Archives for category: Listening

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LISTENING SKILL PRACTICE:

Unit 1: Transport

John and Fiona have just arrived in London at Heathrow Airport. John is going to a hotel in King’s Cross and Fiona’s going to stay with her uncle in Camden. They need to work out how to get into the centre of town and decide on what type of transport to use. This unit will help you with the following;Buying a London Underground train ticket. Finding your way around the London Underground system. Comparing things.

Listening 1: Choosing transport from Heathrow into town

After they collect their luggage, John and Fiona think about the best way to get into the centre of London. They know a taxi will be too expensive, but they can’t agree on the best form of transport.

Listen to the conversation

Activity 1: Complete the conversation
You can use these sentences:

*We could get stuck in a traffic jam on the coach.
*So let’s take the Tube now, it is more convenient.
*Well, we could take the Tube.
*The Heathrow Express is quicker, but it’s expensive

Fiona: How shall we get to the centre?
John_________________________________
Fiona: I suppose we could, but how about taking the ‘ Airbus? coach?
John_________________________________
Fiona: Yes, it is the rush hour. So , what about the Heathrow Express?
John:_________________________________
Fiona: And we’ll have to change onto the Tube later anyway.
John:_________________________________
Language tips – vocabulary
the Tube – the popular name for the underground train system (Metro System)

the Underground – another name for the Tube
A coach – comfortable bus usually used on longer journeys
Get stuck in a traffic jam – you can’t go anywhere because there are too many cars
convenient – easy to use
rush hour – the busy time in the morning and afternoon when everyone travels to and from work.

Source: BBC.

>Title: My Big Fat Greek Wedding (with external subtitle)
Genre: Comedy – Romance
Director: Joel Zwick
Starring: Nia Vardalos, Michael Constantine, John Corbett and Lainie Kazan
Release Year: 2002
Runtime: 01:35:09
Size: 696 Mb
Format: .avi + .srt
Language: American English

This movie is a good start to learn English and with the external subtitle in English you’ll enjoy it like I do.

Plot Summary
Toula Portokalos is 30, Greek, and works in her family’s restaurant, Dancing Zorba’s, in Chicago. [+/-]

All her father Gus wants is for her to get married to a nice Greek boy. But Toula is looking for more in life. Her mother convinces Gus to let her take some computer classes at college (making him think it’s his idea). With those classes under her belt, she then takes over her aunt’s travel agency (again making her father think it’s his idea). She meets Ian Miller, a high school English teacher, WASP, and dreamboat she had made a fool of herself over at the restaurant; they date secretly for a while before her family finds out. Her father is livid over her dating a non-Greek. He has to learn to accept Ian; Ian has to learn to accept Toula’s huge family, and Toula has to learn to accept herself.

It’s probably even more amusing if you’re Greek (I’m not, but I found it hilarious).

The show started off as a one woman comedy act before crossing over to film and is funny with the occasional genuinely touching insight. I haven’t laughed so much in ages. I wonder when it comes out on video.

Video
Codec: Xvid
Width: 608
Height: 336
Bitrate: 870kbps
FPS: 23

Audio
Codec: MPEG Layer 3
Bitrate: 179kbps
Channels: 2 (stereo)
Samplerate: 48kHz

Watermarks: No!
Counters: No!
Black/White: No!

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part1.rar
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part2.rar
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part3.rar
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part4.rar
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part5.rar
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part6.rar
MyBigFatGreekWedding.part7.rar

>Title: Real American/Frankly Speaking
Author(s): МОСКВА
Publisher: Repetitor Multimedia
Date: 2004
Pages: 154/174
Size: 416 Kb/854 Kb/224 Mb
Format: PDF/MP3
Quality: 44kHz/160kbps
Language: American English

Real American/Frankly Speaking is a series of training programs for the American conversational English. [+/-]

“REAL American” is aimed at developing speaking, improved understanding of the language listening and learning interpretation. There are two versions of eBooks. The original eBook is in English together with Rusian and the other is in English only which I’ve cut off the Runsian translation. Just in case you can add your own language in the blank areas. That is my purpose.

Real American/Frankly Speaking features topics related to many different aspects of life in the United States such as:
• family
• friends
• identity
• nature
• pets
• sports
• traditions
• holidays and weekdays
• music
• hobbies
• etc.

Real American/Frankly Speaking
eBook (English only)
Real_American_Frankly_Speaking.rar
eBook (English and Rusian)
Real_American_Frankly_Speaking_RU.rar
Audio CDs (224 Mb)
American_Frankly_Speaking_CD.part1.rar
American_Frankly_Speaking_CD.part2.rar

> Do you want to test your level of English? Click on these links, you’ve got different tests to know how skilled you are in the English language.

British council
Englishjet
World-English
English-online
Englishtag
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>Learn English via Listening (5 Levels & 1 Conversation)

ListeningEnglish.com allows you to improve your English listening skills quickly and systematically. The articles of ListeningEnglish.com are divided into five levels of difficulty, which range from very easy to very challenging. As your listening proficiency improves, you can select articles from more challenging levels. The announcers speak in North American or British accents.

Level 1: (116 Articles)

Level 2: (107 Articles)

Level 3: (100 Articles)

Level 4: (90 Articles )

Level 5: (60 Articles)

Level 6: Conversation

Level 1

119.2 Mb (116 Articles)

http://rapidshare.com/files/141296940/level1.doc

http://rapidshare.com/files/141297854/1.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141297891/2.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298744/3.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298871/4.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298421/5.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298181/6.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298299/7.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298410/8.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298788/9.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298505/10.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298653/11.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141298003/12.zip

Level 2

116.5 Mb (107 Articles)

http://rapidshare.com/files/141296943/level2.doc

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300535/1.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300612/2.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300460/3.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300416/4.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300708/5.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300697/6.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300648/7.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141301095/8.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141301036/9.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300748/10.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141300238/11.zip

Level 3

191.3 Mb (100 Articles)

http://rapidshare.com/files/141296960/level3.doc

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308755/1.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308519/2.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308752/3.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308536/4.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308945/5.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308517/6.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308369/7.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308332/8.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308204/9.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141308435/10.zip

Level 4

196.6 Mb (90 Articles )

http://rapidshare.com/files/141296956/level4.doc

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319103/1.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319281/2.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141318944/3.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319600/4.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319368/5.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319769/6.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319174/7.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141319447/8.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141317682/9.zip

Level 5

121.2 Mb (60 Articles)

http://rapidshare.com/files/141296973/level5.doc

http://rapidshare.com/files/141314640/1.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141312888/2.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141312812/4.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141312694/3.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141312909/5.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/141312775/6.zip

Conversation

http://rapidshare.com/files/141296900/level6.doc

http://rapidshare.com/files/141329424/Level6.rar

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Public Displays of Affection,

When people are in love, they want to kiss and hold each other tight. But where’s the best place to do that?


Public displays of affection, or PDAs, can be cute, like when you see a young couple holding hands in the park. But they can also be gross, like a drunk couple totally making out on the street.Some people think public displays of affection are a harmless and fun way to express love. Others think love is better expressed in private.
It turns out that in Jason and Devan’s new relationship, there is one of each kind of person. Watchthe video to see which is which.

Punto gramatical – Learn grammar from this lesson.
Past Perfect Progressive

Jason thanks Devan for seeing Slumdog Millionaire with him and says, “I’d been wanting to see it.” He uses the past perfect progressive tense to talk about a something that had been happening in the past before something else happened in the past. In the past, Jason saw the movie. But before that, he had been wanting to see it.

We form the past perfect progressive with had been + main verb + ing. No matter what the subject of a sentence is, we always form this tense the same way. For example, we can say I had been eating, he had been eating, you had been eating, we had been eating, or they had been eating.

Vocabulary:

make out v.
kiss and hold another person in a romantic way
Example:
Well, we didn’t really date. We made out once, but that’s it.
gross expr.
disgusting, sickening, unpleasant
Example:
“This sandwich is _*gross*_! I think they put mayonnaise on it. I hate mayonnaise!”
mushy adj.
overly affectionate
Example: I don’t want to watch that mushy stuff.

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>Title: Telephoning in English 2rd Edition
Author(s): B. Jean Naterop and Rod Revell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2003
Pages: 122
Size: 81.56 Mb
Format: PDF + MP3
Quality: 32 kHz/58kpbs
Language: British English

Telephoning in English is for professionals and trainees in business, commerce and administration who need to be able to receive and make telephone calls. [+/-]

It is suitable for use in class or for self-study. Telephoning in English develops and consolidates practical telephone skills in a variety of interesting and relevant contexts. Activities range from message-taking and spelling practice to role play, providing learners with a comprehensive course in using the telephone in English.

Telephoning in English

>Title: 101 American English Idioms: Understanding and Speaking English Like an American
Author(s): Harry Collis
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Date: February 9, 1987
Pages: 135
Size: 64.88 Mb
Format: PDF + MP3
Quality: 44kHz/128kbps
Language: American English

101 American English Idioms takes the mystery out of these common U.S. expressions and explains their meanings in context. On the audio CD, native speakers read each of the 101 idioms, [+/-]

so you can hear how American English sounds and practice what you have learned.

What Americans really mean when they say . . .

Drive someone up a wall–annoy someone greatly
Raise a stink–protest strongly
Pull someone’s leg–fool someone
All thumbs–clumsy
Shoot the breeze–chat informally
Feel like a million dollars–feel wonderful
Duck soup–easy, effortless

Review
“I am a Bostonian who heard the recording from one of my English students. Dressed to the teeth is an expression I readily recognize, but I am more likely to read it than to hear it in everyday, modern conversation. Some of the expressions are probably regional, perhaps most from Northeastern section of the country. Of course the term American is often misused, and foreign visitors should be careful buying books claiming to teach American words or phrases.” An American woman (Arlington, MA USA)

101 American English Idioms

>Title: Improve Your American English Accent
Author(s): Charlsie Childs
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition
Date: December 10, 2003
Pages: 51
Size: 284 Mb
Format: PDF + MP3
Quality: 44 kHz/192kbps
Language: American English

“In most dialects of North American English, there are about fifteen basic vowel sounds and combinations; we make them by changing the shape of the…”

Improve Your American English Accent offers language learners an easy and enjoyable way to [+/-]

master the most challenging American English speech characteristics. Focusing exclusively on the core features that have the greatest impact on understanding American English speakers and being understood by them, it comprises six 35-minute lessons on three CDs, and a booklet containing written pronunciation guidelines and transcriptions of the sounds, words, and sentences introduced on the recording.

Each lesson is short enough to be completed at one sitting and is presented in a friendly and lively manner that the learner will find engaging.

About the Author
Charlsie Childs is a specialist in foreign accent reduction with many years of teaching experience.

Improve Your American English Accent
3 Audio CDs
IYAEA_3CD.part1.rar
IYAEA_3CD.part2.rar
IYAEA_3CD.part3.rar
eBook
Improve_AmE_Accent_eBook.rar