Is this the world's luckiest plane passenger? Woman discovers she's the only passenger on a flight.

Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.

How do you feel about busy flights?

Do you know about anybody who flew during the New Year (Lunar) and was the only passenger on a bus/airplane/train? Can you imagine it?

Can you imagine being the only passenger on a commercial flight? Would that be spooky?

The flight had been postponed for 10 hours. And so impatient passengers had already taken earlier flights. This turned the plane into a charter flight for the lonely but lucky passenger

A lucky Chinese woman was stunned to find that she was the only person on a commercial flight back to her hometown after all the other passengers failed to turn up.

The woman, whose family name is Zhang, kept a record of her unique experience on social media after boarding the flight after midnight to discover she was the only one on the airplane.

China Southern Airlines flight from Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, was delayed for 10 hours because of a freak snowstorm. And this caused all the other passengers to switch planes.

Before the airplane took off, a flight attendant ushered Zhang onto the plane and told her she would be taking a "charter flight" – meaning she could sit anywhere she wanted for the flight back to her hometown in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei Province.

The flight attendants even took photos with Zhang, who also had got to share an orange with the pilot, who landed the plane safely at 2am.

Surprisingly, the shuttle bus from the plane to the terminal was also empty.

Zhang also took a picture of that and uploaded as part of her unique adventure on China’s popular microblogging site Weibo.

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.

A=4, B=1, C=2, D=8, E=3, F=7, G=5, H=6,

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. That was one of the spookiest places I have been to, people had strange looks on their faces.

2. We had to postpone the football game because of bad weather.

3. She was stunningly beautiful.

4. You need to turn up to work by 9am each day.

5. This flower is unique to Korea, you won’t find it in any other country.

6. It would be a freak event to get snow in Korea in June.

7. The weather in this city can quickly switch from cold to hot and cold again very quickly.

8. This New Years, 2016, will usher in the Year of the Monkey.

    

    

Some questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your answer.

1. How spooky would this event be for you (from the story above)?

2. If your flight was postponed 10 hours, what would you do?

3. What is one of the most stunning places you have visited?

4. In your culture how late can you turn up to a meeting/a date/a job interview/meeting a long time friend?

5. Describe something unique about your country and culture?

6. Do you think the weather in the world is having more freak storms or events these days? Why or why not?

7. If you could switch your life for another person for one day, who would it be and why?

8. What changes would you like to see ushered in for international travel?