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Penguin Readers Factsheets
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
Extreme Sports
by Michael Dean
S U M M A R Y
xtreme Sports by Michael Dean is about the world
E of exciting and dangerous sports. These sports
range from BASE jumping to cave diving. He
splits these into sections about extreme air, ground, and
water sports.
This Penguin Reader starts with a questionnaire to
determine if the reader would be a good extreme sport
participant. From there, we get an A–Z of Extreme Sports,
where readers can decide which sports they may or may
not be willing to try. Following this is some background
information and the history about the most dangerous
extreme sport, BASE jumping. It is thought that about one
person a year dies from it. We learn about the hang gliding
world champion, Bill Moyes and the instructor, Michael
Costello, who gave his life to save his student’s. We read
about Bren Jones’s near-death experience as he did aerial
ballet. And the author tells of his own experiences doing
cave diving.
The author gives a lot of information about when and
where these sports started, who did them and what
dangers are involved. For example, in 1965 while watching
his daughter sliding on wood on the ice, Sherman Poppen
came up with the invention that we now call a snowboard.
So without his daughter, Wendy, we would not have this
very trendy sport today.
As there are Olympic Games for athletes around the
world, there are now X games, which started in 1995. They
take place twice a year in the United States, one in
summer, the other in winter. Since 1997, they have been
held in Asia, Australia, and Europe, and there are even X
games for kids. It is the happening thing for extreme
sports lovers around the world. Everyone has it in them to
learn. Take it from Michael Bane (he could not swim, and
was afraid of heights), who swam from Alcatraz to San
Francisco in water that is not only freezing cold, but is
shark infested!
The book then ends with “What do you know now about
Extreme Sports?” testing the readers to see if they were
really taking it all in.
© Pearson Education 2001
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ELEMENTARY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Dean has a large number of publications to his
name, for different publishers, from coursebooks, skills,
workbooks, teacher’s books, and has also written both
originals and adaptations for Penguin Readers. In addition
he trained, taught and lectured in England and abroad on
language and EFL during 1972-1997.
EXTREME SPORTS
BACKGROUND THEMES
Extreme Sports range from the risk-taking BASE
jumping, the most dangerous and requiring no real skills,
to aerial ballet and hang gliding, which require excellent
flight skills. All of these sports can result in death, but this
only increases the thrill for a lot of people. BASE jumping
is thought to be the most dangerous. BASE is an acronym
for Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth. These describe the
fixed objects that one can parachute from. When it comes
to buildings, unfinished high-rise buildings are popular as
are famous buildings, like the Empire State Building in
New York City. Antenna are a favorite because they are
easy to get to. Span includes bridges like the Golden Gate
Bridge in San Francisco. Earth has some pretty high
mountains, such as El Capitan in Yosemite National Park,
where the sport started in 1978.
Some other important dates in the world of extreme sports
are:
1955 Bungee jumping in New Zealand
1965 Sherman Poppen makes first snowboard in
Michigan, US
1967 Bill Moyes achieves his first World Altitude
Record in hang gliding
1981 US BASE Association is started by Phil Smith
and Jean Boenisch
1995 first summer X Games
1997 first winter X Games
1999 US Extreme Sports Team climb Mount Vincent
(5,000 m high) in Antarctica
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Penguin Readers Factsheets 2
T e a c h e r’s n o t e s
Communicative activities

The following teacher-led activities cover the same sections of
text as the exercises at the back of the Reader, and supplement
those exercises. For supplementary exercises covering shorter
sections of the book, see the photocopiable Student’s Activities
pages of the factsheet. These are primarily for use with class
readers but, with the exception of discussion and pair/group
work questions, can also be used by students working alone in a
self-access center.
2 Ask students if they have seen Miracle Boy and Nyquist
or if they have played the computer game Dave Mirra
BMX. If anyone has, ask them to tell the class about it.
If no one has, ask the class to think about Dave Mirra’s
life. How was his start in extreme sports different from
Michael Bane’s. Who would they prefer to see a movie
about? Why?

ACTIVITIES BEFORE READING THE BOOK Glossary

1 Photocopy the Glossary for pages 1–9, making enough
copies so that each pair of students has one. Give
them 10–15 minutes to study the words and to look
words up in their dictionaries. Then ask students to
open their books to pages 2–3 and look at the pictures.
Ask questions, eliciting answers that require the use of
the new vocabulary. (e.g. What do these three men
have on their backs? What is he wearing on his feet?)
Talk about the pictures and help students to learn the
names of these extreme sports. Ask students to find
EXTREME SPORTS
It will be useful for your students to know the following words.
They are practiced in the ‘Before You Read’ sections at the back
of the book. (Definitions are based on those in the Longman
Active Study Dictionary.)
Pages 1–9
air (n) the sky or space above the ground
association (n) an organization of people joined together for a shared
purpose
board (n) a flat piece of hard material used for a particular purpose

and underline the new vocabulary in the descriptions

given on these two pages.
2 Ask students what they know about extreme sports.
Has anyone tried any of these sports? Ask students
what kind of people like extreme sports. Ask them to
work in small groups and talk about the dangers. They
can look at the pictures in the book.
ACTIVITIES AFTER READING A SECTION
Pages 1–9
1 After students do the questionnaire on page 1 and
have looked up their answers, put them in small groups
and ask them to talk about extreme sports. Do they like
the idea of extreme sports? Should these sports be
stopped by the police? Ask students to tell each other
about the most dangerous experience they have had in
their lives doing sports activities.
2 Ask students to work in groups of three. Student A is
Rick Harrison, student B is Gareth Griffiths. and
student C is a famous TV personality. Student C is
going to ask them questions about extreme sports.
Students should work together to write questions and
answers. Then do their role-plays in front of the class.
cave (n) a deep natural hollow place in the side of a cliff or mountain
champion (n) a person who has won a competition of skill, strength, etc.
dive (v) to throw oneself head first into water; to move head first on land
or in air
extreme sports (n) sports that go to the furthest possible limit
instructor (n) a person who teaches
parachute (n) a large piece of cloth fastened by ropes to people that are
dropped out of aircraft in order to make them fall slowly
prison (n) a large building where people are kept as punishmnet after
being found guilty of a crime
rope (n) a strong thick cord made by twisting threads or string together
skates (n) a pair of boots with wheels used for moving very quickly
ski (v) to go (usually down a hill or mountain) on long thin pieces of
plastic fastened to boots for a sport
trick (n) a clever set of actions using skill, done to entertain people
wheel (n) a circular object which turns around and is used for making
vehicles move
Pages 10–25
equipment (n) a set of things needed for a particular activity
line (n) a piece of cord or rope
race (v) to compete to see who can go the fastest
team (n) a group of people who work, or play, together
shark (n) a large fish with several rows of sharp teeth

3 Ask students to work in small groups and to imagine

they are going to make a movie about Bren Jones.
How will the movie start? What will happen just before
the jump? How long will the jump last? What does
Eddie do? What do the three men do when Bren hits
the ground? How does the movie end?

Pages 10–25
1 Ask the students to work in small groups and make a
list of all the things that can go wrong when someone
does street luge, snowboarding, cave diving, and
canyoning. Then ask them to make a list of good
things about doing these sports – what are the
pleasures or benefits? Students can then work in pairs
and role-play a conversation between a mother and her
son. The son wants to do one of these extreme sports
and his mother doesn’t like the idea. Pairs can then do
their role-plays for the class.

Published and distributed by Pearson Education

Factsheet written by Coleen Degnan-Veness
Factsheet series developed by Louise James
© Pearson Education 2001
Penguin Readers Factsheets level

Student’s activities 1

Extreme Sports 2

Photocopiable 4
Students can do these exercises alone or with one or
more other students. 5
3 Circle the wrong word in each sentence and write the
Activities before reading the book right word. 6
1 Do you think these sentences are right or wrong? (a) BASE jumping started in the US in 1978 on a river in
Yosemite. ELEMENTARY
(a) Extreme sports are not dangerous.
(b) The US BASE Association gives jumpers a BASE
(b) People do skydiving and hang gliding in the water. number after they do 10 skydives.
(c) People do snowboarding on the snow. (c) The Birdmen of Kilimanjaro is a movie about Bill
Moyes and his brother.
2 Read the Introduction on page iv of your book. Were
your answers above right? What do you know about (d) Xtralite is the world’s number one parachute.
cave diving? What do you know about Michael Dean, (e) Michael Costello was a skydiving instructor and 3,000
the writer of this book? of his dives were with children.
Pages 1–9 (f) Bren Jones fell with two closed parachutes at 40 kph
and hit the ground head first.
1 Put A and B together to make good sentences. Write
the name of the extreme sport below.
Pages 10–25
A B

EXTREME SPORTS
1 Write the words from the story "Down On the Ground"
(a) Before your parachute opens, with air on your back. on the lines below.
(b) You kick you dance with some
friends in the sky. stop want night street food board
(c) You do as many tricks from a high place with afraid dangerous
a rope around you.
(d) You jump and you do tricks. Joe saw ice luge on TV and he (a) _____ to do that —
in the (b) _____! He bought a (c) _____ and went 113
(e) You dive under the water as you can in one
minute. kph down a street near his home. Joe’s girlfriend was
(d) _____ because street luge is (e) _____. One day
i ______________________________________________
Joe ran into a woman with a bag of (f) _____. He did
ii ______________________________________________ street luge at (g) _____, too. His girlfriend said, “It’s
iii ______________________________________________ street luge or me.” After a car hit Alma, Joe (h) _____.

iv ______________________________________________ 2 Talk to another student about these questions.

v ______________________________________________ (a) How is snowboarding different from skiing?
(b) What did the US Extreme Sports Team learn about
2 Write the name of the person next to each sentence. snowboarding on Mount Vincent?

Phil Smith Rick Harrison John Vincent 3 Why are these things important in Michael Dean’s
Bill Moyes Gareth Griffiths Michael Costello story “Under the Water”?
(a) C-card
(a) It was his first visit to Florida and his first skydive.
(b) John Orlowski
_______________________________________________
(c) Kirk
(b) He started the US BASE Association. (d) the blue line
_______________________________________________ (e) underwater pen
(c) He was thirty-four years old when he started hang (f) Sally
gliding. ________________________________________
(d) He did more than 8,000 skydives in his life.
_______________________________________________
(e) He is a BASE jumper and he broke his legs.
_______________________________________________
(f) He went to prison because he did a BASE jump in
St.Louis. ______________________________________

© Pearson Education 2001

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Penguin Readers Factsheets 2
Student’s activities

Activities while reading the book

4 Work in pairs and write the name of the place. Do not
look back in the book for answers. The first pair to get
all the right places is the Extreme Sports Champion!

Mexico Switzerland New Zealand France Canada

USA Australia

Where
(a) did bungee jumping start?
(b) did a lot of people go bungee jumping before
someone died?
(c) did a 17-year-old British girl die when she was
canyoning?
(d) can you go to prison for canyoning?
(e) are there some good vacation companies for
canyoning?

Activities after reading the book

EXTREME SPORTS

1 Write a letter to Michael Dean, the writer of this book.

What do you like in his book? What don’t you like?
What do you want him to write about in his next
book? Would you like to go cave diving with him?

2 Write a page like page 1, “What Are Extreme Sports?

Are extreme sports for you?" Write five questions and
give three possible answers for each question. Then
write the answers like Dean’s answers on page 26.
Now give your questions to another student.
3 Do you think people should endanger their own lives?
Find two or more reasons for ‘yes’ and two or more
for ‘no’. Divide the class in two and each group can
debate one side against the other.
4 How do people feel
(a) before they do the sport
(b) while they are doing it
(c) and after they have finished.
Make a list of the feelings, eg fear, excitement, and
include the physical changes: thirst, cold, hot etc.
5 Are Extreme Sports a new twentieth century idea do
you think? Think of kinds of extreme activities in
history, for example, exploring unknown lands, or
going into war. Does this help explain the interest in
Extreme Sports today? What else might make it
popular?

Published and distributed by Pearson Education

Factsheet written by Coleen Degnan-Veness
Factsheet series developed by Louise James