Intro
When you travel, whether it’s to a new country or just the forest outside your city, you see and experience all sorts of exciting new things. It’s fun to have someone there to say, “Wow, look at that!” or to remember your trip with later.
But traveling alone has it’s advantages too. With no one else to please, you can do and see exactly what you want to. You can make new friends more easily since you’ll talk to strangers to avoid loneliness.
Sara recently took a solo trip. Listen to her discuss it with Vanessa in this travel English lesson.
But traveling alone has it’s advantages too. With no one else to please, you can do and see exactly what you want to. You can make new friends more easily since you’ll talk to strangers to avoid loneliness.
Sara recently took a solo trip. Listen to her discuss it with Vanessa in this travel English lesson.
Dialogue (Download Dialog Here)
Vanessa: A friend of mine just went camping this weekend, but she went all alone. It seems really weird to me. Have you ever taken a vacation by yourself?Sara: I have. I’ve never camped alone, but I’ve driven cross-country by myself a few times and I really liked it.
Vanessa: Really? I think I might be a little nervous to be traveling alone, especially if I was going to a different country or something.
Sara: Right. I think what was cool when I was driving cross-country, was I would stay with people that I knew in different places every night. So even though I was traveling alone, I wasn’t entirely by myself in a way.
Vanessa: I see, so you had people who knew where you were and if something went terribly wrong, someone would notice.
Sara: I just think it’s really cool to totally be in charge of your agenda and your itinerary and not have to worry about what anyone else wants to do.
Vanessa: You can set your own pace, and sightsee, and…
Sara: Listen to your own music, you know?
Vanessa: That is very important! Maybe traveling alone isn’t such a bad idea. Maybe I’ll start small and take a day trip by myself!
Discussion
Vanessa was surprised to learn that when her friend went camping over the weekend, she went alone. She thinks this is weird, and asks Sara if she has ever gone on vacation by herself. Sara has never been camping on her own, but really likes driving cross-country alone. She has done it several times.
Vanessa thinks traveling alone, especially to another country, would make her nervous. Sara explains that she met with friends in different cities each night of her trip, so she wasn’t always alone. There were people who knew where she was in case something went wrong.
When you travel alone, you can be totally in charge of your itinerary. Sara points out you can listen to your choice of music, too! Vanessa agrees that that is very important. She says maybe traveling alone isn’t a bad idea, and maybe she will start off with a day trip alone.
Do you enjoy traveling alone? Is it acceptable to do where you live?
Vanessa thinks traveling alone, especially to another country, would make her nervous. Sara explains that she met with friends in different cities each night of her trip, so she wasn’t always alone. There were people who knew where she was in case something went wrong.
When you travel alone, you can be totally in charge of your itinerary. Sara points out you can listen to your choice of music, too! Vanessa agrees that that is very important. She says maybe traveling alone isn’t a bad idea, and maybe she will start off with a day trip alone.
Do you enjoy traveling alone? Is it acceptable to do where you live?
Grammar Point
Present Perfect Tense
Sara says she has taken a trip by herself. She has never camped alone, but she has driven across the country solo. She uses the present perfect tense.
The present perfect tense is formed with have/has + a past participle. Sara uses this tense to talk about something that happened at an unspecific time in the past. It’s not important when Sara drove across the country alone, just that she did it.
For regular verbs like camp, we form the past participle by adding ed. However, some verbs, like drive have an irregular past participle, in this case, driven.
When used with “just,” this tense refers to something that happened very recently. If Sara said, “I have just returned from a trip by myself,” we would know that she did so not long ago.
Which is correct, “Vanessa has never taked a trip alone,” or, “Vanessa has never taken a trip alone”?
Sara says she has taken a trip by herself. She has never camped alone, but she has driven across the country solo. She uses the present perfect tense.
The present perfect tense is formed with have/has + a past participle. Sara uses this tense to talk about something that happened at an unspecific time in the past. It’s not important when Sara drove across the country alone, just that she did it.
For regular verbs like camp, we form the past participle by adding ed. However, some verbs, like drive have an irregular past participle, in this case, driven.
When used with “just,” this tense refers to something that happened very recently. If Sara said, “I have just returned from a trip by myself,” we would know that she did so not long ago.
Which is correct, “Vanessa has never taked a trip alone,” or, “Vanessa has never taken a trip alone”?
Quiz
- Vanessa thinks camping alone is __.
- Why didn’t Sara feel alone on her trip?
- When you travel alone, you can _.
- Can you take a day trip from Bejing to New York?
- o
Answer Key: 1:C 2:C 3:D 4:B
Vocabulary
- Traveling alone: going on a journey or vacation by oneself.
- Solo: alone
- Camping: a recreational activity that involves staying outdoors overnight
- Cross-Country: a trip that takes one across a whole country
- Notice: to become aware of
- Agenda: a list or outline of things to be done.
- Itinerary: schedule, the route of a journey
- Pace: rate of movement or progress
- Sightsee: to go about seeing sights of interest
- Day trip: a journey or vacation in which you go to a place and return home on the same day
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