VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed3:592025-02-13public domain
As It Is is VOA Learning English's daily news magazine. Each report covers a current story in clear, learner-speed English with a controlled vocabulary — the closest thing to real news broadcasts that intermediate learners can fully digest, and ideal raw material for dictation.
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01Yellowstone National Park in the western United States was the world's first national park.
02Established in 1872, it is famous for its geothermal activity and wild animals.
03It includes beautiful mountains, deep canyons, lakes, and rivers.
04Yellowstone is still one of the largest national parks in the U.S.
05It takes up almost 9,000 square kilometers.
06Most of the park lies within the western state of Wyoming.
07The park is unusual because of what lies underneath it.
08It sits on top of an ancient supervolcano, known as the Yellowstone Caldera.
09The caldera remains an active volcano.
10A lake of hot liquid rock is about 6 kilometers under the park.
11Experts say this lake is under huge amounts of pressure.
12The pressure and heat cause geysers to shoot hot water out of the ground and mud to boil at Yellowstone.
13The park is home to more than 300 geysers.
14There are more geysers and hot springs in Yellowstone than any other place on Earth.
15Old Faithful is the name of the park's most famous geyser because it erupts about every 90 minutes.
16Yellowstone is on a high plateau with an average height of 2,400 meters above sea level.
17This makes the weather very cold in winter, with January temperatures averaging between minus 18 degrees and minus 7 degrees Celsius.
18However, some areas of the park remain open to visitors throughout the year.
19Yellowstone Canyon is about 365 meters deep.
20The Yellowstone River runs through it and drops 93 meters in the lower falls.
21Visitors can walk on a path that brings them very close to the top of the falls.
22There, they can see and hear the powerful falls.
23In summer of 1988, forest fires burned large areas of the park.
24Most of those areas are now covered with plants and young trees.
25Yellowstone is home to the largest group of wild animals in the lower 48 United States.
26These include bison, grizzly bear, elk, deer, moose, fox, beaver, coyote, and wolves.
27In 2024, park officials estimated the bison population to be about 4,500 animals.
28That makes it the largest group of wild bison in the world.
29There is still a Wild West in America, and its name is Yellowstone.
30I'm Andrew Smith.
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