©REUTERS via BBC
Pre-reading questions:
I will read each question. Then, please answer them.
講師がそれぞれの質問を読むので答えましょう。
- Have you tried stargazing?
- Did you collect rocks as a child?
Vocabulary:
I will read the words, meanings, and sample sentences. Then, repeat after me.
単語、意味、例文を読みます。講師に続いて音読しましょう。
- gem /jem/
- rare /rair/
- weigh /wey/
- mystery /MIS-tuh-ree/
- exist /ig-ZIST/
[noun] – a jewel (precious stone), especially when cut into a particular regular shape
Richard travels the world in search of a particular gem.
[adjective] – not common or frequent; very unusual
The townspeople spotted a rare bird at the park.
[verb] – to have a heaviness of a stated amount, or to measure the heaviness of an object
This package weighs 15 pounds.
[noun] – something strange or not known that has not yet been explained or understood
They are trying to solve the mystery of the missing document.
[verb] – to be, or to be real
Laura believes that ghosts exist.
Article reading:
Please read the whole article. Then, I will check your pronunciation and intonation.
記事を音読しましょう。講師はあなたの発音とイントネーションを確認します。
Art house Sotheby’s just sold off a billion-year-old black diamond for $4.3m. The 555.55-carat gem named The Enigma is believed to be the world’s largest cut diamond. It weighs about the same as a banana. It had been expected to sell for more than $5m when it went on sale. Some scientists suggest that the gem was carried to Earth by an asteroid. Its new owner is entrepreneur Richard Heart who purchased it using cryptocurrency. He decided to rename it the “HEX.com diamond,” after the blockchain platform he created. The gem is a carbonado, one of the strongest forms of natural diamond. It contains osbornite, a mineral found only in meteors, which makes many believe that Enigma came from space. Carbonados are extremely rare and have been discovered in only two regions of the world—Brazil and the Central African Republic. Where black diamonds come from remains a mystery. They are considered to be around 2.6 to 3.2 billion years old – a time before dinosaurs existed.
True or False:
Read the sentences and identify if they are true or false based on the article.
文章を読んで、記事に基づいて正誤を答えましょう。
- Sotheby’s sold off The Enigma for $4.3m.
- The Enigma is believed to be the world’s smallest cut diamond.
- Richard Heart paid for the gem using cryptocurrency.
- Carbonados have been discovered in only one region of the world.
- Black diamonds are around 2.6 to 3.2 billion years old.
Fill in the blanks:
Choose the correct word from the table then fill in the blanks.
適切な言葉を選んで空欄を埋めましょう。
| gem | weigh | rare | mystery | exist |
- What happened to the missing book is still a _______.
- That is a _____ fruit you can only find in Indonesia.
- The new boxer ______ around 40 to 43 pounds.
- The children found some _____ in the backyard.
- My five-year-old brother still believes that Santa Claus ______.