The Omega Files – Short Stories
Before Reading
Before reading activities (page 44)
Activity 1 before reading
1 Yes 2 No 3 No 4 Yes 5 No 6 No
Activity 2 before reading
Encourage students to make as many sensible
sentences as possible, but do not tell them the
answers. They will find out as they read that these
sentences apply to the stories:
Hawker and Jude . . .
• find a monster in Scotland.
• climb a volcano on a Pacific island.
• talk to a young man in London.
• talk to a crazy Australian on a Pacific island.
• kill a monster in Scotland.
• go dancing with a young man in London.
While Reading
edi And oMegA file 349: london, englAnd (1)
1 F Johnny Cook went clubbing nearly every night.
2 F When they left the last club, Hawker and Jude
took Johnny Cook to their hotel for breakfast.
3T
4 F The company used homeless people for drug tests.
5T
6T
7 F Hawker and Jude couldn’t talk to Johnny Cook
again because he was dead.
edi And oMegA file 349: london, englAnd (2)
Encourage students to ask any questions that they
feel are relevant. The prompts given could produce
questions like these:
• Who was with Johnny Cook when he fell in the river?
• Who found Johnny Cook’s body in the river?
• Who did you telephone when we went to have coffee?
• Who said Johnny Cook’s story wasn’t true?
oxford bookworms library stage 1
Stage 1
oMegA file 451: loch ness, scotlAnd
to the BottoM of pAge 21
activities answers
1 How . . .? They phoned Hawker and Jude on their
mobile phones to give them news about the monster.
2 What . . .? They went up and down the loch in
Archie’s boat and looked for the monster.
3 What . . .? They wanted Hawker and Jude to go
back to their hotel and go to bed / to stop looking
for the Loch Ness monster.
4 What . . .? It came out of the loch and killed sheep,
and sometimes dogs.
5 How . . .? He gave them his boat and got them six
old sheep.
Before reAding to the end of oMegA file 451
Encourage students to speculate and to choose the
endings they like best, but do not tell them the
answers. They will find out as they read that the
right answers are numbers 4 and 7.
oMegA file 522: gAlápAgos, ecuAdor
to the BottoM of pAge 37
1+7 Arla wanted Hawker and Jude to go to Isabela
Island because he had strange emails about
visitors there.
2+10 Dr Miller was very angry with everybody
because nobody believed his stories about the
spaceship.
3+9 Hawker and Jude stared down into the crater
but they could not see anything through the
clouds of steam and dust down there.
4+6 In the night they listened to the radio and heard
the news about Volcano Alcedo erupting.
5+8 They wanted Dr Miller to go with them to the
boat, but Dr Miller did not believe the news on
the radio.
Before reAding to the end of oMegA file 522
Encourage students to speculate and to make
guesses, but do not tell them the answers. They
will find out as they read that the ‘yes’ answers are
numbers 2, 3, and 4. Students can argue about the
answer to number 7 and give what answer they
like.
© Oxford University Press
45 the omega files: short stories
 After Reading Activity 4 after reading

The picture goes on page 37, in the story Omega

File 522: Galápagos, Ecuador.
Activity 1 after reading
1 They are on top of Volcano Alcedo on Isabela Island
If students need help with this, encourage them to
in the Galápagos.
look at links in the language.
2 The voice is saying that Volcano Alcedo is going to
3 Arla: ‘OK, Jude. Tell me about it. What was it?’
activities answers

erupt in the next twenty-four hours.

7 Jude: ‘It was one of the army’s new fighters. It
3 They call Jim, and then they climb down the
was a living thing – half animal, half person.’
volcano, get into Gonzalo’s boat, and go out to sea.
5 Arla: ‘Mm. Genetic engineering. And what can
Lines taken from the story would make suitable
it do?’
captions, for example:
2 Jude: ‘It can run all night, live under water, see in
• On the radio they could hear a voice from Santa Cruz.
the dark, and it kills small animals with four
• ‘Oh no! We’re seven hours away from the boat.’
legs.’
Or students might want to invent something more
8 Arla: ‘But why did it try to kill Hawker then?
imaginative, for example:
Hawker hasn’t got four legs.’
• ‘You’re not going to believe this, Jude,’ said Hawker.
4 Jude: ‘No, of course he hasn’t. This monster
isn’t very clever, Arla, but it’s horrible – and Activity 5 after reading

dangerous.’ Encourage students to discuss which titles they

1 Arla: ‘And the army is even more dangerous! I’m think are ‘not good’. A possible answer is the
going to close their laboratory.’ names, as they tell the reader very little about the
6 Jude: ‘Good. Please do it soon, Arla!’ story.
Omega File 349: London, England
Activity 2 after reading
• Danger on the Streets
When the volcano erupted, I saw a light in the sky,
• Johnny (NG)
moving up very fast. Jude says it was not a spaceship, but
• Drugs for the Homeless
it moved faster than the clouds of dust. So what was it?
• Listening Through the Wall
Activity 3 after reading Omega File 451: Loch Ness, Scotland
1
• An Army for the Future
N E W S P A P E R
• A Nice Friendly Monster
2
D A N G E R O U S • The Men in Grey (NG)
3
T E S T S • Danger in the Water
4 Omega File 522: Galápagos, Ecuador
V O L C A N O
• Crazy Dr Miller (NG)
5
L A B O R A T O R Y • Danger from the Sky
6
S P A C E S H I P • Hullo, Planet Earth!
7 • The Volcano Spaceship
T O R T O I S E
8 Activity 6 after reading
F L A S H L I G H T
9 Open answers.
M E D I C I N E
10 Activity 7 after reading
E M A I L
Open answers.
1 You can read the news in a newspaper every day.
2 It is dangerous to climb down into a volcano.
3 A company must do many tests before they can sell
a new medicine.
4 When a volcano erupts, lava and red-hot rock come
out.
5 A special room for scientists to work in. (laboratory)
© Oxford University Press

6 You can travel to planets and stars in a spaceship.

7 This animal moves very, very slowly. (tortoise)
8 When you look for something in the dark, you need
a flashlight.
9 When you are ill, you take medicine to make you
better.
10 A letter sent by computer. (email)
The hidden word is Antarctica, and it is a place.

oxford bookworms library stage 1 46 the omega files: short stories