Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Even when musicians become successful enough to quit their day jobs, a lot of times they still have to work eight hours a day…driving. When a band first becomes popular enough to play out of town, they usually tour in a van that they drive themselves.
Since up and coming rock bands don’t usually have lots of money, the vans they drive frequently break down. Beren is a drummer and she recently went on tour in a van. Listen to her and Mason talk about it.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Mason: This friend of mine is starting a tour with his band and he’s kicking it off here and they’re gonna drive around, like down to California…
Beren: Oh cool, cool.
Mason: And then back up through Idaho and Seattle and stuff.
Beren: Rad. What are they going in, do you know?
Mason: Uh, they’ve got this big, junky van that they just throw all their stuff in and hope that it’s gonna get to the next city.
Beren: Yeah, definitely. Do they have, like, a little bunk bed in the back?
Mason: No! I think they either put up tents or get a junky motel room.
Beren: Really? That’s pretty luxurious. I just got back from a tour in a van…
Mason: Really?
Beren: ...I did. And the only people who had seat belts were the driver and the passenger up front.
Mason: Yeah…
Beren: And everybody else was in recliners in the back, like a bench.
Mason: Recliners? Like lounge chairs?
Beren: Yeah, like La-Z Boys.
Mason: In the back of the van? How big was this van?
Beren: It’s pretty big, but size wasn’t the issue. For me it was safety. There were a few times that the chairs are tipping over and you don’t know what’s gonna happen. It’s dangerous. And that’s how bands do it in vans, typically. It was fun though. Are your friends going to Southern California?
Mason: Yeah. They do it a lot. They’re just like, “Hey, man, we got three days off. Let’s have a tour.”
Beren: That’s pretty cool.
Mason: They do it all the time. It’s so weird. I don’t know how they get the gigs but…
Beren: Wow. It’s going to be expensive too. Vans are super expensive. Gas, they guzzle gas.
Mason: Do they?
Beren: Yeah.
Quizzes
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Discussion
Mason mentions that some friends of his are going to go on a short tour down to California and then back up through Idaho and Washington. He says they’re taking a van and sleeping in tents or cheap motel rooms.
Beren says that cheap motel rooms sounds pretty good to her. She just got back from a tour where the van had recliners in the back instead of proper seats. She said it was kind of scary.
Mason’s friends go on little tours whenever they can. Mason’s not sure how they do it and neither is Beren. Vans use a lot of gas and gas is expensive.
To some people, touring in a van sounds like a dream come true, but to others it sounds terrible. Would you like to be in a band that tours in a van?
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