Rubber Duck Floats into Hong Kong - English News Lesson

Enormous Rubber Duck Floats Down Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour – English News Lesson

hong kong duck To help you learn English, today’s English News Lesson is about the huge, yellow duck that floated down Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour last Thursday.

Read the report, check the vocabulary, watch the video and then try to answer the simple listening exercises below.

image by: flickr.com/photos/rogerwagner

News Report:

On Thursday, May 2, 2013, an enormous, inflatable rubber duck floated into Hong Kong’s famous Victoria Harbour to the delight of anticipating crowds.

Inspired and created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, the duck, which takes around 30 minutes to blow up, measures 16.5 metres high and 19.2 metres long.

The idea behind the creation of the towering duck is to bring people together and make them more conscious about one and other and the environment.

“We are living on one planet, we are one family and all the waters in the world is our global bathtub and it joins people together; it makes us family” Hofman said.

“We have to take care of each other, you know, and be responsible about this planet, as you are responsible about your own house and bath.”

The duck caused a stir among office workers who could be seen pressed up against skyscraper windows taking photos.

Twitter and Facebook feeds were buzzing with excitement, too. Twitter user, JasonGirard wrote, “So there’s a duck in HK harbour… a really really big duck!”

Hofman’s aquatic creation, which has already sailed its way down Dutch, Australian and Japanese waters, as well many other parts of the world, will be on display in Hong Kong until June 9. Afterwards, the duck is heading off to the USA to an, as yet, undisclosed location.

 

Vocabulary

inflatable –  capable of being filled with air

delight – great pleasure

anticipating – to expect or look forward to something, especially with pleasure

blow up – inflate

towering –  extremely tall, especially in comparison with the surroundings

conscious – to be aware of and responsive one’s surroundings

aquatic – of or relating to water

responsible – being accountable for one’s actions and decisions

cause a stir  – cause a lot of interest and excitement

heading off  – going to

undisclosed – not revealed or made known publicly

 

 

Listening Exercise

Watch and listen carefully to the You Tube video above, then fill in the missing words from the following sentences that were taken from the video report.

1.  (a) On _ _ _ _ _ _ _  at Hong Kong’s (b) i _ _ _ _ _ Victoria Harbour must have thought they’d gone      (c) q _ _ _ _ _ _ _ when this giant inflatable duck floated into view on Thursday. (0:1 seconds in)

 

2.  While it may sound like he’s having a bath, plenty of people joined together to welcome the

(a) i _ f _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (b) _ v _ _ _ to Hong Kong. (0:45 seconds in)

 

3.  The duck will stay  (a) d _ _ _ _ d in Harbour City until June 9th, after which it will be (b) _ _ _    _ _      visit the USA and the Middle East. (1:12 seconds in)

 

Note:  Please write  your answers in the comments section below and we will reveal the correct answers in 7 days from today on our Facebook Page as well as in the comments section below.  (Don’t be afraid to make a mistake!)

Please CLICK on the LIKE and SHARE tabs on the left to tell us what you thought of this post. 🙂 

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. marcus mann says

    I am thinking this must come to make my people smile in Germany too. It is being very interesting.

    • Q-Admin says

      Yes, Marcus, I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t see it floating down The Rhine sometime soon.

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