ACADEMIC LISTENING TEST PRACTICE
AUSTRALIA - COOBER PEDY
AUSTRALIA - COOBER PEDY
For Students Preparing for Academic Tests / IELTS and TOEFL
Listen as you read the script.
Playing Time: 1 minute 58 seconds
Perhaps not many people outside of Australia have ever heard of Coober Pedy, a town in the state of South Australia. That’s not unexpected, since not many people live in Coober Pedy. In fact, only about 2,000 people call it home. It is an important place, however, because many of the world’s opals originate from this town. An opal is a kind of beautiful blue gemstone that is sometimes used to make jewelry. Because they are not easy to find, opal stones usually sell for hundreds or maybe even thousands of dollars. The most expensive opal stone was one that sold for 1.9 million US dollars.
Coober Pedy is also famous for another reason: about 1,500 of its residents live in about 1,000 underground homes called, “dugouts”! The first question people ask when they find out about Coober Pedy is, “Why do the people in Coober Pedy choose to live underground?” The answer is that Coober Pedy is located in a very hot desert where daytime temperatures often reach more than 40 degrees Celsius in the summer – and living underground is a very efficient way to stay cool. They don’t even need to use air conditioners. There are also five underground churches, some underground hotels and a few underground stores.
Living underground also makes sense because it is very easy to transform your small home into a big home. When you want more space to live, all you have to do is just dig a new room! However, one resident of Coober Pedy, Andy Sheils, admits that there is a problem to living there. He says that when some visitors first come to his town, they are quite confused, because they don’t see many houses. They ask, “Where is the town of Coober Pedy? I don’t understand!”
Coober Pedy is also famous for another reason: about 1,500 of its residents live in about 1,000 underground homes called, “dugouts”! The first question people ask when they find out about Coober Pedy is, “Why do the people in Coober Pedy choose to live underground?” The answer is that Coober Pedy is located in a very hot desert where daytime temperatures often reach more than 40 degrees Celsius in the summer – and living underground is a very efficient way to stay cool. They don’t even need to use air conditioners. There are also five underground churches, some underground hotels and a few underground stores.
Living underground also makes sense because it is very easy to transform your small home into a big home. When you want more space to live, all you have to do is just dig a new room! However, one resident of Coober Pedy, Andy Sheils, admits that there is a problem to living there. He says that when some visitors first come to his town, they are quite confused, because they don’t see many houses. They ask, “Where is the town of Coober Pedy? I don’t understand!”
underground hotel in Coober Pedy
Note: For more cool ESL resources about Australia, visit my All Things Topics site.
