English Every Day: Man on Wire New York Twin Towers

Your Daily English Programme #24 - Walking on Wire Between New York Twin Towers (Listening B2-C1)

Welcome to #week7 on Engramme. Today, we're traveling back to 1974 to look at a stunning event that took place between the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York.

Think Before You Listen

Which extreme activities have you done before (bungee jumping, hang gliding, skydiving, base jumping, white-water rafting, etc)? Which have you always wanted to do? What do you think people enjoy about these activities?

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Watch and Listen

On August 7, 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire and walked between New York's Twin Towers. The walk took about 50 minutes while he did stunts of all kinds, permanently redefining the phrase 'high-wire'.

Watch the Video: How did people and the police react to the scene of a man walking a tightrope across the top of New York?

Let's Practice

Listen Again: Fill in the blanks with words from the video¹:

Mouse over the underlined words to see their meaning

A 25-year-old French daredevil did a tightrope walk across the top of New York in 1974, on a 131-foot cable strung between the 110-story Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The aerialist,  ___________  juggler, and unicyclist is Philippe Petit who said, “I see three oranges and I have to juggle. I see two towers and I have to walk.” The stroll - 1350 feet above street level - _______ fifty minutes from 7:05 to 7:55 a.m. Four times the 25-year-old Petit, who started out from the North Tower, _______ to a point near the South Tower and then back north. Once he sat down on the wire cable which is an inch in diameter, and another time he ______ down on his back on the cable. Thousands of petrified onlookers, including pedestrians, motorists, early-morning office workers, and frustrated police watched helplessly as Petit defied what ________ certain death. Twice he bowed from the waist to the crowds below. He finally relented and walked onto the roof of the South Tower and into the arms of waiting cops. He did so after one burly cop ________ at him, “Get the hell off there or I'm coming out after you!” Tolerant authorities said they would drop criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct charges if he would stage a similar performance for the public, possibly in Central Park and at a less dizzying height. Within a week, he ________!

(See answers in the first comment below)

Over to You

Want to Learn More? The movie "The Walk" (Robert Zemeckis 2015) tells the story of Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk. It takes a behind-the-scenes look at all that led to Philippe's tough but firm decision to perform the act. Here's a short trailer²:

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1 Why this activity? Regular past tense endings (-d, -ed) in English often cause difficulty in listening for learners because the pronunciation of the ending can change depending on the final sound in the verb (e.g. -ed in 'walked' is pronounced /t/ but in 'lasted' is pronounced /əd/ or /ɪd/). ^↩
2 'Extensive listening', i.e. listening for the general idea and/or pleasure, will help you further develop your listening ability in a second/foreign language.^↩