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Views #33 | Mid Intermediate 5

Road Trip

In North America, it is common to talk road trips. Tim talks about his road trips.

Script
Vocab
Quiz


Tim	Todd

Todd: So Tim, you want to talk about road trips?

Tim: Yeah, I wanna talk about road trips.

Me and my friends when we were in high school we took a lot of road trips to lots of different places.

Todd: OK.

Tim: We would go down to California sometimes Mexico. One time when I was living in Wyoming, in one weekend we drove from Wyoming through Colorado, New Mexico and Mexico and back in the same weekend.

Todd: Wow! Well, actually for people who are not familiar with the United States how far is that?

Tim: It's a long way. I don't know. It took.. I don't know, it took probably about 15 hours one way.

Todd: Wow!

Tim: So, thirty hours all together. But it was fun. We drove down to Mexico had a good night a good meal, a little bit of drinks
and drove back the next day.

Todd: So you went to Tijuana?

Tim: No, we went to Ciudad Juarez.

Todd: OK. Nice.

Tim: That was really fun and a lot of other trips we took when I lived in Oregon, when we'd go down to California and we'd surf.

Todd: Oh, really?

Tim: Yeah!

Todd: Oh, you're a surfer?

Tim: A little bit, a little bit of surfer.

Todd: OK. What kind of car do you drive? What do you use for this road trip?

Tim: Well, typical American a four-wheel drive vehicle. Big vehicle, lots of gas but a lot of fun.

Todd: Oh man, you're from Oregon you're supposed to be a tree-hugger!

Tim: I know. I know. But they're good. One rule we had on our road trips was any lake or big body of water we had to stop and swim in. It was a good thing to do.

Todd: Well, you live in Japan now. Do you ever do road trips in Japan?

Tim: I took a road trip from Niigata up around Hokkaido and back, so it was a long road trip actually.

Todd: OK. Wow! What's the difference between a road trip in Japan and a road trip in America?

Tim: Well, a road trip in Japan..it's a little bit more dificult to get around, it's a little bit more expensive. In America road tripping is sort of.. something a lot of people do.

Todd: Yeah.

Tim: And in Japan, when we do that it is a little bit strange, a little bit different, not very normal.

Todd: Yeah, that's true. OK. Great, thanks a lot Tim.

Tim: All right.

Learn vocabulary from the lesson!

random stuff

I'm just going to ask you random stuff.

To ask someone 'random stuff' is to ask them questions about a variety of topics. Random means no real logical order or connection. Notice the following:

We could talk about random stuff for hours.
I was really tired when I packed and I just brought a bunch of random stuff.

familiar with

For people who are not familiar with the U.S., how far is that?

If you are 'familiar with' a place or subject you know and understand it. Notice the following:

I am quite familiar with this part of town.
Are you familiar with Madonna's early music?

four-wheel drive

We used a four-wheel drive vehicle for the road trip.

A 'four-wheel drive' vehicle has power in all four of the tires, instead of just two like other vehicles. These machines are used for driving in places where the ground is bumpy, uneven or muddy. Notice the following:

Four-wheel drive is really good in the snow.
If you live on a farm you need four-wheel drive vehicles.

tree-hugger

You're from Oregon, and you're supposed to be a tree-hugger.

A 'tree-hugger' is an informal name for a person who cares about nature or a hippie. Notice the following:

He was more of a tree-hugger when he was younger.
Her friends are a bunch of tree-huggers.

(difficult to) get around

A road trip in Japan is more difficult to get around, because it's more expensive.

If a place is 'difficult to get around' it is not easy to travel. "Getting around' is like transporting yourself from one place to another. Notice the following: