Desert Island Discs is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.
Each week a guest, called a “castaway” during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings, a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their life and the reasons for their choices.
Here, it’s Chris’ turn to talk about his eight favourite tracks and what they mean to him, so there is a lot of reminiscing about the past and fond memories evoked by music.
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Desert Island Discs is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.
Each week a guest, called a “castaway” during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings, a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their life and the reasons for their choices.
Here, Susan talks about her eight favourite tracks and what they mean to her, so there is a lot of reminiscing about the past and fond memories evoked by music.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:35 — 307.6MB)
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Bucket Lists
Sue and Chris talk about a Bucket lists.
Before listening, do you know what bucket lists are?
While listening.
1. Does Sue want to swim with dolphins?
2. Where does Chris want to go for his bucket list?
3. Where does Sue say she thinks the Northern Lights are?
Listen to the podcast and try the following :
- First relax, sit down, close your eyes then listen to the podcast all the way through.
- Note down some ideas of what you expect the Podcast will be about. If needed have a look on the Internet for the keyword, ‘Bucket Lists’ to prepare yourself for the listening. Here is a link HERE and HERE to start you off.
- Listen to JUST Sue, ignoring Chris and try to work out globally what her questions and comments are. (you won’t understand everything, so there is no point trying at this point.)
- Listen to just Chris as above.
- Now go back and listen to Sue – take a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle, on the left of the paper, write any ideas that you have of what Sue was talking about.
- Now do the same for Chris.
- Now listen to the podcast all the way through THEN write down any more ideas that you have about the podcast.
- Leave the podcast for a day or two, then come back and listen.
- Do you understand any more than from the first session of listening you did?
- How do you rate the difficulty level for you? (Too difficult at the moment / A challenge / I understand enough).
- When will you return to this podcast to check your listening progress?
Remember :
- You won’t understand everything you hear.
- There is a lot of regular work to do to tune your ear into Real English – you need to work on listening regularly.
- NEVER write notes at the same time that you are listening.
- ALWAYS – try to set yourself realistic objectives.
- REMEMBER – this is just a part of your learning and you need to be able to connect this work with your other work.
- This is REAL English – we don’t believe that slow, over-articulated speech prepares learners for the real world – you may be able to understand an audio extract that is spoken slowly, but what good is that if you don’t understand real people in real situations.
- At english-podcasts.com we want to help you to be ready for the real world – it will be difficult at first, but later you will feel the benefit – it is just pure, common sense.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:59 — 5.3MB)
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Meeting up with a full-time #vanlifer who is doing #vanlife where we met on a small farm campsite in the #paysbasque in south west #france.
Katharina is from Germany and she has given everything up to get on the road with her little car and her vintage caravan.
I met her near Saint Jean de Luz just as she was planning to head off to Spain and Portugal and she has already encountered some problems, like her fridge breaking down and the walls of her caravan falling apart and leaking water into the inside of the caravan, although she remains upbeat and motivated for her adventure.
She talks about the ups & downs of Vanlife, where she has come from, where she is going and how she intends to earn some money to maintain her lifestyle whilst on the road.
Whatever your view of guns, this podcast will fascinate you.
Sue, as a European, listens in amazement to Cindy as she describes her everyday life living with guns in the USA.
Cindy recounts why she needs to own a gun, how she practices and how the constitution allows American citizens to carry an arm (and shoot) for their own protection.
As a language learner, listen out for Cindy’s southern American accent and American English vocabulary such as “purse”, “pants” and “packing”.
Try to answer these questions:
- What do the background checks consist of?
- How many guns does Cindy own?
- Where does she keep her gun?
- Where do many women keep their gun?
- How (and when) does she practice shooting?
- Why does she feel the need to have a gun with her?
- What is “Open” and “Conceal” carry?
- What does Cindy say about bullets?
- What does she say about a recent hold up in her local supermarket?
- What does she say about Shoot Unseen ?
- What does Cindy explain about the American constitution?
In this podcast, the team at english-podcasts has no intention to pass any opinion, bias or judgement on the subject, and we thank Cindy for her personal account of gun use and general attitudes.
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Have you ever sold anything online? In recent years it has become part of our everyday life. The internet is full of sites specializing in selling second-hand items from houses, to cars, to handbags, to children’s toys.
Listen as Sue asks Chris about his experience.
Listen out for these key words and expressions. This podcast is bursting with everyday useful vocabulary.
Time wasters
Secure payment
Stuff
Conmen
You need your wits about you.
Do the benefits outweigh he pitfalls?
To knock someone down – to knock a bit off
To be above board
To be messed about.
To be in awe of someone
To be on your guard
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