The Castaway, 2

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

praise	helpless	unbelievable
blood	fail (2)	make/made/made
drift	survive	knife/knives
claim	suspect	tell/told/told
wits	trip (2)	keep his food down
tale	shuffle	supposed to
defy	describe	wash up (2)
shore	struggle	beat/beat/beaten
belief	depart	blow/blew/blown
storm	consider	current (2)
island	on board	knife/knives
atoll	steady	bring/brought/brought
turtle	remote	think/thought/thought
flesh	journey	drink/drank/drunk
shark	request	eat/ate/eaten
admit	suicide	catch/caught/caught
pray	castaway	believe (2)
god	off course	see/saw/seen
push	ashore	hit/hit/hit (2)
shore	unable	buy/bought/bought (2)
react	caution	ambassador
expect	shape (2)	bad/worse/worst
bait	survive	run out (2)
rescue	play out	run/ran/run
urine	haircut

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 

Transcript

It’s the kind of unbelievable story they make movies about: a man in a boat has washed up on the remote Marshall Islands in the South Pacific.

He claims he had been drifting on the open ocean for thirteen month, and used his wits and a knife to survive. Some are a little suspect of his story, but as Robin Stickly reports, if it’s true, it is one of the greatest tales of survival at sea.

 

Fishermen are known to tell a tale. But this survival story defies belief.

Walking for the first time in over a year, a coke in hand and a nurse nearby to steady him. Thirty-seven (37) year old Jose Alvarez shuffles to shore with a smile.

And from his hospital room, Alvarenga describes drifting at sea for thirteen months, helpless, beaten by the sun and salt, struggling to stay alive.

On what was supposed to be a day trip, the fishing boat departed from an unknown location in Mexico, December, 2012, when the motor died, Alvarenga says a storm blew the boat off course.

Drifting in the Pacific for months, until currents finally brought him ashore, 8,800 kilometers away, on the southernmost atoll on the Marshall Islands.

A teenage boy, Ezekiel was also on board, but died, Alvarenga thinks, about four weeks in. He says this was his lowest point. But the boy couldn’t keep the food down.

With nothing but a small knife, he says he drank turtle blood, ate seagull flesh and used his arm as bait to catch small sharks. At times even drinking his own urine. And the castaway admits, he considered suicide.

But he says hours of prayer saved him: “Praise God for the boat.”

Describing the moment he saw land for the first time, he says, “I pushed myself away from the boat so it wouldn’t hit me on the head.”

But after so long at sea, his legs failed him: “But when I got to the shore, I was unable to walk.”

Not everyone’s buying it. Officials who have interviewed him are reacting with caution.

Thomas Armbruster, US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands: I would expect somebody to be in worse shape. If what he is saying is true, he’s one of the best survivalist around.”

But a similar journey played out in 2006. Three fishermen from Mexico ran out of gas and spent nine months adrift before being rescued near the Marshall Islands.

Alvarenga has made only two requests: to talk to his family and he says he really needs a haircut.

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Questions

1. Jose Alvarenga was an engineer on board a large cargo ship in the Caribbean Sea. True or false?

2. Did everything go according to plan on that day in December 2012? Was everything normal and fine?

3. Surviving at sea on his fishing boat was easy and fun. Is this right or wrong? How did he survive​?

4. Was he alone on the boat the whole time?

5. Did Jose said back to Mexico after one month at sea?

6. When Jose reached the Marshall Islands, he jumped in the waters, swam, ran on shore and jumped up and down. Is this correct or incorrect? How was his condition?

7. Now, does he want to write a book, be on TV and become rich and famous?

 

A. I have read, heard of or seen movies about castaways. Yes or no?

B. Have people from your country or region gone missing or lost?

C. My friends and I have sailed on boats and ships. True or false?

D. Is the fishing industry big in your country?

E. I would like to be a castaway on a remote island.

F. What might happen in the future? Will there be more, less or the same about of castaways?