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.
Sports usually cause people to have many strong opinions. This is very true during the Olympics. People want nothing short of perfection from their national teams. And they think it is ridiculous when athletes are good, but their scores are bad. Sometimes, people think that the judges give pity points to some athletes as a type of sympathy. Maybe, this is true and maybe it isn’t. But everybody will have an opinion in these situations.
Sometimes, people think their team was robbed because another team received more points. These days, opinions about the Olympics are easy to find and share on the internet. You can randomly look for almost any Olympic sport and find people who are happy or sad about the results. However, in the end, it doesn’t matter what people think. The competition continues!
Dominique has some strong opinions about the women’s gymnastics competition. Listen to her tell Andy her thoughts in today’s English lesson.
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.
Dominique: Hey, Andy, have you been watching the women’s gymnastics team?
Andy_H: You know, not as much as I want to.
Dominique: Gabby Douglas was robbed! She should’ve made it to the all-around competition, but she didn’t.
Andy_H: What happened?
Dominique: Well… a girl, Aly, that almost made it last year, she made it, and she almost fell off the balance beam.
Andy_H: So, why did they let her go?
Dominique: Because she didn’t make it last year. So, you know, it’s like pity points.
Andy_H: Well, that’s a shame. I’d hope that the Rio Olympics would favor competition over sympathy.
Dominique: I think she totally should’ve been picked. It’s ridiculous!
Andy_H: You know, it sure is. And I’d say that everything up to now with the Rio games has been nothing short of strange. Between Russia and the crime that’s actually going on outside the city of Rio…
Dominique: The dead body washing up on the shore…
Andy_H: How about the diving pool randomly turning green overnight. I mean…
Dominique: Wait! That happened?
Andy_H: That happened!
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Present Perfect Tense" from this lesson
Quizzes
Lesson MP3
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Discussion
Dominique wants to talk to Andy about the women’s gymnastics competition at the Rio Olympics. She has strong opinions and thinks that Gabby Douglas should have won a place in the all-around competition. But instead of Douglas, Aly Raisman won the chance to compete. Dominique thinks that the judges just felt sorry for her and gave her extra points.
Andy agrees that the many strange things have happened during the Rio Olympics. However, he’s sad to learn that some events have been more about sympathy than true competition. He tells Dominique about some of the other strange things that happened, such as the diving pool becoming green. She hadn’t heard about that, yet.
Do you think Olympic scores are always fair? Do you have any opinions about the Rio Olympics?