Do You Struggle with English Listening Practice? Our Listen & Learn approach can help!
Improve English listening skills while watching space phenomena. Discover the truth behind mysterious night sky lights while improving your English listening skills with real-life experiences.
Why you'll love it:
- 🗣️ Real Conversation Practice
- 🎧 Listening Skills Boost
- 🌟 Grammar & Idioms in Action
- 🚀 Fluency Tips for Exams
- 🌍 Cultural Insights
Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
⭐ Neil Armstrong
✔️ Lesson transcript: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-listening-practice-night-sky-phenomenon-explained/
Our Listen & Learn approach to English helps you understand everyday English, expand your vocabulary, and learn how to use context to grasp the meaning of new words.
By listening repeatedly, you'll strengthen your comprehension, making it easier for you to follow and engage in English conversations in your daily life.
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
⭐ Albert Einstein
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More About This Lesson
Have you ever seen strange lights in the night sky and wondered what they are? This lesson helps you learn about these mysterious lights while improving your English listening skills. You'll hear a real-life story that explains what these lights might be and practice speaking about them in English.
The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us.
⭐ Ralph Waldo Emerson
In this lesson, you'll learn about unusual lights in the night sky and how to talk about them in English. You'll get to hear a story about a family vacation where they saw these strange lights and used English to talk about it. By listening carefully, you will improve your English, learn new words, and understand how to use them in conversations.
- You learn new vocabulary like "stargazer" and "light pollution" in context.
- You practice listening to natural, conversational English.
- You hear correct pronunciation of words and phrases.
- You improve comprehension through real-life examples and stories.
- You expand your understanding of English idioms and expressions.
- You get exposed to cultural references and current events.
- You practice following a narrative with clear structure and transitions.
- You engage with the language by listening to different sentence structures.
Engaging with this lesson is a fun way to improve your English. You will explore real-life stories and discover interesting facts about night sky lights. For example, you’ll learn about the first UFO sighting in 1947 and how modern technology like Starlink satellites affects our view of the night sky. This lesson makes learning English exciting and helps you understand everyday language better.
When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.
⭐ Kalpana Chawla, first Indian woman in space
Don't miss out on this exciting chance to boost your English while learning about the night sky. Follow and subscribe to our podcast for more lessons and continue improving your English with real-life stories!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- How can listening to real-life experiences help improve my English fluency? Listening to real-life experiences, like the mysterious night sky story, helps you understand how English is used naturally. This practice enhances your listening skills, exposes you to new vocabulary, and improves your ability to follow and understand English conversations, making you more fluent over time.
- What vocabulary can I learn from this English lesson? In this lesson, you’ll learn useful words like "bizarre," "stargazer," and "light pollution." These terms are introduced within a real-life context, helping you understand and remember them better. Expanding your vocabulary with such terms will improve both your comprehension and speaking abilities.
- Is this lesson suitable for beginners learning British English? Yes, this lesson is suitable for beginners as well as intermediate and advanced learners. It introduces new words and phrases in a simple, clear context, making it easier for you to understand. Listening to the lesson multiple times will help you grasp the content and improve your fluency.
- How does this lesson help with IELTS listening practice? This lesson provides excellent practice for IELTS listening by immersing you in real-life English. You’ll get accustomed to natural speech patterns, accents, and the use of idioms, which are crucial for doing well in IELTS. It’s a great way to prepare for the test while also enjoying an interesting story.
- What’s the benefit of learning about cultural topics like the night sky in English lessons? Learning about cultural topics like the mysterious night sky not only makes the lesson more engaging but also deepens your understanding of how English is used in different contexts. This helps you become more fluent, as you’ll be able to discuss a wider range of topics and relate to native speakers more easily.
Most Unusual Words:
- Bizarre: very strange or unusual.
- Spectacle: an impressive or interesting sight.
- Stargazer: someone who looks at stars, usually as a hobby.
- Pollution: harmful substances in the environment, like air or water.
- Phenomenon: something that can be seen or experienced, often unusual.
- Synch: when things happen at the same time or in coordination.
- Dispelled: made something go away, usually doubts or fears.
- Solar panels: devices that collect sunlight and turn it into energy.
- Misinformation: wrong or false information.
- Upholding: supporting or maintaining a belief or principle.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| About | 9 |
| Night | 8 |
| There | 7 |
| Because | 7 |
| These | 7 |
| Lights | 6 |
| Think | 6 |
| English | 6 |
| Adept | 6 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: Expert Explains How To Improve English Listening Skills While Watching Space Phenomena
Learn English with Elon Musk’s UFOs!
Hi there! Have you ever seen something in the night sky that left you puzzled? I'm going to share with you an experience that I had on my holiday in France last week. It was a bizarre spectacle. Listen on and you will discover the bizarre truth behind the strange necklace of lights seen in the night sky. It's not what you might think and the explanation is both rational and fascinating. So this is a personal story but an experience which you may also have had. But most important of all, this podcast is here to help you practise your English language understanding with real-life situations. So don't forget to listen to it a number of times until you understand all the words. And if you stick around to the end of this podcast, I'll share an opinion with you on something that's been in the news recently. You may agree with me or you may not. But it'll make it interesting and let's find out, if you listen until the end.Here goes.
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.
My connection to the south of France
So if you've listened to the Adept English podcast for some time, you may know that part of my family live in the south of France. My sister and her family to be precise. And I like to visit them, especially in the summer. It's warm, it's sunny, there are swimming pools in people's gardens, great French food and beautiful scenery. And I like to practise my French too. So last week my son and I went to stay for a week at my sister's house. Other family members also live in the village and other family members were also visiting and there was an important birthday to celebrate. So it was a week of doing nice things.
📷
Observing the spectacular night sky with a telescope. Ever seen strange lights at night? Learn English while solving this sky mystery!
Star gazing and light pollution
However, there was a strange happening. One evening after we'd been to a restaurant for dinner, we'd just arrived back at my sister's house and we were getting out of the car. It was dark and around 11:30 at night. My sister is an avid stargazer. That's G-A-Z-E-R, meaning 'someone who likes to gaze or look at the stars in the night sky'. She likes to look for the different constellations, Orion, The Plough, etc. I'm sure they have different names in your language. Maybe that's another podcast! Where my sister lives in the south of France, there is very little light pollution because there are no major cities or towns close by. It's in the middle of nowhere, if you like. There's no light pollution. That's P-O-L-L-U-T-I-O-N. Usually when we talk about 'pollution', we mean 'chemicals in the wrong place', often in water, in lakes and rivers, or in the air. But when we talk about 'light pollution', we mean where the widespread use of street lights in cities and towns lightens the night sky and prevents the stars being properly visible. And it's 'pollution' because the effect on animals and plant life is damaging. Sunlight and night-time control the natural cycle, so daylight's really important. Birds and animals die because the natural light cycle is so disrupted. So light pollution is an apt description. But as I say, there's very little light pollution where my sister lives. So as we got out of the car at 11.30pm, there was a bizarre spectacle. Something really odd in the night sky. I'll tell you about that in a minute.
First of all, some Adept English news
First of all, some Adept English news. If you like what we do here at Adept English, and you would like more 'Listen and Learn' podcasts, and you'd like to support us, this is great news. Starting this month, first with Spotify and then with Apple Podcasts, we are going to be releasing two new subscriber only episodes every week. More great 'Listen and Learn' material from me, ad free and distraction free, but still fascinating. We will keep the listening length the same for now, but it's possible these episodes will get longer if that's what you want. And we will still keep the 'Listen and Learn' videos free, you don't have to pay, and publish these once a week. So that's some great news if you like Adept English and you want to support us. More of that in future podcasts.
Did we see a UFO?
So back to the bizarre spectacle, the 'something really odd in the night sky'. What we saw was moving across the sky, were a number of lights in a long string, almost like a necklace or a chain. There are about 20 or 30 moving lights, moving in sync at the same speed and keeping the distance between them the same. We're used to stargazing and we're also used to spotting planes because my nephew is an airline pilot, and we're also used to spotting satellites as well. But none of us had ever seen anything like this necklace of lights. We watched for a couple of minutes, then all of a sudden these lights just disappeared. I ran down the lane a little way in case they'd disappeared behind some trees. I expected to see them in the distance, but no they'd simply vanished. Disappeared in other words. What was it that we'd seen?
Was it some kind of UFO or unidentified flying object? Very popular in the US those. Or at least they used to be. Or what other strange phenomenon had we witnessed? Well, it didn't take too long to find out. And although all the ideas of something mysterious were soon dispelled - bit disappointing - the explanation was both rational and fascinating.
A rational explanation!
I messaged Andrew of Adept English, who instantly knew what these were, and it didn't take my niece long to find online what this bizarre spectacle, this 'necklace of lights' really was. She even found it on a YouTube video. Apparently these strings of lights crossing the night sky are actually part of Elon Musk's Starlink project. I've included in the transcript a link to a YouTube video posted by a 'satellite watcher', and judging by the comments on this video, lots of other people have seen the same thing and wondered what it was. I even found a Starlink tracker app, which tells you when and where you might see this for yourself.
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Reading up about these satellites, they are launched in groups of 20 to 50 satellites, all in a string. And once launched, they take six to eight weeks to rise to their eventual height of 350 miles above the earth. They then travel at a speed of a mile in 4.6 seconds, and they circle the whole earth in just 90 minutes. That's pretty amazing.
So why did they suddenly disappear? Well, the lights that enable you to see the satellite train are actually not lights, but effectively mirrors or solar panels, if you like, reflecting the sun's rays. So although it was very dark and definitely night-time when we saw the satellite train, it was actually lit up by the rays of the sun, which was way down below the horizon for us. And this is why it suddenly disappeared from sight. Any slight change of direction or the angle, that's A-N-G-L-E that you are viewing at as it travels along, just means that it disappears because you haven't got the sunlight reflecting to your particular location anymore. It leaves you rubbing your eyes and wondering if you really saw it at all, or you imagined it.
Starlink will provide internet access to remote areas. Technological colonialism or philanthropy?
Whatever you think of Elon Musk, this is an amazing spectacle, and clearly his Starlink project continues apace. What is the purpose of Elon Musk's Starlink project? Well, most of the developed world has good internet coverage. 96% of households in the UK have an internet connection, and that's 90% in the European Union and the USA. But much of the world doesn't have internet access.
What3words App: How It Can Change Your Life | English Listening Practice
Elon Musk's vision, he wants to try and change that. His Starlink satellites will eventually ensure that the whole of Africa, Asia, and South America have good internet coverage. Currently, it costs £89 a month for Starlink, so that's beyond the reach of many people. But eventually the cost will come down, so that ordinary households all over the world will have good internet access. And setting up this network will ensure that schools, hospitals, and businesses who can afford the £89 a month will have good internet coverage before it's affordable by most people. Surely this is a good thing, especially in remote areas of the world.
Free speech on social media can lead to the spread of misinformation. Should free speech be regulated?
And the opinion that I promised you at the start of this podcast? Well, on returning from my holiday I notice in the news, following the riots in the UK, that's R-I-O-T-S, Elon Musk is being criticised, blamed - that means 'spoken about negatively' - because X, formerly Twitter, promotes free speech. And this has meant that some far-right racist groups who are behind the riots in many UK cities and towns this month - well, they're able to spread their word on X. My opinion? I don't blame Elon Musk. He's just upholding the principle of free speech, which I believe is of utmost importance. It's really important to protect that.
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Critical thinking skills - more important than ever in the age of social media.
I think what is at fault here is the failure of education and widespread ignorance in the UK. This means that the ideas put about by the far right are actually believed by some people, quite a lot of people, and they're out on the street rioting because of complete misinformation. That's M-I-S-I-N-F-O-R-M-A-T-I-O-N. And that means 'incorrect, entirely wrong information'. But these people seem to lack 'critical capacity'. They don't seem to be able to think and look at what's real and what's not real. They can't 'truth check' things. So they believe whatever's written on X, formerly Twitter. I think that's the main problem. And perhaps also the strength of feeling which is behind the riots - let me stress it's a minority of people - but it might be worth finding out what are they angry about underneath once you dispel the myths, the misinformation?
Let us know whether you’ve seen the Starlink satellite train!
A discussion for another day, perhaps. As ever, let us know what you think of this podcast and whether you've seen Elon Musk's Starlink satellite train in the night sky. I'd be interested to know where else in the world they'd been seen. It was the last thing I imagined seeing on my holiday in rural France.
Goodbye
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening. Please help me tell others about this podcast by reviewing or rating it. And, please share it on social media. You can find more listening lessons and a free English course at adeptenglish.com
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