The World Ends in Two Years

Gerard Counihan
profesorSs [at] blabla.es

It is unofficial, but a strong rumour nevertheless: the world will end in two years' time due to the arrival of a huge comet and its subsequent impact with Earth. You have two years to live, to get the most out of life. How would you react? What would you do? What things?

Activity A

Give pupils a sheet of paper and get them to write down a few ideas. Give them 5 minutes or so.

Activity B

Collect papers, mix them up and then read out some of the replies, mentioning nobody by name in order to avoid potential embarrassment. See how many have said the same things.

Activity C

Go through the interesting ones and ask everybody to comment on them, or simply to justify the choices made. My class of seven gave the following answers:

- Travel
- Get to know a different lifestyle
- Do adventure sports + Travel
- Try to find another place to live
- Stop studying or working
- Travel a lot
- Try to spend all the time with family and friends
- Rob a bank
- I need two months to think up a plan
- Total anarchy
- Spend all my money
- Do the Paris-Daker rally
- Read Don Quijote
- Build an underground house
- Travel
- Go to lots of parties
- Spend all my money, and my friends'
- I would tell my boss the things I could not tell him before

As you can see, some were more imaginative than others.

Activity D

You are the last person left on the planet, what would you do?

Activity E

Now, what is your reaction to or comment on the following "ends":

End of school-year (What are you going to or What did you do?).
End of a normal year, eve of new year..
End of a sports training session.
End of a difficult exam.
End of an interview.
End of a heated argument with your best friend.
End of a romance.
End of a long journey through India.
End of a gripping book.
End of a sad film at the cinema.
End of a boring class.
End of a fantastic English conversation class.
End of a superb dinner out.

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 2, February 1999
http://iteslj.org/