Today is the third class in our current four-class set. The phrase of the week is, "open up." We use this phrase to describe expressing difficult emotions. For example, "My brother and I had a powerful conversation. He opened up about a lot of things that happened in the past."

The reading today is a juicy piece about a Japanese company that offers paid actors to fill in the roles that are left vacant in life. I shortened the reading, but I will include a link to the entire article if you are interested in reading the whole thing. The listening material is about the sub-culture of hiking the Appalachian Trail in the United States. Please be able to describe the vocabulary words. 

Vocabulary

• grueling- adj- extremely tiring and demanding.
• schlep-verb- haul or carry (something heavy or awkward).
• permeates- verb- spread throughout (something); pervade.
• woods- noun- an area of land, smaller than a forest, that is covered with growing trees.

Click HERE for the reading material--->Click HERE for the entire Atlantic Monthly article

Click HERE for the listening material