here is a list of the words from the "How to cope in an emergency" text. Choose some of them and write example sentences (not definitions). a wound ( see difference with an injury ) thunder to outrun a piece of string a piece of rope a haven to charge to be struck (to strike) debris cardboard a bandage a doorway a boom a shelter to antagonise a threat to bleed a bandage to remain still to kneel a splint

Source:  Krzysztof Kowalik en Unsplash In class today we read how to cope with a variety of emergencies: earthquakes, charging bulls, broken legs and lightning strikes. Here is one more: Being in an avalanche has been compared to standing on a carpet and suddenly having it ripped out from under you. It's an apt metaphor, except in an avalanche the carpet can weigh hundreds of thousands of tons and can travel at well over 100 miles per hour, destroying everything in its path. Around the world, avalanches are responsible for an average of nearly 150 deaths per year. If you're unfortunate enough to be caught in an avalanche, here's what you can do to increase your chances of survival. Jump upslope . Most avalanche victims trigger   the avalanche themselves, and sometimes the avalanche will start right beneath their feet. If this happens, try to jump upslope, beyond the fracture line. An avalanche happens so quickly that it's almost impossible to react fast enough to