FLYING - THEN AND NOW (Adapted from the book "Airport International" by Brian Moynahan)

My first flight was from Paris to Portsmouth in 1959. The pilot arrived late, with the stewardess. He wore a leather coat, old trousers and wellington boots. The stewardess had holes in her stockings and wore mirrored sunglasses. They both went into the cockpit without a word.

When we were approaching the English coast, tha stewardess appeared in the cabin. She was still wearing the sunglasses, but her lipstick was smudged. "Southend? Anybody for Southend?" she shouted. The boy in front of me put up his hand. The DC-3 suddenly landed. The boy was shown the door and he jumped down onto the grass field and we took off again. The stewardess went back into the cockpit. I remember thinking at the time flying wouldn´t always be like this.

And I was right. In 40 years, international travels has completely changed, and the world has become a global village. Crossing the world is as easy as (sometimes easier than) getting from one side of a city to another. The world of air travel has developed into a huge industry.

The airports themselves are remarkable places: Paris´s strange and space-like Charles de Gaulle or Dallas/Fort Worth with its Texas vastness. There are airports which are almost jammed with the number of arrivals and departures, like Chicago´s O´Hare or Tokyo´s Haneda; and there are deserted ariports like Tanzania´s Kilimanjaro, lying beneath the snows of that great mountain, wainting for tourist who have never arrived.

But probably one of the greatest of them all is London´s Heathrow, which tops, with Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O´Hare International Airports, the list of both international flights and international passangers. In 2005 Atlanta International handled over 84 millions of passengers, Chicago O´Hare over 77 millions and London´s Heathrow over 68 millions.

Like all the great airports, it dates back only to the last days of the Second World War. The first runway was built on the flat land near the village of Staines in 1944. It was a place of historic interest. One of the most important Anglo-Saxon temples is buried under Terminal Two and the village of Heathrow is now under the main car park. The airport has ghosts. A Saxon prince has been seen near the pounds, where he drowned and an outlaw rides through the cargo sheds, with a three-cornered hat and a black horse. Heathrow has been operating as an international airport since 1 Jaunuary 1946, when a British South American Airways Lancastrian took off into a morning mists on a flight to Buenos Aires. In February 1952, the Queen arrived from Entebbe to set foot on British soil for the first time as monarch.

Since those early days, constant building has been necessary to deal with the growth of air traffic and the demands of air travellers. However, Heathrow shares the same problems as all big airports, too many planes, too many people and too much crime and terrorism. It is the centre point of the air routes between Europe and North America in one direction, and between Europe ant the Gulf, Africa and Asia in the other. It is alive with all citizens of this strange world, rich and poor, honest and dishonest. It is the Airport International par excellence.

IKER CASILLAS (By Antonio Azcárate 3ºB)

ANTONIO PUERTA´S BIOGRAPHY (By Diego 3ºA)

MY DAILY ROUTINE (By María Salguero 2ºB)

KEY TO EXERCISES UNIT 1 TO 4 AND ADITIONAL EXERCISES 1 TO 4

ADITIONAL EXERCISES UNIT 1 TO 4. PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND PRESENT SIMPLE

EXERCISES UNIT 4. PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND PRESENT SIMPLE (2)

EXERCISES UNIT 3. PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND PRESENT SIMPLE (1)

EXERCISES UNIT 2.- PRESENT SIMPLE

EXERCISES UNIT 1. PRESENT CONTINUOUS

IN A FEW YEARS TIME I HOPE TO.......

MY TIMETABLE

COUPLE WHO SURVIVED AN AMAZING 66 DAYS AT SEA

A couple from Miami, Bill and Simone Butler, spent sixty-six days in a life-raft in the seas of Central America after their yatch sank. They survived in very good condition.

Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their yacht, Siboney, they met some whales. "They started to hit the side of the boat", said Bill, "and then suddenly we heard water." Two minutes later, the yacht was sinking. They jumped into the life-raft and watched the boat go under the water.

For twenty days they had tins of food, biscuits and bottles of water. They also had a fishing-line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water, two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw. Then the line broke. "So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks came to feed, and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands."

About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea their life-raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn´t stand up, so the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over.

HELLO, PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!

There are five billion people in the world and they live in all different corners of it. They live on the snow and ice of the Poles and in the tropical jungles on the equator. They haved climbed the higest montains and walked on the sea bed. Some of them have even left earth and visited the moon.

The human species is the most numerous and the most powerful of all the animals on earth. How did happen? In many ways, animals can do things better than we can. Dogs can smell and hear better than we can. Cats can see in the dark. Birds can fly thousands of miles away and return to the same place every year. But we are different. No other animal builds cathedrals, plays football, tells jokes, gets married, has prisions, writes symphonies, elects presidents or goes to the moon.

There is one thing above all that makes people and animals different. People love talk - talk - talk. We are the great communicators! And we can communicate so many things in so many ways - with our faces, our hands, our bodies and our voices. Most important of all, we can record what we say and think in writing, so that we can communicate through time. We have a sense of past and future, not just present.

We are the only species that can change the world, and we are the only species that choose either to look after our world or to destroy it.

SEAN CONNERY´S BIOGRAPHY

Sean Connery was born in Edimburgh (Scotland) in 1930. His true name is Thomas Sean Connery and he was the third son of Joe Connery and his wife Eddie. Those years were very dificult and Sean had to study at the school and help to work to get money for his family.

When he was a teenager he was a football player with the Fettor Amateur while he was studying at Daroch School. After de Second World War, he came in the Royal Marine but he only was there for three years because he was ill and he had to leave his marine career.

After that, he was a professional football player, a lifeguard in a swimingpool and a model. The last profession was the gate to come in to the theatre. At the moment, Connery knew that he wanted to be an actor.

His first film was "Let´s make up" in 1954. Three years later he worked for the 20th Century Fox, where he made some films such as "The longest day".

In 1963 he left the 20th Century Fox and started to work for United Artist. Since this moment he played James Bond. From 1963 until 1971 he made some films such as "Dr. No", "From Russia with love", "Goldfinger", "Thunderball" and "You only live twice". He started to be a famous actor. After 1971 he started to play other kind of films. In 1987 he won his fisrt Oscar with the film "The untouchables".

Now he has made a lot of films and he has only won one Oscar, but he has won more prize. He has been married twice and today he lives with his second wife, Micheline Roquebrune. He has founded The Scottish International Education Trust, to help scottish orphans.

UNIT 4 PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND PRESENT SIMPLE (2)

UNIT 3 PRESENT CONTINUOUS AND PRESENT SIMPLE (1)

UNIT 2 PRESENT SIMPLE

UNIT 1 PRESENT CONTINUOUS