Learn American English Listening Practice: Pool or Lake
Hello and welcome to my podcast English Learning Through Discourse, where I answer this or that questions, for English Language Learners, what's your opinion? Let me know in the comments. Today's topic is, which would you prefer to swim in, a pool or a lake?
You know for me, deadpan, easy answer, first response, lake most definitely. Now I grew up in Denver Colorado where you know, it's next to the Rocky Mountains. There are lots of lakes, the lakes are very cold and often, you know, in the range of seven to ten thousand feet in elevation. And they're alpine lakes and they're freezing. So growing up I didn't do a lot of lake swimming but it does get very hot in the summertime in Denver Colorado and I love to swim. We would go to the pool all summer long to keep cool, to have fun and so I kind of grew up, you know, swimming in a pool. And the lakes that they have in the cities you know where the elevation is a little bit more reasonable, it's still, you know, a mile high which is what Denver is famous for as being a mile high above sea level which is 5,280 feet. The lakes in and around the denver are not super awesome to swim in, so you know, everybody swims in pools.
However, I moved to Seattle Washington in 2013 and I lived there for five years and they also have mountain ranges out there called the cascades, and those mountains, like the highest peak will be, you know, four thousand, five thousand feet above sea level. So at the base of a lot of those mountains, it's still, they're still considered alpine lakes, but they're not as cold. Still fresh water lakes still feel, still cold but not quite as cold as in Colorado, so one of my favorite things to do is to go on a day hike and jump in the lake at the end of the hike. Because you get so hot, you know, like hiking for miles or you know kilometers up this mountain and then jumping into the lake at the end is so satisfying. It's a great way to cool off, the water is fresh and clear, you can just see right through it.
One of my favorite things to do on my birthday is to get all of my friends together, and get a bunch of floaties and just go to the lake and just hang out all day in the lake. And in in Seattle it doesn't get as hot there as it does in Colorado, so you know, there might be two weeks in the summertime where it's above 80 degrees, you know, or I don't know what that is in celsius but um where it gets hot enough where you can, where you have to swim. Like you want to get into the water because you're so hot.
But in Seattle, people just swim because they want to swim, maybe not necessarily because they need to, because it's so hot. But then there's also lake Union, lake Washington. These are not alpine lakes, they're actually lakes that are in the city area of Seattle, and lake Washington is probably my favorite lake to swim in because it's the biggest lake um in the Seattle area. Between lake Union, what's that, what's the other lake called, Green lake and lake Washington, lake Washington is the big lake and it's warm. The water is so warm, especially in the late summertime, much warmer than an alpine lake. Maybe more similar to what you might find in a swimming pool. But yeah, definitely for me, I prefer fresh water lakes, but if it's hot enough outside, there's no lakes around, the only option is a swimming pool, you will definitely see me sitting by that pool sipping on my lemonade in the sun with my sunglasses on and my hat just enjoying and enjoying the cool water, and the beautiful day.
I would like to know what you prefer, Do you prefer a pool do you prefer a lake? Maybe you live near the ocean and you love to go swim in the ocean, I'd love to hear your answers, so let me know in the comments and thank you so much for listening.
