Episode 0239

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we're talking about sports and outdoor activities.

That's right. We are taking a look at a lot of different adventure sports. So they're just not just a regular sports like tennis or soccer. These are more dangerous sports.

That's right. So adventure sports is the topic. This is intermediate level. Let's check out the dialogue and we'll be back in a moment.

Welcome to Adventure Tours. How may I help you?

I want to book a tour with Adventure Sports.

I don't really think I'm ready to throw myself down a river full of jagged rocks in a rubber boat. Or go up in the air in a wicker basket held up by an oversized balloon. What else do you have?

Well, in that case we can take you hang gliding with one of our experienced instructors. It's the closest you can get to flying.

Okay. Well, why don't you tell me a little bit more about what you would like? We have everything from mountain biking to rock climbing to street luge.

I'm thinking something exciting but safer.

All right, we're back. So obviously, this tour agency or tour operator has a lot of different options, a lot of them exciting. So why don't we take a look at some of those on Language Takeaway.

So the first one has to do with water. This is called white water rafting.

That's right. So white water rafting. Now, rafting means that you go in a raft.

That's right. It's a special kind of boat, not a wooden boat, not a not like a big boat you see in the ocean. This is a special boat for rivers, maybe.

That's right. It's an inflatable rubber boat. So he also described it as an in as a rubber boat.

Okay, rubber is the material it's made out of.

That's right. So you go in this boat in a river. And it's called white water because it has what because it has rapids. So the river is moving very quickly and you can see that it's a little bit dangerous to go swimming in a river like this.

That's right. So when the water goes really fast or when it hits some rocks, it goes it the color changes from being blue or brown to white. And that's why it's white water rafting.

That's right. And it's very, very scary.

And very dangerous.

That's right, but very exciting, so that's considered an adventure sport. And then the trip was followed by a ride in a hot air balloon.

Well, everyone's seen balloons before. Sometimes we give children balloons at the at the fair or maybe for their birthday. Balloons are basically rubber filled with air.

Mhm.

But a hot air balloon is a very special kind of mode of transportation, actually. You can travel in a hot air balloon.

That's right. It's a big, big balloon that has a basket under it. And the person actually described it as a wicker basket. Wicker is the material that's used in the basket, right?

That's right. You can have wicker furniture, like wicker chairs. It's just a way to um to basically make furniture out of this kind of bark or natural material.

Mhm. So a hot air balloon is a very big balloon and it's filled with hot air, uh usually by some sort of fire that's under it. And because it's filled with hot air, it goes up in the air. And as you say, you can use it as transportation, uh maybe to go very long distances, carried by the wind because there's no real way of of uh giving it direction, or just for fun.

That's right. It's another dangerous, but less dangerous kind of sport. Uh but after that, we actually have one that I think you have some experience with, it's called hang gliding.

That's right. Hang gliding is it's another type of sport, also a type of flying sport. And basically, you get on a hang glider.

Okay, so if you've seen this before, you'll know that it looks like someone is wearing wings.

That's right.

It's a big kite that you wear.

Uh-huh, it's it's a big kite, it kind of looks like a triangle, like a kite. And uh you fly in it. So it has no motor, it has uh not like the hot air balloon, it has no fire. Um so you just basically glide, you just sail through the the the air, the the atmosphere.

It is.

But they say that you should go with an instructor. So what kind of instructor does this tour company offer?

That's right. The tour operator talked about taking you on a hang glider trip with one of our experienced instructors.

So experienced is the keyword here. You want someone who has done this many times before. Someone who knows what they are doing.

That's right. So an experienced instructor is a person that has, as you say, a lot of experience or is a professional. So that's an experienced instructor.

Right, you could even say, you know, I want to take flying lessons with an experienced pilot.

Right, or you can even talk about uh maybe a chef. He is a very experienced chef.

He's been a chef for a long time.

That's right. So hang gliding. And our final sport, very exciting as well. We are going dog sledding.

Okay, so this is basically a winter sport or a sport that you do in snowy places. You stand or sit on a sled and a team of dogs, so that means many dogs, pull you across the snow.

That's right. So you go on a sled, which is basically, usually made out of plastic or wood. And this is to go on top of the snow. And as you say, a team of dogs pull you. And I think you can see this in movies. This is kind of like the mode of transportation in uh places where there are no roads, there are no uh other ways of of getting places that you just get pulled by dogs.

Like Alaska or the Arctic Circle, somewhere very, very far north.

Exactly. So a lot of great adventure sports, very exciting. I think uh it's time for us to listen to the dialogue again and uh we'll be back in a bit with Language Takeaway part two.

Welcome to Adventure Tours. How may I help you?

I want to book a tour with Adventure Sports.

I don't really think I'm ready to throw myself down a river full of jagged rocks and a rubber boat. Or go up in the air in a wicker basket held up by an oversized balloon. What else do you have?

Well, in that case we can take you hang gliding with one of our experienced instructors. It's the closest you can get to flying.

Okay. Well, why don't you tell me a little bit more about what you would like? We have everything from mountain biking to rock climbing to street luge.

I'm thinking something exciting but safer.

All right, we're back. So now we're going to take a look at three quick adjectives that we saw in this dialogue on Language Takeaway part two.

This first adjective is something I am not a fan of. Let me just say if you ever go rafting and you see rocks, you want to avoid or you want to stay away from jagged rocks.

That's right. So the adjective jagged refers to maybe sharp or they can cut you.

That's right. So something that is jagged is not smooth. It's the opposite of smooth.

That's right. So maybe you've seen some rocks that have uh they're very pointy or that have uh things that can easily hurt you or cut you. Those are jagged rocks.

Broken glass can have jagged edges and that means you want to avoid touching it because it can hurt you.

Exactly. So jagged is a way of describing something that's maybe sharp, pointy or very dangerous, that can cut you.

And then moving on, when we were talking about the hot air balloon, this person very cleverly said that he doesn't want to go up in the air in a basket held by an oversized balloon.

Okay, so he's he's exaggerating. Like you said, he's being clever or silly. He he's just afraid of the uh the balloon. But basically he's saying an oversized balloon is a very, very, very big or unnaturally big balloon.

Right, so bigger than normal, so an oversized balloon would be a balloon that's bigger than normal. Or maybe uh I've seen an oversized

In the early 1990s, I remember a clothing trend, a lot of people like to wear oversized T-shirts.

That's right. So T-shirts that were way too big for you or maybe unnaturally big, those would be oversized T-shirts.

Exactly. All right. And our final uh adjective when he was talking about hang gliding, he said that he's not ready to go up in the air to strapped to a flimsy kite.

Okay, so the keyword here is flimsy. We already talked about a kite, it's something that flies in the air. But something that's flimsy is not very stable or sturdy.

That's right. So it doesn't seem like it's very solid. So if you have a kite.

So a normal airplane is very sturdy, but a paper airplane is very flimsy.

Exactly.

It's thin, it moves around a lot. You can't control it.

Exactly. So it's not very solid, it's not very uh as you said sturdy. It doesn't really seem like it can stay up in the air for very long.

And it definitely can't support someone's weight.

That's right. So you can even have a flimsy chair. Maybe the chair is a little bit loose or it doesn't seem like it's very strong.

It feels like it might break.

That's right. So flimsy, that that's the adjective there, flimsy. So uh that's all the adjectives we have for you today. Why don't we listen to the dialogue quickly one last time, and we'll be back to talk a little bit more.

Welcome to Adventure Tours. How may I help you?

I want to book a tour with Adventure Sports.

I don't really think I'm ready to throw myself down a river full of jagged rocks and a rubber boat. Or go up in the air in a wicker basket held up by an oversized balloon. What else do you have?

Well, in that case we can take you hang gliding with one of our experienced instructors. It's the closest you can get to flying.

Okay. Well, why don't you tell me a little bit more about what you would like? We have everything from mountain biking to rock climbing to street luge.

I'm thinking something exciting but safer.

Okay, Marco, I know this is one of your favorite areas, adventure sports. Uh you're a lot more daring than I am because I wouldn't do many of these things. But uh what have you done?

I've actually uh haven't been in a hot air balloon. I don't I don't really think that's very exciting.

It does seem kind of boring.

Yeah, you don't really go very fast. Um and I've never done street luge, which uh is an interesting sport, although it it it is pretty dangerous. It's basically you're kind of riding on a type of skateboard, right?

Yeah, basically it's a big skateboard and you lie down on it, your feet go down and your head is back, you're on your back and you go downhill really fast.

Mhm. This is actually an Olympic sport and it's simply called luge. And you can see this with those big icy tracks that they have and they go downhill and they slide down on a bobsled or luge would actually be the same thing uh but just one or two people on some type of like skateboard looking thing.

Basically it's open. The the bobsled is closed so you see the people's heads but the luge, you just see their whole body and they're lying down on a piece of metal and they go down very, very quickly.

They go very fast. I think uh in in bobsledding and in luge, I think they can reach speeds up to like 100 kilometers per hour or more.

That's right. So extreme sports or adventure sports, they are uh as as the name says, full of adventure, very exciting, but also obviously very dangerous. I think hiking is not really an adventure sport or very dangerous unless you're hiking in dangerous territory with bears or something.

Possible. Well, maybe you guys should let us know what kind of sports do you do? Do you enjoy adventure sports? Our website is englishpod.com.

All right, we'll see everyone there.

The English audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A huge balloon risen up by hot air.

Hot air balloon.

In an area of work study.

In the field.

Having a sharp surface.

Jagged.

Larger than what is listed.

Oversize.

If something said earlier is true.

In that case.

Gliding in a hang glider.

Hang gliding.

The easiest way, the most likely thing.

The closest thing you can get to.

Ride a bicycle designed for riding in mountainous.

Mountain biking.

The sport of scaling rock masses or mountain sides.

Rock climbing.

The sport of descending a steep road.

Street luge.

The sport of rafting down fast flowing rivers.

White water rafting.

Let's try that faster.

The sport of scaling rock masses or mountain sides.

Rock climbing.

If something said earlier is true.

In that case.

Gliding in a hang glider.

Hang gliding.

The sport of rafting down fast flowing rivers.

White water rafting.

Having a sharp surface.

Jagged.

Ride a bicycle designed for riding in mountainous.

Mountain biking.

The easiest way, the most likely thing.

The closest thing you can get to.

In an area of work study.

In the field.

A huge balloon risen up by hot air.

Hot air balloon.

The sport of descending a steep road.

Street luge.

Larger than what is listed.

Oversize.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

In the field.

I've been working in the medical field for 20 years now. I know it inside and out.

In the field.

He's only worked in the field for less than a year, so I have no idea why they hired him as the new supervisor.

In the field.

They tested the new theory for two years in the field before publishing their findings.

White water rafting.

White water rafting.

She has white water rafted many, many times before, so you should trust her to get through the journey safely.

White water rafting.

The summer camp I'll be attending is offering a white water rafting excursion.

Jagged.

I clung to the bridge as I looked down at the jagged rocks hundreds of feet beneath me.

Jagged.

As I picked up the broken glass, the jagged edges cut into my hand.

Jagged.

The tailor began to cut off the jagged edges of the piece of fabric.

Oversize.

The oversized coat engulfed me.

Oversize.

I began to fall asleep in the oversized armchair.

Oversize.

In the oil fields in Alberta, oversized trucks three stories tall transport oil sands from the field to the refinery.

The closest thing you can get to.

Eating McDonald's is the closest thing you can get to eating Western food in China.

The closest thing you can get to.

Descending a steep incline on a roller coaster is the closest you can get to experiencing zero gravity without having to get on a jet plane.

The closest thing you can get to.

Driving this car is the closest I can get to riding in luxury for under 30 grand.