مکالمه فعالانه

FATE OR RANDOM CHANCE?

Active Speaking

It was the summer of 2001, in a small rural town in Northern England, when something very remarkable happened.

When was it? Was it in the winter? No, it wasn’t the winter. It was the summer. It was the summer of 2001. Was it in Northern England or Southern England? It was in Northern England. Was it a big town? No, it wasn’t a big town. It was a small town. A small rural town. It was in the country.

On this day, Laura Buxton was at a party for her grandparents’ golden wedding anniversary.

What was Laura doing? She was at a party. What kind of party was it? It was a wedding anniversary party. A golden wedding anniversary party for her grandparents.

Laura seemed to be just an average girl from an average rural town, but something very strange happened that day. She decided to do something silly.

Did she decide to do something serious? No, she didn’t decide to do something serious. She decided to do something silly.

She got a red balloon and wrote, Please return to Laura Buxton on one side and her address on the other side.

What color was the balloon? It was a red balloon. What did she write on the balloon? She wrote, Please return to Laura Buxton on one side and her address on the other.

Laura and her friends just thought they were being silly. They thought the balloon would float just a little way down the road and fall to the ground.

Did Laura and her friends think the balloon would go far? No, they didn’t think it would go far. They thought it would float down the road and fall to the ground.

But it didn’t just go down the road. It floated all the way out of town, into the next town, then further to the next town, and on and on until it floated to the other side of the country. By the time it finally floated back down, the balloon was 232 kilometers away in the South of England.

How far did the balloon go? It went 232 kilometers.

It landed in a tree between two houses. A neighbor picked it up and was about to throw it into the trash when he saw the address and message written on the balloon. ?Laura Buxton, Oh my God, he thought.

What did the neighbor think? The neighbor thought, ?Laura Buxton, Oh, my God.

The little girl who lived next door to him was also named Laura Buxton. He gave the balloon to South England Laura and she decided to contact the other Laura Buxton in North England.

What did South England Laura do? She decided to contact North England Laura.

North England Laura and South England Laura talked on the phone and to their surprise they not only had the same name, but they were also 10-years-old.

Why were the two girls surprised?

The two girls were surprised because they had the same name and they were the same age.

The day they decided to meet the coincidences got even stranger. They both were wearing the same clothes: a pink jacket and blue jeans.

What was strange about their meeting? They both were wearing the same clothes. They both were wearing a pink jacket and blue jeans.

They both were skinny and tall. They both had brown hair in pigtails.

What was strange about their looks? They both were skinny and tall. And they both had brown hair with pigtails.

They both had 3-year-old Labradors, rabbits and guinea pigs. North England Laura brought her guinea pig with her on the day they met and they looked exactly the same. Both guinea pigs were grey with orange spots on their butts.

What did the guinea pigs look like? They were grey with orange spots on their butts.

North England Laura and South England Laura are now 18 and have become good friends.

Did North England Laura and South England Laura become classmates? No, they didn’t become classmates. They became good friends.

They both think that it wasn’t random chance or luck that brought them together, but fate.

What brought them together? Did chance bring them together? No, chance didn’t bring them together. Fate brought them together.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was born long before the two Lauras, but he also felt that fate had guided his life. Yamaguchi worked for a company called Mitsubishi’ in Nagasaki, Japan during World War II. In May of 1945 he went to Hiroshima on a 3-month business trip.

Why did Yamaguchi go to Hiroshima? He went to Hiroshima on a business trip.

Yamaguchi finished his business on August 5th. He was getting ready to leave Hiroshima early the next morning.

What was he doing the next morning? He was getting ready to leave Hiroshima the next morning.

He was on his way to the train station when he remembered that he forgot something at his Hiroshima office. He turned around and went back to get it. At 8:45 in the morning on August 6th, the first atomic bomb in history fell on Hiroshima. Yamaguchi was on his way to the train station for the second time, when the bomb fell.

What was Yamaguchi doing when the bomb fell? Yamaguchi was on his way to the train station when the bomb fell.

The bomb was only 3 kilometers away.

How far away was the bomb? The bomb was 3 kilometers away.

He saw a big flash in the sky and heard a very loud noise. The power of the bomb knocked him down. Suddenly he couldn’t see and his ears were badly hurt. He was also badly burned on the left side of his body. He couldn’t walk, so he crawled to a shelter. The next day, on August 7th, he traveled 300 kilometers home to Nagasaki.

What did he do the next day? The next day he traveled 300 kilometers home to Nagasaki.

On August 8th, he went to a doctor and got help for his burns. He was still badly hurt, but on August 9th he returned to work.

Did he rest on August 9th? No, he didn’t rest. He returned to work.

His boss couldn’t believe his story about one bomb destroying the whole city of Hiroshima. As he was explaining what happened, the second atomic bomb in history fell on Nagasaki. Again, he was only 3 kilometers away from the bomb. He said he felt the atomic bomb was following him.

What did he say about the bomb? He said he felt the bomb was following him.

Luckily, this time he was not hurt by the bomb blast, but he did get exposed to poisonous radiation for the second time.

What was he exposed to? He was exposed to poisonous radiation.

Yamaguchi lived a long life, but he and his family suffered a lot from the effects of the bomb. Yamaguchi lost hearing in his left ear for the rest of his life and for many years he had to wear bandages for his burns. He lived to the age of 83, but he and his wife both experienced many radiation related diseases. Even his children, who were born after the bomb, suffered from health problems caused by radiation.

Were his children healthy? No, his children weren’t healthy. They suffered from health problems caused by radiation.

Later in life Yamaguchi became an activist against nuclear weapons.

He believed that God chose him to experience the bomb twice. He believed it was his fate to experience both atomic bombs, so he could teach people about the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Did Yamaguchi believe in fate? Yes, he believed in fate. He believed it was his fate to experience both atomic bombs.

What do you think of these stories? Yamaguchi used his experiences to teach many people about the dangers of nuclear war, but was it just chance for him to be in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki on those days? Or was it fate for him to experience the only two atomic bombs in history? Was he incredibly unlucky or was he incredibly lucky to have survived? Was it all just a coincidence? What about the two Lauras? Is their story also a story of random chance or fate?

Some people think everything is random.

Does everyone believe in fate? No, everyone doesn’t believe in fate. Some people think everything is random.

Imagine you are a single blade of grass, surrounded by millions of blades of grass just like you. One day a golf ball lands on your head. You might think, ?Why me? Why has this terrible thing happened to me? Of all the millions of blades of grass, why me? You might think that the golf ball hitting you was fate. Now imagine you are a golfer. You hit the golf ball and watch it fall on a blade of grass. Do you think, “Why did my golf ball hit that blade of grass? Of all the millions of blades of grass, why has this happened to that blade of grass? It must be fate. Or do you think there is no meaning to where the ball landed? It was just random chance. Is life full of meaning or randomness? Do you see fate or chance in life’s coincidences?