Lion · B1

Lion: the story in the past

Saroo tells his story in the simple past. Listen and put the verbs back in the text.

Watch the video. Drag the verbs into the gaps, or tap a verb, then tap a gap. Hover over the dotted words for a translation.

When I five years old, I onto an empty train somewhere in India and waiting for my brother.
When I , I the train with no idea of how to get back.
I a map of my hometown to the Australian parents who eventually me, but it until 25 years later that I about a tool that might help.
I the search for the family I'd lost, undeterred by the reality of what I was trying to do: find a family of four in a country of more than a billion.
Starting with the first thing I , I the train at Howrah Station, Kolkata.
I about how long I was on board and worked out my search radius.
I Bengali, so Bangladesh out.
I looking up at the stars, so I from a city.
I it being warm at night, which ruled out the colder regions.
From there, my only option to follow the tracks that still .
Night after night, for three years.
Until the night I a station symbol, and a water tower, and an overpass and a ring road.
It the station where I 25 years earlier.
From 10,000 km away, I to follow the path I daily as a child, until I finally what I'd been looking for.

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