Episode 61

EPISODE 61
LEVEL A1.2/A2.1

 

READING COMPREHENSION 

 

NATURE

I have to say the country I come from is one of the most beautiful in the world. We have beautiful coasts (= land next to the sea) with bays (= parts of a coast where the sea is surrounded by land on three sides) where you can go windsurfing in perfect conditions. Sometimes you can see cliffs (= high areas on a coast) and sometimes beaches (= places with sand) for tourists who love sunbathing. There are also many mountain ranges (= groups of mountains), maybe not as spectacular as the Himalayas, but still we have a few mountain peaks (= tops of a mountain), which everyone should see. Our mountain ranges are full of waterfalls (= where waters falls down the mountain) and valleys (= low areas between mountains). Oh, and we have geysers (= holes in the ground with hot water) and thermal (= hot) springs, too. Wouldn’t you agree it’s the most beautiful place in the world?

 

More contexts for the new words: 

• The country has active volcanoes. (volcanoes = mountains which erupt) 
• This island looks really great. (an island = a piece of land completely surrounded by water) 

 

EXERCISE 1 

Use the words from today’s lesson to describe the places:

 

1. where you spent your last holiday
2. for a holiday of your dreams
3. for a holiday of your nightmares

 

ENGLISH IN USE  

 

Let’s look at articles one more time. In the text above we read:

…not as spectacular as the Himalayas…

We know that the Himalayas are a group of mountains; we call such groups mountain ranges.
The rule for today is that when we talk about mountain ranges we use ’the’ in front of the name:

The Andes
The Alps

but when we talk about a single mountain we never use ’the’ in front of the name:

Mount Everest
Mount Blanc

We also use 'the’ in geography with rivers: The Nile, seas: The Baltic and with canals: The Suez Canal.

 

IDIOM CLOSE-UP 

 

A/ Are you going to watch the second season of the serial?

B/ Of course! The first season finished with a real CLIFHANGER. I have to find out what happens next.

 

A cliffhanger is an exciting end to part of a book or television programme that makes you want to read or watch the next part.

 

PHRASAL VERBS CLOSE-UP

 

 

1. When you PUT OFF a meeting or another arrangement, you change the time or date of something so that it happens later than originally planned, especially because of a problem.

 

The weather was terrible, so we decided to put off our trip to the beach.

I’ll put off going to Scotland until you’re well enough to look after yourself again.

 

2. The opposite is to BRING something FORWARD – it is when you change the date or time of an event so that it happens earlier.

 

The trip was supposed to start in the afternoon, but they wanted to see the geysers at sunrise, so they brought it forward.

They brought the date of the wedding forward so his cousins could attend.

 

EXERCISE 2

Match the sentence halves.

 

The match was brought                        a. with cliffhangers.

They put the wedding                           b. forward to 1.00 pm.

Most Harry Potter books finish          c. off because the groom had had an accident.

 

 

NEWS

  

VOLCANO ERUPTION

 

Lomi Lomi, which had seemed to be a dormant volcano for decades, suddenly erupted yesterday on the remote island of Mau. The eruption surprised hundreds of tourists, who were busy grilling sausages on top of the crater. Most of them managed to run away, but a few – including two children – were badly burnt by lava, and had to be rushed to hospital. Local people say that they also did not expect the volcano to erupt, and hope that it will remain quiet for at least a hundred years now.

 

GLOSSARY 

– dormant – sleeping, inactive

– erupted – exploded with lava

– remote – distant, far away

– rushed – taken quickly

 

 

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