THE DAY THE SAUCERS CAME

Watch «The Day The Saucers Came» video with the poem by
Neil Gaiman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAIJERf3teI
1. Put the events in the order the poem talks about them:

EVENT/DISASTER ORDER
Saucers 1st
Killer bees
Arrival of the time machine
Fluttering capes
Ragnarok
The gods
Plastics dissolved
Animals spoke in Assyrian
Great winds and snows
zombies
Plants died
Computers took over humans
Drunk angels stumbled from
bars
The Yeti
giants
2. Complete the poem with the simple past form of the verbs in
brackets.

That Day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,

Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth ___________________ (to stand) and
_____________ (to stare) as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find out what ____________ (to wait)
inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you ________________ (not notice) because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,

_________ (to be) the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies ______________ (to push)up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
________________ (to come) towards us, the living, and we
_______________(to scream) and ran,
But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was zombie day, it

__________________(to be)
Ragnarok also, and the television screens
______________________ (to show) us
A ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold,
and the cameraman ______________ (can)
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you ___________________ (not see) them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods
day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true
brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across
the land and killer bees,
But you ______________________ (to have) no idea of any of
this because

That day, the saucer day, the zombie day

The Ragnarok and fairies day,
the day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals _______________ (speak)to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.
C. Match the words to their meanings.
COLUMN A LETTER COLUMN B
1. Dry-mouthed a. To become aware of
somebody/something.
2. Grave b. (in stories) a creature like a
small person, who has magic
powers.
3. Shambling c. Norse myth about the
ultimate destruction of the
gods in a cataclysmic battle
with evil, out of which a new
order will arise
4. Dull-eyed d. a place in the ground where
a dead person is buried
5. Wish e. Superheroes wear them all
the time, it’s part of their
costume.
6. Wonder f. a thirsty mouth

7. Charm g. to walk in a slow and lazy

way or with difficulty, dragging
your feet along the ground
8. Cleverness h. to want something to
happen or to be true even
though it is unlikely or
impossible
9. Ragnarok i. bored eyes
10. Fairy j. to think about something
and try to decide what is true,
what will happen, what you
should do, etc.
11. Muddled k. a feature or quality that is
pleasant or attractive like a
 spell.
12. Stumbled L. the quality of being quick at
learning and understanding
things
13. Fluttering M. confused
capes
14. Notice N. to hit your foot against
something while you are
walking or running and almost
fall
2. SAUCERS, HUMANS OR ZOMBIES ?
Who or what do these adjectives refer to?
Golden........................................................
dry-mouthed.................................................
unstoppable..................................................
like great snowflakes........................................
silent..........................................................
dull-eyed.....................................................

3. Complete the poem with the simple past form of the verbs in
brackets.

That Day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,

Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth ___________________ (to stand) and
_____________ (to stare) as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find out what ____________ (to wait)
inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow
But you ________________ (not notice) because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,

_________ (to be) the day that the graves gave up their dead
And the zombies ______________ (to push)up through soft earth
or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,
________________ (to come) towards us, the living, and we
_______________(to scream) and ran,
But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was zombie day, it

__________________(to be)
Ragnarok also, and the television screens
______________________ (to show) us
A ship built of dead-men’s nails, a serpent, a wolf,
All bigger than the mind could hold,
and the cameraman ______________ (can)
Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out
But you ___________________ (not see) them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling-gods
day the floodgates broke
And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites
Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities
And charm and cleverness and true
brave hearts and pots of gold
While giants feefofummed across
the land and killer bees,
But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day, the zombie day

The Ragnarok and fairies day,
the day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals _______________ (speak)to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didn’t notice any of this because
you were sitting in your room, not doing anything
not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.

D. Fill in the table with the figure of speech used in the poem.
Discuss your answers. You may use another piece of paper for
your answers.