Exercise 1. Listen to the Franklin Expedition mystery. Number the sentences below according to the order in which they appear in the story:

• What the British government did.

• Why Franklin went to the Artic.

• What some sailors found.

• What Franklin took with him

• Who saw Franklin for the last time.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions.

• Why did explorers want to cross Alaska?

• How long could the sailors in Franklin’s ships survive on their food?

• When were they last seen?

• Did the expeditions sent by the British government get any success?

• What was found on Devon Island?

• Why was it strange to find the three dead man?

Scroll down the page to read the text as you listen to it

Optional post-listening activities

Write a paragraph summarizing the mystery of the Franklin expedition

What do you suppose happened to them?

THE MYSTERY OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION

Many years ago, explorers wanted to find a way by sea from Europe to China, via Alaska. In 1985, John Franklin left England with 134 men to look for a route through the Arctic.

Franklin’s ships had everything they needed. They had enough food for three years and thousands of liters of lemon juice to stop disease. They also had 2 libraries with 3,000 books, excellent maps, scientific instruments, musical instruments and a new invention: a camera.

Franklin and his men left England on May 19th, 1845 and they sailed without problems across the Atlantic towards Canada. When Franklin arrived a Baffin Bay in July 1845, things were going very well for the expedition. On July 26th, some sailors saw Franklin’s ships when they were entering the bay. That was the last time that anyone saw Franklin and his men alive.

The British government became very worried when they hard nothing from Franklin. They sent expeditions to look for him, but the expeditions all returned without any news. The government offered 20 thousand pounds to anybody who could help Franklin or anybody who had information about rankling. Nobody came with information.

Then in August 1850, some sailors found the first signs of the Franklin expedition while they were searching on Devon Island: some old food tins, some papers, and something very strange, the graves of three men. The men all died in January 1846 while Franklin was waiting in Baffin Bay for the ice to melt. But why did they die The three men were all young and three deaths in the first months of the expedition was very strange. What happened to them? And where were the ships and all the other sailors? The mystery of the Franklin expedition was growing stronger…