English Speaking Practice: Improve your English through current news stories
Transform your English listening skills with real breaking news! In today's English lesson we cover California's water crisis: A deadly cocktail of 10 months without rain and unstoppable fires; Trump wants to buy Greenland by force - but Denmark's PM has other ideas and your morning coffee habit might be saving your life! #EnglishListening #NewsInEnglish
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Using engaging news stories, keeps you listening. The more you listen the more English you learn. So let’s explore these events and see how learning about them in English can enhance your language skills.
Preparedness is the key to reducing harm and ensuring safety during natural disasters.
⭐ FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell
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More About This Lesson
Stay updated on global news while developing your listening skills and fluency. Practice your English listening skills with a lesson that explores current news stories, including wildfires and global events, to build vocabulary and comprehension.
The reality is that climate change is happening faster than we feared, and its effects are already being felt worldwide.
⭐ Greta Thunberg
Imagine learning English while staying up to date with the world’s biggest stories. This lesson isn’t just about vocabulary; it’s about mastering real-world language through the news. We break down complex topics like wildfires and international politics into easy-to-understand English, giving you the skills to speak fluently and confidently.
This lesson will help you improve your English:
- Improve vocabulary with definitions and examples of relevant words like "wildfire" and "evacuate.
- Enhance listening comprehension through exposure to natural British English speech patterns.
- Learn correct spelling and pronunciation of key words such as "vegetation" and "autonomous.
- Gain cultural insights into global events, making learning practical and engaging.
- Understand grammar in context with real-world examples from news stories.
- Expand your ability to follow complex narratives about events like wildfires and global politics.
- Build confidence by hearing clear explanations of advanced words like "strategic" and "referendum.
- Practice active listening skills with diverse topics such as environmental issues and health studies.
- Familiarize yourself with compound words and their meanings, like "brushwood" and "rubble.
- Get motivation to continue learning with relatable stories and everyday English usage.
Listening to these stories improves your English in real-world contexts. You'll pick up useful vocabulary like "evacuate" and "autonomous," and understand phrases like "strategic value." By following topics such as wildfires or Greenland’s political situation, you’ll enhance comprehension, expand your vocabulary, and build confidence discussing global issues—all while learning about events that shape our world.
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Ready to hear news in English and improve your language? Then tune in to this powerful lesson. Don’t miss out!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- How can listening to news stories improve my English fluency? When you listen to news stories in English, you're exposing yourself to authentic language used in real-world contexts. The stories about Los Angeles wildfires and Greenland, for instance, contain natural vocabulary and expressions that native speakers use daily. You'll pick up compound words like 'wildfire,' professional terms like 'evacuate,' and everyday expressions like 'making waves.' This input-based learning approach, where you hear English used naturally, is far more effective than memorizing grammar rules. Just as with any language, the more you listen, the more these patterns become part of your active vocabulary.
- Why should I practice listening to different English accents? You'll notice in this podcast that Hilary speaks with a clear British accent, which is excellent exposure if you're aiming to understand British English. By regularly listening to British English speakers discuss current events, you train your ear to recognize the unique rhythm and intonation patterns of British speech. This is crucial because in real-life situations, you'll encounter various accents. The more you listen to authentic British English, especially in the context of news stories that you might already be familiar with in your native language, the more natural it becomes to understand different English accents.
- How can I use current events to expand my English vocabulary? Current events are goldmines for building your English vocabulary naturally. In this podcast alone, you're learning words in context - from environmental terms like 'vegetation' and 'climate' to political terms like 'autonomous' and 'referendum.' You'll find that when vocabulary is presented within real news stories, it sticks better in your memory because you have a meaningful context to associate it with. The key is to not worry about understanding every word, but rather to focus on the overall message while naturally absorbing new vocabulary.
- What's the best way to practice English pronunciation using news content? News content, like this podcast, provides excellent pronunciation practice because it often includes careful spelling of key terms. Notice how the host spells out words like 'W-I-L-D-F-I-R-E' and 'C-L-I-M-A-T-E.' You should shadow these pronunciations - repeat the words right after you hear them. Pay particular attention to stress patterns in compound words and longer terms. The formal nature of news reporting also means you're learning standard pronunciation that will be widely understood.
- How often should I listen to English news podcasts to improve my fluency? For optimal results, you should make English news listening a daily habit, just like reading your morning newspaper. This podcast suggests that consistent exposure through their regular episodes helps build both vocabulary and listening comprehension naturally. You don't need to understand everything at first - that's normal and part of the learning process. Start with 15-20 minutes daily, and gradually increase your listening time as your comprehension improves. Remember, language learning is a marathon, not a sprint, and regular exposure to authentic content like news stories is key to achieving fluency.
Most Unusual Words:
- Vegetation: plants and trees that grow in a particular area
- Sparsely: spread out with large empty spaces between; not densely populated
- Autonomous: self-governing; able to make its own decisions independently
- Perish: to die or be destroyed (used in the phrase "perish the thought" meaning "don't even think about that terrible idea")
- Rubble: broken pieces of stone, brick and other materials from destroyed buildings
- Caveat: a warning or notice about something you should be careful about
- Evacuate: to leave a dangerous place quickly and move to somewhere safer
- Fuelled: powered or driven by something (in this case, coffee powers the podcast)
- Inhabitant: a person or animal that lives in a particular place
- Strategic: relating to long-term planning or military advantage; carefully planned to achieve a specific goal
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| Means | 14 |
| English | 12 |
| Greenland | 11 |
| Which | 10 |
| Coffee | 10 |
| There | 8 |
| Course | 8 |
| About | 7 |
| People | 7 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: Learn English Listening to News Stories
Let’s start the New Year with a news podcast
Hi there and welcome to this podcast from Adept English. Let's start this year with our first news podcast. This is where I cover current news stories, ones which you've probably heard before in your own language. But now you hear them in English. And this is really good English language learning practice for you. Lots of vocabulary, lots of grammar practice, all through listening. These news podcasts are our most popular type of podcast.
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.
Wildfires in Los Angeles
So please sit back and enjoy our first one of 2025. So very much in the news as I'm recording this are the wildfires in Los Angeles. The pictures are all over the news and the wildfires there have been devastating. The word 'wildfire' that's W-I-L-D-F-I-R-E is of course a compound word, 'wild' and 'fire'. And it means 'a fire which has broken out naturally amongst natural vegetation'. That's trees and plants. V-E-G-E-T-A-T-I-O-N 'vegetation' means 'things that grow'. So wildfires happen of course where the land is very dry. And apparently the Los Angeles area has had no significant rainfall for about 10 months. California as a whole has a problem with lack of water and the fire department fighting the fires reports that their supplies of water are running low. Add into the mix that there are strong winds which are fanning the flames and causing the fires to spread. Residents are being urged to take their animals, their pets and basic provisions meaning water, food and clothes and get out, evacuate, E-V-A-C-U-A-T-E in other words. Some of the buildings at risk in the LA area have been saved from the fires because the 'brush', B-R-U-S-H, that means 'dry vegetation, dry plants growing' around their homes have been cleared. That's 'brush' or 'brushwood'. This has provided a fire break in some areas which has succeeded in saving some homes. But so many buildings have been destroyed and as I'm speaking it's still happening. Whole neighbourhoods, whole areas have burned down with nothing much left than rubble. R-U-B-B-L-E and that means 'the remains of buildings on the ground'. Many people there are without electricity and the whole area is in some chaos. This was not much helped by a phone alert which went out on Thursday saying 'Evacuate. Get out!' and this was sent to every mobile or cell phone in the Los Angeles area. That's about 10 million people. I'm sure this news story will continue a while longer and may have developed further by the time you're listening to this. Hopefully the wildfires will be contained at some point and the damage will be limited.
📷
A contrasting image of dry arid land and lush water rich land. Hear how native speakers talk about politics, emergencies, and daily life.
But the problem for California and some other parts of the world is related to changes in the patterns of our climate, C-L-I-M-A-T-E. What they've experienced in the Los Angeles area for the last few years has been very wet years with a lot of rainfall followed by very dry years. So this means that during the wet years the plants, the vegetation has grown a great deal and then during the dry weather years this vegetation has dried out. This means that there's a lot of 'fuel' in the form of dried grass and brushwood which is feeding the wildfires much more so than if it was hot dry weather all the time when nothing much would grow.
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Can someone ‘buy Greenland’?!
Also in the news at the moment Donald Trump is 'making waves' again by saying that he wants to 'buy Greenland'. That's what the papers are reporting and he's even suggesting he would use military force if necessary to accomplish this. 'Using military force' - that means 'bringing the army in' which is pretty unthinkable to most people. At the moment the 57,000 mainly Inuit that's I-N-U-I-T population of Greenland live in an autonomous territory. 'Autonomous' A-U-T-O-N-O-M-O-U-S, 'autonomous' means 'self-governing' and Greenland has had self-rule since 1979 but it still sits within the kingdom of Denmark. So the economy of Greenland is dependent on money from Denmark. Roughly half the country's income comes from Denmark and this means that the inhabitants I-N-H-A-B-I-T-A-N-T - that means simply 'people who live there' - the inhabitants of Greenland are fully Danish citizens just like the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands. This means they're also European Union citizens. Mette Frederiksen the Prime Minister of Denmark has understandably been anxious to calm things down. Her view is that only the people of Greenland can decide but it does sound likely that at some point there will be a referendum that's R-E-F-E-R-E-N-D-U-M R-E-F-E-R-E-N-D-U-M. That's a vote where the people decide something. The referendum of course will be on independence for Greenland. However true independence is difficult if you're dependent on income from another country for your economy. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has come back more forcibly saying you cannot violate a country's borders and that this "applies to every country no matter whether it's a small one or a very powerful one". And French Foreign Minister Jean- Noël Barrot said that "The EU could not let other nations attack its sovereign borders". So this is all going to be a bit of a 'bust up' at the start of the Trump presidency.
Why does Trump want to ‘buy Greenland’?
Why does Trump have such an interest in Greenland where three quarters of the land is covered permanently with ice and it's the most sparsely populated area outside of Antarctica? That means the fewest people per square mile. Well there are plenty natural minerals in Greenland and these are more accessible as global warming reduces the ice cover but surely if these belong to anyone, they belong to the inhabitants of Greenland?
But perhaps more important for Donald Trump it's the strategic value of Greenland. That's 'strategic' S-T-R-A-T-E-G-I-C from the word 'strategy'. So here it means 'relevant to plans if there was a war or military conflict'. So the 'strategic value' of Greenland lies in the fact that it sits between the US and Russia. If you look at the world map from the north you can see this. In 1951 an agreement with Denmark gave the US a role in defending the territory of Greenland and the right to build and maintain military bases there, which of course they're keen to continue with. And if there was an exchange of missiles between the US and Russia - 'perish the thought' you might say - the shortest route for this is over Greenland. And it's not the first time that America has tried to buy Greenland. In 1946 the US offered million dollars for the territory, thinking it was vital for national security after the Second World War. But the Danish government said no. And Donald Trump also announced his intention in 2019 to buy Greenland but this was shortly before the end of his presidency. So the problem kind of went away. Scary stuff. Let's hope the residents of Greenland vote to stay self-governing, part of Denmark and part of the EU. That sounds safer.
Good news for coffee drinkers - but only in the morning!
Wow! That was all heavy and political. How about a lighter new story to end this podcast? And how about some good news if you like coffee? The Adept English podcast is fuelled by coffee. I don't mean we're sponsored. What I mean is lovely ground filter coffee inspires me to write about all sorts of subjects for the podcast. I do like the effect of caffeine on the brain. That's C A F F E I N E. Caffeine is an important part of coffee and why it's so pleasurable. So good news this week? A study published in the European Heart Journal, presumably a publication, a journal which discusses heart health and research into diseases of the heart. That's H E A R T - the thing that beats in your chest and keeps you alive. That's your 'heart'.
English Made Simple For Crazy UK Restaurants
Heart disease research is important as it remains the number one killer of people across the world. So what did the study from Tulane University Obesity Research Center in the US actually say? Well the research results suggest that the time of day you drink your caffeine may matter and may help you lower your risk of an early death. The study found that those people who drink coffee in the morning only had a lower risk of dying from heart or cardiovascular disease and had a lower risk of death than those who drank coffee all day.
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But as usual with these studies a caveat, that's C A V E A T, meaning 'a statement that says "Beware"'. The research could not prove that coffee, caffeine was the only cause here. However, going with what the research suggests, researchers found that people who drink their coffee only in the morning were 16% less likely to have died in the 10-year period of the study. That's 16% less compared to those who didn't drink coffee at all. More significantly they were 31% less likely to have died from heart disease. So it sounds as though coffee in the morning is good for you or perhaps at least protective of your heart. The researchers were clear they don't yet understand why and as ever they said "More research is needed". But this means that I can enjoy my morning cup of strong coffee even more. And there's no danger of me drinking coffee past lunchtime because genetically I'm what's known as 'caffeine sensitive'. So coffee in the afternoon or evening, that would be a recipe for no sleep at all for me!
Goodbye
And I don't want that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this caffeine-fuelled podcast and look forward to many more in 2025.
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
- Los Angeles wildfires
- Raging LA fires
- Danes response to Greenland threat
- Greenland
- Why does Trump want Greenland
- Morning coffee may lower risk
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