TITANIC

Adapted from Tim Vicarys by Rosana Xavier

Edited by Luciana Gossmann Araujo

The Titanic was made in 1912, in Belfast - Northern Ireland, by fifteen thousand people.
It was the biggest ship in the world 24,900 tons, 265 meters long, and 28 meters across. It was also
one of the fastest ships in the world because it could go at 46 kilometers an hour.
The Titanic was very beautiful. The rooms for the first class people were like the ones
in a very expensive hotel. There was a very beautiful restaurant and other rooms for the first class
passengers to walk, talk, read and listen to music. The rooms for the second class passengers were
beautiful, too. They were better than first class rooms on most ships. But there were a lot of third class
passengers on the Titanic, too. These people were not rich. They were working people from England
and Ireland. They wanted to live in America. Their rooms were small and very far from the first and
second class passengers, on E Deck. Sometimes the first class passengers went down to E Deck, to
take their dogs for a walk. But they didnt talk to the third class passengers. They had nothing to say
to them. One of the first class passengers was Thomas Andrews, the designer of the Titanic. He said
it could never sink.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic went from Southampton, England, to Cork, Ireland.
Then the ship went west, towards New York. There were 2,207 people on the ship. For four days they
were excited and happy. On the night of 14 April the sea was quiet. The weather was good and there
were thousands of stars in the night sky. But it was very cold, so most of the passengers stayed in
their rooms. Higher up in the ship, two sailors Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee looked out at the
black sea and sky. They were very cold. At 11.40 p.m., Fleet saw something in front of the ship. It was
very big and white, and it was not far away. Iceberg! Iceberg! he said on the telephone. Theres an
iceberg in front of the ship! Thank you, First Officer Murdoch answered, quietly. And then, for 37
seconds, nothing happened. As Fleet and Lee watched, the iceberg came nearer and nearer. It was
huge, a million tons of ice. The Titanic, one of the fastest ships in the world, went towards it at 40
kilometers an hour. And the 2,000 passengers talked and listened to music. Then, slowly, the ship
went left, and the iceberg went along the right of the ship. Fleet and Lee watched, their mouths open.
They heard a noise, and the ship moved a little. Then the iceberg went behind the ship. Some
passengers came out and saw some ice on the deck. But down in the third class rooms at the front
ship, water came into the rooms, and the passengers came out. Whats happening? they asked.
The Titanics captain, Captain Smith, asked that question, too. He was a tall man,
fifty-nine years old. Stop the ship, said Captain Smith. The big, beautiful ship waited on the quiet
black sea, under a thousand stars. The ship had 16 compartments. There was water in
Compartments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Thomas Andrews, the designer, said it was going to sink because it
was safe with water in only three compartments. How long do we have? asked Captain Smith.
Maybe two hours- answered Thomas Andrews. The Captain gave orders to give the passengers
their life jackets, and get the lifeboats ready. Then he asked the Titanics radio officer, Jack Philips, to
ask for help. It was 12.15 a.m.
The nearest ship to the Titanic was the Californian, which was about sixteen
kilometers away. Because of the ice, the Californian stopped at 10.30 that night. In 1912, radio was
very new, so the ships didnt listen to it all the time. The radio officer, Cyril Evans, went to bed at
11.30. So nobody on the Californian heard Jack Philips emergency message at 12.15 a.m. Then, at
12.25, the radio officer on a ship called the Carpathia talked to the Titanic. At 12.35 the Carpathia
went towards the Titanic. But it was ninety-two kilometers away. On the Titanic, Captain Smith could
see the Californian, only about sixteen kilometers away. But he didnt know its name, and he couldnt
talk to it on the radio. He sent rockets up into the night sky. It made white lights over the Titanic. Every
ten minutes after that, a new rocket went up. On the Californian, Second Officer Stone saw the

rockets. He told Captain Lord about it, but he was so tired that he went to bed. Stone watched the
rockets for over an hour but he didnt understand, so he did nothing.
The Titanic had twenty lifeboats. These boats could carry 1,178 people: but there
were 2,207 people on the ship. So for nearly half of the people, there was no lifeboat. The lifeboats
were near the first and second class passengers. There were no lifeboats on E Deck, for the third
class passengers. The Titanics officers helped the passengers with their life jackets. Women and
children can go in the lifeboats, the officers said. Men must stay on the ship. But at first the women
didnt want to go because it was warm and light in the ship, and cold and dark in the dark sea. The
first lifeboat went into the sea at 12.55 a.m. There were two sailors in every boat. Each boat could
carry sixty people. Most of the people in the boats were first and second class passengers, but later,
some third class passengers got into the boats, too. Eighteen of the Titanics twenty lifeboats went
into the sea. Lifeboat D went into the sea at 2.05 a.m. After that, there were only two lifeboats, A and
B, on the ship. But there were 1,600 people.
As people got into the boats, Wallace Hartley and his eight musicians played music,
to make them happy. A rich old man, Benjamin Guggenheim, and his friend took off their life jackets
and put on their best coats. Now we are ready to die, they said. Some sailors tried to move Lifeboats
A and B, but it was too late. Water came back along the ship, faster and faster. Boat A went into the
sea with nobody in it. Boat B went into the sea the wrong way up. People got on top of it. As the front
of the ship went down, the back of the ship went up, up into the air. Some people ran to the back of
the ship; some people went into the sea. The people in the lifeboats watched. For two minutes the
back of the ship stayed high in the air. Then it moved. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the Titanic
went under the water. At 2.20 a.m., it was not there. There were more than a thousand people in the
water. But the sea water was as cold as ice. Nobody could live in it for long. Many of the boats were
half empty. Some people were taken from the cold water into the boats. It was not easy to move the
passengers. In the ice-cold water at 3.00 a.m. nearly everyone was dead.
The Carpathia stopped at 4.00 a.m. The sun came up and there was no Titanic, but
there were hundreds of icebergs, some big, some small. And one small lifeboat, 400 meters away
with a sailor, some women and a baby in it. They told the captain Titanic had gone down and hour
and a half before. The Californians captain tried to help Titanic when he woke up, but it was much too
late. Slowly, more boats came to the Carpathia. The sailors had coats and hot drinks for them. The
last boat came at 8.30. There were seventy-five people in it. After four days, the Carpathia came to
New York. The ship had 675 people from the Titanic. 1,503 people died. They died because Captain
Smith went much too fast at night near the icebergs. They died because the iceberg hit five of the
Titanics compartments. They died because the Titanic didnt have lifeboats for all the passengers.
They died because the Californians radio officer went to bed at 11.30 p.m. Today, because of the
Titanic, ships listen to the radio all the time, night and day. Ships have lifeboats for all their
passengers. Airplanes watch the ice, and tell ships about the icebergs.
There are many stories about the Titanic. Walter Lord wrote a book in 1956. A
Night to Remember. In 1957, there was a film with the same name. But in 1985, Robert Ballard went
to look for the Titanic under the sea, with the help of some French and American sailors. The Titanic
was found 3,810 meters under the sea, 521 km south-east of Newfoundland. In 1986 and 1987, he
went back with more cameras and made a film about the ship under the sea. In 1987, James
Cameron saw Ballards film and said: I must make a Hollywood film about this. In 1995, he visited
the Titanic under the sea, and he got money to make this film. Camerons film, Titanic, was very
expensive it cost $200 million. Every minute of the film cost $1 million. He made a ship for his film,
nearly as big as the real Titanic. In the film, Kate Winslet, a rich girl, meets Leonardo di Caprio, a poor
boy. When the ship goes down the boy dies but the girl lives. Many years later, the girl is an old lady.
She goes back to look at the ship under the sea, and tells her story.
Titanic is today under the sea in two halves. The front of the ship is about 600
meters from the back.

EXERCISES ON TITANIC
By Rosana Xavier
Edited by Luciana Gossmann Araujo

I There are ten (10) paragraphs in the text. Number them and create a headline for each
one.
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6. _______________________________
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7. _______________________________

3. _____________________________

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4. _____________________________

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5. _____________________________

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II Make up two (2) questions in the SIMPLE PAST for each of the first nine paragraphs:
one confirmation and one information question. For the last paragraph make up two (2)
questions in the SIMPLE PRESENT: one confirmation and one information.
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III Exchange your papers with a classmate and answer them all on HIS/HER paper.
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IV Rewrite the following sentences using there is / are. Make the necessary changes but
DO NOT change the meaning.
Titanic had special rooms for the first class people.
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Titanic had 2,207 passengers.
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The ship had sixteen (16) compartments.
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Titanic didnt have lifeboats for all the passengers.
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V Imagine youre on Titanic when the accident happens. Write out three (3) different
suggestions you can give the passengers: Why dont you + verb? / Lets+ verb / What
about + verb+ing? and ask for two (2) permissions to the Captain: can.

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VI Comment on your classmates suggestions and permissions in different ways.

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VII Write out six (6) sentences describing the scene when Titanic starts sinking. Write
about what people could be saying. Use three (3) in the Simple Present and three (3) in the
Present Continuous.

Answers for TITANIC

Exercises I, II, III, V, VI, and VII Students answers. Ability developed in exercise 1 is
summarizing and the others are basically grammar focusing on Simple past.
Exercise IV:
1.
2.
3.
4.

There were special rooms for the first class people in Titanic.
There were 2,207 passengers in Titanic.
There were sixteen (16) compartments in the ship.
There werent lifeboats for all the passengers in Titanic.