27/12/1997

Shipwreck survivor
Read the article about a person who survived a shipwreck.

Write a summary about what he did to survive.

A Chinese man, Poon Lim, is famous for being the longest shipwreck survivor. He spent 133 days in the
sea when his ship went down in the South Atlantic after leaving Cape Town. It took just two minutes for
the ship to sink, and the only man who managed to survive was Poon Lim.

Despite the mad chaos of the sinking, exploding ship, Lim was still able to grab a life jacket, which was
vital, as he had never learnt to swim well. He floated in the ocean for what he estimated to be around two
hours until he spotted one of the ship’s life rafts. It was a wooden raft about two and a half metres square,
partially covered by a canvas roof. After much effort, Lim succeeded in reaching it and although weak,
managed to pull himself aboard. Luckily for Lim, on the life raft, there were some bottles of juice and tins
of biscuits, together with two flares, a flashlight and even some chocolate.

Once Lim realised that his emergency provisions were running out, he knew that he had to invent ways to
find food and water. He used the canvas from the roof and his life jacket to make a container to catch
rainwater. He had never been fishing and had no skills to help him, but he improvised by making a fishing
hook out of the wire from the flashlight and the jagged edges of the biscuit tins.

By day 60, he was aware that he was losing physical strength so he began to swim around the life raft
twice a day. This routine continued until a particularly bad storm nearly destroyed his life raft. Against all
the odds, he survived and was able to repair the damage. However, this experience left him feeling even
more terrified about his situation.

Lim had never seen such a variety of beautiful sea creatures and spent many hours observing the fish that
swam around him. However, he was alarmed by the threatening sharks that at times surrounded his life
raft, and occasionally attacked him.

Lim survived for almost five months. On two occasions he spotted a ship, and once a plane passed by near
him, but each time his shouts and frantic waving went unnoticed. The nightmare only came to an end
when he was picked up by Brazilian fishermen on April 5, 1943, about ten miles from land. They sailed to
Belem, Brazil, a town at the mouth of the Amazon River.

Upon arriving in Belem, suffering from severe sunburn, he spent four weeks at the local hospital to recover
and regain his physical fitness. He explained to people that he had worked hard not to lose a sense of
hope that he would finally be rescued. Lim went on to live to the age of 72, and even now, 133 days
remains the longest time for one person to survive being lost at sea in a life raft. When he was told about
his record, Lim said: “I hope no one will ever have to break it.”
 Read the article about a person who survived a shipwreck.
Write a summary about what he did to survive.
1. Lim was still able to grab a life jacket Lim survived through the shipwreck after 133 days in the
2. he spotted one of the ship’s life rafts. It was sea by several ways below.
a wooden raft
Firstly, a life jacket was found to help him float on the
3. on the life raft, there were some bottles of
water.
juice and tins of biscuits, together with two
flares, a flashlight and even some chocolate Then, the ship’s life rafts helped to give him a shelter and
4. He used the canvas from the roof and his provided necessities like some bottles of juice, tins of
life jacket to make a container to catch biscuits, together with two flares, a flashlight and even
rainwater some chocolate.
5. fishing
When he found out the emergency supplies were running
6. he was losing physical strength so he
out, he began to collect rainwater by the canvas from the
began to swim around the life raft twice a roof and his life jacket to make a container.
day.
He learnt how to catch a fish by using the wire from the
flashlight and the jagged edges of the biscuit tins

Finally, when he realized he was losing physical strength,

Write an email to a friend giving some advice.

 Describe how you feel about your friend’s ideas.

Dear Alex,

I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch for such a long time. Glad to
hear that your mom birthday is coming soon and I’m happy to
give some suggestions on the birthday party.

Regarding the theme’s party, you decorate the place like the
natural habitat of a typical dinosaur and set the dress code as
dinosaur costume.

About the food, you can prepare a volcano birthday cake and
put some candle on top of the volcano so that it can look
realistic as possible. Moreover, you can give guests some other
suggestions about food in case they don’t like sweet things like
dino nuggets, chips.

If you need any help with the party, I’m ready to come over and
help you prepare everything.

Say hello to your mom for me and hope to see you soon.

Best wishes,
Jenny.