US national parks are overcrowded.

Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help

Level: Elementary

1
  Warmer

a. Write the names of five natural attractions or national parks where you live. Have you visited
any of them?

2
  Key words

a. Write the words from the wordpools next to the definitions below. Then find and highlight them
in the article to read them in context.

challenges     cut      hikes     overcrowding     view

1. long walks in the countryside

2. problems that you need to deal with

3. a beautiful area or place that you can see

4. when there are so many people in a place that it is dangerous or unpleasant

5. make a number smaller; reduce

experience     mute      shuttle     sights     traffic

6. cars, trucks, buses, etc., that are in an area at a particular time

7. interesting places that people go to see

8. a bus that makes regular short journeys between two places

9. make an electronic device (e.g., a mobile phone) quiet or silent

10. something that happens to you or a situation that you are part of
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Elementary

b. Use some of the key words above to complete these sentences.

1. A lot of people had the same bad .

2. There is usually no on the roads after midnight.

3. A takes guests from the hotel to the beach.

4. We like to go on long in the mountains at the weekends.

5. Our hotel room had a wonderful of the mountains.

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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Elementary
Katharine Gammon 8 Another way to deal with so many visitors is
31 August, 2021 quiet zones. Signs in quiet zones ask visitors to
be quiet, to speak softly and mute their phones.
1 Arches National Park closed more than 120
times in summer 2021 because its car parks 9 Quiet zones show visitors how important it is
were full. Over one million people visited to listen as a way to experience natural places.
Yellowstone National Park in July. At Zion It’s one thing to see Yellowstone’s famous
National Park, visitors waited four hours for geysers – but part of the experience is hearing
popular hikes. And visitors create graffiti, them, too.
rubbish and behave badly. 10 Even with the crowds and the traffic and the
2 Large numbers of people at national parks noise, the Park Service says it’s good that
bring new challenges for park managers. more people are going to parks and public
One of the biggest problems is that visitors lands. “We want people to have wonderful
experiences and stay safe,” they say.
all try to get the same perfect photograph.
At popular places in Yosemite and near the © Guardian News and Media 2021
Grand Canyon, some people have even fallen First published in The Guardian, 31/08/2021
and died.
3 So the National Park Service made a guide
for safe selfie-taking. And they made the selfie
station: a simple wooden stand in front of a
beautiful view, which holds a camera for safe
and easy photos.
4 Some of the selfie stations show visitors that
there is a lake, view or nature centre that they
perhaps did not notice.
5 Another way to deal with overcrowding is to
cut the number of visitors that enter parks.
The National Park Service looks after 423
places including national seashores, national
lakeshores and national monuments. Popular
places have timed entry tickets, which visitors
book online.
6 The National Park Service also has a new
app that tells people about other public lands
nearby. They can visit these when they can’t
get tickets for the national park.
7 To reduce traffic, some parks are trying
driverless buses. The Wright Brothers National
Memorial in North Carolina and Yellowstone
tested driverless shuttles this summer. The
idea is to stop people driving their cars between
the sights – they can use the driverless
shuttle instead.
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Elementary

3
  Comprehension

a. Match the sentence halves to summarize the article.

1. Some national parks closed over 100 times in summer 2021 because …

2. Visitors to US national parks usually …

3. Most visitors take selfies at the same …

4. Overcrowding at popular places is dangerous, especially …

5. The National Park Service wants visitors to …

6. Many national parks are trying out new and interesting …

a. … well-known sights.

b. … have good experiences in the parks.

c. … there was no space for more cars and more visitors.

d. … ideas to keep their visitors safe.

e. … drive from one popular sight to the next.

f. … when people are taking selfies and not looking at other things.

4
  Key language

a. Put the letters in the correct order to make six things that can help with overcrowding in
national parks.

1. selfie-taking (edugi)

2. selfie (oiatstns)

3. driverless (lthsute)

4. timed-entry (stckite)

5. new (pap)

6. quiet (onsze)
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Elementary

b. Complete the sentences with the solutions above.

1. make sure there are never too many people in a park at

one time.

2. The National Park Service’s tells people about other places

near to crowded national parks.

3. Visitors can go from one place to another in the park in a .

4. are areas where visitors can listen to nature as well as

look at it.

5. Wooden hold phones so that visitors can take photos.

6. The Service’s tells visitors how to stay safe while they

take photos.

5
  Discussion

a. Discuss these questions.

• Which of the solutions (1–6 in task 4a) do you like most?
• Where would put selfie stations in your area?
• Do you take holiday photos? What do you do with them afterwards? For example, do you just
keep them on your phone, or do you print them and make photo albums?

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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Elementary

6
  In your own words

a. With a partner, choose one of the areas of the places from your answers to task 1. Find out
more about this place and make notes in the table.

Name of park or natural area

What can you see and do there?

When is it open?

When is it most crowded? When is it busiest?

How much does a ticket cost?

Where can you get a ticket?

Does it use any technology, e.g., apps, QR codes,

live information, audio guides, etc.?

Does it have quiet zones or silent spaces?

Other interesting information

b. Tell the other students about this place.

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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Elementary – Teacher’s notes
Key:
Article summary: Innovative solutions are 1. experience 4. hikes
being introduced to keep record numbers 2. traffic 5. view
of visitors to national parks safe, and to 3. shuttle
enhance their experience in these areas of
natural beauty.
3. Comprehension
Time: 90 minutes+ Students match the sentence halves to summarize
the article.
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Key:
Language focus: Vocabulary
1. c 4. f
2. e 5. b
Materials needed: One copy of the
3. a 6. d
worksheet per student

4. Key language

1. Warmer a. First students put the letters in the correct order to

make six things mentioned in the article that the
a. If necessary, pre-teach the term, national park National Park Service is introducing to help deal with
(a large area of countryside that is protected by overcrowding and dangerous situations.
the government to preserve its natural beauty).
Students will not only need it for this task but for Key:
the whole lesson. 1. selfie-taking guide 4. timed entry tickets
2. selfie stations 5. new app
With a partner, students write the names of five 3. driverless shuttle 6. quiet zones
national parks or similar types of natural attractions
in their area or elsewhere in their country. Collect the b. Then they use the solutions to complete the
names of these places on a board or shared screen sentences.
as they will need to refer back to them for task 6.
Key:
2. Key words 1. Timed-entry tickets 4. Quiet zones
2. new app 5. selfie stations
a. Students write the words from the wordpools next 3. driverless shuttle 6. selfie-taking guide
to the definitions on the lines provided. Then, they
should find and highlight them in the article to read 5. Discussion
them in context.
a. Students discuss the questions directly connected to
Key: the article.
1. hikes 6. traffic
2. challenges 7. sights 6. In your own words
3. view 8. shuttle
4. overcrowding 9. mute a. With a partner, students choose one of the natural
5. cut 10. experience attractions or national parks from their answers to
task 1. They should research this place and try to
b. Before reading the article carefully, students answer the questions in the box, making notes in
use some of the key words to fill the gaps in the the right-hand column. Adding any other interesting
sentences to ensure that they understand and know information, they tell other students about the place
how the words are used in other contexts. they researched.
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