English Listening Practice: Supercharge Your English Fluency with This Simple Trick!
Sick of textbook learning? Want to learn English, especially British English, in a fun, engaging, and effective way? Our news-based lessons are here to revolutionize your English learning journey.
💡 Key Highlights: 💡
- Learn by listening to real, topical news stories 📰
- Understand British English in context 🇬🇧
- Expand your vocabulary with commonly used words 🗣️
- Improve your comprehension skills 🎧
- Become a part of our engaging learning community 👥
One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.
⭐ Malala Yousafzai
✔Lesson transcript: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-listening-practice-slow-british-news-jul2023/
Upgrade your English skills with real world news! Join us now at #adeptenglish, the real key benefit? It's all about immersion. Immersing yourself in a language is the best way to learn, and these lessons provide that opportunity. You get to hear the rhythm, the melody of English, and over time, it becomes part of you. You start thinking in English, not just translating.
Don't just learn English. Live it! Your journey to English fluency starts here. Tune in today and experience the transformation!
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The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.
⭐ Mark Twain
Experience British English like never before. Tune in to our FREE British #englishlanguage learning podcasts now!
More About This Lesson
Ever dreamed of speaking fluent English, just like a British native? Let's face it, the journey might seem like climbing Everest, but the good news is: it's easier than you think. Tune into our light, fun, news-based lesson to quickly and effortlessly improve your British English skills today!
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
⭐ Nelson Mandela
Things you will learn in today's English listening lesson:
- Listening to news can transform your English skills.
- Learn English effectively by tuning into the news.
- Familiar news items make understanding English easier.
- New vocabulary learned from listening to news.
- Interactive English learning via podcasts on Spotify.
- Course available for the most common 500 English words.
- Heatwave and its meaning explained in simple English.
- Learning English through real-life examples like the Indian moon mission.
- How to pronounce complex words like 'Chandrayaan' and 'Cerberus'.
- Learning the meaning of words like 'orbit', 'gravity', and 'module'.
- Interesting and engaging stories make English learning fun.
- Repeated listening to the podcast enhances language understanding.
- Understanding cultural nuances through stories like the 'Cosa Nostra' whisky.
- Explaining complex concepts like climate change in simple English.
- Learning common phrases like 'caught up in' and 'stay tuned'.
Immerse yourself in English with our unique approach. By tuning into the news, you get to experience the language as it truly is, far removed from the artificiality of textbooks. Hear the rhythm and melody of English, enrich your vocabulary with new words, phrases, and idioms, and over time, start thinking in English rather than just translating. From fearing English, you'll be living it.
Benefits of our listen & learn approach to learning
- Overcome the Fear of Not Understanding: Our lessons are light and entertaining, making understanding English easier.
- Tackle the Fear of Not Sounding Like a Native Speaker: Listening to the news exposes you to the natural rhythms and intonations of English, helping you sound more native-like over time.
- Defeat the Fear of Limited Vocabulary: With each lesson, you'll learn new and useful vocabulary that will make your English impressive.
- Push past the Fear of Not Improving: This effective, news-based approach helps you learn English in context, which is proven to be one of the most effective ways to learn a language.
The news is a mirror of everyday English conversation, covering a wide variety of topics and providing cultural insights into British society. It's a misconception that news-based learning is too challenging for beginners. On the contrary, it is an opportunity to engage with authentic English content, enhancing understanding and fluency. Don't shy away, dive in!
To write well, you must read widely and you must read a lot. That’s the great secret of good writing.
⭐ Stephen King
- If you feel we have helped you please consider supporting us https://adeptengli.sh/donate
Boost your English skills and uncover British culture with our fun, news-based lessons. Don't wait, subscribe now, and let your linguistic adventure begin!
Who knew news could be your key to English fluency? Discover #NewsForEnglish today!
Questions You Might Have...
Listening to the news to learn English is like treating your language skills as a garden. Just as a garden grows and flourishes with regular watering and sunlight, your English skills blossom with regular exposure to the news. Each word and phrase you hear is a seed, and with each listen, you're watering these seeds, helping them to grow into a vibrant landscape of English language fluency.
- Q: Can I really learn to speak British English fluently by listening to the news regularly? Absolutely! Listening to the news can supercharge your English skills. Just as a plant absorbs sunlight, your mind absorbs the words and phrases you hear, enhancing your understanding of British English.
- Q: How does listening to news help in understanding British English better? When you tune into the news regularly, you're exposing yourself to a wide range of vocabulary and pronunciation in a real-world context. This helps you get a feel for the rhythm and flow of British English.
- Q: What if I don't understand everything I hear in the news? That's completely normal when you're learning a new language. The goal is not to understand everything at once, but to gradually improve your comprehension over time. Remember, language learning is a journey, not a sprint.
- Q: How can I improve my English vocabulary through the news? Each news story is a goldmine of new words and phrases. By tuning in regularly, you'll naturally encounter and learn new vocabulary, expanding your language toolkit.
- Q: Can I use this method to learn other aspects of English, like grammar? Yes, you can. Listening to the news exposes you to English as it's used in real life, including grammatical structures. You'll start to understand how sentences are formed and how words interact with each other, which is a vital part of learning a language.
Most Unusual Words:
- Chandrayaan: The name of India's moon mission.
- Cerberus: A creature from Greek mythology, often depicted as a three-headed dog.
- Adept: Very skilled or proficient at something.
- Propulsion: The action of driving or pushing forward.
- Orbit: The regularly repeated elliptical course of a celestial object or spacecraft about a star or planet.
- Regulator: An official or device that controls or maintains uniformity in a process or system.
- Podcast: A digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading, typically part of a themed series.
- Compound: A thing that is composed of two or more separate elements; a mixture.
- Bizarrely: Strangely, unusually, or oddly.
- Moonlanding: The arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| About | 12 |
| English | 11 |
| Means | 9 |
| Which | 8 |
| Whisky | 7 |
| Bottle | 6 |
| Chandrayaan | 6 |
| These | 5 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
The mp3 audio and pdf transcript for this lesson is now part of the Adept English back catalogue . You can still download and listen to this lesson as part of one of our podcast bundles.Transcript: Practice English Listening With Trending British News
Listening to the news is good for your English learning
Hi there. Have you ever wondered how listening to the news can transform your English skills? Well, you're about to find out. Let's get straight to it with a mind boggling fact. Did you know that one of the most effective ways to learn English, especially British English is by tuning into the news. Now, I'm not talking about struggling to understand complex political debates. I'm referring to a light, highly entertaining and informative news round-up, like the one I'm about to give you in this podcast.
Being an idealist is not being a simpleton; without idealists, there would be no optimism and without optimism, there would be no opportunity for success.
⭐ Christiane Amanpour
You'll be surprised at how familiar some of these news items are. And this familiarity along with the unique Adept English approach makes understanding English much easier. But the cherry on the top, 'the best bit' in other words? It's the wealth of new and useful vocabulary that you'll learn each time you listen. Imagine how impressive you'll sound using these words in your English conversations.
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.
Share Adept English podcasts on Spotify
And let's make this interactive. If you're on Spotify, why not share this podcast with your family and friends, who're also on their English language learning journey. They'll say 'Thankyou for such 'juicy' listening'. And Adept English will thank you for helping us grow our community.
And stay with us til the end for a news story on a controversial bottle of whisky. How can a bottle of whisky offend people? Stay tuned to find out.
Are you finding English difficult?
And if you're struggling, if you're having difficulties with your English language understanding, don't worry, we've got you covered. We have an amazing course, The Most Common 500 Words in English. Yes, alongside these podcasts, we also offer courses. This course ensures that you know all the most common words in English, which are the building blocks for speaking and understanding the language.
Boost Your Learning With Adept English
And here's a bonus. The course actually covers the most common 600 words. That's an extra hundred words just for you. So go to our website at adeptenglish. com to find out more about this course. You'll be glad you did!
Are you feeling the heat at the moment?
Okay, to the news. So one of the news items that may be affecting you - there's a heatwave in Southern Europe at the moment. A 'heatwave' is a compound or joined word from the word 'heat', H E A T, meaning 'hotness', and 'wave', W A V E. A 'wave' is a 'pattern of movement', most commonly, you'd think about 'waves' in the sea. And the word 'heatwave', it means that 'hot temperatures will travel in a wave across the map'.
So this 'heatwave' in Southern Europe means that temperatures are likely to be 40 degrees centigrade. At least 40 degrees centigrade in parts of Spain, France, Croatia and Turkey. And in Italy next week, it could be as high as 48 degrees centigrade. Yikes, that's hot! And this could mean potentially the hottest ever recorded temperatures in Europe, according to the European Space Agency.
I've noticed the temperatures forecast in Italy particularly, as my daughter is travelling in Italy at the moment. I've been WhatsAppping her. "Wear a hat, carry water, stay out of the sun between midday and four"! She's been hearing this advice from me all week! I've been in Greece when it's 42 degrees centigrade. Not comfortable and not great for sleeping.
Listening Lessons
A three headed dog and climate change
So they are nicknaming this heat wave 'Cerberus'. That's C E R B E R U S. And that name is after the three-headed dog, that guards the Underworld in Greek Mythology.
And inevitably this heatwave is being linked to climate change. Climate, C L I M A T E, means 'weather patterns'. And 'climate change' generally is used to mean the weather patterns that we worry about, that the world is hotting up because of carbon dioxide, or CO2.
Levels of carbon dioxide have risen higher than ever before since the 1950s. And this seems to be correlated to temperature rise.
It's also been particularly hot this year in the US, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia too. It's not just in Europe. Bizarrely, while all of this is going on, the UK has lost its heatwave! As I'm speaking, it's 16 degrees centigrade and rainy here. Hard sometimes to imagine, if you're in one place in the world, that the weather can be so different somewhere else.
India going to the moon
Next news item. Did you know that India is about to launch its third moon mission, called Chandrayaan 3. This mission, M I S S I O N, which means 'a journey with a purpose', is unmanned. 'Unmanned', U N M A N N E D means there are no astronauts, no people on board. It's all done by robots and controlled from Earth.
And the phrase being used, it's a 'soft moon landing'. Only a part of the spaceship lands on the moon. Apparently, a 'soft moon landing' is really tricky, really difficult. Despite lots of highly specialised technology and calculations and planning, it can easily go wrong.
Chandrayaan 3 is made up of three modules. A module, M O D U L E is a 'part' of something. There is, a 'propulsion module'. So the word 'propulsion', P R O P U L S I O N. That's from the verb 'to propel', P R O P E L, which means 'to push along'. So the 'propulsion module' powers the spacecraft, takes it on its journey, if you like.
Chandrayaan 3 will take off and will arrive within 100 kilometres of the moon, and then it will orbit. ' To orbit', O R B I T, means 'to travel round'. So this propulsion module will effectively 'park' nearer to the moon and remain in orbit. And then a 'lander module' will hopefully accomplish the landing, which is very difficult to do. Apparently, moon dust gets in the way and is a very big problem.
And then there is a 'rover module'. That's R O V E R. 'To rove', R O V E in English means 'to travel about and to explore'.
So it's hoped that the 'rover module' will travel about, collect samples, take photographs, do some mapping, so that's assisting with the atlas of the moon, the geography of the moon. And it will also look for evidence of water or ice on the moon.
📷
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Why will Chandrayaan 3 take so long to arrive?
Chandrayaan 3 will have been launched on the 14th July and will take around 42 days before landing on the Moon. So that'll be around the 23rd August.
Why does it take so long?
Well, that's because Chandrayaan 3 will have to orbit the Earth five times, making a bigger orbit each time it goes round. That's in order to escape the Earth's gravity, G R A V I T Y, the force which pulls objects towards a large thing like a planet, which pulls objects towards the Earth. And it will flip into the Moon's gravitational pull, and it will orbit five times around the Moon before it attempts to land. It will be 'captured by the moon's gravity', in other words.
This mission is about learning more about the moon, and Chandrayaan 3 will visit a part of the moon that hasn't been much explored yet. But the mission is also about developing the technology, refining it, and testing it out in a real life situation, so that further space exploration will be possible.
Do you like whisky?
What about a less mainstream news article to finish off with? This one caught my eye. Do you like whisky? I don't. It makes me shudder and go 'Brrr'. But that's , W H I S K Y. I'm sure it's an alcoholic drink that you've heard of anyway. So in the UK, retailers, that's R E T A I L E R S, and basically means 'sellers' or 'shops' - they've been asked by the Portman Group to stop selling a particular type of whisky.
The Portman Group keep an eye on how alcohol is sold in the UK. They make sure everyone's following the rules. They're a 'regulator', R E G U L A T O R. 'A body, an organisation that insists that the rules are followed'. Why have they got a problem with this particular bottle of whisky?
Cosa Nostra Whisky - should it be allowed?
Well, the whisky on sale in Scotland is called 'Cosa Nostra'. And it's this name and the bottle and its packaging that are giving cause for concern. 'Cosa Nostra', of course, is another term for the Italian Mafia. ' Mafia', M A F I A, is an organised crime group, which I'm sure we're all familiar with.
What's problematic is that the bottle that the whisky is in, is in the shape of a machine gun or 'Tommy gun'. The top of the bottle, the bit that you unscrew, is like the end of the gun barrel. So, effectively, it could look like you're drinking out of the end of a machine gun.
I can see why this is a problem and perhaps why the regulator thinks this product shouldn't be on our shelves, on sale. Effectively, it's using a machine gun to promote whisky and is said to be 'glorifying violence and gun crime'.
The Portman group said ' It's unacceptable for an alcoholic drink because it suggests an association with violent and dangerous behaviour'. I'm inclined to agree with them. But perhaps this reflects different attitudes towards guns in different countries. It may be different in other areas of the world.
But the Portman group aren't the only ones to condemn this bottle of whisky.
Italy's regulator also objecting to Cosa Nostra whisky
The whisky isn't made in Italy - it's made by a Polish company. But in fact, Italy's biggest agricultural trade organisation, Coldiretti have also condemned this 'Cosa Nostra' product for associating with the Sicilian Mafia. Coldiretti is another regulator, an Italian regulator. They're the ones who look after the 'Made in Italy' labelling. Here's the Italian for you - 'Denominazione di origine controllata'.
Download The Podcast Audio & Transcript
That's my best Italian, not very Italian, I'm sorry, but these are the rules which govern the use, of names like 'Chianti', the Italian wine, or Parmesan - Parmigiano Reggiano, more Italian for you. They don't like this Cosa Nostra whisky either. And I do understand why.
Let us know what you think
Anyway, that's my short news round-up for this week. Let us know what you think. Are you caught up in one of these heatwaves? What do you think of the Indian moon landing mission? And what's your opinion on that whisky bottle? Should it be allowed or not? Let us know.
Goodbye
And don't forget to listen to this podcast a number of times until you understand all the words in it!
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
Links
- Europe heatwave
- What is climate change?
- Chandrayaan-3
- Lander (spacecraft)
- India's historic Moon mission
- Mafia-themed Scotch whisky
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