(Supplementary Materials for Specific Textbooks--Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5)
1. All human beings were once what?
2. Why are herders constantly on the move?
3. Why does Mongolia’s environment force people to become nomads?
4. What two worlds are the nomadic reindeer herders caught between?
5. How many reindeer is Sanjeem herding at the moment?
6. Who decides where the herders will go next? Why?
7. What is Sanjeem’s role within the group?
8. How many people are in the group?
9. How many families are in the group?
10. What is the Taiga? Where is the Taiga?
11. When did Mongolia change from a communist government to a democracy?
12. What did Sanjeem lose when Mongolia became a democracy?
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2. (00:07--00:09)_____________________________________________________________
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3. (00:10--00:12)_____________________________________________________________
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4. (00:13--00:14)_____________________________________________________________
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5. (00:15--00:17)_____________________________________________________________
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1. We were all once nomads (00:03--00:06)
2. but in the central Asian nation of Mongolia (00:07-00:09)
3. many of the people still are (00:10-00:12)
4. Herders are constantly on the move, (00:13-00:14)
5. finding fresh grasses for their animals. (00:15-00:17)
Narrator: We were all once nomads; but in the central Asian nation of Mongolia, many of the people still are. Herders are constantly on the move, finding fresh grasses for their animals. Mongolia’s geography, a boundless wilderness with soil that can’t sustain agriculture, forces people to embrace the nomadic life. Sanjeem is a nomadic reindeer herder. He and his people are caught between two worlds. Theirs, and one in which Mongolia’s urban elite calls on nomads to settle.
Sanjeem sits, mounted on one reindeer, and drives about 50 others with coats of white and mottled charcoal up a rock-strewn grassy slope.
Sanjeem (via interpreter): Our ancestors have herded reindeer here in mountains of Mongolia for generations. We keep our animals here, and we actually follow our reindeer where they want to go because the environment and the climate are perfectly suited to our reindeer. This is the basis of our culture.
Narrator: Sanjeem’s an elder within a group of 207 people, 44 families. Every few weeks he moves camp in the Taiga, a vast expanse of mountains, forest, and ice straddling Mongolia’s border with Siberia. Today, though, Sanjeem is worried. When Mongolia’s communist government was toppled by a democratic revolution in the 1990s, his state salary was withdrawn.
once: in the past, but not now:
This house once belonged to my grandfather.
nomad: a member of a group of people who move from one place to another instead of living in the same place all the time
herder: a person who takes care of a large group of animals of the same type:
nomadic African herders
constantly: all the time
He's constantly changing his mind.
be on the move: to be going somewhere; to be travelling:
We're going to be on the move all next week, but we'll call you when we get home.
fresh: new and in good condition
Your coffee is cold - let me make you a fresh cup.
grass: a low, green plant that grows naturally over a lot of the earth's surface, having groups of very thin leaves that grow close together in large numbers:
geography: an area of the earth, and all the things that are inside it (e.g. lakes, mountains, etc).
boundless: having no limit:
He has boundless energy.
wilderness: a place that is in a completely natural state without houses, industry, roads, etc:
a beautiful mountain wilderness
soil: the top layer of earth that plants grow in:
sandy soil
sustain: to support something so that they can exist:
The money he received was hardly enough to sustain a wife and five children.
agriculture: the work and methods of growing crops that are then used for food
force: to make someone do something that they do not want to do:
The hijacker forced the pilot to fly to New York.
embrace: to accept new ideas, beliefs, methods, etc in an enthusiastic way:
We are always eager to embrace the latest technology.
nomadic--adjective of “nomad”--Nomadic people move from place to place.
reindeer--a type of deer with large horns that lives in northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America
to be caught between two worlds--an idiom used to refer to people who are unsure of which culture they belong to
urban--belonging or relating to a town or city:
urban areas
elite--the richest, most powerful, or best educated group in a society:
a member of the elite
urban elites--a common collocation. It is most often used to refer to the political, economic, or cultural leaders who usually live in the cities.
call on--to officially ask a person or organization to do something. The collocation is “call on person to V1”
The human rights group has called on the US to end the death penalty.
settle--to start living in a place where you are going to live for a long time:
He travelled around Europe for years before finally settling in Vienna.
be mounted on--to be seated on a horse or other animal
drive: to force someone or something to go somewhere or do something:
They used dogs to drive the sheep into a pen.
coat: the fur that covers an animal's body
mottled: A mottled pattern has a mixture of dark and light areas:
mottled skin
charcoal: a hard, black substance similar to coal that can be used as fuel or, in the form of sticks, as something to draw with. Or, the color which comes from these sticks, which is a dark grey color.
