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Mountaineering

Date: Mar 18 2003

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.

Hi Friends!
Outdoor sports are extremely popular all over the world. In the past twenty years or so, they’ve become just as popular as traditional sports like basketball, soccer, football, baseball, tennis and golf. Spending time outside, breathing fresh air, and exercising in the sunshine are all benefits to taking part in activities like hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing and kayaking.
Anna is into outdoor sports, but she hasn’t had much time to take part in them recently. In order to get back into the groove, she signed up for a mountaineering class. Listen to her conversation with Beth to hear all 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.

Anna

Beth

Anna: Well Beth I’m a little bit concerned.

Beth: Why is that?

Anna: For the first time since college I have homework.

Beth: Well, what are you studying?

Anna: I signed up for a mountaineering course and it comes with a textbook and I’ve gotta read, and I’m pretty excited about the field activities but not so excited about the book learning.

Beth: That is so awesome. What motivated you to take this course?

Anna: Uh, one of my guy friends took it a couple years ago, and in order to join this local community you have to climb a, a peak of a mountain at so many thousand feet, and in order to do that you have to take a course, so I thought I would learn a little bit more about mountaineering.

Beth: That is amazing. So, are you going to climb some 14,000 foot mountains?

Anna: No. I think we’ll start with like 8,000 feet, and go from there.

Beth: Well, still, that’s awesome. So, do you learn, like, wilderness first aid and, and things like that?

Anna: I think so. Uh, the first class is next week. I’ll be sure and tell you how it goes, but I think it’s mountaineering and ice climbing and navigation and the right gear.

Beth: So do you have all the gear?

Anna: Nope. After, uh, the first class, there’s a little bit of a shopping trip.

Beth: Fun!

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Discussion

Sounds like Anna is going to have a lot of fun. I’m jealous! I’ve never done anything like mountaineering. I’ve been hiking before, but just in the forest, not on a huge mountain. Mountaineering is a really serious sport. It can be extremely dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Although I don’t know if I’ll have time to go mountaineering, I do plan to spend a lot of time outside this spring. Hopefully, you can too!
Have a great week!
Tanis