Travel disasters

John and David’s flight home from Amsterdam was at eight in the morning. John’s friend Pieter picked them up at their hostel in his car. They had agreed to meet at half past five but Pieter arrived almost half an hour late – that, however, was just the beginning of their problems.

On the way from the hostel to the airport, a car broke down in the middle of a busy intersection, causing a traffic jam. Then, David realized that he had left his mobile phone in the hostel, but it was too late for them to turn back.

John and David didn’t know it, but Pieter was a horrible driver. When they got to the main highway, he was driving so slowly that John screamed at him, telling him to speed up. He then went so fast that David begged him to slow down.

When they arrived at the airport, Pieter dropped them off at the terminal, and they checked in, passed the security controls without being held up and got on the plane. Seconds later, the plane took off.

Eight hours later, they landed in New York, but they couldn’t get off the plane because there was a problem on the runway. Finally, forty-five minutes after landing, they got off.

1. Put the phrasal verbs from the story in the chart below. Use phrases or short sentences similar to the examples.

Intransitive They checked in.

Separable He picked them up.

Inseparable They couldn’t get off the plane.

                                               

2. Complete the questions with a phrasal verb. Please note that some phrasal verbs appear more than once.

1. What should you do when your car ________ ________?

2. Have you ever been ________ ________ in traffic for a long time and missed an important event? Or ________ ________by customs or passport control in the airport? Why did they ________ you ________?

3. When you go to the airport, does someone usually ________ you ________? Who?

4. And when you come back from a trip, does someone usually ________ you ________ at the airport?

5. How do you usually feel when the plane ________ ________? Do you ever feel nervous or scared?

6. Have you ever gone on a trip and forgotten to take something very important with you? What was it? Did you ________ ________ to go and get it?

Adapted from onestopenglish.com

KEY

Intransitive checked in broke down turn back take off

Separable pick up drop off slow down speed up hold up

Inseparable get off get to get on

1. breaks down

2. held up, held up, hold up

3. drop off

4. pick up

5. takes off

6 turn back