📙 Part 2: Describe a public facility that has been renovated and improved

This episode's vocabulary

To upgrade (verb) - to improve the quality or usefulness of something, or change it for something newer or of a better standard.

Riverside (noun) - the land along the edges of a river.

To sell someone/yourself/something short (idiom) - to not consider someone or something to be as valuable or good as he, she, or it deserves.

Indoor (adj.) - happening, used, or existing inside a building.

To demolish (verb) - to completely destroy a building, especially in order to use the land for something else.

Open up something (phrasal verb) - to make something available.

Simultaneously (adverb) - in a way that is simultaneous (= happening or being done at exactly the same time).

Seamless (adverb) - happening without any sudden changes, interruption, or difficulty.

Transfer (noun) - the movement of something or someone from one place, position, etc. to another.

Flume (noun) - a narrow channel made for carrying water, for example to factories that produce electricity.

Accessible (adj.) - able to be reached or easily obtained.

Fanfare (noun) - great attention to and interest in something.

To reopen (verb) - if a place or business, etc. reopens or is reopened, it begins to operate, or it becomes open for people to use, after being closed for a period of time.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, it's funny, actually, because we just had a new swimming pool facility built in the center of my hometown. It's an upgraded version of the old one that we had down by the riverside. So this is like a new building, but with the same name and operated by the same company. The place itself is called Olympia, probably after the place where all the great Gods lived. And like I said, it's a swimming pool, although, I think that's not telling the whole story and selling it a bit short. It was designed as a sort of indoor water park, and the new building has kept this idea in mind, despite the big move to a new location. This happened about, oh, wow, in the last year or so, I'd say. They demolished the old building and opened up the new one simultaneously. So that was a pretty seamless transfer, or at least it seems like that, I don't know much about it. It's got the same facilities as before, slides, pools, flumes, etc, but they're all more modern, and so they should be safer, at least in theory. The big change is definitely the location to make it more accessible to people closer to town. They also have a bigger car park with increased access for the disabled and elderly, which is nice to see. It's closer to a large shopping centre we have as well, so you can sort of make a day out of going there if you want to, although I haven't actually been yet. It's funny, because despite all the fanfare around the changes, like I say, I've never been there yet, and actually, recently, it's been closed to the public for repairs. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to go there at some point this year. It's a good thing they made this change, actually, otherwise, I'd have had nothing to talk about. In our town, the sort of leading design philosophy is that we build new things rather than replace or repair and upgrade old ones.

M: Would you like to go there one day?

R: I hope so when it reopens.