The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
Adapted from :
Don Henry is a man who has seen it all. He has been a tug captain since the end of World War II. He's now seventeen years old.
But out of all the seas he has travelled, he has never been able to explain one incident back in 1966 while travelling through the Bermuda Triangle. His story has never changed since he first told it.
Well, we were heading to the Miami-Lauderdale area . We were on return trip from Puerto Rico, with a barge in tow. My tug was the Good News. She was a 160 foot tug with a lot of power, 2,000 horsepower. The barge itself was about 2,500 tons. We had it on a 600 foot towline. We were over the Tongue of the Ocean area- that's part of the Bahamas- about 3 days out of Rico.
It was daytime, in the afternoon. While I was in my cabin, I heard a great deal of commotion coming from the bridge. The crew were screaming. I came running out onto the bridge and yelled "What the hell is going on here?!"
The chief officer was there, and he said 'take a look at the compass, Cap.'
I walked over and looked. The gyro was spinning in a clockwise motion, and the magnetic compass was going completely bananas. I had never seen anything like it before. I knew a compass could tumble but never saw that on a boat. You just don't get that much acceleration, especially on a tug. I had captained tugs since World War II, so I knew this was something weird. . . .The magnetic compass was simply going around and around.
"What the Hell is going on here?!"
It wasn't the weather. The sea was calm. Visibility was good. It was somewhat cloudy but the clouds were high up. There were no storm clouds, cumulus and such.
We also had an electronic drain at this time. We had no communications of any kind over the radios. There were no lights. We lost the generators- they were running but produced no energy. There was just nothing. There was also a case of fifty batteries I had picked up in Rico that I just had to throw away. They were completely shot. This we found out later. We didn't know this at the time.
Lexique :
Commotion : agitation
To yell : hurler
A barge : une péniche in tow ; en remorquage
Weird= strange (bizarre)
To throw away : jeter
To find out: découvrir
What was the weather like?:
Equipment
Magnetic compass : le compas magnétique
Termes relatifs aux pannes :
To go bananas: To tumble : they were shot:
The Captain:
his experience:
his authority:
Some among a host of missing ships
1
The Cyclops is perhaps the most famous of the early 20th century
disappearances.She vanished in March 1918 with 309 men aboard.
She is the Navy's "greatest mystery of the sea."
2
The tramp Anglo Australian signaled "all well"
before she vanished in 1938.
Captain Parslow was in command of 34 men
3
Enchantress, 1958. she had time to signal
a sudden wind had hit her.
No trace remained
4
5
L'Avenir disappeared
en route to Bermuda in 1977
Exploitation du Document:
1° exemple d'évaluation
I. Answer these questions:
1. Near which continent is this triangle?
2. Does it really exist? What is it then?
3. Was there a violent storm when the planes took off ? (justify )
4. Did the Squandron go back to Fort Lauderdale ? (justify)
II. Find the interrogative pronoun:
1. ..... heard the emergency call?
2. ..... /....... planes took off that day ?
3. ...... was there a silence ? Because they had disappeared.
4. ..... / ...... money did they spend ?
III. Find the correct auxiliary?
1. ..... the Squadron be found in the future?
2. We ..... hear the message if there wasn't a storm.
3. What ..... a scientist think about this mystery now ?
4. How lonf ago ..... Christopher Columbus lose ships and men in that region?
2° exemple d'évaluation:
I. Answer these questions:
1. What happened on December 5,1945 ? ( 2 pts )
2. What's the Bermuda Triangle ? ( 2 pts )
3. What did underseas explorers find a few months ago? ( 3 pts )
4. What are the three theories about that mystery ? ( 3 pts )
II.Donnez l'infinitif des verbes suivants: ( 4 pts)
got: lost:
drawn: found:
heard: given
became: known:
III.Traduire: ( 6 pts ) évaluation sur les quantifieurs
Peu de bateaux: .........................................
Peu de chance: : .........................................
Quelques orages: .........................................
Tant de disparition .........................................
Trop d'accidents: : .........................................
Je n'ai pas beaucoup de temps: : ........................................
3° exemple d'évaluation:
I. Correct the mistakes : ( 9 pts )
a. The Bermuda triangle is a real line drawn from Bermuda to Texas then to Puerto Rico in the Pacific Ocean, and back to Bermuda.
b. There were ten planes in this squadron.
c. A Navy pilot on ground heard a song which was very clear.
d. The plane accident happened in Japan.
II. Evitez la répétition en employant un pronom possessif: ( 3 pts)
1. It isn't my pen. It's Helen's pen.
2. They aren't your friends. They're my friends.
3. He won't take your car. He'll take our car.
III. Translate into English :
