Four children survive plane crash and live in Amazon jungle

Nick's ESL News Lessons

A printable worksheet for news-based English conversation classes.

Date: 2023/06/11

Difficulty: Upper Intermediate B2

PDF: Four children survive plane crash and live in Amazon jungle

Vocabulary Match

indigenous •• huge
remarkable •• debris
wreckage •• amazing
familiarity •• government
cassava •• yucca
immense •• knowledge
authorities •• native

Vocabulary Answers

indigenousnative
remarkableamazing
wreckagedebris
familiarityknowledge
cassavayucca
immensehuge
authoritiesgovernment

Article

In a remarkable tale of survival, four children of the Huitoto indigenous group, aged between one and thirteen, survived a plane crash and lived for 40 days in Colombia's Amazon jungle before being rescued. The light aircraft, which also carried the children's mother and two pilots, crashed on May 1st due to engine failure. The children managed to escape the wreckage and survive in the jungle, leaning on their knowledge of fruits and survival skills.

Their rescue became a nationwide effort, involving soldiers, locals, and indigenous people. A series of items and small footprints left behind helped locate the children. Once rescued, they were airlifted to Bogota for medical treatment. The eldest sibling's familiarity with caring for the younger ones aided their survival, feeding them with flour, cassava bread, and local fruits. Their grandmother expressed immense gratitude post their rescue, while their grandfather appealed to authorities to allow the children to be moved closer to their family.

Quiz

  1. How did the children survive in the jungle?
  2. How were the children located?

Quiz Answers (examples)

  1. By leaning on their knowledge of fruits and survival skills.
  2. The children left a series of items and small footprints behind.

Conversation

A:The terrain's treacherous. Hope these kids are using their survival skills.
B:They're Huitoto. They know these jungles better than us.
A:True, we found some items and small footprints recently.
B:Evidence they're alive. But the jungle's vast, and full of predators.
A:Let's broadcast the grandmother's message, they might hear it.
B:Good idea, anything that might encourage them stay put.

Discussion

  1. What survival skills do you think are important to have in the jungle?
  2. Have you ever been lost in the wilderness? What did you do?
  3. Do you know any other stories of incredible rescues?
  4. Do you think this story would make a good movie? Why or why not?

Source Material

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65864158


MORE: