Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. famed
    • ex. The town is famed for its delicious ice cream.
  2. bloom
    • ex. As soon as spring comes, the flowers begin to bloom.
  3. a petal
    • ex. The restaurant puts red rose petals on the tables during Valentine’s Day.
  4. breathtaking
    • ex. The view from the top of the mountain is breathtaking.
  5. a peak
    • ex. Usually in the United States, summer is at its peak between mid-July and mid-August.

Article

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

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This spring, a lot of tourists visited Tokyo to enjoy Japan’s famed cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms, known as “sakura” in Japanese, are the nation’s favorite flower. People often organize viewing parties under the falling petals of the sakura tree. During these parties, people also have picnics and drink sake.

Vidyuth Lakshman, a tourist from Canada, said there are cherry blossoms in her country but not on the same level as in Japan. The level in Japan is crazy according to her. Silver Shea, an American tourist, visited Japan with her daughter. They stayed in the country for a month to see sakura trees bloom. Shea said, “They’re really breathtaking.”

Usually, the cherry blossoms bloom at their peak around late March to early April. However, this year, the cherry blossom flowers bloomed later than expected because of the cold weather. Naturally, many tourists were worried about not seeing the flowers bloom. So, when the flowers finally bloomed, the tourists felt very happy because a lot of them were on their last few days touring in Japan.

This material was based on an article by The Associated Press.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Cherry Blossoms or “Sakura”

  • Do you like cherry blossoms? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • How do you think the famed cherry blossoms affect your country? Discuss.
  • A lot of tourists visited Japan to see the famed cherry blossoms. What do you think the local residents feel about the increased number of tourists (ex. happy, annoyed)? Discuss.

Picnics

  • During cherry blossom viewing parties, many people go on picnics and drink sake. Why do you think this is a famous activity? Discuss.
  • Do you like going on a picnic? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • What do you think is the best park in your area to have a picnic with family and friends? Discuss.