Book II L6.ppt

Unit 6 ?The Man in the Water The Content Background Knowledge Theme of the Text In-class activities. Language Points Difficult Sentences Exercise I. About the Author Roger Rosenblatt is a journalist, author, playwright and professor. As an essayist for Time magazine, he has won two George Polk Awards, and awards from the Overseas Press Club and the American Bar Association, among others. His television essays for the “MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” have won him a George Foster Peabody Award and an Emmy. He is also the author of six books. ? II. About the Air Crash  One of the worst snowstorms in the history of Washington, D.C. hit the city 20 years ago on Jan. 13, 1982.? Just about everything closed down — the government, businesses, schools, the airports. By about noon, the skies cleared and Washington’s National Airport reopened for business.? The crew of Air Florida Flight 90 began preparing for a nonstop trip to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At 3:59 p.m., the twin-engine Boeing 737 was cleared for takeoff and began rumbling down the runway on its final flight. Pictures . Minutes later, the plane smashed into the 14th Street Bridge, only 1,200 yards from the Pentagon, destroying four automobiles and killing five people.? The jet then fell into the ice-covered Potomac River , bringing all the passengers to their instant death except five —four passengers and one flight attendant — from the tail section, who found themselves gasping and struggling in the icy water. These five people however survived and they were able to survive because of four heroes. The author wrote this essay in praise of these heroes, three of whom had risked their lives to rescue the survivors and were able to live to tell the story, but the man that really held the whole nation’s attention was the fourth one who had kept pushing his lifeline and flotation rings to others until he went under. Pictures Moments After the Crash At 3:59 the plane shuddere