Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. charge
    • ex. The nice man only charged me $1 for the ice cream.
  2. outrageous
    • ex. Greg put his feet on his desk at work? That’s outrageous!
  3. treat
    • ex. Jenna clearly loves her pets. She treats them really well.
  4. a concession stand
    • ex. Could you get me a hot dog from the concession stand?
  5. Celsius
    • ex. Many Americans don’t understand temperatures in Celsius.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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Golf fans said that they couldn’t believe the price of food and drinks at the 2022 PGA Championship. The event held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, charged $18 (about ¥2,500) for beer, $16 (about ¥2,200) for salad, and $6 (about ¥800) for bottled water. At the Augusta National golf event that was held one month earlier, beer cost only $5 (about ¥700).

Many players also criticized the outrageous prices. Justin Thomas, who won the 2017 PGA Championship, tweeted that they needed to treat the fans better. The 29-year-old golfer said that some fans probably didn’t come to the event because of the concession stand prices. When one Twitter user asked Thomas where he thought the event’s prize money came from, the golfer replied, “TV deals, ticket sales, corporate sponsors, etc.” The 2022 PGA Championship prize money was $12 million (about ¥1.6 billion).

PGA official Kerry Haigh defended the prices, explaining that they were similar to concession stand prices at stadium events. He also said that fans were allowed to bring their own bottled water on practice days. Temperatures during the tournament were around 30 degrees Celsius.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Concession Stand Prices

  • Do you agree that the 2022 PGA Championship concession stand prices were outrageous? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Thomas said that some fans probably didn’t come to the event because of the concession stand prices. Do you agree? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Do you think it was good that players also criticized the prices? Why or why not? Discuss.

Golf

  • The prize money for the 2022 PGA Championship was $12 million. Do you think this is a reasonable prize for a pro golf event? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Fans were allowed to bring bottled water on practice days. In your opinion, should they be allowed to bring water on regular days too? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • The number of golfers decreased between 2003 and 2019, but from 2020 they began to increase. What do you think is the reason for this (ex. outside sports were safer, people had more free time)? Discuss.