EnglishPod

Global View - The World Cup (C0257)

A:   What are you doing?

B:    What am I doing?  What am I doing?  Don’t you

know what day it is?

A:   Ummm. no.

B:    It’s only the day when the world’s biggest sporting

event is kicking off.

A:   What?

B:    The World Cup! The first match is today! It’s Mex-

ico vs. South Africa! It’s going to be a really good match!   Both teams have a very strong offense and have skilled players. I think that South Africa will probably dominate the first half since they are the host country, and all.

A:    I have no idea what you’re talking about. The only

sporting event we watch at  home  is the Super Bowl.

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B:    This is bigger than the Super Bowl, man! Teams

from 32 countries compete against each other ev- ery four years and fight to win that trophy.  They first start  in a group stage with  bigger groups, each group having 4 teams. The top 2 teams pass on to an elimination stage before going on to the quarterfinalsand semifinals.

A:   Sounds interesting, but soccer doesn’t really ap-

peal to me.

B:   Are you kidding? Over seven hundred million peo-

ple watched the final match of the World Cup! It’s a very exciting and nerve wracking sport!  Each nation is cheering on their team, hoping they will become the next champion.  So far Brazil is the team with the most titles under their belt; they’re really good!

A:   All I know about soccer is that you can’t use your

hands and that players are always falling down, trying to get a free kick or penalty kick.  It seems like a sissy sport to me!

B:    Whatever dude, I’m going to go watch the opening

match.

Key Vocabulary

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to kick off           V

stage

sissy

match

host

Supplementary Vocabulary

rival

disinterest

competition

oblivious           A

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to officially begin some- thing

a step in a process

something    only    ap- propriate  for  girls  or women

game

one  who  provides  ser- vices, etc as for a con- vention

a person or team who above everyone else at- tempts  to  win  against you

to not have interest in something

a  match  between  two teams or persons

to be unaware

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qualify

V

to  show progress tion

an  ability  to in  a c