A scientist is alone in space with broken pieces of a satellite all around her. And the danger is real.
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These are the new words. Match each word (1–8) to its meaning (A–H). Say your answers out loud — "I think 1 is C" — then check.
1 = C (a satellite) · 2 = G (a space station) · 3 = F (broken pieces) · 4 = H (dangerous)
5 = A (alone) · 6 = B (a fire extinguisher) · 7 = D (to land) · 8 = E (an astronaut)
Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (2013). Read each part. Then try the questions from memory, and talk about the last one. (There are spoilers — that is fine, we want to talk about it.)
Dr Ryan Stone is a scientist. This is her first time in space. She is working outside the shuttle with Matt Kowalski, an experienced astronaut. They are fixing the Hubble telescope, a big camera in space that takes pictures of stars.
Suddenly, bad news comes from Houston. A missile has destroyed an old satellite, and now thousands of broken pieces are flying through space, very, very fast. The pieces hit the shuttle. The other astronauts die. Stone is thrown away from the shuttle. She spins around and around, alone, with only a small amount of oxygen left.
Kowalski hears her voice on the radio and flies to find her. He catches her and stops her spinning. Now they are alone in space, far above the Earth, with no shuttle and no crew. And the broken pieces will come back again in ninety minutes.
1. What happens to the shuttle?
2. What is Stone's problem when Kowalski finds her?
1. Broken pieces from a destroyed satellite hit it very fast, and the other astronauts die.
2. She is spinning and alone in space, with only a little oxygen left.
Kowalski and Stone fly towards the International Space Station. It is their only hope. While they travel, Kowalski asks Stone about her life. She tells him about her daughter, who died in an accident years ago. This is hard for Stone to talk about.
When they reach the space station, they see it is already broken and empty. The crew left before them. One escape capsule is useless because its parachute opened by accident. As Stone tries to get inside the station, her rope gets stuck.
The broken pieces are coming back. Kowalski cannot free the rope in time, so he lets go of it himself. He tells Stone to let him go, and floats away into the dark. Now Stone is completely alone.
1. What does Stone tell Kowalski about her life?
2. Why does Kowalski let go of the rope?
1. That her daughter died in an accident, and it was very hard for her.
2. Her rope is stuck and the broken pieces are coming back; he lets go so his weight does not pull her away from safety.
Alone on the broken space station, Stone finds a small escape capsule called Soyuz. But its parachute already opened, so it cannot land safely. Very tired, she almost gives up. Then she remembers something important: there is a Chinese space station nearby called Tiangong, with a capsule that works the same way.
She flies towards Tiangong, but the Soyuz runs out of fuel before she arrives. So she uses a fire extinguisher like a rocket — the gas pushes her forward through space, all the way to the other station.
Stone gets inside Tiangong's escape capsule and flies down towards Earth. The capsule lands hard, in a lake, and water starts coming in fast. She swims out just in time, reaches the shore, and stands up on the ground again.
1. How does Stone travel the last part of the way to Tiangong?
2. How does the film end?
1. She uses a fire extinguisher as a rocket — the gas pushes her body forward.
2. Her capsule lands in a lake; she swims out and stands up safely on the shore.
This story is all about the order of events — what happened first, and what happened next. English uses four small, useful words to put past events in order.
Read the meaning in brackets and complete the sentence.
1. the missile hit the satellite, the pieces flew everywhere. (close together in time)
2. Kowalski found Stone she stopped spinning. (this happened first, then he found her — she stopped first)
3. They talked about her daughter they flew towards the space station. (at the same time)
1. When (close together in time)
2. before (spinning stopped, then he found her)
3. while (happening at the same time)
Complete each sentence with the correct past simple form.
1. Stone (find) the Soyuz capsule after she (leave) the space station.
2. Before she (reach) Tiangong, the Soyuz (run) out of fuel.
3. While the capsule (fall) towards Earth, Stone (stay) calm.
1. found · left
2. reached · ran
3. fell · stayed
Fill each gap with when, before, after or while. Then read it aloud.
the debris hit the shuttle, everything changed. Stone was very frightened she found Kowalski. they flew to the space station, they talked about her life. Kowalski let go of the rope, Stone was completely alone.
When · before · While · After
Use when for things close together in time, before/after for order, and while for two things happening together.
The accident in the film is not just an idea from a writer. It has a real name, and it is a real, growing problem in space today.
In 1978, a NASA scientist called Donald Kessler wrote about a dangerous idea. If there are too many objects in space, one crash can make broken pieces. Those pieces can hit other things and make more broken pieces. This can keep happening, again and again. Today, we call this the Kessler syndrome.
Today, there are about 40,000 big tracked objects flying around the Earth, and millions of smaller broken pieces. This number is getting bigger every year, not smaller.
The start of the film — a missile destroying a satellite and creating dangerous pieces — has really happened. In 2007, China destroyed one of its own old satellites with a missile and created more than 3,000 pieces of space rubbish. In 2021, Russia did the same thing to a different satellite. The broken pieces came so close to the International Space Station that the astronauts had to hide inside their capsules for two hours, and the danger returned about every ninety minutes — just like in the film.
Do all three tasks out loud. Use the timer to keep talking.
Tell the story of Gravity in your own words. Use these steps to help you: a normal day fixing the Hubble telescope → a missile destroys a satellite and broken pieces hit the shuttle → Stone is alone in space, and Kowalski saves her → they lose Kowalski at the space station → Stone uses a fire extinguisher to reach another station → she lands in a lake and swims to safety.
Try to use some key words (satellite, space station, broken pieces, dangerous, alone, fire extinguisher, land, astronaut) and when / before / after / while.
Kowalski lets go of the rope so that Stone can live. Do you think this was right? What would you do in his place — try everything to survive, or accept the situation calmly? Say why.
Talk about danger and space. Use when, before, after or while if you can.
Not sure what to say? Choose one: