| Level | Topic | Speakers | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very Difficult | Traffic Conditions | Man | 01:04 |
Pre-Listening Exercise
What information would you expect to hear in a radio traffic report? (The recording for this report is fictitious, but is based, in part, on common situations and places in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.)
Idioms
“hairy” = dangerous and/or scary
“Coming home in the snowstorm got pretty hairy as we passed through the mountains.”
“fender-bender” = a car accident that results in little damage
“So far, there haven’t been any reports of major accidents during rush hour today. Just a few fender-benders without any injuries.”
Listening Exercise
Listen to the recording and answer the questions. (See transcript)
Vocabulary and Sample Sentences
Here are some words and expressions that appear in the recording:
-
heading (verb): going or traveling toward
– Let’s head east to avoid the traffic. -
commute (noun): the trip back and forth between work and home
– The commute to work this morning was really slow due to bad weather. -
interchange (noun): a crossing of highways allowing traffic to move from one to another
– The downtown interchange is closed due to construction. -
shift (verb): to move in another direction
– We ought to shift to the center lane to pass these slow-moving cars. -
bottleneck (noun): a slowdown in traffic caused by some form of obstruction like an accident
– There is a huge bottleneck in traffic at the intersection of Center and State Street. -
fender-bender (noun): a small accident causing little damage
– I got in a small fender-bender with a truck on my way home from work. -
black ice (noun): thin transparent ice often found on streets
– I hit a patch of black ice and slid off the road into a ditch. -
sporadic (adjective): occurring periodically with no regular, predictable pattern
– Buses usually are on time, but they are quite sporadic today because of the bad weather. -
frigid (adjective): extremely cold
– Waiting for the bus in the frigid weather is very unpleasant. -
herd (noun): a group of animals
– A herd of cattle crossed in front of my car.
Post-Listening Exercise
What are some of the most common modes of transportation in your country? What are the traffic conditions like in both major cities and rural areas? Do you think that building more roads or widening them is the solution to traffic congestion? Find a website that describes these conditions and summarize your findings.