rEad & LiSTEN i traCk 2: US MAN & IRISHMAN

some people will do anything to be a guinness world

record holder… as these examples of records will show.

in 2006, 28-year-old anandita Dutta tamuly from india ate 51 of the world’s spiciest chillies in just two minutes.

linda wolfe, 68, from the Usa, holds the record for being married the most times. she’s currently divorced from her 23rd husband and would like to marry again.

the record number of t-shirts worn at one time is 155. the largest t-shirt was XXXXXXXXXXl!

in January 2008, wim Hof immersed himself in a container of icy water for a record of one hour and 12 minutes. He beat his previous record from 2004 of one hour and eight minutes.

in 2010, marco Hort from switzerland managed to put 264 straws in his mouth.

in 2001, ralf laue solved a rubik’s cube in five minutes 42 seconds... while he was blindfolded!

fan Yang and Deni Yang set a new guinness world record in april 2011 for getting the most people inside a soap bubble. they managed to squeeze in 118 people.

the record for the fastest mile in flippers is held by american ashrita furman. He set it in 2010 with a time of seven minutes and 56 seconds. ashrita is no stranger to guinness world records as he’s set more than 340 of them!

the world’s heaviest pumpkin weighed 821 kilos and was grown by farmer chris stevens. the record was confirmed on 9th october 2010 in wisconsin, Usa. chris said it was down to a mixture of rain, cow

manure, good soil, seaweed and fish emulsion.

truly amazing!

/ www.hotenglishgroup.com / Check out the interactive PDF offer. Visit: www.hotenglishmagazine.com6

nIne unusual world reCords

exams this reading and listening activity will help prepare you for english exams such as ket and tOeFl.

Objective To improve your reading and listening comprehension.

think about it What are you good at? Do you have any hidden talents? What sports are you good at? Which records do you think you could break?

By Susan Walsh

glOssarY

Answers on page 44

1 Pre-reading look at the objects below. What word records involving these objects do you think have been broken?

2 Reading I read the article once to compare your ideas from the pre-reading task.

3 Reading II read the article again. then, answer the questions. Wh0… 1. ...ate 51 chillies? 2. ...holds the record for

being married the most times?

3. ...stayed in some cold water for more than an hour?

4. ...put a lot of straws in his mouth?

5. ...ran the fastest mile in flippers?

6. ...grew the world’s heaviest pumpkin?

Chillies

t-shirts

straws

rubik’s Cube

Flippers

Pumpkin

a record n a “record” is the best result for a sport, etc. spicy adj “spicy” food is hot and can burn your mouth to hold a record exp if you “hold the record” for something, you have the best score / result for it to immerse yourself exp if you “immerse yourself” in water (for example), you put yourself in the water until it covers you icy adj very cold; almost like ice (frozen water) to beat vb if you “beat” a previous record, you do better than that previous recordblindfolded adj if you’re “blindfolded”, you have a piece of cloth covering your eyes so you can’t seea soap bubble n a large ball of air that you make with soap (the substance you use for cleaning) to squeeze in phr vb if people “squeeze in” to a small space, they enter that small space, often by being pushedflippers n flat pieces of rubber that you can wear on your feet to help you swim more quicklyno stranger to exp if you’re “no stranger to” something, you’ve done it before down to exp if a is “down to” b, a happens because of b manure n animal waste / excrement that is used as a fertiliser to make plants grow soil n the substance on the surface of the earth in which plants growseaweed n green plants that grow in the sea and that you can eat fish emulsion n a liquid substance made from fish