Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth

Level 3 Advanced
1 Warmer
Define the following words.
1. A meteorite is …
2. A crater is …
3. An asteroid is …

2 Key words
Write the key words from the article next to the definitions below. Then find the words in the article to read
them in context.

amateur atmosphere capability dormitory engage

enterprising pepper with shatter vapour trail death throes

1. to break something suddenly into a lot of small pieces ________________

2. the long white line seen in the sky behind a plane, for example ________________
3. the final stages of something before it comes to an end or fails completely ________________
4. the air round the Earth ________________
5. non-professional ________________
6. to fill something, such as a speech or piece of writing, with a lot of examples of something, such as mistakes
________________
7. a large room or building where a lot of people live or sleep ________________
8. to start to fight with an enemy in battle; to try to shoot something down ________________
9. willing to try or think of new ideas or methods ________________
10. the ability to do something ________________

3 Find the information

Scan the article to find the information.
1. Where did the meteorite hit?
2. What did Galina Zaglumyonova first think it might be?
3. What injuries did people sustain?
4. What is the estimated cost of the damage?
5. What other cosmic event happened the next day?
6. What did one politician say the ‘meteorite’ actually was?
7. How did some people make money out of the event?
8. Why wasn’t the meteorite shot down before it hit the Earth?
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NEWS LESSONS / Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth / Advanced

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Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth
Level 3 Advanced
Hundreds hurt in Russia after
meteorite falls to Earth
Howard Amos in Moscow
15 February, 2013
1 Galina Zaglumyonova was woken in her flat in
central Chelyabinsk by an enormous explosion
that blew in the balcony windows and shattered
clay pots containing her few houseplants. When
she jumped out of bed she could see a huge
vapour trail hanging in the morning sky and hear
the wail of car alarms from the street below.
2 “I didn’t understand what was going on,” said
Zaglumyonova. “There was a big explosion and
then a series of little explosions. My first thought
was that it was a plane crash.”
3 What she had actually witnessed were the death
throes of a ten-tonne meteorite that plunged to
Earth in a series of fireballs just after sunrise.
4 Officials put the number of people injured at
almost 1,200, with more than 40 taken to hospital
– most as a result of flying glass shattered by the
sonic boom created by the meteorite’s descent.
There were no reported deaths.
5 The meteorite entered the atmosphere travelling
at a speed of at least 33,000mph and broke up
into chunks between 18 and 32 miles above
the ground, according to a statement from the
Russian Academy of Sciences.
6 The event caused panic in Chelyabinsk, a city
of more than one million people to the south
of Russia’s Ural mountains, as mobile phone
networks swiftly became jammed by the volume
of calls. Amateur video footage from the area,
often peppered with the obscene language
of frightened observers, showed the chunks
of meteorite glowing more brightly as they
approached the moment of impact. The vapour
trail was visible for hundreds of miles around,
including in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
7 Tatyana Bets was at work in the reception
area of a hospital clinic in the centre of the city
when the meteorite struck. “First we noticed the
wind, and then the room was filled with a very
bright light and we could see a cloud of some
unspecified smoke in the sky,” she said. Then,
after a few minutes, came the explosions.
8 At least three craters were subsequently
discovered, according to the Ministry of the
Interior, and were being monitored by the military.
One crater was more than six metres wide, while
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2013
NEWS LESSONS / Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth / Advanced
another lump of meteorite was reported to have
slammed through the thick ice of a nearby lake.
Radiation levels at the impact sites were normal,
according to local military officials.
9 In Chelyabinsk itself, schools and universities
were closed and many other staff told to go home
early. About 200 children were among the injured.
10 A steady stream of lightly injured people, most
suffering cuts from flying glass, came into the
clinic where Bets works. She said a nearby
dormitory building for college students was
particularly badly affected and many of the
students were brought in suffering from fright.
“There were a lot of girls in shock. Some were
very pale and many of them fainted,” she said.
11 Early estimates suggested more than 100,000
square metres of glass had been broken and
3,000 buildings hit. The total cost of the damage
in the city was being valued at in excess of one
billion roubles (£20m).
12 The meteorite over Chelyabinsk arrived less than
a day before asteroid 2012 DA14 was expected
to make the closest pass to Earth (about 17,510
miles) of any recorded cosmic body. But experts
said the two events were linked by nothing more
than coincidence.
13 Rumours and conspiracy theories, however,
swirled in the first few hours after the incident.
Reports on Russian state television and in
local media suggested that the meteorite was
engaged by local air defence units and blown
apart at an altitude of more than 15 miles.
14 The ultranationalist leader of Russia’s Liberal
Democrat party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said it was
not a meteorite but military action by the United
States, echoing much of the speculation voiced
on amateur film footage. “It’s not a meteorite
falling – it’s a test of new American weapons,”
Zhirinovsky said.
15 Some were quick to take advantage of the
confusion. Enterprising people were offering
lumps of meteorite for sale through internet sites
within a few hours of the impact.
16 President Vladimir Putin and the Prime Minister,
Dmitry Medvedev, were informed about the
incident, and Putin convened a meeting with the
head of the Emergency Situations Ministry. “It’s
proof that not only are economies vulnerable
but the whole planet,” Medvedev said at an
economic forum in Siberia.
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Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth
Level 3 Advanced
17 Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister © Guardian News and Media 2013
and former Ambassador to NATO, took to Twitter First published in The Guardian, 15/02/13
to call for an international push to create a
warning system for all “objects of an alien origin”.
Neither the US nor Russia had the capability to
bring down such objects, he added.

4 Collocations
Match these collocations from the article. Then use them to summarize the contents of the article.
1. vapour a. language
2. death b. throes
3. sonic c. theory
4. video d. site
5. obscene e. body
6. impact f. trail
7. cosmic g. system
8. conspiracy h. action
9. military i. footage
10. warning j. boom

5 Phrasal verbs
Add the missing words to make phrasal verbs from the article. Then make sentences of your own using the
phrasal verbs.
1. an enormous explosion that blew __________ the balcony windows
2. The meteorite broke __________ into chunks.
3. Reports suggested that the meteorite was blown __________ by local air defence units.
4. They don’t have the capability to bring __________ such objects.

6 Discussion
Discuss the quote from the article. Who said it? Where was he at the time? Do you agree with him? What
are the wider implications?

It’s proof that not only are economies

vulnerable but the whole planet.

7 Webquest
a. Go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2013/feb/15/meteor-shards-russia-explosion-video and
watch the video footage.
What do you think your first thoughts would have been? How do you think you would have reacted if
you had witnessed this event?
b. Read a related article about the race to develop an adequate warning system: http://www.guardian.
co.uk/science/2013/feb/16/scientists-earth-asteroid.
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NEWS LESSONS / Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth / Advanced

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Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth
Level 3 Advanced

KEY

1 Warmer 4 Collocations

Teacher’s note: First get students to discuss these 1. f

words and come up with their own definitions. 2. b
Then get them to check their definitions against 3. j
dictionary definitions. 4. i
The definitions below are taken from http://www. 5. a
macmillandictionary.com. 6. d
7. e
1. A meteorite is a piece of rock that has fallen from
8. c
space and landed on the ground.
9. h
2. A crater is a large round hole on the surface of a
10. g
planet caused by a meteorite hitting the surface.
3. An asteroid is a mass of rock that moves around
in space. 5 Phrasal verbs

1. in
2 Key words 2. up
3. apart
1. shatter
4. down
2. vapour trail
3. death throes
4. atmosphere
5. amateur
6. pepper with
7. dormitory
8. engage
9. enterprising
10. capability

3 Find the information

1. Chelyabinsk, Russia
2. a plane crash
3. mostly cuts from flying glass
4. more than one billion roubles (£20m)
5. An asteroid passed very close to Earth.
6. military action by the US
7. by selling lumps of meteorite on the internet
8. neither the US nor Russia have the capability to
do so (although Russian TV suggested that it was
blown apart in the sky)
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NEWS LESSONS / Hundreds hurt after meteorite falls to Earth / Advanced

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