English Listening Practice: How India Saved Its Tigers & More!
France went 95% fossil-free, while the UK still struggles—why aren’t we copying them? What about that small Danish city that recycled 735,000 reusable coffee cups in just one year? Welcome to Adept English, the podcast where we explore fascinating positive! real-world stories while helping you learn English in a fun and immersive way. Interesting content that keeps you listening!
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The environment is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share.
⭐ Lady Bird Johnson
So, if you’re ready to improve your English while staying inspired by the good news happening in the world, let’s get started. After all, learning English should be as uplifting as it is educational. Press play, and let’s dive in!
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More About This Lesson
Wouldn't it be great to hear more positive news for a change? 🌍 In this lesson, we explore uplifting stories from around the world—France’s energy breakthrough, Denmark’s eco-friendly coffee cups, India’s tiger revival, and the UK’s countryside access rights. These stories remind us that progress is happening, even if we don’t always hear about it. Curious about how these changes affect our lives and language? Let’s find out!
Nuclear power is a clean, safe, and reliable energy source that has the potential to create a sustainable future.
⭐ Ban Ki-moon
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Listening to real-world news helps you learn English naturally:
- 🗣️ Improve your pronunciation with clear examples of difficult words.
- 📖 Expand your vocabulary with real-world news topics.
- 🎧 Train your listening skills with natural British English.
- 📝 Learn spelling and meanings of key English words.
- 🇬🇧 Gain cultural insights into British life and language.
- 📰 Stay informed with engaging, positive news stories.
- 🔄 Practise repetition to strengthen your language skills.
- 💬 Understand common English expressions and phrases.
- 📊 Develop skills in understanding statistics and numbers.
- 🌍 Learn to discuss global topics in fluent English.
You'll pick up useful words like fossil fuels, poaching, and rights of way, while improving your understanding of complex ideas in clear, spoken English. These stories also help you discuss important topics with confidence. So, as you listen, notice how words are used, how sentences flow, and how meaning is built—this is how fluency grows!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- How can listening to positive news stories improve my British English fluency?
Listening to positive news stories, like those in this podcast, exposes you to real-world vocabulary and grammar in context. You absorb British English naturally by hearing topics like energy, environmental efforts, and wildlife conservation. The host explains terms like "fossil-free," "rights of way," and "poaching," helping you learn phrases relevant to current global issues. Repeating the podcast, as suggested, reinforces pronunciation and comprehension, aligning with Steve Kaufmann’s emphasis on immersion and repetition for fluency. - Why focus on energy and environmental topics for learning British English?
Energy and environmental topics, like France’s nuclear energy success or Denmark’s recyclable cup project, introduce specialized vocabulary (e.g., "hydropower," "renewables") while keeping engagement high. These subjects are globally relevant, making the language practice practical. By connecting language learning to meaningful content, you retain words better—similar to how Steve Kaufmann advocates learning through personal interest. The host’s British perspective also subtly highlights UK-specific terms, like "public footpaths," enriching your cultural understanding. - How does discussing wildlife conservation help with English practice?
Stories like India’s tiger population recovery use vivid language and statistics, helping you practice numbers and descriptive terms (e.g., "poaching," "reserves"). The host breaks down complex terms, like "AONBs" (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), which builds vocabulary in context. Steve Kaufmann often stresses learning through stories, and this approach mirrors that—making grammar and pronunciation practice feel effortless as you focus on engaging content about tigers or UK hiking culture. - What makes podcast bundles effective for improving British English?
The podcast bundles mentioned let you access hundreds of episodes, creating a structured immersion environment. Repeated listening, as the host advises, trains your ear to British accents and intonation. Topics like France’s energy policy or UK rights of way expose you to diverse vocabulary, reinforcing retention. Steve Kaufmann highlights the value of consistent input, and these bundles provide curated material to practice daily, aligning with his methods for achieving fluency through frequent, focused exposure. - How can I apply lessons from this podcast to real-life British English conversations?
The podcast models how to discuss global issues (e.g., renewable energy, conservation) using clear, conversational British English. Note phrases like "remarkable achievement," "emulate success," or "rights of way"—these are reusable in debates or casual chats. Steve Kaufmann encourages using learned content actively. Try summarizing the news stories aloud, mimicking the host’s pronunciation, or discussing similar topics with language partners. This bridges passive listening to active speaking, a key step in fluency.
Most Unusual Words:
- Fossil: Something from the past, like old plants or animals, that has turned into rock.
- Nuclear: Related to the energy released when atoms are split or joined together.
- Hydropower: Energy made by using the movement of water, like from a river or dam.
- Renewable: Something that can be replaced naturally, like wind or sunlight for energy.
- Poaching: The illegal hunting or killing of animals.
- Bridleway: A path where people can walk, ride horses, or cycle.
- Corridor: A long, narrow area connecting two places, often used for animals to move safely.
- Landfill: A place where rubbish is buried in the ground.
- Ceramic: A material made by baking clay, used for cups, plates, and tiles.
- Footpath: A small path for people to walk on, often in the countryside.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| There | 17 |
| People | 11 |
| Positive | 9 |
| Rights | 9 |
| Which | 7 |
| These | 7 |
| English | 6 |
| Tiger | 6 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: Improve Your English with Positive News-French Clean Power
Let’s celebrate our 800th podcast with positive news stories
Hi there and welcome to this podcast from Adept English. Shall we do a news podcast today? I've not done one for a while, partly because what's been in the news has been so difficult. We are not a political podcast. We're an English language podcast! And so there are topics which I'm not going to speak about. I like to be middle ground on politics, which can result in criticism from both sides. So let's try not to go there. But it has been a while since we did a news podcast. So let's put that right today. Let's do some positive news stories. We know how much you like those.
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.
So many podcasts in our podcast bundles - this will help your English!
Don't forget as ever to repeat your listening, to give your English language learning the most useful boost. If you want to download hundreds of our previous podcasts to your mobile phone, you can pay a once only fee to do this. Go to our website adeptenglish.com and our Courses page and look for podcast bundles. Today is our 800th podcast. So just imagine how much quality English language learning material is waiting for you in the form of our podcast bundles. You know it makes sense to download one of these and you know just how much this could improve your English language. Have a look at podcast bundles today.
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### France goes ‘nearly fossil free’
Now, as ever, positive news stories are quite hard to find, but one of the areas where there do tend to be more positive news stories - successes around the environment. So this week, reports that said in 2024, 95% of the power used in France was fossil free. That's 'fossil', F-O-S-S-I-L. And here we're talking 'fossil fuels'. So that means oil, gas, coal. Fuels extracted from the ground, in other words. 95% fossil free energy. That is a remarkable achievement by France! And the rest of the world should be looking to France to see how they've done this. France relies heavily on nuclear fuel. That's N-U-C-L-E-A-R. Despite having very strong opinions against nuclear fuel when I was younger, I do now see that we have little choice but to make greater use of nuclear energy. And safety levels are much more assured now than they were in the 1980s. So nuclear fuel made up 67% of France's total energy use last year. After that came renewables at 28%. So that means things like hydropower. That's 'hydro', H-Y-D-R-O. Or using water's force to capture energy, in other words. Hydropower accounted for much of that 28% renewable energy. Surprisingly, given how hot it can be in the summer in the south of France, solar power, that's S-O-L-A-R, accounted for only 4% of the power generated.
📷
Practice listening and repeating to improve fluency fast.
The UK, of course, does far worse than this. We really should be learning lessons from the French. What a remarkable achievement! And one which I hope will be emulated around the world. Actually, that news story was quite difficult to find. Why don't we celebrate this type of thing more? And why isn't the UK's energy policy to copy what France has done?
Denmark’s example of conscientious environmentalism - or reusing coffee cups
Another positive news story concerning the environment, which so easily slips off the agenda, don't you notice? Apparently, in Denmark, in the city of Aarhus, that's A-A-R-H-U-S, a project was started in January 2024 to get cafés in the city to use only recyclable [ I mean ‘reusable’!] cups for 'to go' coffee. In a coffee shop in English, you'll be asked when you order, "Is that sit in or to go?" If you 'sit in', that means you sit at a table in the café, you'll get a ceramic cup and saucer. If you say 'to go', you'll get a cardboard cup to take away. Often with a plastic lid, these, of course, aren't necessarily recyclable. Or people don't recycle them. So the 'to go' coffee cups are the ones that you take with you. Some people remember to take their own reusable coffee cup with them, but not many people do this. So the Danish project proposed that all cafés in the city of Aarhus put their 'to go' coffee into reusable cups. More expensive then. And they asked people to return these reusable cups.
You might imagine that people didn't return these cups and the scheme ended up costing the cafés a lot of money. But actually, the good people of Aarhus returned no fewer than 735,000 reusable cups in 2024. Let's practise some English on statistics here. This 735,000 was much bigger than the 500,000 target set for the scheme. An amazing 88% of the cups were returned. Even more surprising, they calculated that this meant each cup was used 44 times. And this prevented 14 tons of single-use plastic ending up in landfill. Or having to be burned and the CO2 that would result from that. The scheme is believed to have been a success so far because the cups are returned to machines in the streets in the city centre. Worldwide, it's estimated that only 2% of 'to go' coffee cups end up recycled. So there's a long way to go on this one, but another positive example to follow.
Who doesn’t love a tiger?
Let's go slightly further afield for our third positive news story. Most of us love tigers. That's T-I-G-E-R. I don't think I'd want to be confronted by one in my back garden, but they really are the most beautiful animals. And there has been concern about the numbers of tigers for decades now. A 'decade', D-E-C-A-D-E means '10 years'. What countries of the world have tigers roaming free? Most of them are in Asia, countries like India, Thailand, Bhutan, Vietnam. But the populations of tigers in many of these countries are scarily small. There are tigers also in Russia. The latest Russian survey in 2015 estimated that tiger populations there had increased to between 480 and 540 tigers. It's still not that many, is it?
But the positive news. In the early 2000s, tiger territory in India had reduced to only 10% of what it once was. But in January this year, scientists announced that tiger populations in India had doubled since 2010. There are now over 3,500 tigers in India. That's much more than anywhere else. And is 75% of the world's tiger population.
How have they achieved this? Well, strict measures, rules against 'poaching'. That's P-O-A-C-H, 'to poach' or killing tigers, in other words. Those measures have been put in place and there are increased tiger reserves and tiger corridors - areas of land for tigers, put aside. Again, what India has done should be copied by the other countries of the world. What a brilliant example! Let us know what you think. I'll be interested to hear from you.
What about one more good news story just before we finish?
Why Do Months Have Strange Names: Improve Your English & Find Out!
Keeping open access to the UK’s beautiful countryside
This one is from the UK. The UK is known for its wonderful countryside. There are so many places to walk and see beautiful views. If you visit the UK and you want to experience the country, beyond the big cities of London, Birmingham and Manchester, there are some wonderful places to visit which are just pure countryside. My personal favourite place for walking and for views of the lakes and mountains is the Lake District in the north west of England. But there are plenty of other National Parks as well. Preserved areas of land like the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, Dartmoor or the South Downs. And there are also very many areas of outstanding natural beauty or AONBs. And these are protected too. So walking or hiking, that's from the verb 'to hike', H I K E. Well, it's a national pastime. And one important part of this is public footpaths and rights of way. A public footpath is protected by law.
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You're allowed to walk there. Public bridleways are similarly protected, but they can be used not only for walkers, but also for cyclists and people on horseback. There is also something called a 'right of way' over land. Again, this means that a pathway across a piece of land is protected so that walkers can use it. The landowner or the person who owns the land must allow people along this path, along the right of way, whether they want to or not. Apparently, a path used by walkers can be registered as a 'right of way' if it's been in use for 20 years or more. There are thousands and thousands of miles of rights of way already recorded, but there also remain thousands and thousands of pathways, which have been used for more than 20 years, but which are yet to be registered as rights of way, even though they're in constant use by cyclists, walkers and people on horseback.
Surprisingly sense from the UK government!
In their great wisdom, the UK government was going to stop any more registrations of rights of way after 2031. I don't know whose bright idea that was! Why would you have a cut-off date for recording rights of way? Anyway, the good news, sense has prevailed. Sense has won for once. The 2031 deadline has been removed, and it will continue to be possible to register new rights of way for walkers, cyclists and people on horseback. Even being able to walk sometimes over private land, if there is right of way, is an important part of British culture. It protects people's right to walk, and it makes sure that ordinary people have the right to see beautiful countryside, instead of this being kept only for rich landowners. If it wasn't for these rights and these laws, there would be very few places where you could walk your dog, go for a cycle ride or ride on horseback.
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
Finally, something good! Great then that the UK government have seen sense on this one, and we will continue to be able to register new rights of way, way beyond 2031. Do you have public footpaths, rights of way or similar schemes in your country? Let us know what you think of this news story, or any of the others that I've talked through today. I feel as though we really need positive news stories at the moment. So do get in touch as well if you have any positive news stories to share. We always like to hear from you.
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
Links
- Power Grid Fossil Free
- Nuclear power in France
- Return coffee cups
- Good News
- Tigers in India
- Climate Stories
- UK National parks
- Britain's footpaths
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