This episode’s vocabulary
Trophy
noun — a prize, such as a gold or silver cup, that is given to the winner of a competition or race, and often returned after a year to be given to the winner of the competition in the following year.
Prepubescent
adj. — relating to the period before children start to develop adult sexual characteristics.
Oversight
noun — systems or actions to control an activity and make sure that it is done correctly and legally.
Regardless
adverb — despite; not being affected by something.
Conscious
adj. — awake, thinking, and knowing what is happening around you.
Questions and answers
Rory is going to describe a prize he received. He's going to say what the prize is, when it was, and he's gonna say what he needed to do to get it, and explain how he felt about it. Rory, are you ready?
Yes!
Fire away.
I won a trophy for shooting once. Although it was a long time ago when I was a young teenager. Actually, I might have been a prepubescent there, now I think about it. Um, anyway, we used to go shooting with the local Boy Scouts. That's like the sort of British equivalent of the pioneers or the Komsomol, whether the government oversight. Anyway, we were shooting air guns when one of the troop leaders hit upon this idea to create a point system. It wasn't pre-planned or anything, it was just something we came up with on the spot. Anyway, once it was all agreed on, we decided every week when you went to the firing lanes or went to the ranges and shot at target sheets of different shapes and sizes, then you get different points or different quantities of points for these things. I think there were some solid targets in moving ones too, now I think about it, if I'm not mistaken. Regardless, we were going there fairly regularly and I did surprisingly well for someone who had never held a gun in their life before. But it wasn't a conscious effort. I was just having fun, really. I didn't realize there is actually a trophy involved. So when I was awarded it, I was actually taken completely by surprise. And then I was extremely happy naturally. A few of the guys that we were with were a bit too out, which bothered me a little since they were quite good too. But the scores didn't lie. And I was the best, so why not celebrate in style a little bit. But yeah, it was, um, it's not something that I've done a lot since shooting or indeed winning trophies. But it was quite an interesting thing to win, I suppose. And I think quite a unique achievement for most teenagers, I'm not sure that many people do things like this.
Do you often win prizes?
Oh, like I said it's not common for me. -