Self-study and classroom lessons based on newspaper feature stories

This column is for self-study or classroom use and gives guided help with reading the wide variety of writing styles and topics that appear as feature articles in the Bangkok Post. The lessons include background information, skill-building practice and vocabulary explanations.

April 27, 2004

A Line of Luxury

INTRODUCTION

It’s everyone’s dream to spend some time on a luxury cruise ship, idling away the hours as you drift peacefully across the sea. It must be even more exciting when you are on one of the biggest cruise ships in the world.

Our feature this week is both a profile of the new luxury liner the Queen Mary 2 and an interview with the man who designed her. Yes, that’s right, I did write ‘her’ as this is an affectionate term often used when referring to a mode of transport which is that little bit special.

When you read the extract, you will see just how special the Queen Mary 2 really is. The writer, Kanokporn Chanasongkram, has used a lot of adjectives that make ‘her’ sound huge and impressive. Maybe you can spot some of these adjectives. Kanakporn has also used phrases like “floating skyscraper” to give an impression on the sheer size of the ship. Phrases like this one are called ‘metaphors’. A metaphor is a word or phrase used in an imaginative way to describe something else, in order to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful. When used properly, metaphors can be very effective.

This is quite a light-hearted article and Kanakporn has written some of her commentary using puns. A ‘pun’ is a clever or humorous word with more than one meaning and, in this case, is related to the subject of the article. For example, in the opening paragraph, we learn that the Queen Mary 2 is “making a splash”. This can mean that she will splash when she hits the water (after she is launched) or it can mean that she is attracting a lot of attention. Both meanings make sense in this article yet the words are the same. Clever, eh?
Paint your own picture

It can be interesting to write a description of something impressive which you are familiar with – a bit like painting a picture, only with words. Maybe you live near an ornate temple or perhaps you have a favourite mode of transport like a particular make of car or motorbike. Try to describe your subject using some of the techniques above. Think of effective adjectives or metaphors that will create an accurate impression in the reader’s mind. You could even use puns if you’re clever enough. Let your imagination run!

OUR STORY FROM THE BANGKOK POST

There's something
about MARY

Today, the new luxury liner Queen Mary 2 makes her first
transatlantic voyage from England to New York.
Real.time spoke with the ship’s designer
about the making of a modern marvel

KANOKPORN CHANASONGKRAM

Making a splash today, Queen Mary 2, the world’s largest, longest, and most luxurious passenger liner, departs on her inaugural westbound transatlantic voyage, from Southampton, England to New York.

Three times as big as the legendary Titanic, Queen Mary 2 is a modern-day engineering marvel, weighing approximately 150,000 gross tonnes and measuring 345 metres, which is more than three and a half times as long as Westminster Tower or Big Ben.

Cruising at a top speed of approximately 30 knots (56 km per hour), the magnificent Queen Mary 2 is capable of making the North Atlantic journey in only six days.

Its price tag: US$800 million.

Assigned to the task of designing this vast and invulnerable vessel, constructed to be the largest passenger ship ever built, was naval architect Stephen Payne, who spoke to real.time in a phone interview about some of the stories behind designing this new wonder of the world.

“At the beginning of the project,” remembers Payne, “Mickey Arison, the CEO of Carnival Corporation who commissioned Queen Mary 2, said to me I would get only one chance in my lifetime to be involved and design such a ship like this. So I better get it right the first time.”

After an exhaustive two years of research, a preliminary design was drafted: Queen Mary 2 would boast the best features of her predecessors, combined with 21st century cutting-edge technology.

The ship was constructed at Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St Nazaire, France; and it took some five and a half years to realise the mega-project from start to finish.

In order to be economically profitable and viable to the market, the ship had to be designed to be as big as possible. Why? Well, the larger the ship, the lower the cost per bed.

Being bigger also means that the ship can offer more facilities and more attractions to passengers.

And while Payne may have wanted to make this floating skyscraper even larger, the ship's dimensions were, in the end, limited by the facilities available in Southampton and New York.

“The size of the ship was ultimately dictated by the turning basin at Southampton because we had to turn the ship around; and in New York we had to make sure that the ship wasn't too long that it was a danger to the piers. In addition, we also had to get under a bridge, the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, in New York, so that dictated how high we could build the ship,” he says.

According to Payne, an advantage of such a big ship is that it is more stable and able to remain comfortable for passengers, even in monster storms if ever a ship should meet such a tempest in the North Atlantic.

“She is a liner rather than a cruise ship; so she has all the in-built strength, speed, power and capacity to cross the North Atlantic in any sea condition and still maintain her schedule to arrive in port on time, something a normal cruise ship just wouldn't be able to do,'' says Payne.

And the 72 metres high Queen Mary 2 features extra thick steel hull for strength and stability, specially designed for the Atlantic crossing.

Given the disasters that befell the passenger ships Titanic and Queen Elizabeth, the hubris of creating an unsinkable vessel has given way to real respect for potential emergency situations.

SOME VOCABULARY HELP

inaugural
the first, marking the beginning of something important

legendary
very famous and talked about

assign
to give somebody something to work on

invulnerable
cannot be harmed or damaged

commissioned
be officially asked to do or make something

boast
to have something which you can be proud of

realise
to make something happen and become real

mega
large and impressive (slang)

viable
something that can be done with success

dimensions
a measure in space, e.g., height, width

dictated
to be controlled by people, events or environment

turning basin
an area of water in a harbour giving ships room to turn

tempest
a violent storm

capacity
the number of things or people that a container can hold

hull
the main, bottom part of a ship

hubris
the fact of being too proud, often leading to a downfall

• This lesson was prepared by Maureen Paetkau, a professional teacher of English as a second and foreign language and Assistant Manager and Webmaster for Learning Post at the Bangkok Post.

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A Line of Luxury

INTRODUCTION

OUR STORY FROM THE BANGKOK POST

There's something about MARY

There's something
about MARY