ESL Podcast 581 - Reading a World Map

map - a piece of paper with drawings and text showing the location of places

Noah hung a large world map on his office wall and circled all the places he has visited.

globe - a round ball that rotates in a special stand and represents the world, with drawings of the continents, oceans, countries, and major cities

Why does Greenland look so much larger on a map than on a globe?

postcard - a small, rectangular piece of paper sent through the mail with a picture or photograph on one side and a message, address, and stamp on the other side, used to send brief messages to other people, usually when traveling

Today we received a postcard that Sebastian sent while he was relaxing on the beaches of Tahiti.

adventurous - looking for adventure and excitement; wanting to do new and unusual things that most people don't do

Troy is a really adventurous eater. He's even tried roasted ants, frog legs, and raw beef.

compass - a small, flat, round device with an arrow that always points north, no matter which way the device is held

The hikers lost the trail, but they were able to use a compass to find their way back into town.

continent - one of the seven large areas of land: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America

How many continents have you visited?

geography - the study of the earth's surface, especially of the location of natural features, countries, cities, and the people who live there

This week, our geography class is focused on African mountains and rivers.

equator - an imaginary line around the planet, separating the northern and southern hemispheres (halves)

As you move further from the equator, days become longer or shorter depending on the season.

latitude - one of many imaginary lines around the planet, parallel to the equator, used to talk about how far north or south something is

Areas at extremely high latitudes have cooler temperatures because they get less sunlight.

longitude - one of many imaginary lines around the planet, perpendicular to the equator, used to talk about how far east or west something is

How many miles separate each degree of longitude at the equator?

sort of - kind of; somewhat; a little bit; to a certain extent

Even though it was difficult to spend so much time living with my in-laws, I was sort of sad when it was time for us to leave their house.

to make heads or tails of (something) - to be able to understand something

I can't make heads or tails of this physics lesson. Do you understand it?

to scale - with a constant (unchanging) ratio between the actual distance between points A and B and the distance between points A and B on a map

This map is drawn to scale, so one inch represents 10 miles.

legend - a small box on a map with words that explains the scale and what different symbols mean

According to this legend, a small drawing of a tree represents a park and a yellow star represents a police station.

place name - a word on a map showing what a country, city, or other place is called

Almost half the place names on this map are misspelled, and the other half are in the wrong spot!

vital statistics - detailed information, especially information represented in numbers

The doctor wrote down all of her patient's vital statistics in the patient's official file.