Dialogue about Physical Exercises in English with Quiz

Intermediate Listening Series 2 Lesson 9- Dialogue about Physical Exercises in English

In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talking about physical exercises.

Previous Listening Lesson
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English Listening Lesson Audio with Script

Lesson Audio

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Lesson Script

Jim: Hey Julia.

Julia: Hey Jim, how are you doing?

Jim: Good, good. Now Julia, you are really fit and also you are a yoga instructor and a runner so you are the perfect person to talk about extreme exercise.

Julia: Extreme. I wouldn’t say I’m an extremist, but go on.

Jim: OK. So first of all I thought I would ask about this yoga that you do in like really hot rooms or something like that.

Julia: Yeah, the bikram yoga it’s called.

Jim: Yeah.

Julia: Yeah, actually I’ve never tried it myself. I know it’s kind of a growing craze, maybe Madonna made it really popular. As far as I know you do it in a sauna but it can’t possibly be a sauna.

Jim: Not a real sauna, right?

Julia: I don’t know what the temperature is but I think the philosophy behind it is to try to recreate the same climate as you’d find in India where yoga originates.

Jim: Right, so you want it to be really hot.

Julia: And humid, yeah.

Jim: Wow.

Julia: And also people who like to get the kind of the stretch value but also like to sweat at the same time. If you want a sweat yoga then it’s a crank up the temperature is going to help you.

Jim: Wow, that’s intense.

Julia: It is.

Jim: What about, have you heard about cross fit?

Julia: Cross fit? No.

Jim: Yeah. Cross fit’s the big rage in America.

Julia: Cross fit, no I haven’t heard of that.

Jim: Cross fit is like people do all of these really old-school exercises, like push ups or pull ups. They do like jumping jacks, they do really weird things like dead lifts, stuff like that but they do it one after the other in really short time intervals and like the work out only takes twelve minutes.

Julia: Wow.

Jim: But if you do it right, I think some people actually get so fatigued they throw up so like you really push your body to the limit.

Julia: That is extreme, yes.

Jim: It is extreme, although I’m probably saying it wrong.

Julia: Good for weight loss.

Jim: Yeah, so it’s actually a big craze where people do more natural body movements and you never do the same thing twice. You’re not supposed to get into a routine. You always do things different.

Julia: You do it like spontaneously or you set yourself a program?

Jim: There’s a whole website, you go to the cross fit website and they explain it all but it looks pretty cool. It’s like not your typical gym type workout.

Julia: Cross fit sounds like something you do on a BMX or something.

Jim: Right, right, exactly.

English Listening Lesson Quizzes

Answer the following questions about the conversation.

1) Julia is a yoga _____ .

1. a) student
2. b) instructor
3. c) author

2) The heat is important for _____.

1. a) sweating
2. b) burning calories
3. c) relaxing muscles

3) What do people do in cross fit?

1. a) push-ups
2. b) pull-ups
3. c) yoga

4) In cross fit you d the same thing _______ .

1. a) again and again
2. b) rarely

5) He recommends she check out a ______ .

1. a) gym
2. b) video
3. c) website

Answers

• 1=b
• 2=a
• 3=a,b
• 4=b
• 5=c

English Grammar Tips

Coming soon….

English Listening Lesson Phrases

originate

You try to recreate the same climate as you’d find in India where yoga originates.

The place where something ‘originates’ is where it was first created or invented. Notice the following:

1. Do you know where bread originates?
2. Some of the earliest forms of writing originated in Mexico.

the big rage

Cross fit’s the big rage in America.

Here, ‘big rage’ is similar to’popular trend’ or ‘fad.’ It’s something that many people have recently become interested in. Notice the following:

1. The singer Adele has become the big rage in the past year.
2. These shoes are the big rage right now.

old-school

People do all of these really old-school exercises, like push ups or pull ups.

Used like this, ‘old-school’ refers to traditional methods of doing something that may seem outdated. Notice the following:

1. She wears a lot of old-school sweaters.
2. He listens to a lot of old-school music.

jumping jacks

They do like jumping jacks.

‘Jumping jacks’ are a form of exercise where you start standing up with your hands by your side and then jump and open both your arms and your legs, then you jump again to return to the starting position. Notice the following:

1. Jumping jacks are sometimes difficult for children to learn.
2. We usually do some jumping jacks at the beginning of class to get warmed up.

a big craze

It’s actually a big craze where people do more natural body movements.

‘A big craze’ means the same thing as ‘a big rage.’ It is something that many people become interested in at the same time. Notice the following:

1. Fancy electronics are a big craze for people her age.
2. That diet was a big craze around the year 2000.

Quizzes for Lesson Phrases

• originated
• big rage
• old-school
• jacks
• crazes

1. These ice skates are pretty……….  , but they work just fine.
2. I’m really out of shape. A few minutes of jumping……….  just about kills me.
3. Yoga……..  in India.
4. These books are the……..  all over the world right now.
5. She is usually not very interested in big……..  .

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