Intermediate Listening Power

Activity 1.

Listen to the file.

The Dream Team

Activity 2.

Listening Comprehension. Answer the following questions.

1. How is the US Dream Team doing in the game?
A. They are leading in the game.
B. The score is really close.
C. The Dream Team is way behind.

2. The Dream Team is made up of:
A. professional athletes
B. college players
C. both professional and college members

3. What happened to the Dream Team's leading scorer?
A. He was injured in a fight and had to leave the game.
B. He fouled out when he threw an elbow going for a rebound.
C. He got in a brawl with a fan and was thrown out of the game.

4. What part of the body did the Japanese center injure in the game?
A. knee 
B. head
C. ankle

5. What reason did the coaches give to explain the Dream Team's performance?
A. They drank a special health beverage made from Japanese herbs.
B. They feasted on uncooked fish the night before the game.
C. They had a massage from head to foot to relax their muscles.

Activity 3.

Listening to Details. Listen to the file for the last time and fill in the blanks with the correct answer.

Hello everybody, and welcome back to a ⁽¹⁾ game at the Tokyo Dome with the US Team taking a drumming at the hands of the Japanese ⁽²⁾ team going into the second half, 51 to 26. The US Dream Team is made up of NBA ⁽³⁾ --- supposedly the best we have to offer--- but they need a miracle to dig themselves out of a hole and come back at this point.

Unfortunately for the Dream Team, their leading scorer, High-Fly Wilson, was ⁽⁴⁾ one minute into the second quarter after climbing into the stands and fighting with a ⁽⁵⁾ who had continually heckled Wilson for shooting three airballs in a row.

Another ⁽⁶⁾ moment came late in the second quarter when the Japanese center, Tomohiro Suzuki, suffered a ⁽⁷⁾ and was knocked out cold as he lunged for a ball and collided with the knee of one of his own teammates. There also have been several other ⁽⁸⁾, including the loss of starting forward, Masa Harada.

Some of the coaches on the US team are attributing the team's ⁽⁹⁾ performance to some raw fish they had last night while attending a banquet in their honor. Next thing we'll know, they'll be blaming their players' ⁽¹⁰⁾ hands on a demonstration class on Japanese paper folding earlier in the week. Who knows what'll be next.

Okay, it looks like we're ready for the second half.

Activity 4

Vocabulary. Read and study the following words.

• thrilling (adjective): exciting 
  - I watched a thrilling game on TV last night.

• drumming (verb): receive a beating, lose by a large margin 
  The team received a real drumming from the national basketball team

• dig oneself out of a hole (verb): get out of a difficult situation 
  - We couldn't dig ourselves out of a hole when we were way behind in the game.

• heckle (verb): bother and harass someone
  - The fans for the other team tried to heckle our players for having fouled one of their players.

• lunge (verb): move suddenly toward something
  The players ran into each other as they lunged for the lose ball.

• sluggish (adjective): moving slower than normal, poor performance 
  - He looked really sluggish during the first part of the game.

Activity 5.

Discussion. Answer the following questions related to the conversation.

• How popular is basketball in your country as a recreational sport? 

• Are their sports teams at the junior high school and high school levels? 

• Do you enjoy playing or watching the game?