The Afghan Girl - questions, countries, dates, places
What did you do last weekend?
What's the time? - listening, an interactive worksheet by mada_1
liveworksheets.com
liveworksheets.com
Evaluation test, an interactive worksheet by clarinha
liveworksheets.com
liveworksheets.com
Evaluation test, an interactive worksheet by clarinha
liveworksheets.com
liveworksheets.com
The hungry Polar Bear Listening Quiz
Watch this video about a hungry Polar Bear.
Answer the questions, as you go.
Practice Listening, maybe learn some new words, and have fun!
Answer the questions, as you go.
Practice Listening, maybe learn some new words, and have fun!
The Fortnite Craze Might Be Here To Stay
Have you heard of the latest video game everyone's crazy about?
1. Before you listen to the audio, check out these phrases, and make sure they're clear to you:
2. While you listen to the audio, relax and try to get the gist of what they're saying.
3. Listen to the audio again, listen specifically for the phrases I highlighted and understand their meaning, in context.
4. Listen to the audio a third time, if possible. Focus on the parts which were most difficult for you to catch - use the transcript to help you.
- HERE'S the annotated article.
1. Before you listen to the audio, check out these phrases, and make sure they're clear to you:
- The Fortnite Craze Might Be Here To Stay
- music playing in the background
- televisions line the walls
- XBox gaming systems plugged into each one
- every screen is taken up by someone
- to play against one another
- holding tournaments every few weeks
- It just seems like everybody wants to
- Fortnite is a cross-platform game, played on computers, gaming consoles and smartphones.
- The game's premise is simple: Players sit in a flying bus that moves across a map.
- The player can drop down onto the map at any time and enter a battlefield.
- The player then has about 20 to 25 minutes to build fortresses, find supplies and kill other players until the last man is standing.
- has caused a major stir in
- transforming casual video game players into avid ones.
- is more like a friendly game of tag
- tongue-in-cheek
- It's cartoony
- it's much more accessible
- skins, which are like costumes, for their characters
- emotes, which are celebratory dance moves
- rocketed into popularity
- wide demographic
- a rarity
- it's pretty balanced
- breakout successes
- "canary in the coal mine"
- mass consumption of
2. While you listen to the audio, relax and try to get the gist of what they're saying.
3. Listen to the audio again, listen specifically for the phrases I highlighted and understand their meaning, in context.
4. Listen to the audio a third time, if possible. Focus on the parts which were most difficult for you to catch - use the transcript to help you.
- HERE'S the annotated article.
This app makes it fun to pick up litter
The earth is a big place to keep clean.
With Litterati -- an app for users to identify, collect and geotag the world's litter -- TED Resident Jeff Kirschner has created a community that's crowdsource-cleaning the planet.
After tracking trash in more than 100 countries, Kirschner hopes to use the data he's collected to work with brands and organizations to stop litter before it reaches the ground.
First: Think about trash/rubbish/garbage...how can we reduce it?
Second: Relax & Watch the talk, try to get the gist (general idea)
Next: Look at these questions, take some notes and listen for the answers -
Finally: Download the App HERE and do your part to clean up our world ;)
With Litterati -- an app for users to identify, collect and geotag the world's litter -- TED Resident Jeff Kirschner has created a community that's crowdsource-cleaning the planet.
After tracking trash in more than 100 countries, Kirschner hopes to use the data he's collected to work with brands and organizations to stop litter before it reaches the ground.
First: Think about trash/rubbish/garbage...how can we reduce it?
Second: Relax & Watch the talk, try to get the gist (general idea)
Next: Look at these questions, take some notes and listen for the answers -
- What was the inspiration for the App?
- How does it work?
- Describe a success story he mentions
Finally: Download the App HERE and do your part to clean up our world ;)
Does urban living adversely affect your mental health?
Before you listen
What do you think about the question? - How do you feel about living in the city?
Do you like to get out of the city?.....Why?
Review these words & phrases:
What do you think about the question? - How do you feel about living in the city?
Do you like to get out of the city?.....Why?
Review these words & phrases:
- fresh green grass underfoot
- blue skies overhead
- putting themselves at risk
- studies have shown that
- can help to reduce the symptoms of
- think clearly
- On the other hand,
- the urban environment
- living in the moment
- real time information
- during a one-week period
- If you are interested in
- UrbanMind.info
- Listen first to get the gist (general idea)
- Check out this question: What’s the Urban Mind App?
- Listen again for the answer - and the phrases you reviewed.
- Answer the question
- Use the Question Grid to help you make some questions.
Read more HERE
Active Listening interactive Video
Watch and listen to the Video, answer the questions as you go - have fun!
Is writing notes by hand better than typing?
Which one do YOU think is better for remembering?
Follow the exercise, by reading and listening, and see if you are right!
Which one do YOU think is better for remembering?
Follow the exercise, by reading and listening, and see if you are right!
The Power of Patience--by Sharon Salzberg (Feb 10, 2014)
Click HERE for the Audio Reading by Liz Helgesen
If we can be quieter, more in the moment with what is actually happening, a world of perception opens up for us based on where we are, not on where we one day hope to be. "Nobody sees a flower, really; it is so small," said artist Georgia O'Keeffe. "We haven't time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time." If we learn to take a little more time and be more fully aware of just where we are, we might see many new flowers and have many more friends.
One way of describing an ability to hold our convictions without drawing premature conclusions, feeling automatically defeated, or losing sight of what goodness life might be offering us today is the old-fashioned virtue patience. Despite the common misconception, having patience doesn't mean making a pact with the devil of denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being wholeheartedly engaged in the process that's unfolding, rather than yanking up our carrots, ripping open a budding flower, demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with.
True patience isn't gritting one's teeth and saying, "I'll bear with this for another five minutes because I'm sure it will be over by then and something better will come along." Patience isn't dour, and it isn't unhappy. It's a steady strength that we apply to each experience we face. If the situation calls for action, we must take it - patience doesn't mean inertia or complacence. Instead, it gives us a courageous dedication to the long haul, along with the willingness to connect with the multilayered truth of what is right here.
Are those of us not naturally blessed with patience doomed to yell at our children or our forgetful parents, litter our office floors with disemboweled computer parts (or at least threaten to), or berate ourselves each time we fail to live up to our own expectations? Or can we cultivate a new way of responding?
Anytime we're waiting - for the checkout person to ring us up, for the doctor's office to call, for a friend who has hurt us to apologize - we can remember we're alive right now. We can be determined to use this moment as a vehicle for paying attention, for growing, for opening.
Whenever we're pushing against what is, as though if we tried hard enough we could force the tempo of change, we can take a breath. Whatever our vision for how things should be in the future, we can make sure we do the very next thing we need to do today. And whenever we're in a fury of impatient resentment because our companion is walking too slowly or the mail came too late or we're being ignored or we can't concentrate or we can't name what we want - or any of the countless everyday things we find hard, we can remind ourselves of what is good right now. Then, as we work to redress what is wrong, the belligerence, agitation, and frustration will drain out of our "now," and the word can become a declaration of purpose and strength, supported by the gentle, developing power of patience.
Click HERE for the Audio Reading by Liz Helgesen
If we can be quieter, more in the moment with what is actually happening, a world of perception opens up for us based on where we are, not on where we one day hope to be. "Nobody sees a flower, really; it is so small," said artist Georgia O'Keeffe. "We haven't time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time." If we learn to take a little more time and be more fully aware of just where we are, we might see many new flowers and have many more friends.
One way of describing an ability to hold our convictions without drawing premature conclusions, feeling automatically defeated, or losing sight of what goodness life might be offering us today is the old-fashioned virtue patience. Despite the common misconception, having patience doesn't mean making a pact with the devil of denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being wholeheartedly engaged in the process that's unfolding, rather than yanking up our carrots, ripping open a budding flower, demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with.
True patience isn't gritting one's teeth and saying, "I'll bear with this for another five minutes because I'm sure it will be over by then and something better will come along." Patience isn't dour, and it isn't unhappy. It's a steady strength that we apply to each experience we face. If the situation calls for action, we must take it - patience doesn't mean inertia or complacence. Instead, it gives us a courageous dedication to the long haul, along with the willingness to connect with the multilayered truth of what is right here.
Are those of us not naturally blessed with patience doomed to yell at our children or our forgetful parents, litter our office floors with disemboweled computer parts (or at least threaten to), or berate ourselves each time we fail to live up to our own expectations? Or can we cultivate a new way of responding?
Anytime we're waiting - for the checkout person to ring us up, for the doctor's office to call, for a friend who has hurt us to apologize - we can remember we're alive right now. We can be determined to use this moment as a vehicle for paying attention, for growing, for opening.
Whenever we're pushing against what is, as though if we tried hard enough we could force the tempo of change, we can take a breath. Whatever our vision for how things should be in the future, we can make sure we do the very next thing we need to do today. And whenever we're in a fury of impatient resentment because our companion is walking too slowly or the mail came too late or we're being ignored or we can't concentrate or we can't name what we want - or any of the countless everyday things we find hard, we can remind ourselves of what is good right now. Then, as we work to redress what is wrong, the belligerence, agitation, and frustration will drain out of our "now," and the word can become a declaration of purpose and strength, supported by the gentle, developing power of patience.
Pablo Neruda's Greatest Lesson from Childhood--by Lewis Hyde (Dec 09, 2013)
Click here for the Audio Reading by Liz Helgesen
Download this file (right-click or Control-click)
Playing in the lot behind the house one day when he was still a little boy, Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board. "I looked through the hole and saw a landscape like that behind our house, uncared for, and wild. I moved back a few steps, because I sensed vaguely that something was about to happen. All of a sudden a hand appeared---a tiny hand of a boy about my own age. By the time I came close again, the hand was gone, and in its place there was a marvellous white toy sheep.
"The sheep's wool was faded. Its wheels had escaped. All of this only made it more authentic. I had never seen such a wonderful sheep. I looked back through the hole but the boy had disappeared. I went in the house and brought out a measure of my own: a pine cone, opened, full of odor and resin, which I adored. I set it down in the same spot and went off with the sheep.
"I never saw either the hand or the boy again. And I have never seen a sheep like that either. The toy I lost finally in a fire. But even now...whenever I pass a toyshop, I look furtively into the window. It's no use. They don't make sheep like that anymore."
Neruda has commented on this incident several times. "This exchange of gifts---mysterious---settled deep inside me like a sedimentary deposit," he once remarked in an interview. And he associates the exchange with his poetry. "I have been a lucky man. To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvellous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that come from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses---that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.
"That exchange brought home to me for the first time a precious idea: that all humanity is somehow together...It won't surprise you then that I have attempted to give something resiny, earthlike, and fragrant in exchange for human brotherhood...
"This is the great lesson I learned in my childhood, in the backyard of a lonely house. Maybe it was nothing but a game two boys played who didn't know each other and wanted to pass to the other some good things of life. Yet maybe this small and mysterious exchange of gifts remained inside me also, deep and indestructible, giving my poetry light."
--Lewis Hyde, from "The Gift"
Download this file (right-click or Control-click)
Playing in the lot behind the house one day when he was still a little boy, Neruda discovered a hole in a fence board. "I looked through the hole and saw a landscape like that behind our house, uncared for, and wild. I moved back a few steps, because I sensed vaguely that something was about to happen. All of a sudden a hand appeared---a tiny hand of a boy about my own age. By the time I came close again, the hand was gone, and in its place there was a marvellous white toy sheep.
"The sheep's wool was faded. Its wheels had escaped. All of this only made it more authentic. I had never seen such a wonderful sheep. I looked back through the hole but the boy had disappeared. I went in the house and brought out a measure of my own: a pine cone, opened, full of odor and resin, which I adored. I set it down in the same spot and went off with the sheep.
"I never saw either the hand or the boy again. And I have never seen a sheep like that either. The toy I lost finally in a fire. But even now...whenever I pass a toyshop, I look furtively into the window. It's no use. They don't make sheep like that anymore."
Neruda has commented on this incident several times. "This exchange of gifts---mysterious---settled deep inside me like a sedimentary deposit," he once remarked in an interview. And he associates the exchange with his poetry. "I have been a lucky man. To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvellous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that come from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and our weaknesses---that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being, and unites all living things.
"That exchange brought home to me for the first time a precious idea: that all humanity is somehow together...It won't surprise you then that I have attempted to give something resiny, earthlike, and fragrant in exchange for human brotherhood...
"This is the great lesson I learned in my childhood, in the backyard of a lonely house. Maybe it was nothing but a game two boys played who didn't know each other and wanted to pass to the other some good things of life. Yet maybe this small and mysterious exchange of gifts remained inside me also, deep and indestructible, giving my poetry light."
--Lewis Hyde, from "The Gift"