Confused tourist buys an
airline ticket to the wrong Sydney
How
do you think this man got a ticket to the wrong city?
What
do you think happened? How do you think the story ended?
A Dutch backpacker has found out the hard way there is more than one Sydney in the world
when he found himself in Canada rather than Australia.
Milan Schipper, from Amsterdam, only discovered
he was going to Sydney, Nova Scotia in Canada. And that he was not going to
Sydney, Australia. He felt something was wrong when the plane was about to
land.
"I thought I was going to Australia,
but the result was different" Like many Europeans Milan was intending to spend a year in Australia.
"I was planning on going backpacking, working over there and just enjoying
the land."
The first hint that he might not be going
to a city of 5 million - where the average March temperature is 25C, but rather
to a town of 31,000 people where the temperature is 1.5C was the plane was
small.
Other airfares from Amsterdam to Australia
were more than 1000 euros. So Milan snapped up his ticket to Sydney for
less than 800 euros.
It was just a very good price, he thought,
and so he happily bought the ticket.
When did he know that he had made a
mistake?
"Well, quite late - when I was already
in Toronto," Milan said.
I saw the plane was really small. So I thought,
would that plane be able to go all the way to Australia?"
He got on the tiny Air Canada jet but the sense that all was not well only got
bigger.
"I checked the screen on the seat in
front of me and I saw the flight plan was going to go right and up left.
"That was about the time that I realized
there was another Sydney," Milan said.
"I felt terrible. I was saying bad
words in my head. But there was nothing I could do about it because I already
was up in the air."
Astoundingly, Milan said he wasn't the only person to make the same mistake in
the tiny airport. He said he met another woman from the US, who also thought
she was going to Australia, but was going to the north of Canada.
However, there is a silver lining for the blundering
backpacker. As compensation for his
error of continental proportions, and to help him on his way, the airline
offered him free tickets to Sydney.
Sydney, Australia, that is.
Try
to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest
meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and
have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the
reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary
depending on how they are used.
The
answers are below the table.
found out the hard way
|
A
|
1
|
Plan, will to do something
|
intending
|
B
|
2
|
A feeling about something
|
snapped up
|
C
|
3
|
surprising
|
sense
|
D
|
4
|
Payment
|
a silver lining
|
E
|
5
|
To quickly take an opportunity
|
Astoundingly
|
F
|
6
|
The good part of something that seems bad
|
blundering
|
G
|
7
|
To learn about something in a non gentle
or easy way usually through experience
|
compensation
|
H
|
8
|
To do something in a way that is not
smooth but is foolish
|
A=7, B=1, C=5, D=2, E=6, F=3,
G=8, H=4
Some
example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they
are used in the reading to help you understand better.
1.
She found out the hard way that her boyfriend was meeting another girl
when she saw him with her holding hands.
2.
Mr Choi intends to become the next president.
3.
Tickets to the concert have all
been snapped up.
4.
She could sense that there was danger in that street, so she walked another
way home.
5.
Getting lost had a silver lining because I met someone
that would become my wife.
6.
It is astounding that you should ask for more money because I have paid
for everything.
7.
The drunken man blundered his way home from the bar.
8.
LG is offering the best compensation for computer engineers
this year.
Some
questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your
answer.
1.
What do you think of the
airline compensating this young man
for his mistake?
2.
What do you think of the silver lining of this story? Tell
about a time in your life when something was bad; was there a silver lining for you?
3.
How astounded would you be if you discovered you were flying to the
wrong country?
4.
What can you learn about the blundering of the man in this story?
How can you avoid making a blundering
mistake?
5.
Tell about a time you found out the hard way that you had
done something foolish.
6.
What are you intentions in learning English?
7.
If you saw a very cheap air
ticket, would you snap it up, or
would you check the conditions first?
8.
What is your sense for making money or good ideas?