Have a nice delay!

Imagine the situation: your family arrived at the airport early, you’ve already spent two hours
there, then you hear there is a delay! What can you do? Well, actually there may be more than
you think.
Many modern airports have introduced activities for bored passengers. At Dallas Fort Worth
airport, travellers can do yoga classes; at Paris’s airport, there are free games consoles; and
visitors to Nashville International airport can watch one of a hundred annual concerts. There are
also activities for nature and animal lovers. If you go to Kuala Lumpur airport you can take a walk
through a rainforest, with real trees and streams, and at Vancouver airport, visitors can see some
ocean life in their ocean aquarium. Finally, tired plane passengers at airports in Seoul, Singapore or
Amsterdam can get some sleep in the airport’s special ‘sleeping chairs’.
If you are not lucky enough to be in one of these airports, then you can easily make your own
entertainment. One option is to play games with your travel companions. You might enjoy
guessing the nationality of other passengers from their clothes or their accents; or how about
looking for unusual airport names on the departure boards, like Batman airport in Turkey? If that
isn’t interesting enough, then why not play baggage bingo? The idea, from travel writer Kate Beall,
is simple: you fill out a card with items such as ‘yellow hand luggage’ or ‘Armani suitcase’ and try
to find them in the sea of black bags around you.
If these games don’t sound like fun, you might prefer to do something more traditional, like
reading a book or having a conversation. How about chatting with your parents to learn something
new from them? And if you see another bored teenager why not try talking to them? There are so
many things you can talk about: your last flight, the place you’ve just been to, the place you’ll visit.
You might get on well and perhaps you’ll make a new friend too!
So, the next time you find yourself in an airport with nothing to do, you might discover there are
more interesting activities than checking your phone messages (again). If you try some of them,
you’ll probably find that time ‘flies’ by.  

1. What is the text mainly about?

The text is about the things that you can do when your flight is in delay.

2. Why do many airports offer activities? 

Many airports offer activities because they want to offer to bored passengers something to do

while waiting.

3. Which airports let passengers do some physical activity?

The airports who let passengers do some physical activity are: the Dallas Fort Worth airport, where

travellers can do yoga classes, and the Kuala Lumpur airport, where travellers cantake a walk

through a rainforest, with real trees and streams.

4. Which relaxing activity is here suggested?

The relaxing acitvities suggested here are: to play games with play games with your travel

companions, guess the nationality of other passengers from their clothes or their accents, look for
 unusual airport names on the departure boards, like Batman airport in Turkey, play baggage bingo,

reading a book or having a conversation.

5. Which activity is explained by instructions?

The activity which is explained by instructions is the baggage bingo: the idea is from travel writer

Kate Beall: you fill out a card with items such as ‘yellow hand luggage’ or ‘Armani suitcase’ and try

to find them around you.

6. What might a good conversation topic be?

A good conversation topic might be the last place your last flight, the last place you’ve visited or the

place you are going to visit.

7. What doesn’t the author suggest doing while at the airport?

The author suggested not to check your mobile phone for hours and hours during your permanence

at the airport.