Listening Exercise: Shark Dive
Today I’m going to tell you a story that will teach you some vocabulary, and then I will include a video with which you can practise listening to the Australian accent.
On the weekend, I went diving with a friend on a boat in the open ocean. We were the first people to descend and once we reached the bottom, we started looking at the ground for small creatures to photograph. After a couple of minutes, I was starting to think that this dive spot was a little boring, and then from behind me, I heard my dive buddy scream. She pointed behind me and I looked up to see that I was face to face with a three metre long Great White Shark.
Contrary to popular opinion, not all sharks are dangerous, but the Great White Shark is very territorial and curious, so they have been known to attack. When we see a potentially dangerous animal, we must stay calm and not run. If we run, the shark thinks that we are food. So my friend and I stayed together (in order to appear bigger) and sat on the sand taking photos whilst the shark circled us for ten minutes. It didn’t seem hungry or angry, just very curious.
Finally, my dive buddy signalled to me using sign language (talking with your hands) to say that we needed to ascend or else we would run out of air. We flashed a torch in the shark’s eyes to make it swim away. However, sharks are most likely to attack from below, so we needed to continue looking below us and keep our backs to each other so we could watch with our eyes in all directions.
Normally, divers must do a safety stop to decompress, but this was an emergency. We ascended slowly and once we surfaced, we signalled for the boat to collect us. The captain pulled us onto the boat very quickly, then we had to wait for all the other divers to ascend and get them into the boat as quickly as possible.
What a wild day, right?! Now for your listening exercise.
Another diver saw the shark during his safety stop towards the end of his dive, and he managed to film it. The video was published on Facebook and the media found it. The national TV news station asked my dive buddy for an interview the next day.
The anchorman and my dive buddy, who are both featured in this news story, have very typical Australian accents. Listen to this video and practise listening to this unique accent!
