Advanced English Reading and Comprehension

40 practice makes perfect Advanced English Reading and Comprehension

9. I had the feeling that I had to make a choice. I wanted to stay in this peaceful, loving
   place, but I knew that I was too young to die and that I had to go back and inish
   my life and be with my family, who were sad that I had tried to kill myself.


10. I walked down this golden street, and at the end was a beautiful castle covered in
    jewels. When I entered the gate, everyone standing there bowed to me and led me
    to a great throne, where they put a crown on my head and made me king.

3 · 10

EXERCISE

Making a caseA family member or a good friend is hit by a car and almost dies.

After the person recovers from the accident, you make a hospital visit and the person

tells you the following story. Do you believe the person or not? Why? Which details

would you believe, and which would you doubt or question?

I was crossing the street, when suddenly this car came toward me and there was a loud crash

and I lew through the air. It all happened so fast. I must have landed on the ground, because

I felt this terrible pain, but then I could feel myself rising up, and when I looked down, there

were people trying to help me. It was like I was loating and I could see them attach tubes and

stuf to me and carry me to an ambulance.

Then I looked up, where I could see this light—a bright, shining, white light all around me,

and it was like something was lifting me up into the light. At the end of the light, there was

this beautiful, peaceful place, sort of like a meadow with mountains in the background. I could

hear a voice, a soft voice calling me, and I recognized the voice of my grandmother, who died

last summer.

When she held out her hand, I ran to her, but I wasn’t really running—I was loating, like in

slow motion or in water. She held out her arms to hug me, and I started to cry, I was so happy

to see her. Then she said that she loved me and was glad to see me, but that I had to go back.

I wanted to stay with her in that peaceful place, but she said it wasn’t my time, and that my

parents were very sad and worried and I had to go back to them.

Bibliography

Kellehear, Allan, “Near-Death Experiences” (Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, 2002),

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/near-death_experience.aspx.

Long, Jefrey, with Paul Perry, Evidence of the Aterlife: he Science of Near-Death Experiences

(New York: HarperCollins, 2010).

Lundahl, Craig R., and Harold A. Widdison, he Eternal Journey: How Near-Death Experiences

Illuminate Our Earthly Lives (New York: Warner Books, 1997).