Day 69 of 129

Day 69: A Lake Where the Mine Was

On a geography field trip, Mats (A), a pupil, stands with his teacher, Mr Noack (B), on a viewing tower above the Cottbuser Ostsee, a new lake in an old open-cast mine near Cottbus.

How to study this lesson 3 steps
  1. Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
  2. Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
  3. Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.

Dialogue

Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.

Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning

  1. A

    Herr Noack, auf unserer alten Karte ist hier nur eine graue Fläche. Wie ist dieser See entstanden?

    Mr Noack, on our old map there's just a grey patch here. How did this lake come about?

  2. B

    Das Grau war der Tagebau Cottbus-Nord. Jahrzehntelang von Baggern aufgerissen, war das Gelände nach dem Ende der Kohleförderung 2015 eine einzige Mondlandschaft.

    The grey was the Cottbus-Nord open-cast mine. Torn up by diggers for decades, the site was one vast moonscape when coal mining ended in 2015.

  3. A

    Und danach hat man das Loch einfach volllaufen lassen?

    And after that they just let the hole fill up?

  4. B

    So einfach war das nicht: Erst wurden die Böschungen gesichert, dann wurde jahrelang Wasser aus der Spree eingeleitet.

    It wasn't that simple: first the slopes were made safe, then water from the Spree was channelled in for years.

  5. A

    Meine Urgroßeltern kommen aus Groß Lieskow, einem Dorf, das es angeblich nicht mehr gibt. Lag das auch hier?

    My great-grandparents come from Groß Lieskow, a village that supposedly doesn't exist any more. Was that here too?

  6. B

    Ja, da draußen irgendwo. In den Achtzigern abgebaggert, liegt das Dorf heute unter diesem Wasser.

    Yes, somewhere out there. Dug away in the eighties, the village now lies under this water.

  7. A

    Dann haben meine Urgroßeltern ihr Dorf für die Kohle verloren, und wir freuen uns auf einen Badesee?

    So my great-grandparents lost their village to coal, and we're looking forward to a lake to swim in?

  8. B

    Beides gehört zur Geschichte der Lausitz. Frag deine Urgroßeltern, wie es in Groß Lieskow war, solange sie noch davon erzählen können.

    Both are part of the history of Lusatia. Ask your great-grandparents what life was like in Groß Lieskow, while they can still tell you about it.

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