Name:……………………………..………………DOB:………..…………….Class:………..

READING PROGRESS TEST 1 LEVEL 3 I17 Spring

Time allowed: 30 mins

Passage 1
Survival from the sky

In a remarkable documentary, Wings of Hope, German director Werner Herzog recounts the
true story of an eighteen year old girl, the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon jungle in
1971. Twenty-nine years later Herzog returns to the jungle with Juliane Koepke, now a 46 year
old biologist, and she tells her amazing story on film.

Juliane had just graduated from high school in Lima, Peru and, with her mother, was flying out
to spend Christmas at her father’s research station in the jungle. A half hour into the flight they
encountered a horrific storm. In the midst of wild turbulence, the plane was struck by lighting
and fell into a nose dive. Passengers screamed as baggage flew around the compartment. Then
the plane broke into pieces and suddenly Juliane found herself outside free-falling 30,000 feet.
‘I was suspended in mid-air, still in my seat. It wasn’t so much that I had left the plane but that
the plane had left me. It simply wasn’t there anymore. I was all alone with my row of seats,’
says Juliane. ‘I sailed on through the air, then I tumbled into a fall. The seatbelt squeezed my
stomach and I couldn’t breathe anymore.’ Before she lost consciousness, Juliane saw the dense
jungle below, ‘a deep green, like broccoli’, with no clearings for hundreds of miles.

Somehow, miraculously, Juliane survived that fall from the sky. In the film, she speculates on a
number of factors which may have combined to save her. First, the storm had produced a
strong updraft from the thunder clouds. Secondly, being strapped into a row of seats, she was
aware of falling in a spiralling movement, like a maple seed pod. Then hitting the canopy of
trees, she tumbled through a maze of vines which slowed her landing in deep mud.

But surviving the fall, though miraculous in itself, was just the beginning. When Juliane awoke
hours later, wet and covered in mud, she was still strapped to her seat. Staggering to her feet,
she assessed her injuries: a fractured bone in the neck, concussion and deep cuts in her leg and
back. She was also in shock, lost and totally alone in the Amazon jungle.

No doubt it was her familiarity with the wilderness that enabled her to cope. Her parents were
biologists and Juliane had grown up in the jungle. She realised her only hope was to follow a
little stream of water nearby, trusting that it would eventually lead to a larger river and rescue.
With no provisions, dressed in the miniskirt she had worn on the plane and wearing just one
shoe, she set off through the jungle. She passed broken fragments from the plane – a wheel, an
engine. ‘Initially, I saw planes circling above me, but after a few days I realised the search had
been called off,’ she said.

Surprisingly she felt no hunger but as the days passed her health was deteriorating rapidly.
The gash in her shoulder, where files had laid their eggs was now crawling with maggots. ‘I
knew I’d perish in the jungle so I stayed in the water. ‘Walking in the stream however
prevented one risk more serious than any others. Before each step she had to poke ahead in
the sand with a stick, to avoid treading on poisonous sting rays, lying hidden on the bottom.

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As the stream grew into a river, swimming was the only option. However, here in deeper water,
there were new threats. Crocodiles basking on the shoes slipped silently into the water as she
passed. Juliane trusted that they feared humans and were entering the water to hide. She swam
on. On the tenth day, starving and barely conscious, she spotted a hut and a canoe. They
belonged to three woodcutters working nearby. Rescue was at hand.

For this 46 year old woman, re-living such a traumatic experience on film must have been a
great challenge. But she shows little emotion. Flying back into the jungle she sits in the same
seat (19F) as on that fateful day. She is dispassionate, unemotional in describing the flight. On
the ground, when they finally locate the crash site, in the dense jungle, Juliane is scientific in
her detachment, looking through the debris, now buried under dense vegetation. She examined
a girl’s purse, the skeleton of a passing on the third day. Her arms and legs are covered with
mosquitoes, but she seems to ignore all discomfort. Then, back in the town, standing in front of
a monument erected in memory of the victims of the crash, entitled Alas de Esperanza (Wings
of Hope). Juliane comments simply, ‘I emerged, ass the sole embodiment of hope from this
disaster.’

Questions 1-3: Answer the following questions using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the
passage.
1. How old was Juliane at the time of the crash?
..........................................................................................................................
2. What is her occupation now?
..........................................................................................................................
3. What was the cause of the plane crash?
..........................................................................................................................
Questions 4-10: Choose the correct letter A-D
4. What happened to the plane?
A. It broke apart in the air. B. It hit trees and exploded.
C. It crashed into a mountainside. D. It hit the ground and burst into flames.
5. Which of the following did NOT help to slow her fall?
A. an updraft caused by storm clouds B. hitting vines
C. the section of seats to which she was attached D. a parachute
6. Which of the following injuries did she sustain?
A. a broken foot B. a broken arm C. concussion D. cuts on her head
7. What helped her to survive?
A. knowledge of the jungle B. a map showing the location of the river
C. appropriate clothing and shoes D. food supplies from the plane
8. What was the biggest threat to her survival?
A. infected wounds B. sting rays C. starvation D. crocodiles
9. How long was she lost in the jungle?
A. 3 days B. 5 days C. 10 days D. 15 days
10. How was she finally rescued?
A. A search party found her in the jungle. B. Native hunters found her.
C. She signaled to a plane from the water. D. She reached a campsite along the river.

Passage 2
Which of the people suggest the following?
I was impressed with how people reacted. 1. ……..
Preparations were made for the disaster. 2. ……..

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I didn’t think it could happen here. 3. ……..
We didn’t think we would be in any danger. 4. …….. 5. ……..
The experience had a long-lasting effect on me. 6. ……..
Disaster had struck in the same place before. 7. ……..
I tried unsuccessfully to see it happening. 8. ……..
We were without electricity. 9. …….. 10. ……..
We were saved by someone’s warnings. 11. ……..
I has not affected my feelings for the place. 12. ……..
We had to hide our real feelings. 13. ……..
I slowly became aware of how serious it had been. 14. ……..
I cried after the event. 15. ……..

Lucky to be alive!
A
David Crossland, 50, was on holiday with his wife, Louise, in the Bahamas when the giant
Hurricane Floyd hit New Providence Island.
‘We were on holiday on Providence Island last year when Hurricane George was due to
hit, but it changed direction. So this year, when Hurricane Floyd was heading towards us,
Louise and I were convinced it would change course. But a week into our holiday the island
was in the direct path of the hurricane and the hotel staff feared the worst. All of the ground-
floor windows and balcony doors in the hotel were boarded up. At one point I tried to open the
balcony door in our bedroom to catch a glimpse of the hurricane but the winds were so strong I
couldn’t move it. All we could do was lie in our bed in the candlelight and wait.
When the all clear was given at 2 pm we were able to go out and see the devastation. It
was shocking. There were parts of houses, trees and debris everywhere and a tidal wave had
destroyed many homes on the island. Such a shame for the island, but hurricanes could never
put us off going back there.’

B
When Pat Beddows reached 40, she set herself a mountainous challenge in the
Himalayas. During the trek disaster struck.
‘I set off in a group of 20 from Gangotri, a village at 4,000 metres in the foothills of the
Himalayas. As we sat having lunch, we watched huge chunks of ice break away from a glacier,
then fall into the water. Unaware of the risk we were taking we climbed down into the glacier
to take a closer look. Suddenly, I heard a thundering noise and our guide started screaming:
“Run! Run! Climb up!”
A tidal wave of water and ice was heading straight for us and we scrambled up the rocky
slopes to safety. Chunks of ice the size of cars were being thrown into the air barely five metres
away. If the guide hadn’t shouted at us to get out of the way, the consequences would have

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been tragic. When we got back to camp we were told that, three years earlier, 16 people had
died there in a similar incident. I realized how lucky we all were and I burst into tears.’
C
Teacher Caroline Casteron, 25, was visiting friends. In Istanbul when an earthquake
struck.
‘I was fast asleep in my friends’ apartment when the tremor shook. At first it was total
confusion. There was a power cut so it was pitch black and everything inside the building was
shaking and moving. It lasted only 45 seconds but it felt like an eternity. It was absolutely
terrifying. For the next four days and nights I slept on the streets with thousands of others and
the scale of the devastation gradually began to sink in.
Yet out of the chaos there was the most incredible sense of camaraderie. Everyone
seemed so united and I witnessed so much courage and kindness. Since that day I have taken
far less for granted and I really do feel life is for living in the present. Now I’m teaching the
pupils at my school to be far more aware of the misfortunes of other people.’
D
Doug Glenwright, 33, was sitting in his front room in Birmingham, England, when he had
the shock of his life.
‘Last week we were watching on the television how tornadoes wrecked Oklahoma,
where you’d expect to see them. Then suddenly last night one of them came down our street.
The first I became aware of it was when I saw a dustbin bag come up from the street and fly
past the window like a kite. Then branches of trees and all sorts of other debris were pulled up
into the air. Telephone lines were knocked down by the hurricane-force winds and the heavy
rain caused four feet of flood water in some people’s kitchens.
Naturally my wife and I were both nervous, but we couldn’t let the children see so we
laughed and joked our way through it. We didn’t think it was very funny, though, when we saw
the massive hole it had made in our roof.’