E24: Coney Island. Amusement and theme parks. Aquariums

 

New York City Aquarium (David Shankbone, Wikimedia CCA 2.5)

OVERVIEW

 

 

 

NEW WORDS

 

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play Audio”].

Nouns.

Amusement and theme parks.

  • acrobat (plural: acrobats) one who is skilled in feats of balance and agility in gymnastics.
  • admission permission to enter or the right, authority, etc, to enter; the price charged for entrance.
  • attraction (plural: attractions) a characteristic or quality that provides pleasure; attractive feature.
  • bumper car (plural: cars) a low-powered electrically propelled vehicle driven and bumped against similar cars in a special rink at a funfair.
  • carousel/merry-go-round  (plural: carousels) a revolving circular platform provided with wooden animals, seats, etc, on which people ride for amusement.
  • clown (plural: clowns) a comic entertainer, usually grotesquely costumed and made up, appearing in the circus.
  • costume (plural: costumes) a set of clothes worn in order to look like someone or something else, especially for a party or as part of entertainment.
  • cotton candy (plural: candies) a very light fluffy confection made from coloured spun sugar, usually held on a stick.
  • ferris wheel (plural: wheels) an amusement ride consisting of a large upright rotating wheel having suspended seats that remain in a horizontal position as the wheel revolves.
  • fireworks a show consisting of a combination of explosives and combustibles, set off to generate colored lights, smoke, and noise for amusement.
  • line (plural: lines) a row of persons.
  • magician (plural: magicians) a person who performs sleight-of-hand tricks or other illusions,
  • prize (plural: prizes) a reward or honor for victory or for having won a contest.
  • ride (plural: rides) a mechanical device that you ride for amusement or excitement.
  • roller coaster (plural: coasters) a steep, sharply curving elevated railway with small open passenger cars that is operated at high speeds as a ride, especially in an amusement park.
  • theme park (plural: parks) an amusement park designed around a central theme, such as the world of the future, or divided into areas with different themes.
  • ticket booth (plural: booths) the place where tickets of admission are sold.
  • trapeze (plural: trapezes) a free-swinging bar attached to two ropes, used by circus acrobats.
  • water slide (plural: water slides) a continuously wetted chute (as at an amusement park) down which people slide into a pool.

Aquariums.

  • aquarium (plural: aquariums) a transparent tank of water in which fish and other water creatures and plants are kept.
  • coral a hard stony substance secreted by certain marine lifeas an external skeleton, typically forming large reefs in warm seas.
  • crab (plural: crabs) a sea creature with five pairs of legs and a round, flat body covered by a shell.
  • dolphin (plural: dolphins) any of various marine mammals that are typically smaller than whales and larger than porpoises and have a beaklike snout.
  • fish a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate animal  gills and fins and living wholly in water.
  • fish tank (plural: tanks) a tank or pool or bowl filled with water for keeping live fish and underwater animals.
  • goldfish a small, shiny, gold or orange fish that is often kept as a pet in a bowl or garden pool.
  • lobster (plural: lobsters) a sea creature with a soft, oval body and eight tentacles.
  • manta ray any large ray (fish) having very wide winglike pectoral fins and feeding on plankton.
  • marine biology the scientific study of organisms living in or dependent on the oceans.
  • marine life the plants, animals, and other organisms that live in the salt water of seas or oceans.
  • ocean (plural: oceans) a very large stretch of sea, especially one of the five oceans of the world, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic.
  • octopus (plural: octopuses/octopi)
  • oyster (plural: oysters) any of a number of mollusks with rough irregular shells. Several kinds are eaten (especially raw) as a delicacy and may be farmed for food or pearls.
  • otter (plural: otters) an aquatic mammal having webbed feet and dense, dark brown fur.
  • penguin (plural: penguins) flightless aquatic birds of the Southern Hemisphere, having flipperlike wings and webbed feet adapted for swimming and diving.
  • porpoise (plural: porpoises) any of several small, toothed whales having a blunt snout and a triangular dorsal fin.
  • seahorse (plural: seahorses) a fish having a bony-plated body, a prehensile tail, and a horselike head and swimming in an upright position.
  • sea lion (plural: lions) an eared seal occurring mainly on Pacific coasts. the large male of which has a mane on the neck and shoulders.
  • seashell (plural: seashells) the empty shell of a small sea creature.
  • seaweed large algae growing in the sea or on rocks.
  • shark (plural: sharks) a large sea fish with very sharp teeth and a pointed fin on its back.
  • snail (plural: snails) a mollusk with a single spiral shell into which the whole body can be withdrawn.
  • species a set of animals or plants in which the members have similar characteristics to each other and can breed with each other.
  • sponge (plural: sponges) a marine animal with a porous structure.
  • squid (plural: squids) a sea creature that’s similar to an octopus but has ten arms instead of eight.
  • starfish a flat animal that lives in the sea and has five arms that grow from its body in the shape of a star.
  • stingray (plural: stingrays) a large, flat, round fish with a long tail that has poisonous points on it.
  • swordfish a large, highly migratory, predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill.
  • walrus (plural: walruses) a large gregarious marine mammal of arctic waters related to the seals that has limbs modified into webbed flippers, long ivory tusks, a tough wrinkled hide, stiff whiskers, and a thick layer of blubber.
  • whale (plural: whales) a very large marine mammal with a streamlined hairless body, a horizontal tail fin, and a blowhole on top of the head for breathing.

[/responsivevoice]

VISUAL VOCABULARY

  • Let’s learn more about marine life

KEY PHRASES

 

 

GRAMMAR TIPS

 

 

ONLINE RESOURCES

Some famous aquariums