Learn English with the News: “Pea shooters”

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Today we have a fun news item for you to enjoy! Check out what it is!

1. Read the text
2. Understand vocabulary
3. Watch the video

Text

It’s not just something you do when you’re a kid at the dinner table and you don’t want to eat your vegetables. Or a prank you pull when your teacher isn’t looking. No. Pea shooting has been crafted into a noble art which draws competitors of all ages who are aiming for the bullseye. And this year’s world championship in Cambridgeshire, England brought some top talent like professional Rob Breslaw.

– Well you have to be a true athlete. It’s like darts, you know you have to have a very good eye, determination and practice. You have to be here at least ten minutes before to have a good go at the boards.

Shooters must stand twelve feet or almost four meters from the target, which is smeared with wet putty. If a pea hits the board and falls, it doesn’t count. Competitors get five peas to score as many points as they can within the rings. Finalists get ten. Rob Breslaw won in the men’s shoot-out, making him and women’s champion Julie Bissmire, two peas in the winning pod.

Vocabulary

Prank – a trick that is done to someone usually as a joke.

Pea Shooting – Pea shooting is the act of shooting dried peas out of a tube, a pea shooter, by blowing through it.

Crafted – to make or produce (something) with care or skill.

Determination – a quality that makes you continue trying to do or achieve something that is difficult.

Smeared – to make (something) dirty by rubbing it with something else.

Putty – a soft, sticky substance that becomes hard when it dries and that is used for holding glass in window frames or for filling small holes in wood.

Two peas in a pod – used to say that two people or things are very similar to each other.

Video