A Road Accident

It was raining heavily as I was walking up the hill towards the station at 6 o’clock on a Saturday morning. At this early hour there wasn’t much traffic and there weren’t many people in sight. Just as I was crossing the road near the top of the hill, a car came round the corner. It was travelling very fast and the driver was obviously having difficulty in controlling it. Suddenly it swerved violently, skidded on the wet road, hit a lamp post and turned over.

At once I ran to the car to assist the driver, but he was unconscious and there was a lot of blood on his face. A young woman hurried into the station and phoned for an ambulance while I took care of the driver. A number of other people gathered round the car, but there wasn’t a great deal we could do. A policeman arrived and asked me a lot of questions about the accident. Shortly afterward the man came round and he was groaning quietly when the ambulance arrived at high speed and rushed him away to hospital.

On Monday morning I went to the hospital to enquire about the man. They told me that his injures were not serious after all and that he was rapidly getting over the effects of the accident.

Vocabulary Notes

to swerve – 1. to change direction suddenly

to skid – move or slip sideways

to come round – to come to one’s senses

to rush – go or come, do smth. with violence or speed

to get over smth. – to recover from (e.g. illness, surprise, loss)

1) Tell a friend about the accident. (Try to use the Subjective Infinitive Construction with “seem”, “appear”, “to be likely/sure”, “to be unlikely”, “happen”.)

I happened to be crossing the road when…/to be walking up…

It seemed to be speeding. The driver seemed to be having difficulty in … he wasn’t likely to brake in time on that slippery road.

The driver appeared to be unconscious…

There didn’t seem to be much we could do. He seemed to be in pain.

A young woman who happened to be… hurried into the station.

2) Discuss the accident with a friend, try to explain why it has taken place. (You’ve got some information from the policeman.)

You may use “is supposed to”, “is believed to (be drunk)”, “the transmission/brakes is/ are said to be out of order”, “is known to be a reckless driver anyway”, “was sure to crash sooner or later”, “turn out”, “prove”.

3) You know that the man is in hospital now. You ring up the hospital to ask after his state. You are told he was rather badly hurt but is now out of danger.

Now you talk to your friend about it.

You may use: “He is said to be out of danger”

He is certain/sure to get well.

He is not likely to be out of hospital in a hurry.

I happen to know that … a collar-bone and two ribs proved/turned out to be broken and he seems to have a concussion of the brain, to say nothing of cuts and bruises/scratches.

Read the following article about Christopher Columbus and list the information about him in your notebook under the two headings below, use the Subjective Infinitive Constructions.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16