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Nick	Cheryl

Views #1061 | Intermediate (B1)

Famous Australians

Nick talks with Cheryl about some famous people in Australia and why they are popular.

Script
Vocab
Quiz

Cheryl: So Nick, I've never actually been to Australia. Can you tell me about any famous people that live there?

Nick: Well, one famous person, his name is Ian Thorpe.

Cheryl: Ian Thorpe.

Nick: Ian Thorpe. He's a very famous swimmer. He won so many Gold Medals.

Cheryl: Oh, really?

Nick: Mm. In maybe four Olympics. I think he won maybe fourteen to twenty gold medals.

Cheryl: For swimming?

Nick: For swimming yeah. He a free-style swimmer.

Cheryl: I've never actually heard of him. How old is he?

Nick: He's 24 years old I think. 24 or 25. So he's really young.

Cheryl: I see. You guys are really famous for athletics.

Nick: Athletics, yeah. There's another famous person by the name of Cathy Freeman.

Cheryl: Cathy Freeman.

Nick: She's the first aboriginal Australian to win a gold medal.

Cheryl: Ah, aboriginal Australian.

Nick: Yeah, so native Australian.

Cheryl: What did she win a gold medal in?

Nick: In the 400 meters sprint.

Cheryl: Oh, the sprint, so she's a runner.

Nick: Yeah, she's a runner, so yeah, she'd been doing it for for years and years, but finally she had that big break-through and did very well.

Cheryl: Is she the first aboriginal woman to win something, or is she is she the first aboriginal period?

Nick: Well, many aboriginal have won events but never really at a world stage so it was really impressive to see her win the even and then she took the aboriginal flag onto the ground and did a lap of honor for the aboriginal Australians.

Cheryl: Very nice. What year was that?

Nick: That was the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Cheryl: Ah, perfect.

Nick: So in Australia so it was really, really a special moment.

Cheryl: Very special since it was held in her own land.

Nick: Yeah, exactly and Sydney's a very important place for aboriginals as well.

Cheryl: Why is that?

Nick: Because that's where the first fleet arrived from England was to Sydney, so that was the first, I suppose, invasion of Australia came through Sydney, so.

Cheryl: Oh, yeah, I remember seeing that in the movie "Australia".

Nick: Oh, yeah, you would have too. It was in Australia so.

Cheryl: Yeah, I guess other country's also have aborigines people. I'm thinking of Taiwan and another island not too far from Australia. Well, I think Taiwan have the aborigines. One really famous aborigines there is Ah Mae. She is a very famous singer. She's been called the Diva of Asia because of her voice. She has a really, really, really talented vocal range. Really high and really low. And she was famous also for being native Taiwanese. The aboriginal Taiwanese.

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

aboriginal

She's the first aboriginal Australian to win a gold medal.

An aboriginal is a person who has lived in an area longer than anyone other culture or race of people. Aboriginal people are also called natives.

He collects aboriginal art.
Sadly, aborigineesl often possess less power than people who came later.

years and years

she'd been doing it for for years and years.

Here the term years and years just means a long time. When someone does not know exactly how many years something happened, they just say years and years to refer to many years. Notice the following:

He's been vacationing there for years and years.
It has been years and years since I saw him.

break-through

Finally, she had that big break-through.

A break-through is a big achievement or big advance in one's career or life. People often have a break-through after struggling to achieve something for a long time. Notice the following:

Micheal Jackson's big breath-through hit was Billy Jean.
After years of failure the team finally broke through and won the championship.

lap of honor

She did a lap of honor for the aboriginal Australians.

A lap of honor is just a victory lap. After a runner or racer wins a race, they often run around the arena in a lap of honor so all the spectators can honor their victory.

The sprinter ran a lap of honor while waving his national flag.
She is shy, so she had to persuaded to do a lap of honor.

vocal range

She has a talented vocal range. Really high and really low.

A range of something measures it from a low area to a high area, so a vocal range would be the range one can can sing from high to low. Notice the following example: