VOA · What's Trending Today?
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed3:502019-04-30public domain
What's Trending Today? covers viral stories and social media moments in short, punchy reports. The episodes are brief and topical — perfect for a quick daily dictation session.
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01On Tuesday, the Indian Army found mysterious large footprints in the snow.
02The military group, on an outing in Nepal, took pictures and later put them on Twitter.
03Their conclusion?
04The footprints belong to the Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman.
05Most experts in the scientific community say the Yeti is a myth, an imaginary story.
06The man-like creature is part of Nepali tradition and is said to live high in the Himalayan mountains.
07In the tweet, the Indian Army said it found the footprints close to a camp near Mount Mukuloo on April 9th.
08The footprints measured 81 centimeters by 38 centimeters.
09The tweet did not explain how a mythical beast could leave footprints.
10The Indian Army's Twitter post has drawn criticism by some on social media.
11One user, for example, put an image of a pothole in Bombay and noted that Yeti footprints could be found there.
12Other users noted that the supposed Yeti tracks appeared to be a single footline.
13One user suggested the Yeti may have been riding a kind of strange bicycle.
14Mount Mukuloo, where the Indian Army took the photographs, is one of the highest mountains in the world.
15It stands near the Mukuloo-Barun Valley, an area very far from human population.
16The area has already been explored by researchers looking for the Yeti.
17Daniel C.
18Taylor is one of them.
19He wrote a book on the mystery of the Yeti.
20Taylor noted that the footprints likely came from a bear.
21Taylor told the Reuters news agency that if the footprints came from an animal or a single animal, it's the size of a dinosaur.
22Taylor added, Since the 1920s, tales of a wild beast have captured the imagination of climbers in Nepal and around the world.
23In 2008, Japanese climbers returning from a mountain in western Nepal told Reuters they had seen footprints, which they thought belonged to the Yeti.
24Although they carried cameras, video equipment, and telescopes, they had not seen or taken any photographs of the creature.
25In 2017, a group of international researchers studied multiple Yeti samples.
26The researchers concluded the samples belonged to bears.
27I'm Jonathan Evans.
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