jueves, 17 de octubre de 2013

The man who cycles 100 miles every day

Steve Hamilton cycles between 80-100 miles every working day. That makes 22,000 miles a year. And in London! (see our post of early October this year 'Why do some many Dutch people cycle'?)

Self-study activity:
Watch this three-minute BBC video by clicking on the picture below or on this link and find out all the details of Steve's job.

Steve's accent is not easy, but I think intermediate students can try the activity below.


1 Why does Steve mention a 'red van'?
2 How old was the elderly guy who died in an accident?
3 Why are cyclists and couriers necessary?
4 What makes a good courier?
5 How old is Steve?
6 Why does he do this job?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.

There are those moments when your heart just goes Ttttt.
Two forty-four.
I like the adventure of going through a thin line, two buses, black cabs, cars.
I was coming on Great Eastern Street, it was a red van, somehow he didn’t see me and… he turned! That was it.
I hold them, going down as fast as possible and somebody ran across the road. Aahh! Must have been centimetres.
I remember when I just started there was an elderly guy, he was sixty, who died… He was a very friendly guy. He died on Bishop’s Gate.
Get out of the lane!
We work hard. We work really hard, because we want to earn. I’ve gone home where I am knocked out, totally knocked out. After eating dinner, that is it. Can’t even talk to the wife.
There are stuff you can’t send over the Internet. People need cyclists to get from point A to point B.
What makes a good courier? Experience. Sometimes we can see things way ahead, I don’t know if that’s a sixth sense with courier cyclists.
Look at me. I’m forty-nine years old. I just love what I’m doing so far. It’s absolute fun. Is this fun gonna run out? I don’t know.