English Listening Course I

1. English Listening Course I 邓艳

2. Activities • Activity 1 • Listening to the following four passages and find out which one is a story, a notice, a letter or news? Then you are given five minutes to sum up each following. At last, discuss with your partner.

3. 1. The Banana When Father Tomas de Berlanga set out upon his dangerous voyage to the New World, early in the 16th C, he carried with him not only his books of the Gospel, but also some roots of the rare and highly valued banana plant. With this sweet golden fruit he hoped to win the friendship, and thus to make converts, of the native Indians, he could not have guessed then that his few roots would spread through American tropical forest lands until bananas, growing wild, would be as common as the great swamp plants. And he could not have imagined that a day would come when white men would clear away thousands of acres of those forests to make room for banana plantations.

4. 2. Getting to work on time is my biggest problem. Early one morning, driving to the office, I saw a turtle in the middle of the road. I just had to rescue the creature. It took a few minutes for me to stop the car, get out, grab the turtle and move it over to the side of the road. Then I rushed on to work. When I saw my boss at the door, I said quickly, “ it’s not my fault, Rich. There was a turtle on the road.”Before I could go any further, he bellowed, “So what are you saying---you drove behind it?”

5. My friend Connie was very supportive of her husband’s campaign to be elected vice president of his union, but missed seeing him off for work the day of the election. Since she’d be late arriving home, she left a message for him on their answering machine: “ Good luck, dear, and don’t worry. No matter how the election turns out, you’ll always be vice president at our house.”

6. 4. A. We were sorry to hear about your illness and hope that you recover soon. With best wishes for a speedy recovery, B. We’re sorry to hear about your grandfather. We all share your sadness. He was a wonderful man and we shall all miss him very much. Please call us if we can help in any way.

7. Feedback: • At the beginning, students couldn`t catch the listening. This condition was changed at the second time. Ss like this, and they believe it is practical and useful.This activity contains listening and writing as well as reading. English-listening is not individual. It has great connection with other English shkills. You can`t give a lot of attention to one aspect, but neglect others. So English-listening study should a mixture of learning the four skills.

8. Activity 2 • Listening to the news from BBC as following. Tell your partner what you have heard. And then writing them down.

9. BBC world news with John Jason. Six bomber attacks in Baghdad have killed more than 180 people and injured more than 200. It’s the worst day of violence since the America led security campaign begun more than two months ago. The US Defense Secretary Robert Gates described the attacks as horrify and blamed Al-Qaeda. The heaviest loss of life came as a car bomb exploded in the mainly Shiite market place, killing at least 140 people. Iraq ambassador to US Sumeer Sumali described the attacks as death /. “The deaths were not caused by the security plan, but caused by terrorists and precisely because we were making progress. Sectarian violence has come down and the terrorists are bent on the / sectarian violence. We are making progress on the ground. People are turning against Al-Qaeda.”

10. The UN report accused Sudanese government of flying weapons in heavy military equipment into the Darfur region in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Report compiled by file expert says Sudan were using aircraft painted white to transport its weapons to make them like UN planes. Lawrich / reports from UN in New York. • Sudan’s envoy to UN dismissed what he called the reports allegations as fabrication and said Cartoon wanted an urgent investigation. Sudan has been raising objections to the deployment of 20,000 strong UN and AU peace keeping force in Darfur. But on Monday the government did agree finally to let in 3,000 troops to help back up the overstretched AU force. However, the US and UK want to begin discussions on further sanctions against the Sudanese immediately.

11. The latest development in the Darfur crisis follows a five-day visit to Sudan by the US deputy secretary of state Jhon Nagponty. He also went to neighboring Chad before discussing the violence in Darfur with officials in Libya.

12. Feedback: • Ss did not know the expressions of certain things, like Al-Qaeda. They didn`t know it meant 基地　in Chinese. English learning should contain new words and new expressions. Otherwise, it would be out-dated.

13. Acknowledgment • First, I want show my great thanks for your listening, attendance and consideration. • Second, I will be very glad if you let me know your ideas about my activities. Your suggestion is precious to me.