This activity can focus on speaking and/or writing. It is a great opportunity for group work; students make decisions about the fate of 10 survivor candidates as the world reels from war, and humanity faces extinction!
This activity promotes critical thinking, group discussion, and language fluency.
Presentation
Ask students to work in pairs, groups, or individually to determine who among the candidates listed in the text below will board the only flight to a still inhabitable island and, therefore, be the last humans on Earth.
Creating a New Civilization text Download this resource (docx)
War has just taken place! Most of the world was destroyed. However, you, the delegates of the United Nations (UN), have just learned that one small, inhabited island 300 miles off the coast of Australia/Africa/Asia was not destroyed. Scientists think that the plants on the island may be damaged by fallout from the weapons used, but the soil is useable and fertile.
Unfortunately, there is only time for one small airplane to make it to the island. Aside from the pilot, the plane can carry only six people, but there are 10 people at the airport who want to board the plane. As delegates of the UN, you have one hour to decide which six of the following people will live, and which four will die.
For each individual below decide: 1) reasons in favor of survival, 2) reasons against survival, and 3) the committee’s decision.
Possible Survivor # 1: a religious woman (age unknown)
Possible Survivor #2: a sterile doctor (male, 46)
Possible Survivor #3: a female singer (age 30)
Possible Survivor #4: a policewoman with a gun
Possible Survivor #5: a male subsistence farmer
Possible Survivor #6: the farmer’s wife, who is pregnant
Possible Survivor #7: a male judge (age 41)
Possible Survivor #8: a female university professor
Possible Survivor #9: a soldier from a nearby island with a spear
Possible Survivor #10: an alcoholic female agricultural scientist
Production
Read the text aloud and give students copies of the potential survivors list. As a speaking activity, the students will report to the class the list of survivors they have selected and the reasons why. This could also be submitted as a written report.
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