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Maps
Maps

Learn English with this maps English lesson

Date: Jan 22 2018

Themes: Tech, Travel

Grammar: Phrasal Verbs

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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With all of the technology available to us today, it’s surprising that anyone ever gets lost. There are cutting-edge inventions like GPS that are more and more common in cars and phones. It seems like we’re never far from cell phone service, either, so a quick call is all that needs to happen before help will arrive.

Even the Luddites among us have tools available to make sure everyone can reach his or her destination. Using a map and a compass, it’s easy to orient and navigate oneself back to a car or nearby city. Yet every year, people lose their way. It’s easy to do in this vast world of ours.

Find out Lily and Marni’s opinions about getting around in this English lesson about maps.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Lily

Lily

Marni

Marni

Lily:  You know what I cannot live without?

Marni:  What?

Lily:  My GPS on my phone. I get lost all the time. I can’t help it.

Marni:  I think GPS is great. I’m all about cutting-edge technology. But if I need to navigate somewhere, I swear, I still need a paper map. I put myself inside and orient myself, and then find my destination.

Lily:  Do you still use a compass?

Marni:  No, no, I’m not that old-fashioned, but I guess in some ways I am a bit of a Luddite. There are just certain things I don’t use technology for. When I need to get somewhere, I get the map of the city, and I just figure it out. I like plotting certain points.

Lily:  It’s kind of old-fashioned, but I can understand why you would want to have something concrete in front of you instead of a digital thing where you’re at the mercy of your phone either giving out or losing battery. It is also nice to have that little dot on the GPS that tells you exactly where you are and exactly where you’re going.

Marni:  I guess I like a little more of a challenge.

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Lily is in love with the GPS system on her phone. Using GPS, she can find her way around town and doesn’t worry about getting lost. Plus, it’s easy. All she has to do is look at her phone and it will tell her where she is. She doesn’t have to waste time with a map.

Marni thinks of herself as a Luddite because she prefers to use maps. She thinks a compass is a bit old-fashioned, but she likes feeling like she’s inside the map because then she can orient herself. Lily understands why Marni would appreciate a map instead of GPS since a map doesn’t need electricity, but she still thinks that GPS is best.

Have you ever been really lost? Do you like to use a map and a compass, or would you rather use GPS? What do you think is the best way to find your destination?

 

Comments

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Seiyf_khawas

Turkey

1- of course ,dear Ebaby , I have been lost many times in many places..but its not important ,coz ı can be lost in my house too :)


2- yes I like using map on the roads.its very useful material .Compass isnot good for me.coz ı dont need it usually .GPS is very new machine for me..really its very good and practical finding direction..but it needs alot of things..a phone,charged battery, working satellite,clear weather…and it must be always updated..otherwise it takes us to wrong places :))


3-there are alot of ways for finding destination.Map,Compass,GPS,asking people,asking Google,asking turism information..best way for me is map still..no dont think ı dont like new technologic machines..ı like them ..and ım not a thick-minded man :)


10:10 AM Sep 11 2013 |

narges

narges

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

ah! since my childhood i`ve been good in Geogrphy and i remember when i was 8 my uncle told me if you go anywhere please observe the roads and the names of streets carefully, so after that i`ve seeing the directions on purpose to master, because of this practice i mostly learn the roads , the names and directions very fast! sometimes when i wait for someone in street, people come near to me and ask about directions , and i think by myself : maybe there is an invisible note on your forehead ” please ask me to help ! ” :D

09:30 AM Sep 11 2013 |

Cam_elern

Cam_elern

Belize

Never, never go with me into the woods…. =D

08:06 AM Sep 11 2013 |

CandiceAcclo

China

I get lost a lot. I’m totally terrible with directions. when i was in a new place that i never get there before that will be hard for me find out the right place i am finding. that is frustrating and even i using gps in my phone it will mistake me to a wrong place or make the way longer. i prefer ask somebody to help. the kind people will always tell you the right way to get your destination.

05:17 AM Sep 11 2013 |

Jobee

Jobee

China

I think everyone has experienced being lost.being lost is a good thing if you see it in a different aspect.I admit that the cutting-edge technologies like GPS and online-map orient and nevigate us efficiently and precisely.but we all at the mercy of appliances.what if we get lost and find some woders or somewhere happens to be beautiful?you know,you could get to the place you head using GPS but you lose chances to find the joy of encounting new places.


I prefer to use maps.it’s fun to read maps.

03:46 AM Sep 11 2013 |

1 person likes this

houstonboo

Hong Kong

I never get lost in my own town, however, I may sometimes get lost when I was travelling in other countries. GPS is really convenient for locating where you are and navigate the destination where you want to go. But the charges of using telecom data for activate the GPS service is still high in foreign country. So, in the past few years, when I was going abroad, I still using map as my company for going around in the foreign countries. GPS is a superb invention, but you would never know when will your mobile run out of battery or the GPS get stuck. Map is still your reliable tool.

02:56 AM Sep 11 2013 |

2 people like this

ola33

ola33

Japan

 I learn both methods as well. I’m taking the road and driving seriously. It takes sometimes for GPS to get activated about half an hour. And not knowing the map  you can drive miles and miles on the highway and in the wrong direction. Sometimes it’s confusing also since the names that GPS gives don’t match  the map ones. And finally there’re diffrent kind of personalities. I know people who just sit behind the wheel having only adress. They have GPS in their head. I’m not that kind of person. When I screw up with the address and don’t know the map, I start panicking, my mind is racing but as they say, people can make wonders in extreme situations – so I’m driving like a scared rabbit and in an hour or two, I nail it.


 

02:52 AM Sep 11 2013 |

I M P E R I V M

United States

I try to learn both methods paper map and GPS. Here in the US we are always with the imminent threat of a EMP Bomb from our homies overseas in that case electronincs would not work, so I know either way

02:36 AM Sep 11 2013 |

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