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Ever since Tom was a small boy, he wanted to be an airline pilot. Sadly, his school grades were never good enough to achieve his dream, so he gave up trying. Then his father suggested he become an air traffic controller. The job on an ATC has a lot of responsibility as the lives of hundreds of people are in their hands. Tome studied hard and passed the exam on his first attempt.
The training course was one
year and in the beginning everything went very well; it was exactly
what he had expected.
But one day all the students were called to a
meeting. They sat in silence as a senior airforce
officer
entered the
room with two government
officials.
'Ladies and gentlemen,' the officer
said, 'in front of each of you is a piece of paper. Please read it and
sign it. It is a promise to keep secret the information that we are
going to give you today.'
All the students looked at each other feeling suprised and excited, but
also confused. They all read the form and signed their names.
'Thank you,' said one of the government men as all the forms were
gathered.
The other government man stood
up and spoke to them, 'As air traffic controllers, you are responsible
for the safety of airplanes. But today we are here to tell you of
another responsibility, because airplanes are not the only things
flying
in
the sky above the earth. Please watch the screen.'.
The students watched as a large screen came down and a projector
started. They saw images of alien
spaceships
of different shapes and
sizes. 'Ladies and gentlemen, these are the secrets you must never tell
anyone outside this room - not even your families. You will be
responsible for the safe flights of our friends from other planets.'
The students gasped.
It was such a shock. The lecture
continued for
over four hours. But by the end, they had learned so much secret
information.
When Tom returned home, his mother asked him if he had had a nice day. He said it was nothing special, a little boring. But inside, he felt so excited. It was like a dream, like something in a movie. He wanted to tell everyone but he knew that was impossible, he must keep it secret.
Two years later and Tom wasn't happy. He had graduated from the training school and was working as an air traffic controller at his local airport. But he hated keeping secrets. Also, he had heard that some accidents had happened. Then one evening he was sitting, looking at his monitor and giving orders to the airplanes and spaceships when a terrible thing happened: one of the spaceships ignored his order to change its altitude, and it crashed into a jet carrying passengers into his local airport. Over three hundred people were killed. But on the television news, there was no mention of the spaceship. They said the jet had engine trouble. Tom was angry and confused, but what could he do? He had signed to say he would never tell the secret to anyone.
After a lot of thinking, he decided to tell the television companies and newspapers. He recorded some information and gathered some files, and some photographs of the alien spaceships, and at the end of his shift, he got in his car and drove towards the city. As Tom drove through the forest between the airport and city his car engine suddenly stopped and he saw a strange light in the sky. It was coming closer and closer.
Adjectives
terrible:
Very bad.
Verbs
give
up:
To stop doing something.
expect:
To think something will happen, or should happen.
gasp:
To breathe in quickly and noisily because you are very surprised.
ignore:
To behave in a way to show that you do not want to talk to someone who
wants to talk to you.
be
no mention of:
When something is not talked about.
Nouns
an
air traffic controller:
Someone at an airport who gives instructions to pilots by radio.
an
an attempt:
A single time when you try to d osomething difficult.
an
airforce officer:
a senior person in the airforce.
a
government official:
Someone who works for the government.
a
projector:
A machine used to show an image or film on a screen or wall.
an
alien spaceship:
A flying machine used by people from different planets to travel
through space.
a
lecture:
A long talk given by a person with a lot of knowledge about a subject.
a monitor:
Like a computer screen with some kind of information on it.
altitude:
Height above the surface of the earth.
engine
trouble:
A problem with an engine that stops it working properly.
a
shift:
A period of time when you are at work.
Expressions
"in
sb.'s
hands":
To be someone's responsibility.