New clues in the Amelia Earhart mystery
Read about old photos and a recent search, then discuss why this story still interests people.
Written for any B1 learner. Adapt it to make it about your student: their level, their work, their goals.
Introduction
Amelia Earhart was a famous pilot who disappeared in 1937. People are still looking for answers today. Have you ever been curious about an old mystery or an unsolved story from the past?
Key Vocabulary
8 wordsLearn these words before reading the article. They will help you understand the text better.
uninhabited
A place where no people live.
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aerial survey
An examination of land from the air, often using cameras.
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vanished
Disappeared suddenly and completely.
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ran aground
When a ship hits the bottom of the sea or a river and cannot move.
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refuel
To put more fuel into a plane, car, or ship.
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castaways
People who are left on an island or in a lonely place after a ship or plane accident.
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shallow
Not deep; with only a small distance from top to bottom.
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lagoon
An area of calm sea water separated from the ocean by sand or rocks.
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Article
Read the article carefully. Take your time to understand the main ideas.
Listen to the article. The sentence being read is highlighted; click any word to hear it.
A museum in New Zealand has shared nearly 50 old photographs. The black-and-white images were taken in 1938, just one year after the famous American pilot Amelia Earhart disappeared. They show Nikumaroro, a small, uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. Some researchers believe Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, may have landed there.
The photos come from an aerial survey. A New Zealand military plane took them to look for possible airbase locations. The museum released the full set in high quality online because many people asked for them. One Earhart investigator called the images a valuable new resource. The pictures show the island as it was a short time after Earhart vanished. They include the wreck of a British ship, the SS Norwich City, which ran aground on the island in 1929.
Earhart was trying to fly around the world along the equator in 1937. She and Noonan left Lae, Papua New Guinea, on 2 July. Their plan was to stop at Howland Island to refuel. They never arrived. Since then, many people have tried to solve the mystery. One popular theory says they did not find Howland Island and instead landed on Nikumaroro, about 650 kilometres away. Supporters of this idea say they may have lived as castaways for a time.
Recently, a team from Purdue University in the United States travelled to Nikumaroro. They wanted to check something called the Taraia Object. This was a long, white shape seen in satellite photos from 2020. It lay in shallow water near the shore. The team hoped it could be part of Earhart's plane, a Lockheed Electra.
However, after several days of work, the team found a different answer. Bad weather delayed their search for three days. When they finally examined the object, they discovered it was not metal. It was a collection of large trees that had fallen into the lagoon. The shiny surface that people saw in photos came from a natural coating of sand and coral, not from an aircraft.
The search was not a complete loss. The university said the mission added a new chapter to the Earhart story. The team also used metal detectors on the island. While they did not find a 'smoking gun', the 1938 photos now give amateur detectives around the world a chance to look for new clues themselves.
Comprehension Questions
Answer these questions to check your understanding of the article.
- 1What country's museum released the 1938 photos?
- 2What is the name of the island in the photographs?
- 3In what year did Amelia Earhart disappear?
- 4What was the Taraia Object actually made of?
- 5Why was the Purdue University team delayed for three days?
- 6What happened to the British ship SS Norwich City?
Further Discussion
Discuss these questions about the topic and your personal experiences.
- 1Why do you think people are still interested in a mystery from 1937?
- 2Have you ever seen an old photograph that surprised you? What was it?
- 3Would you like to visit a very remote, uninhabited island? Why or why not?
- 4What modern technology helps us find things that were lost in the past?
- 5In your country, is there a famous unsolved story or legend?
- 6Why is it important for museums to share historical photos online?
Wrap-up & Reflection
In this lesson, we talked about the Amelia Earhart mystery, old photographs, and a recent search in the Pacific. We also used words like 'uninhabited', 'vanished', and 'shallow'. Think about a mystery from your own country's history. Can you describe it in three or four sentences?
Make it about your student
Same story, rewritten at your student's level, with discussion questions about their job, goals and weak spots. The vocabulary stays from the news, so they learn words outside their usual topics.
Sources
LinguaFlow wrote this article for language learners from facts reported by the sources below. Read them for the full story.