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<title>Listen to Daughter of Invention Short Story in English</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/listen-to-daughter-of-invention-short-story-in-english/</link>
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<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 15- Daughter of Invention Short Story in English In this lesson, you listen to Daughter of Invention Short Story in English. This entertaining story from Julia Alvarez begins by relating how a mother spends her limited free time trying to realize the Great American Dream by inventing improved household gadgets. […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/listen-to-daughter-of-invention-short-story-in-english/">Listen to Daughter of Invention Short Story in English</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 15- Daughter of Invention Short Story in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to Daughter of Invention Short Story in English. This entertaining story from Julia Alvarez begins by relating how a mother spends her limited free time trying to realize the Great American Dream by inventing improved household gadgets. Conflict arises over her daughter Yolanda’s inspired but controversial Teacher’s Day speech. Her father, whose family suffered bloody repression in his home country, ironically tears up the speech and demands a traditional, more respectful approach. His subsequent “make-up” gift of a typewriter symbolizes that the family “inventor” role has passed on to literary-minded Yolanda. Major themes: family relationships, cultural adjustment, freedom of expression, empowerment of women, pursuit of dreams.
 
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Lesson Script
Daughter of Invention – Julia Alvarez
She wanted to invent something, my mother. There was a period after we arrived in this country, until five or so years later, when my mother was inventing. They were never pressing, global needs she was addressing with her pencil and pad. She would have said that was for men to do, rockets and engines that ran on gasoline and turned the wheels of the world. She was just fussing with little house things, don’t mind her.
She always invented at night, after settling her house down. On his side of the bed my father would be conked out for an hour already, his Spanish newspaper draped over his chest, his glasses, propped up on his bedside table, looking out eerily at the darkened room like a disembodied guard. But in her lighted corner, like some devoted scholar burning the midnight oil, my mother was inventing, sheets pulled to her lap, pillows propped up behind her, her reading glasses riding the bridge of her nose like a schoolmarm’s. On her lap lay one of those innumerable pads of paper my father always brought home from his office, compliments of some pharmaceutical company, advertising tranquilizers or antibiotics or skin cream; in her other hand, my mother held a pencil that looked like a pen with a little cylinder of lead inside. She would work on a sketch of something familiar, but drawn at such close range so she could attach a special nozzle or handier handle, the thing looked peculiar. Once, I mistook the spiral of a corkscrew for a nautilus shell, but it could just as well have been a galaxy forming.
It was the only time all day we’d catch her sitting down, for she herself was living proof of the perpetuum mobile machine so many inventors had sought over the ages. My sisters and I would seek her out now when she seemed to have a moment to talk to us: We were having trouble at school or we wanted her to persuade my father to give us permission to go into the city or to a shopping mall or a movie — in broad daylight! My mother would wave us out of her room. “The problem with you girls . . .” I can tell you right now what the problem always boiled down to: We wanted to become Americans and my father — and my mother, at first — would have none of it.
“You girls are going to drive me crazy!” She always threatened if we kept nagging. “When I end up in Bellevue, you’ll be safely sorry!”
She spoke in English when she argued with us, even though, in a matter of months, her daughters were the fluent ones. Her English was much better than my father’s, but it was still a mishmash of mixed-up idioms and sayings that showed she was “green behind the ears,” as she called it.
If my sisters and I tried to get her to talk in Spanish, she’d snap, “When in Rome, do unto the Romans . . .”
I had become the spokesman for my sisters, and I would stand my ground in that bedroom. “We’re not going to that school anymore, Mami!”
“You have to.” Her eyes would widen with worry. “In this country, it is against the law not to go to school. You want us to get thrown out?”
“You want us to get killed? Those kids were throwing stones today!”
“Sticks and stones don’t break bones . . .” she chanted. I could tell, though, by the look on her face, it was as if one of those stones the kids had aimed at us had hit her. But she always pretended we were at fault. “What did you do to provoke them? It takes two to tangle, you know.”
“Thanks, thanks a lot, Mom!” I’d storm out of that room and into mine. I never called her Mom except when I wanted her to feel how much she had failed us in this country. She was a good enough Mami, fussing and scolding and giving advice, but a terrible girlfriend parent, a real failure of a Mom.
Back she’d go to her pencil and pad, scribbling and tsking and tearing off paper, finally giving up, and taking up her New York Times. Some nights, though, she’d get a good idea, and she’d rush into my room, a flushed look on her face, her tablet of paper in her hand, a cursory knock on the door she’d just thrown open: “Do I have something to show you, Cukita!”
This was my time to myself, after I’d finished my homework, while my sisters were still downstairs watching TV in the basement. Hunched over my small desk, the overhead light turned off, my lamp shining poignantly on my paper, the rest of the room in warm, soft, uncreated darkness, I wrote my secret poems in my new language.
“You’re going to ruin your eyes!” My mother would storm into my room, turning on the overly bright overhead light, scaring off whatever shy passion I had just begun coaxing out of a labyrinth of feelings with the blue thread of my writing.
“Oh Mami!” I’d cry out, my eyes blinking up at her. “I’m writing.”
“Ay, Cukita.” That was her communal pet name for whoever was in her favor. “Cukita, when I make a million, I’ll buy you your very own typewriter.” (I’d been nagging my mother for one just like the one father had bought her to do his order forms at home.) “Gravy on the turkey” was what she called it when someone was buttering her up. She’d butter and pour. “I’ll hire you your very own typist.”
Down she’d plop on my bed and hold out her pad to me. “Take a guess, Cukita?” I’d study her rough sketch a moment: soap sprayed from the nozzle head of a shower when you turned the knob a certain way? Coffee with creamer already mixed in? Time-released water capsules for your plants when you were away? A key chain with a timer that would go off when your parking meter was about to expire? (The ticking would help you find your keys easily if you mislaid them.) The famous one, famous only in hindsight, was the stick person dragging a square by a rope—a suitcase with wheels? “Oh, of course,” we’d humor her. “What every household needs: a shower like a car wash, keys ticking like a bomb, luggage on a leash!” By now, as you can see, it’d become something of a family joke, our Thomas Edison Mami, our Benjamin Franklin Mom.
Her face would fall. “Come on now! Use your head.” One more wrong guess, and she’d tell me, pressing with her pencil point the different highlights of this incredible new wonder. “Remember that time we took the car to Bear Mountain, and we re-ah-lized that we had forgotten to pack an opener with our pick-a-nick?” (We kept correcting her, but she insisted this is how it should be said.) “When we were ready to eat we didn’t have any way to open the refreshments cans?” (This before fliptop lids, which she claimed had crossed her mind.) “You know what this is now?” A shake of my head. “Is a car bumper, but see this part is a removable can opener. So simple and yet so necessary, no?”
“Yeah, Mami. You should patent it.” I’d shrug. She’d tear off the scratch paper and fold it, carefully, corner to corner, as if she were going to save it. But then, she’d toss it in the wastebasket on her way out of the room and give a little laugh like a disclaimer. “It’s half of one or two dozen of another . . .”
I suppose none of her daughters was very encouraging. We resented her spending time on those dumb inventions. Here, we were trying to fit in America among Americans; we needed help figuring out who we were, why these Irish kids whose grandparents were micks two generations ago, why they were calling us spics. Why had we come to the country in the first place? Important, crucial, final things, you see, and here was our own mother, who didn’t have a second to help us puzzle any of this out, inventing gadgets to make life easier for American moms. Why, it seemed as if she were arming our own enemy against us!
One time, she did have a moment of triumph. Every night, she liked to read The New York Times in bed before turning off her light, to see what the Americans were up to. One night, she let out a yelp to wake up my father beside her, bolt upright, reaching for his glasses which, in his haste, he knocked across the room. “Que pasa? Que pasa?” What is wrong? There was terror in his voice, fear she’d seen in his eyes in the Dominican Republic before we left. We were being watched there; he was being followed; he and mother had often exchanged those looks. They could not talk, of course, though they must have whispered to each other in fear at night in the dark bed. Now in America, he was safe, a success even; his Centro Medico in Brooklyn was thronged with the sick and the homesick. But in dreams, he went back to those awful days and long nights, and my mother’s screams confirmed his secret fear: We had not gotten away after all; they had come for us at last.
“Ay, Papi, I’m sorry. Go back to sleep, Cukito. It’s nothing, nothing really.” My mother held up the Times for him to squint at the small print, back page headline, one hand tapping all over the top of the bedside table for his glasses, the other rubbing his eyes to wakefulness.
“Remember, remember how I showed you that suitcase with little wheels so we would not have to carry those heavy bags when we traveled? Someone stole my idea and made a million!” She shook the paper in his face. She shook the paper in all our faces that night. “See! See! This man was no bobo! He didn’t put all his pokers on a back burner. I kept telling you, one of these days my ship would pass me by in the night!” She wagged her finger at my sisters and my father and me, laughing all the while, one of those eerie laughs crazy people in movies laugh. We had congregated in her room to hear the good news she’d been yelling down the stairs, and now we eyed her and each other. I suppose we were all thinking the same thing: Wouldn’t it be weird and sad if Mami did end up in Bellevue as she’d always threatened she might?
“Ya, ya! Enough!” She waved us out of her room at last. “There is no use trying to drink spilt milk, that’s for sure.”
It was the suitcase rollers that stopped my mother’s hand; she had weather vaned a minor brainstorm. She would have to start taking herself seriously. That blocked the free play of her ingenuity. Besides, she had also begun working at my father’s office, and at night, she was too tired and busy filling in columns with how much money they had made that day to be fooling with gadgets!
She did take up her pencil and pad one last time to help me out. In ninth grade, I was chosen by my English teacher, Sister Mary Joseph, to deliver the teacher’s day address at the school assembly. Back in the Dominican Republic, I was a terrible student. No one could ever get me to sit down to a book. But in New York, I needed to settle somewhere, and the natives were unfriendly, the country inhospitable, so I took root in the language. By high school, the nuns were reading my stories and compositions out loud to my classmates as examples of imagination at work.
This time my imagination jammed. At first I didn’t want and then I couldn’t seem to write that speech. I suppose I should have thought of it as a “great honor,” as my father called it. But I was mortified. I still had a pronounced lilt to my accent, and I did not like to speak in public, subjecting myself to my classmates’ ridicule. Recently, they had begun to warm toward my sisters and me, and it took no great figuring to see that to deliver a eulogy for a convent full of crazy, old overweight nuns was no way to endear myself to the members of my class. But I didn’t know how to get out of it. Week after week, I’d sit down, hoping to polish off some quick, noncommittal little speech. I couldn’t get anything down.
The weekend before our Monday morning assembly I went into a panic. My mother would just have to call in and say I was in the hospital, in a coma. I was in the Dominican Republic. Yeah, that was it! Recently, my father had been talking about going back home to live.
My mother tried to calm me down. “Just remember how Mister Lincoln couldn’t think of anything to say at the Gettysburg, but then, Bang! ‘Four score and once upon a time ago,’” she began reciting. Her version of history was half invention and half-truths and whatever else she needed to prove a point. “Something is going to come if you just relax. You’ll see, like the Americans say, ‘Necessity is the daughter of invention.’ I’ll help you.”
All weekend, she kept coming into my room with help. “Please, Mami, just leave me alone, please,” I pleaded with her. But I’d get rid of the goose only to have to contend with the gander. My father kept poking his head in the door just to see if I had “fulfilled my obligations,” a phrase he’d used when we were a little younger, and he’d check to see whether we had gone to the bathroom before a car trip. Several times that weekend around the supper table, he’d recite his valedictorian speech from when he graduated from high school. He’d give me pointers on delivery, on the great orators and their tricks. (Humbleness and praise and falling silent with great emotion were his favorites.)
My mother sat across the table, the only one who seemed to be listening to him. My sisters and I were forgetting a lot of our Spanish, and my father’s formal, florid diction was even harder to understand. But my mother smiled softly to herself, and turned the Lazy Susan at the center of the table around and around as if it were the prime mover, the first gear of attention.
That Sunday evening, I was reading some poetry to get myself inspired: Whitman in an old book with an engraved cover my father had picked up in a thrift shop next to his office a few weeks back. “I celebrate myself and sing myself. . .” “He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.” The poet’s words shocked and thrilled me. I had gotten used to the nuns, a literature of appropriate sentiments, poems with a message, expurgated texts. But here was a flesh and blood man, belching and laughing and sweating in poems. “Who touches this book touches a man.”
That night, at last, I started to write, recklessly, three, five pages, looking up once only to see my father passing by the hall on tiptoe. When I was done, I read over my words, and my eyes filled. I finally sounded like myself in English!
As soon as I had finished that first draft, I called my mother to my room. She listened attentively, as she had to my father’s speech, and in the end, her eyes were glistening too. Her face was soft and warm and proud. “That is a beautiful, beautiful speech, Cukita. I want for your father to hear it before he goes to sleep. Then I will type it for you, all right?”
Down the hall we went, the two of us, faces flushed with accomplishment. Into the master bedroom where my father was propped up on his pillows, still awake, reading the Dominican papers, already days old. He had become interested in his country’s fate again. The dictatorship had been toppled. The interim government was going to hold the first free elections in thirty years. There was still some question in his mind whether or not we might want to move back. History was in the making, freedom and hope were in the air again! But my mother had gotten used to the life here. She did not want to go back to the old country where she was only a wife and a mother (and a failed one at that, since she had never had the required son). She did not come straight out and disagree with my father’s plans. Instead, she fussed with him about reading the papers in bed, soiling those sheets with those poorly printed, foreign tabloids. “The Times is not that bad!” she’d claim if my father tried to humor her by saying they shared the same dirty habit.
The minute my father saw my mother and me, filing in, he put his paper down, and his face brightened as if at long last his wife had delivered a son, and that was the news we were bringing him. His teeth were already grinning from the glass of water next to his bedside lamp, so he lisped when he said, “Eh-speech, eh-speech!”
“It is so beautiful, Papi,” my mother previewed him, turning the sound off on his TV. She sat down at the foot of the bed. I stood before both of them, blocking their view of the soldiers in helicopters landing amid silenced gun reports and explosions. A few weeks ago it had been the shores of the Dominican Republic. Now it was the jungles of Southeast Asia they were saving. My mother gave me the nod to begin reading.
I didn’t need much encouragement. I put my nose to the fire, as my mother would have said, and read from start to finish without looking up. When I was done, I was a little embarrassed at my pride in my own words. I pretended to quibble with a phrase or two I was sure I’d be talked out of changing. I looked questioningly to my mother. Her face was radiant. She turned to share her pride with my father.
But the expression on his face shocked us both. His toothless mouth had collapsed into a dark zero. His eyes glared at me, then shifted to my mother, accusingly. In barely audible Spanish, as if secret microphones or informers were all about, he whispered, “You will permit her to read that?”
My mother’s eyebrows shot up, her mouth fell open. In the old country, any whisper of a challenge to authority could bring the secret police in their black V.W.’s. But this was America. People could say what they thought. “What is wrong with her speech?” my mother questioned him.
What ees wrrrong with her eh-speech?” My father wagged his head at her. His anger was always more frightening in his broken English. As if he had mutilated the language in his fury — and now there was nothing to stand between us and his raw, dumb anger. “What is wrong? I will tell you what is wrong. It shows no gratitude. It is boastful. ‘I celebrate myself’? ‘The best student learns to destroy the teacher’?” He mocked my plagiarized words. “That is insubordinate. It is improper. It is disrespecting of her teachers—” In his anger he had forgotten his fear of lurking spies: Each wrong he voiced was a decibel higher than the last outrage. Finally, he was yelling at me, “As your father, I forbid you to say that eh-speech!”
My mother leapt to her feet, a sign always that she was about to make a speech or deliver an ultimatum. She was a small woman, and she spoke all her pronouncements standing up, either for more protection or as a carry-over from her girlhood in convent schools where one asked for, and literally took, the floor in order to speak. She stood by my side, shoulder to shoulder; we looked down at my father. “That is no tone of voice, Eduardo—” she began.
By now, my father was truly furious. I suppose it was bad enough I was rebelling, but here was my mother joining forces with me. Soon he would be surrounded by a house full of independent American women. He too leapt from his bed, throwing off his covers. The Spanish newspapers flew across the room. He snatched my speech out of my hands, held it before my panicked eyes, a vengeful, mad look in his own, and then once, twice, three, four, countless times, he tore my prize into shreds.
“Are you crazy?” My mother lunged at him. “Have you gone mad? That is her speech for tomorrow you have torn up!”
“Have you gone mad?” He shook her away. “You were going to let her read that . . . that insult to her teachers?”
“Insult to her teachers!” My mother’s face had crumpled up like a piece of paper. On it was written a love note to my father. Ever since they had come to this country, their life together was a constant war. “This is America, Papi, America!” she reminded him now. “You are not in a savage country any more!”
I was on my knees, weeping wildly, collecting all the little pieces of my speech, hoping that I could put it back together before the assembly tomorrow morning. But not even a sibyl could have made sense of all those scattered pieces of paper. All hope was lost. “He broke it, he broke it,” I moaned as I picked up a handful of pieces.
Probably, if I had thought a moment about it, I would not have done what I did next. I would have realized my father had lost brothers and comrades to the dictator Trujillo. For the rest of his life, he would be haunted by blood in the streets and late night disappearances. Even after he had been in the states for years, he jumped if a black Volkswagen passed him on the street. He feared anyone in uniform: the meter maid giving out parking tickets, a museum guard approaching to tell him not to touch his favorite Goya at the Metropolitan.
I took a handful of the scraps I had gathered, stood up, and hurled them in his face. “Chapita!” I said in a low, ugly whisper. “You’re just another Chapita!”
It took my father only a moment to register the hated nickname of our dictator, and he was after me. Down the halls we raced, but I was quicker than he and made it to my room just in time to lock the door as my father threw his weight against it. He called down curses on my head, ordered me on his authority as my father to open that door this very instant! He throttled that doorknob, but all to no avail. My mother’s love of gadgets saved my hide that night. She had hired a locksmith to install good locks on all the bedroom doors after our house had been broken into while we were away the previous summer. In case burglars broke in again, and we were in the house, they’d have a second round of locks to contend with before they got to us.
“Eduardo,” she tried to calm him down. “Don’t you ruin my new locks.”
He finally did calm down, his anger spent. I heard their footsteps retreating down the hall. I heard their door close, the clicking of their lock. Then, muffled voices, my mother’s peaking in anger, in persuasion, my father’s deep murmurs of explanation and of self-defense. At last, the house fell silent, before I heard, far off, the gun blasts and explosions, the serious, self-important voices of newscasters reporting their TV war.
A little while later, there was a quiet knock at my door, followed by a tentative attempt at the doorknob. “Cukita?” my mother whispered. “Open up, Cukita.”
“Go away,” I wailed, but we both knew I was glad she was there, and I needed only a moment’s protest to save face before opening that door.
What we ended up doing that night was putting together a speech at the last moment. Two brief pages of stale compliments and the polite commonplaces on teachers, wrought by necessity without much invention by mother for daughter late into the night in the basement on the pad of paper and with the same pencil she had once used for her own inventions, for I was too upset to compose the speech myself. After it was drafted, she typed it up while I stood by, correcting her misnomers and mis-sayings.
She was so very proud of herself when I came home the next day with the success story of the assembly. The nuns had been flattered, the audience had stood up and given “our devoted teachers a standing ovation,” what my mother had suggested they do at the end of my speech.
She clapped her hands together as I recreated the moment for her. “I stole that from your father’s speech, remember? Remember how he put that in at the end?” She quoted him in Spanish, then translated for me into English.
That night, I watched him from the upstairs hall window where I’d retreated the minute I heard his car pull up in front of our house. Slowly, my father came up the driveway, a grim expression on his face as he grappled with a large, heavy cardboard box. At the front door, he set the package down carefully and patted all his pockets for his house keys — precisely why my mother had invented her ticking key chain. I heard the snapping open of the locks downstairs. Heard as he struggled to maneuver the box through the narrow doorway. Then, he called my name several times. But I would not answer him.
“My daughter, your father, he love you very much,” he explained from the bottom of the stairs. “He just want to protect you.” Finally, my mother came up and pleaded with me to go down and reconcile with him. “Your father did not mean to harm. You must pardon him. Always it is better to let bygones be forgotten, no?”
I guess she was right. Downstairs, I found him setting up a brand new electric typewriter on the kitchen table. It was even better than the one I’d been begging to get like my mother’s. My father had outdone himself with all the extra features: a plastic carrying case with my initials, in decals, below the handle, a brace to lift the paper upright while I typed, an erase cartridge, an automatic margin tab, a plastic hood like a toaster cover to keep the dust away. Not even my mother, I think, could have invented such a machine!
But her inventing days were over just as mine were starting up with my schoolwide success. That’s why I’ve always thought of that speech my mother wrote for me as her last invention rather than the suitcase rollers everyone else in the family remembers. It was as if she had passed on to me her pencil and pad and said, “Okay, Cukita, here’s the buck. You give it a shot.”
 
 
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 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/listen-to-daughter-of-invention-short-story-in-english/">Listen to Daughter of Invention Short Story in English</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Short Dialogue about AI in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-artificial-intelligence-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:09:01 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11870</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 14- Dialogue about Artificial Intelligence in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s short dialogue about artificial intelligence.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Two people discuss AI and the rise […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-artificial-intelligence-in-english-with-quiz/">Short Dialogue about AI in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 14- Dialogue about Artificial Intelligence in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s short dialogue about artificial intelligence.
 
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Two people discuss AI and the rise of robots.
 
Patricia: Hi, John.
John: Hey.
Patricia: Today we’re talking about artificial intelligence or AI. Maybe getting into a little bit of robotics.
John: I like it.
Patricia: Just wanted to know your take on how you think this will change our society. The advancements that have been made so far in AI and robotics.
John: Well, I mean, already we’ve seen there’s a huge push towards whether it’s AI in think tanks or things of that nature to people just exploring the idea of AI in terms of writing their own books, poetry, art. AI that is painting. I think the possibilities are endless. We will see development and exploration into ideas and areas we’ve never even thought of. Think about the idea of an AI painter or sculptor. They can probably pull the knowledge of all the painters and artists of the world and come together to form some entirely new form of expressionism or something of that nature. The idea of AI in medicine. It can look at exploring different ways of doing things, things that humans have never thought of and because of the sheer speed at which computers can process and, for lack of a better word think, the potential for growth in this area I think is endless.
Patricia: Overall do you think these things will improve or worsen our society?
John: Well, like anything, I think it has a potential to do both. If we’re not careful, it could lead to the corruption of minds, the abuse of these advancements to either oppress people or subjugate them. With the proper minds at the helm, this could serve to benefit humanity. If we have AI taking care of things like surgeries, exploration into dangerous areas, humans no longer need to endanger themselves to engage in exploration. These AIs can do the exploration for us, and we can benefit from what they find. That’s not to say that humans can’t still be exploring and expose themselves to all these amazing new things, it just means that we can take out some of that crazy level of danger and reduce that down so that humans can spend their time exploring other past times, other leisure activities to improve their minds, their bodies, their souls, however you want to put it.
Patricia: Interesting, very interesting ideas. If you could have AI or a robot to help you with something in your everyday life, what do you think you would want help with? What would you use a robot for?
John: What activities, tasks? Basically would be like a personal assistant. I would have somebody to help me organize my day, my activities. Help me stay on tasks, stay focused, take care of cleaning. I love cooking so I would probably still want to engage in some of that myself, but there may be days where I’m busy, so an AI whether it’s in robot form or something like that, to take care of those tasks for me so that I can be more productive in the other areas of my life that need it would be fantastic.
Patricia: Yeah, I agree. I would love to have someone who could do chores around the house for me, like cleaning. Yeah, thanks for your ideas, John. It was awesome to talk to you.
John: Not a problem. I look forward to it, the next, sorry. I look forward to the next time we talk.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) He says AI will be good at ______ art.
<ol>
<li>a) copying</li>
<li>b) creating</li>
<li>c) preserving</li>
</ol>
 
2) He thinks AI can protect people from dangerous _____.
<ol>
<li>a) jobs</li>
<li>b) ideas</li>
<li>c) people</li>
</ol>
 
3) He woud like a robot to help him _____.
<ol>
<li>a) be healthy</li>
<li>b) learn language</li>
<li>c) organize his life</li>
</ol>
 
4) He thinks AI could ____ his chores.
<ol>
<li>a) do all of</li>
<li>b) do some of</li>
<li>c) not do most of</li>
</ol>
 
5) She would like a robot for _____.
<ol>
<li>a) security</li>
<li>b) cleaning</li>
<li>c) friendship</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=b</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
take on
I want to know your take on how you think this will change our society.
Here, a person’s take on something is their opinion about a topic. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">What is your take on pineapple pizza?</li>
<li aria-level="1">I disagree with her take on social media.</li>
</ol>
 
corruption on the minds
It could lead to the corruption of minds.
The phrase ‘corruption of the minds’ refers to influencing people with harmful ideas. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Social media can lead to corruption of the minds.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Dictators rely on the corruption of the minds.</li>
</ol>
 
at the helm
With the proper minds at the helm, this could serve to benefit humanity.
The phrase ‘at the helm’ means to be in charge of something. It refers to being in charge of a ship. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">With Mary at the helm, I am confident we can succeed.</li>
<li aria-level="1">We need new leadership. No one is at the helm.</li>
</ol>
 
Past Times
Humans can spend their time exploring other past times.
A past time is a hobby or leisure activity like reading or playing sports. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">People have less time for past times these days.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Gardening is a healthy pastime.</li>
</ol>
 
personal assistant
I would like a personal assistant.
A personal assistant is a person that helps someone do various tasks such as chores and bureaucratic tasks. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Most movies stars have a personal assistant.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I want a personal assistant to help me do paper work.</li>
</ol>
 
take care of
Help me stay on tasks, stay focused, take care of cleaning.
Here, the phrase ‘to take care of’ means to do something, usually for another person. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I am busy now. Can you take care of this for me?</li>
<li aria-level="1">My wife takes care of all my banking and money issues.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">take on</li>
<li aria-level="1">corruption</li>
<li aria-level="1">at the helm</li>
<li aria-level="1">pastime</li>
<li aria-level="1">personal assistant</li>
<li aria-level="1">take care of</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Extreme views can lead to……….. of the minds.</li>
<li aria-level="1">With Lamar…………. , we are in good shape.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Most CEOs have a…………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">Watching movies is a common……….. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">If you are busy, I can……….. that for you.</li>
<li aria-level="1">What is your………. online learning?</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-artificial-intelligence-in-english-with-quiz/">Short Dialogue about AI in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
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<title>Dialogue about Music Genres in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-music-genres-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:08:53 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11869</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 13- Dialogue about Music Genres in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about music genres.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Two people discuss music they like. Adriana: Julian, […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-music-genres-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Music Genres in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 13- Dialogue about Music Genres in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about music genres.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Two people discuss music they like.
Adriana: Julian, tell me, do you have any type of favorite music?
Julian: I think my favorite music of my favorite genre would be rock and roll. Especially the rock and roll of the eighties, nineties, and some of the seventies. And you, how about you, do you have a favorite genre?
Adriana: Well, that sounds really fun. I think I like rock too, but newer like from the nineties, 2000, that was awesome. I think my favorite band would be Coldplay. I know it’s pretty popular, but they have some really good songs and they’ve been around for a long time. What would you say is your favorite band?
Julian: Well, Coldplay is really good, I really like them. But I prefer Guns N Roses, Boston, Chicago. Well, I know that those are state and cities, but they actually are rock band names. So those are my favorites.
Adriana: That’s awesome. Yeah, I think the music before was pretty cool, too. And today, with all the technology we have and everything, you can listen to music pretty much everywhere. Do you have any streaming platform that’s your favorite? Like Spotify, Apple, what do you use?
Julian: Well actually, there’s a platform that I really like, I’ve been using Spotify, but lately I discovered one that it’s called TIDAL and that platform, what it does, it’s that you get your music without losing quality. And that’s something really cool when you have a good pair of headphones. And talking about technology, well that’s something cool to get your hands on.
Adriana: Well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that. I prefer Spotify. I think you can just download the app, use it on your phone, your computer, it’s pretty cool. And tell me, with all this technology and everything that has been going on in the last years, do you think that has helped music, like the musicians to make their music and producers, or was music better in the seventies and eighties? What do you think about that?
Julian: Well, it’s a really complicated, question because I think all music deserves credit, but I really enjoy the old days music. Musicians were really challenged by its gear, it was analog gear, so it was really difficult to make good and high quality recordings. So I really think that it’s more the appreciation that I have for all the effort they did back then. And I would say that I prefer the old ones.
Adriana: Yeah, I see your point, definitely. It was harder to record back then. Today with all the technology and everything that computers can do today, I think it’s easier, right? Pretty much anyone can record their own music in their home, and that’s amazing don’t you think?
Julian: Well, yeah you’re right. We have to give credit to them too, because nowadays you can have your own home studio and you can do everything by yourself. From recording, mixing, mastering. But also you have to study a lot because now you’re doing the work of a lot of people.
Adriana: Yeah. That still sounds like a lot of work, right?
Julian: Yes it is, but I think it’s worth it.
Adriana: That’s awesome. So tell me, I think you actually did record your own music a couple of months ago, right? By yourself?
Julian: Yes. And it was awesome. I recorded a whole album, it was an instrumental album. It was an orchestra and choir.
Adriana: That’s amazing. I can’t believe what technology has done today. And if you think about also, all the good things about the streaming platforms that there are, is that your music can be heard everywhere in the world. There can be somebody in China or France, just listening to your album right now, without you doing anything else. So platforms and technology has definitely helped, right?
Julian: Yeah, definitely.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) He likes music from ______ .
<ol>
<li>a) 1 decade</li>
<li>b) 2 decades</li>
<li>c) 3 decades</li>
</ol>
 
2) She likes music that is ____ than his.
<ol>
<li>a) older than</li>
<li>b) newer than</li>
<li>c) the same time as</li>
</ol>
 
3) Who likes Cold Play?
<ol>
<li>a) Just her</li>
<li>b) Just him</li>
<li>c) Both of them</li>
</ol>
 
4) Some of his favorite bands have the same name as ______ .
<ol>
<li>a) plants</li>
<li>b) places</li>
<li>c) animals</li>
</ol>
 
5) His new app lets him listen to music _____ .
<ol>
<li>a) without paying</li>
<li>b) in high quality</li>
<li>c) without headphones</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=b</li>
</ul>
 
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
been around
They’ve been around for a long time
Here, the phrase ‘been around’ means something has been known for a long time. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Cowboy hats have been around for a long time.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The Internet has not been around that long really.</li>
</ol>
 
Get your hand on
that’s something cool to get your hands on
Here, ‘to get your hands on’ means to obtain something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I would love to get my hands on a smart watch.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Online, I was able to get my hands on a really, nice old watch.</li>
</ol>
 
Be going on
everything that has been going on
The phrase ‘to be going on’ refers to things that are happening in life. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">A lot is going on in the news these days.</li>
<li aria-level="1">So, what has been going in with your life?</li>
</ol>
 
Deserve credit
I think all music deserves credit
The phrase ‘ to deserve credit’ means that something should get praise or recognition. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">He deserves a lot of credit for what he did.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I don’t deserve any credit. Mary did all the work.</li>
</ol>
 
Back then
all the effort they did back then
‘Back then’ means previously, or at a time in the past. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I was poor in college, but I was happier back then.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I went to college in the 80s. There was no Internet back then.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">been around</li>
<li aria-level="1">hands</li>
<li aria-level="1">going</li>
<li aria-level="1">deserve</li>
<li aria-level="1">back then</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Now life is easy, but……….. it was hard.</li>
<li aria-level="1">That style of music has………. forever .</li>
<li aria-level="1">If you get your………. on one, let me know.</li>
<li aria-level="1">They………. a lot of credit.</li>
<li aria-level="1">A lot has been………. on over there.</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-music-genres-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Music Genres in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Short Dialogue about Musicians in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-musical-talents-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:08:45 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11868</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 12- Dialogue about Musicians in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s short dialogue about musicians.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Two people discuss musical instruments they can play. Julian: […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-musical-talents-in-english-with-quiz/">Short Dialogue about Musicians in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 12- Dialogue about Musicians in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s short dialogue about musicians.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Two people discuss musical instruments they can play.
Julian: Adriana, did you ever play an instrument?
Adriana: Yeah, I actually play the saxophone.
Julian: Wow. The saxophone. That’s really, really cool. Can you tell me more about it?
Adriana: Yeah, it’s a cool instrument. Well, I actually took lessons. I started just playing by myself and I was just looking at some YouTube videos and finding songs that I like. But then I realized I needed a teacher. So I went to school for a music career and I studied saxophone.
Julian: Wow. A whole music career. I never heard of that.
Adriana: Yeah. It’s pretty cool. Not all universities have them, but I was lucky that where I lived, the university had a music career and the saxophone teacher was really good, so I got to study there for four years. Tell me, Julian, do you play any music instruments?
Julian: Well, yeah, in fact, I play guitar. I learned as a kid in my school. We had this guitar ensemble. It was classical guitar, but it was really cool, too.
Adriana: Well, that sounds awesome. And besides that, did you ever play in a band or with your friends as something different than classical music?
Julian: Well, yeah, we had a rock band, but we didn’t really make it. So we never go out to concerts or festival or something like that. But you studied a whole career about that. Did you do any of that?
Adriana: Yeah, when I was in school, I had a friend that already had a band and they were kind of famous. So, I went to play with them and it was really fun because they actually did travel to different music festivals around the country. And it was a really fun time. But music festivals can be fun, but it’s also a little bit crowded and there’s so many people that go to that type of event. Do you like going to music festivals?
Julian: Well, no, I don’t really go to festivals. I think they’re really crowded, but I do go to concerts, though.
Adriana: Oh, okay. So tell me, what’s the difference between a festival and a concert?
Julian: Well, a concert is when just one band goes to a closed venue or a stadium. Sometimes they have opening bands, but you get to hear the same band for one hour and a half or two hours. And in the festivals, well, it takes place in a big, big park or something like that. And it’s a lot of bands, different kind of genres, and you only get to hear the band you like for 20 minutes.
Adriana: Yeah. Well, I don’t know what I would like better. I think it’ll depend. Because in a festival, maybe you only get 20 minutes, but it’s the best songs that they have, right?
Julian: Yeah. You’re right. I think that’s the best, because if there’s going to be different bands that you really like, it’s only 20 minutes per band, but they’re going to play the best.
Adriana: Yeah. Because then in a concert, maybe you get to see them for an hour, or an hour and a half or even two hours, but sometimes they play songs you don’t even know. Because not everybody listens to their albums. Maybe you just like some songs you heard on the radio and well, they’re probably the most popular ones. So there’s maybe five or 10 more songs that you don’t even know about.
Julian: Yes. There’s this thing where they put a lot of stages. So they’re playing at the same time. It depends, I guess, how big is the venue or the park where they are doing it. But I don’t know. I think that sometimes you’re listening to your rock band, your favorite band, and then over there is like a electronic music going on and well, they mix the audio.
Adriana: Yeah. That’s crazy. It’s like multitasking at a concert, right?
Julian: Yeah. That’s right. But well, I guess it will depend on the people.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) She started watching YouTube lessons ______ she hired a teacher.
<ol>
<li>a) when</li>
<li>b) after</li>
<li>c) before</li>
</ol>
 
2) She studied the saxophone because she _____ .
<ol>
<li>a) was bored</li>
<li>b) wanted a career</li>
<li>c) wanted to look cool</li>
</ol>
 
3) She studied playing the saxophone for four ______ .
<ol>
<li>a) weeks</li>
<li>b) months</li>
<li>c) years</li>
</ol>
 
4) What does he like to attend?
<ol>
<li>a) Concerts</li>
<li>b) Festivals</li>
<li>c) Neither of them</li>
</ol>
 
5) What do they think it is crazy to have _____.
<ol>
<li>a) concerts outdoors</li>
<li>b) multiple stages</li>
<li>c) children at concerts</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=b</li>
</ul>
 
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
really cool
That’s really cool.
The phrase ‘really cool’ means intensely good.
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I really love that band, their music is really cool.</li>
<li aria-level="1">You look really cool in that new hat!</li>
</ol>
 
by myself
I started just playing by myself.
The phrase ‘by myself’ means to do a task independently. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I learned to play the violin by myself.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I worked out how the machine worked by myself.</li>
</ol>
 
besides that
And besides that, did you ever play in a band
The phrase ‘besides that’ means in addition to. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">My sister does ballet, besides that she does tap dancing.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I walk to work everyday, besides that I swim twice weekly.</li>
</ol>
 
kind of
they were kind of famous
The phrase ‘kind of’ means somewhat or rather. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I kind of like that new song.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The woman kind of enjoyed the theater.</li>
</ol>
 
I guess
It depends, I guess, how big is the venue
The phrase ‘I guess’ means someone is speculating about a fact. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I guess we will need a coat.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The shops will be closed by now, I guess.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">cool</li>
<li aria-level="1">by myself</li>
<li aria-level="1">besides</li>
<li aria-level="1">kind of</li>
<li aria-level="1">guess</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The test was………. difficult.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Bob is not here. I………. he isn’t coming today.</li>
<li aria-level="1">These pictures are really…………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">I learn how to fix cars………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">I work tonight, but………. that I am free today.</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-musical-talents-in-english-with-quiz/">Short Dialogue about Musicians in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Dialogue about Going to Beach in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-beach-vacations-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:08:38 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11867</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 11- Dialogue about Beach Vacations in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about going to beach.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Two people talk about time in the […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-beach-vacations-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Going to Beach in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 11- Dialogue about Beach Vacations in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about going to beach.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Two people talk about time in the surf and sand.
 
Tony: We are in the full swing of spring.
Steph: Right.
Tony: Or summer.
Steph: No. Well it’s summer weather, but yeah, not technically.
Tony: Well, today feels like summer. It’s 29 degrees feeling like 30. By the way, are you a beach girl or a pool girl?
Steph: I prefer the beach, to be honest. I like it. I like the sea breeze. I like the trees. I like the sand, waves, everything. I’m so good with that.
Tony: Okay. So are you beach girl, Caribbean, or beach girl by the lake in the North American country?
Steph: I guess the lakes can count as a beach because anything with sand, but that’s not what I think of when I think of beach. You know, I think of, yeah, I think of the ocean or I think of the Caribbean Sea or something. A sea, not even Caribbean, the sea.
Tony: How good a swimmer are you?
Steph: On a scale of…?
Tony: One to ten?
Steph: Two, or one. I don’t know. Yeah. I don’t think I could swim to save my life. I took lessons when I was a little girl, like around maybe five, six, seven years old, I would take lessons. And so I learned a few things. I think at that time I had more confidence and I could swim. But now as an adult, oh, I can’t remember one thing. I mean, I don’t even know if I could keep myself up afloat anymore.
Tony: Yeah. I’m definitely a pool guy, and it sounds weird. I’m originally from the tropics, but geez. I can’t take the sand. Sometime the small little seaweed stuff in the sea, it’s just annoying.
Steph: Oh my gosh. Wow. Who are you? The beach is amazing.
Tony: I know it’s good for you.
Steph: It’s great for you.
Tony: It’s good for your skin. It’s good for.
Steph: Absolutely. It’s like the sand is exfoliating. The salt water, no matter what the contact, whether it be just a little bit or a whole lot, it’s good for your skin, good for your hair – all of that type of stuff. It kind of rebalances you. You can treat the beach as a spa day, in fact.
Tony: Yeah, I think so. But yeah, pool is just a clean affair for me. Just like the river. You dive in, you come out, you dry off, you go. No need to be going, washing off, washing off the sand out your underwear.
Steph: Oh my gosh. You are missing out. I don’t know what you mean. I get it. I get what you’re saying with regards to being clean, but I think you’re missing out. There’s so many benefits to the beach.
Tony: So, if you don’t swim, you don’t dive into the water and go under sea exploration, that sort of thing, what do you do when you go to the beach? Do you just recline on the sand and soak up the sun, and?
Steph: Yeah, that’s part of it. I like to do that, but also, I pose a lot. This is the age of Instagram. You can just, oh, take pretty pictures and things like that. I also do a lot of splashing, going into the water and splashing and getting the water on me. But I swim assisted as well. So I’ve done stork snorkeling, I’ve done scuba diving, and I really actually like the underwater life, the fish and the animals.
Tony: So you don’t fear the deep?
Steph: Not really, not really, as long as I am assisted with a life jacket, with oxygen. I’ve jumped off a cliff before.
Tony: How high was the cliff?
Steph: Oh my, I don’t know. I would say.
Tony: Was it like Grand Canyon high?
Steph: Of course not. That’s crazy. No, but yeah, it was pretty high. It was a cliff. And I jumped off assisted by my lovely life jacket. I feel I can do anything. I’m all good. I really think that my lack of swimming is a confidence issue, or just wanting to be in control, like having my feet on the ground. I feel strange about completely surrendering to the elements, like the air, when you’re diving off or the water, because to float, you would have to do that, right? To give yourself up to the water. And I don’t know how I feel about that.
Tony: But there is some amount of control when you’re paddling under the surface. And the up thrust helps to keep you up. So it is just a matter of relaxing and just, it’s like dancing.
Steph: Is it now? I think that once you have the skill set, then you’ll know how to work along with the water and work along with the air, if you’re diving for instance. But without those skills, I would like to keep my feet firmly planted on the floor, thank you very much, on the ground, thank you very much.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
TBD
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
full swing
We are in the full swing of spring.
The phrase ‘full swing’ means at its highest level. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The party was in full swing.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The band was in the full swing of their performance.</li>
</ol>
 
to be honest
I prefer the beach, to be honest.
The phrase ‘to be honest’ is used when telling someone what you genuinely think. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">To be honest, the meal was not that tasty.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I don’t enjoy exercise, to be honest.</li>
</ol>
 
count as
I guess the lakes can count as a beach.
The phrase ‘count as’ is used to say that one thing is thought to be the same as another particular thing. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">This ice cream cone does not count as dinner.</li>
<li aria-level="1">This day off of work counts as vacation time.</li>
</ol>
 
to save my life
I don’t think I could swim to save my life.
The phrase ‘to save my life’ means it is impossible for you to do something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I couldn’t speak French to save my life.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I can’t cook to save my life.</li>
</ol>
 
keep myself afloat
I don’t even know if I could keep myself up afloat anymore.
The phrase ‘keep myself afloat’ means you can stay above the water. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">In my swimming lesson, I learned to keep myself afloat.</li>
<li aria-level="1">She won’t swim because she doesn’t know how to keep herself afloat.</li>
</ol>
 
I’m good with that.
I like the sand, waves, everything. I’m so good with that.
The phrase ‘I’m good with that’ is used to say you are happy with what is happening. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">We can order pizza tonight. I’m good with that.</li>
<li aria-level="1">My class was canceled today. I’m so good with that.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">full swing</li>
<li aria-level="1">to be honest</li>
<li aria-level="1">good with that</li>
<li aria-level="1">count as</li>
<li aria-level="1">save my life</li>
<li aria-level="1">afloat</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I did not get the job, but I’m……….. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">Does walking………… exercise?</li>
<li aria-level="1">I saw the movie, but…….. it was boring.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I could not sing to………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">In the ocean, it is easy to keep myself………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">In July, summer is in………. .</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-beach-vacations-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Going to Beach in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>English Conversation about Airports and Airplanes with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-airports-and-planes-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:08:30 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11866</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 10- Dialogue about Airports and Airplanes in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s conversation about airport and airplanes.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Hear why a man loves planes […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-airports-and-planes-in-english-with-quiz/">English Conversation about Airports and Airplanes with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 10- Dialogue about Airports and Airplanes in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s conversation about airport and airplanes.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Hear why a man loves planes and airports.
Steph: You listed travel as one of your passions.
Tony: Yeah. But actually my passion is airport to airport, what happens between airports.
Steph: So you like the flying then, the journey?
Tony: Absolutely.
Steph: What about that do you like?
Tony: I love airplanes. Do I love airports? Not really. When I go to an airport I go to the window to look at the airplanes. Since the tender age of five I’ve always had this passion for airplanes, and my dream was to become an airline pilot.
Steph: Okay. Have you ever flown an airplane?
Tony: Have I ever flown in an airplane?
Steph: Not in an airplane. Have you ever flown an airplane?
Tony: I’ve never flown an airplane. I’ve been in the flight deck of a number of aircraft, but I’ve never flown one.
Steph: Okay. So walk us through a trip with Tony. What’s going through your mind along the journey from airport to airport?
Tony: Well, just like the other souls on board, I go on, I sit, I buckle my seatbelt. I obey the commands from the cabin crew. I hear the pilots talking over the Intercom. But I take it another step further. I actually listen to the details of what the pilots are saying. I’m thinking about what’s the weather going to be like, what’s the weather on the ground, what’s the surface winds on the runway? All these things that regular passengers don’t think about when they’re sitting in the seat and they’re just like.
Steph: Yeah. I certainly don’t think about that, no. I am probably just relaxing, and maybe once in a while looking out the window, if I’m privileged enough to get a window seat. And just seeing how pretty it is.
Tony: And if you’re looking out, and you say you have a seat just over the wing, you’re looking out and you’re like, oh, there’s the wing. It looks nice, long, okay.
Steph: I don’t even think that much at any rate.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah. But to me, I’m looking at the wing and I’m like, that’s the forward slats, those are the landing flaps, that’s the spoiler. Oh, look at the winglet at the end. Yeah.
Steph: Okay. No, I’m definitely not thinking that at all. So you actually don’t care about the cities that you’re traveling to, and seeing new places?
Tony: No, no, no. Don’t get me wrong. I actually do. I’ve had the fortune of visiting some really amazing places, like Glasgow, Scotland, which I do love. Meeting the people, meeting different people actually is something I look forward to. And the architecture and all the fun stuff, like art, artworks and crafts and all that stuff that when you travel you always try to secure before you return home. But yeah, I do, I do like the experiences outside of aviation when it comes to traveling. But for me, you may think it’s weird, but it’s still aviation for me. That’s the top. That’s definitely at the top of the list for me. When it comes to flight there are five critical phases. You have takeoff, climb out, cruise, descent and landing. Even at the end of a flight, coming to the end just before landing, the pilots are trying their best to keep the nose of the airplane training down the center line of the runway. After landing, when we’re deplaning, I would often stop at the flight deck door and I’ll be like, “What happened there just before touchdown?” And the pilots would laugh and be like, “Oh, just a little gust. Nothing really. But we’re on the ground, we’re safe.”
Steph: Oh my gosh. So basically you’re grading the pilot as you are taking a trip somewhere.
Tony: Weird. It’s so weird, right?
Steph: Absolutely. Absolutely weird.
Tony: That’s what aviation buffs do.
Steph: Crazy. Crazy.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) What does he like doing?
<ol>
<li>a) Flying in planes</li>
<li>b) Being in airports</li>
<li>c) Planning a vacation</li>
</ol>
 
2) What does he like to watch at airports?
<ol>
<li>a) Pilots</li>
<li>b) People</li>
<li>c) Airplanes</li>
</ol>
 
3) What did he start to like at the age of 5?
<ol>
<li>a) Planes</li>
<li>b) Airports</li>
<li>c) Traveling</li>
</ol>
 
4) Where has he been before?
<ol>
<li>a) 100 airports</li>
<li>b) In the air tower</li>
<li>c) In the flight deck</li>
</ol>
 
5) What does he do when the pilot speaks?
<ol>
<li>a) Say a prayer</li>
<li>b) Listen carefully</li>
<li>c) Read the pamphlet</li>
</ol>
 
6) Does the woman have similar or different views while flying?
<ol>
<li>a) Very similar</li>
<li>b) Very different</li>
<li>c) She has never flown.</li>
</ol>
 
7) What does he like to see out the window?
<ol>
<li>a) The sky</li>
<li>b) The wings</li>
<li>c) The ground</li>
</ol>
 
8) What place has he visited?
<ol>
<li>a) Spain</li>
<li>b) Sweden</li>
<li>c) Scotland</li>
</ol>
 
9) How many critical phases to a flight does he mention?
<ol>
<li>a) Two</li>
<li>b) Four</li>
<li>c) Five</li>
</ol>
 
10) Who does he like to talk with?
<ol>
<li>a) Pilots</li>
<li>b) Cabin crew</li>
<li>c) Passengers</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">6=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">7=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">8=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">9=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">10=a</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
tender age
Since the tender age of five I’ve always had this passion for airplanes, and my dream was to become an airline pilot.
The phrase ‘tender age’ means a young age. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I learned to ride a horse at the tender age of six.</li>
<li aria-level="1">At the tender age of four, the boy had won five awards.</li>
</ol>
 
walk us through
So walk us through a trip with Tony.
The phrase ‘walk us through’ means to explain. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">He had to walk me through the process.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The instructor will walk us through the safety guidelines.</li>
</ol>
 
going through your mind
What’s going through your mind along the journey from airport to airport?
The phrase ‘going through your mind’ is used to describe what someone is thinking. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">What was going through your mind when you saw that alligator?</li>
<li aria-level="1">I can’t understand what was going through your mind.</li>
</ol>
 
at any rate
I don’t even think that much at any rate.
The phrase ‘at any rate’ means anyway or nevertheless. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">At any rate, the boy was finally safe.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I’m not planning to visit that park again, at any rate.</li>
</ol>
 
top of the list
That’s definitely at the top of the list for me.
The phrase ‘top of the list’ means a high priority. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The girl was top of the list for the promotion.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Vacuuming the house was top of my list on Tuesday!</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">tender age</li>
<li aria-level="1">walk</li>
<li aria-level="1">at any rate</li>
<li aria-level="1">going through</li>
<li aria-level="1">top of my list</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Visiting Oman is at the………. for vacation .</li>
<li aria-level="1">I started working at the………. of ten.</li>
<li aria-level="1">He has a lot…….. his mind.</li>
<li aria-level="1">But,…….. there is nothing we can do.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Can you……… us through what happened?</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-airports-and-planes-in-english-with-quiz/">English Conversation about Airports and Airplanes with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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<title>Dialogue about Mobile Phones in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-using-phones-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:08:21 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11865</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 9- Dialogue about Mobile Phones in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about mobile phones.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script When it is OK to use your phone […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-using-phones-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Mobile Phones in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 9- Dialogue about Mobile Phones in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about mobile phones.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
When it is OK to use your phone in public?
 
Jim: So I’m here with Angela, and in a previous interview we were talking about kids and technology and devices, and how these days often people look at their device when they’re with another person. How do you feel about that? If you’re eating with somebody, you’re at dinner, is it okay to check your phone?
Angela: We have a rule in our house, no phones at the table. Absolutely no phones.
Jim: Very nice.
Angela: Because you know, you see people, they meet in restaurants, they sit around a table, the food comes, but everybody’s looking into their phone, and engaging with whatever they’re doing on their phone, and not talking to the people who have met them. And I see people walking on the subway, the street, head in their phone. It’s …
Jim: It is crazy.
Angela: It’s really sad.
Jim: And if you think about it, we used to have manners. Things you couldn’t do. For example, no elbows on the table, no hats inside the house. I mean it sounds silly, but I remember those rules as a kid. The one that was really hard was the no elbows on the table. Yeah, so it’s interesting that we don’t have new rules, like we should reinvent them. You can’t have your phone on during the plane when it takes off, so your rule is a good idea.
Angela: Yeah, no phones at the table.
Jim: So you’re an English teacher, what do you think about phones in the classroom?
Angela: If they’re on a break, I always call it their text break, because when I’m teaching English out here I find that people have got their phone to their hand, and maybe they’re Googling a word or something, so it’s not too much of a distraction. But when you stop them for a break, as soon as you say “let’s have a break now,” they’re all after their phones, and they’re sitting individually looking at their phones.
Jim: And it’s silent, I know what you mean. I’ll teach, and it used to be you would say “okay take a break,” and it would be really loud, they would start talking with each other. And these days it’s just silence, they just go and they do that motion of just flicking with their finger, as they’re scrolling down. And I know I just sound like some old guy, “hey, get off my lawn!” And I have the same problem, I want to check my phone all the time, but I have to admit it’s strange I think.
Angela: And now you needn’t even check your phone, you just look at your Apple watch or your watch on your wrist, it’s going to tell you if your phone needs your attention.
Jim: But it used to be where I would say things like, you know as a teacher you’re teaching, you can see if the student’s looking down at their phone, and I would say “hey, don’t check your phone.” But now these days kids actually call me on it, they’re like, “Oh, I’m looking up a word,” or “Oh, I’m checking something,” and they literally are checking something. And the kids are good at using their phone as a learning tool –
Angela: Yes, I think that’s fine.
Jim: So it is, it’s a gray area these days. Yeah. So when you’re with somebody you never pop out your phone?
Angela: I would admit that I will be guilty of checking my phone in my bag, but I would never get it out and go on Facebook or Instagram and start Instagramming, I would just look at it and put it away.
Jim: Yeah. There’s other things I’ve done, I mean could be because I’m getting older, but for example I try not to listen to my iPod so much anymore, or my phone. Radio, music, whatever. I actually just try to listen. I notice that when I am always listening to everything I kind of tune the world out, and I might miss things.
Angela: You will miss things. You see people, I’ve been quite tempted some days to put my earphones in and walk to the BTS, but actually I think, no, you’d miss the traffic noise, you miss the tuk tuks, you miss a dimension of the world that’s happening around you. And then you get on the BTS and everybody in the carriage is head down, same position, on their phones.
Jim: Yeah. And actually I don’t do it just for that reason, because I noticed that I’m missing out. It’s so tempting, but I might see something.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer the following questions about the conversation.
1) What rule does Angela have in her house?
<ol>
<li>a) no phones at the table</li>
<li>b) no eating on the couch</li>
<li>c) no phones after school</li>
</ol>
 
2) How do the students use their phones in the classroom?
<ol>
<li>a) to talk</li>
<li>b) as a learning tool</li>
<li>c) to chat</li>
</ol>
 
3) Jim’s pet peeve is ______ .
<ol>
<li>a) people taking selfies</li>
<li>b) people taking pictures of their food</li>
<li>c) people listening to music</li>
</ol>
 
4) What does the lady say in Cambodia when Jim asks if she wants a photo?
<ol>
<li>a) Yes, I love pictures.</li>
<li>b) Great.</li>
<li>c) No, It’s all up here.</li>
</ol>
 
5) Angela says what has happened to photography since smartphones?
<ol>
<li>a) it has gotten better</li>
<li>b) it lessens the value of photography</li>
<li>c) nothing has changed</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=b,c</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=b.</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
takes off
When it takes off.
Here, to take off refers to when a plane starts its flight. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Everyone must be seated when the plane takes off.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The airplane takes off at 5 p.m. this evening.</li>
</ol>
 
take a break
Okay, take a break.
When we take a break, we stop from doing something for an amount of time. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">It is good to take a break after you have been working long hours to refresh yourself.</li>
<li aria-level="1">She took a break for 15 minutes during her shift.</li>
</ol>
 
gray area
It’s a gray area.
A gray area refers to when people have different opinions about something. It is not clear what is right or wrong. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The best way to raise children is a gray area for many parents.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Whether or not one diet is better than another is a gray area.</li>
</ol>
 
pop out
Never pop out your phone.
Here, to pop out means to take out something for use. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I will pop out my phone to take a selfie.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It is not polite to pop out of the closet and scare someone.</li>
</ol>
 
tune the world out
I kind of tune the world out.
When you tune the world out, you do not pay attention to things happening around you. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I tune the world out around me when I am listening to music.</li>
<li aria-level="1">My kids are good at tuning the world out when I am telling them to do their chores.</li>
</ol>
 
pet peeve
Mild pet peeve of mine.
A pet peeve is something that is annoying to you. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">People chewing near my ears is a pet peeve of mine.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When I am talking to someone and they are not looking at me, that is a pet peeve of mine.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">take off</li>
<li aria-level="1">take a break</li>
<li aria-level="1">pet peeve</li>
<li aria-level="1">tune</li>
<li aria-level="1">gray area</li>
<li aria-level="1">pop out</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Breaking the law is sometimes a……….. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">What is your biggest………. ?</li>
<li aria-level="1">We should………. soon, so put your phone away.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When I get bored, I just………. a book and read.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I need to…………. from social media.</li>
<li aria-level="1">These days it is hard to just……. out the media.</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-using-phones-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Mobile Phones in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Dialogue about Photography in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-taking-photos-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:08:11 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11864</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 8- Dialogue about Photography in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about photography.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script When is it bad manners to take a photo?   […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-taking-photos-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Photography in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 8- Dialogue about Photography in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s dialogue about photography.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
When is it bad manners to take a photo?
 
Jim: Okay, here’s another thing. It’s a little bit impolite. What about looking at other people’s monitor over their shoulder? ‘Cause you just mentioned the BTS. One thing I have to admit is, because I don’t have my phone out and I am looking around, I have a tendency to see, wanna check and see what’s on everybody’s phone. And it’s total intrusion. It’s creepy in a way, but it’s also because in Asia I’m a little bit taller than the average person, so I’m looking down and I can see everybody’s monitor. And yeah, do you ever find yourself doing that too?
Angela: I do, yeah. But like you, I think it’s impolite.
Jim: Right. So you gotta pull away, I know I shouldn’t do it.
Angela: But you know the worst thing with phones these days, the worst thing from my point of view is the amount of pictures that people take of themselves everywhere, on the BTS, on the subway, eating. I’ve been to S21 in Cambodia where those poor people were slaughtered basically, and there are people in front of pictures of these people who were killed, and they are just literally taking selfies of themselves, you know, this world isn’t about you. It’s sometimes, just stop and look and listen.
Jim: Yeah, the selfie thing, I did a little bit. Sometimes I would do it almost like it’s sending a postcard.
Angela: Yeah
Jim: You know what I mean? “Oh, look, I’m here.” But I have to admit, yeah, I don’t really like doing it, yeah.
Angela: I’m gonna take the shot again, the shot again. I use selfies in a group, because I think they’re fun. It’s actually quite fun to see one person in the front and the rest in the back.
Jim: Yes.
Angela: And it usually means that I can get further back in the photograph, so that’s always a good thing.
Jim: Oh, yeah, that’s true. So but, that’s good that you admit you do some selfies.
Angela: Yeah, yeah, yeah, with groups. And if I’m taking a group in the class, I’ll get one of them to take the photograph.
Jim: Yeah. What about the … mild pet peeve of mine, not a pet peeve, but people taking photos of their food. I don’t know why it’s a thing.
Angela: Why? Eat it.
Jim: Yeah, exactly, enjoy it. Enjoy the memory. It’s interesting that you said that about Cambodia. A woman, a group of women once said something that was really like just a spear in the heart, really made me think. I was in Cambodia, this was years ago, and I was at Angkor, at Baton, Bayon, or I can’t say it right, but where they have the beautiful face sculptures, and I’m like, “Oh, I gotta get a photo.” And so there was a woman just sitting there, relaxed, she was maybe French or something, she was European, and she was like, “Oh, you want me to take your photo?” And I go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
So then she takes it, she takes my photo, this was before cell phone cameras. And then I’m like, okay, I have to reciprocate. I go, “Oh, would you like me to take a photo of you?” She’s like, “No.” I’m like, “You don’t have a camera?” And she goes, “No,” and she just points at her head and she taps her head like this, and she goes, “It’s all up here.” And I was like, “Wow.” She was really-
Angela: amazing, yeah.
Jim: … kind of like, politely saying, “Just, I’m never gonna …” I’ve never forgotten how all those things look, I’ve never forgotten her sitting on the rock when she said that. So wise advice I think.
Angela: Yeah, I think so.
Jim: Now, actually you are in photography. Do you think that actually taking so many … I’m sorry, you have a photography business.
Angela: Yes.
Jim: Do you think that actually taking so many photographs lessens the value of the art of photography and really appreciating a good picture?
Angela: Yes, I think it does. And I think that a lot of the apps and the things that you can use these days to improve photographs take away the real skill of the photographer, using the light, using the lines, using what’s in the photograph to make a really good shot. I think people miss that these days.
Jim: Yeah. That is true. Anyway, so today, no using your phone.
Angela: No, I did hear it go, “Bing, bing.”
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer the following questions about the conversation.
1) Angela only takes selfies in ______?
<ol>
<li>a) groups</li>
<li>b) front of people</li>
<li>c) private</li>
</ol>
2) What does Jim think is creepy?
<ol>
<li>a) people using their phone on the BTS</li>
<li>b) looking at someone’s monitor</li>
<li>c) strangers talking to him</li>
</ol>
3) Jim asked the lady in Cambodia to do what?
<ol>
<li>a) take a selfie with him</li>
<li>b) give him her phone number</li>
<li>c) take a photo of him</li>
</ol>
4) What do they think about looking at someone’s monitor while on the BTS?
<ol>
<li>a) it’s good manners</li>
<li>b) you should not do it</li>
<li>c) it depends on the situation</li>
</ol>
5) How have apps changed photography?
<ol>
<li>a) they have taken away the real skill</li>
<li>b) they haven’t changed much</li>
<li>c) they have made it easier</li>
</ol>
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=a,c</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
creepy
It’s creepy in a way.
Something that is creepy is weird or scary. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">That mask you are wearing for Halloween is creepy.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When I hear people whispering at night I think it is really creepy.</li>
</ol>
 
pull away
You gotta pull away.
To pull away means to stop from doing something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">If you pull away from the dangerous situation, you will be safe.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When you realize you shouldn’t do it, just pull away.</li>
</ol>
 
selfies
Taking selfies of themselves.
A selfie is a picture of yourself. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Selfies are very popular with young people.</li>
<li aria-level="1">She loves to take lots of selfies of herself to send to her friends.</li>
</ol>
 
shot
Take the shot again.
A shot is a photo that was taken. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I was taking a shot, but someone ruined it by walking in front of it.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Don’t use flash when taking a shot during the show.</li>
</ol>
 
pet peeve
Mild pet peeve of mine.
A pet peeve is something that annoys you. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">A pet peeve of mine is when too many people are trying to talk at once.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The worst pet peeve of mine is having to repeat myself over and over again.</li>
</ol>
 
spear in the heart
Just a spear in the heart.
A spear in the heart is something that really impacts you, usually in a bad way. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">When my boyfriend broke up with me, it hit me like a spear in the heart.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It was like a spear in the heart when I was diagnosed with cancer.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">creepy</li>
<li aria-level="1">pull away</li>
<li aria-level="1">selfies</li>
<li aria-level="1">spear</li>
<li aria-level="1">shot</li>
<li aria-level="1">pet peeves</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">People eating and talking in one of my………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">Sometimes you need to…………. from a bad habit.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I blinked. Can you take that…….. again?</li>
<li aria-level="1">Her comment was like a…….. in the heart.</li>
<li aria-level="1">My dad never takes………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">It is……….. to take a persons photo without their permission.</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-taking-photos-in-english-with-quiz/">Dialogue about Photography in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Older Generations Dialogue in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-older-generations-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:07:58 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11863</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 7- Dialogue about Older Generations in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talking about older generations dialogue.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Rachel talks about how life was in […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-older-generations-in-english-with-quiz/">Older Generations Dialogue in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 7- Dialogue about Older Generations in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talking about older generations dialogue.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Rachel talks about how life was in the 80s.
Jim: Rachel, did you grow up in New Zealand?
Rachel: Yes. I did.
Jim: Nice. I grew up in the States, and I thought we would talk about how life is so much different for teens today than it was for our generation.
Rachel: Okay. I think we can do that.
Jim: Obviously the first thing is that when we were young, we didn’t have smart phones and things like that. We didn’t have the internet, actually.
Rachel: We didn’t have internet. We didn’t have email.
Jim: Yeah. I remember if you wanted to meet a friend, you would have to plan it way in advance.
Rachel: Yes.
Jim: You would have to wait by the phone. Remember that, waiting by the phone. You couldn’t go outside because if you were waiting for the call, you had to wait at your house until you got the call, and then…
Rachel: We didn’t even have an answering machine at my house.
Jim: Wow, my gosh. That’s really old school.
Rachel: We used to have to wait by the phone.
Jim: Yeah.
Rachel: I used to spend every afternoon after school on the phone with my friends. After we got home from school, we would call each other, and discuss the day’s events I suppose.
Jim: Yeah, you had so much to share. That’s true. I think…
Rachel: So, my teens these days, they come home from school, they get on their phone, and they text all their friends.
Jim: Right. And they do it all day, like it’s constant. Constant chatter.
Rachel: Yeah.
Jim: I think maybe that’s why I’m not so much into texting. It’s just too much work. I like to build up the mystery of not knowing what somebody did for a while.
Rachel: Mm, yeah. But I was thinking about it recently, and I think that it was similar because we used to telephone a lot. But then we did have to wait a long time before finding the news.
Jim: True. Yeah, I read once about how a lot of the movie plots from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s wouldn’t work today because of cell phones.
Rachel: Yes.
Jim: Because a lot of the story line…
Rachel: …are about missed communications and…
Jim: Right, right. Yeah.
Rachel: Yes. And somebody arrived and somebody else didn’t.
Jim: Another one I think that’s really obvious is bottled water. When I grew up, there was no such thing as bottled water. You had to get water from a faucet, right?
Rachel: Yes, or a tap.
Jim: Yeah, and I think I remember when they first started coming out with bottled water. I think I was about 14 or 15.
Rachel: It was a bit later in New Zealand, I think.
Jim: Yeah. That was crazy. I mean, do you remember what it was like when people were first drinking bottled water, how strange it seemed at the time? Everyone was like, “Why don’t you get it from the tap?”
Rachel: Well, it’s very clean in New Zealand, so the tap water was clean. So, there was really no reason.
Jim: Yeah, if you come from a temperate climate, it was never a problem, right? Because you just … I’m from a temperate climate as well, and so the water doesn’t really have problems with bacteria or things like that. It’s always clean. It used to be clean. In New Zealand, it’s probably still clean.
Rachel: The rivers used to be clean, but they’re not so clean now.
Jim: Oh really? Even in New Zealand?
Rachel: Problems, yeah.
Jim: Oh, really. Shocking.
Rachel: Mm, it’s a bit sad.
Jim: Yeah. How about other things that we used to do when we were kids. One thing is, I think compared to kids today, is we used to spend a lot of time outside.
Rachel: Yes.
Jim: Actually, our parents would not allow you to stay inside. You had to go outside.
Rachel: You had to go outside.
Jim: Right?
Rachel: It’s the opposite today.
Jim: Yeah.
Rachel: They tend to make them stay inside, won’t let them go outside.
Jim: Why is that? What’s the rationale for why they should stay inside?
Rachel: Safety.
Jim: Safety?
Rachel: Mm.
Jim: Yeah.
Rachel: We didn’t used to hear about all of the kidnappings and abuse in the media, so people weren’t afraid of it.
Jim: Right. Yeah. And the crazy thing is I think…
Rachel: You hear about it now.
Jim: It’s actually safer now, right? They say…
Rachel: Yeah, it’s safer now.
Jim: Even in the states, where they hear about this, I think statistics say that it’s actually safer that it was before, but the perception is there.
Rachel: Although that could be because the children are all inside.
Jim: That’s true. Yeah.
Rachel: That’s a difficult one to figure out. But I don’t think it’s that unsafe to play outside. I think it’s better for kids socially, for their bodies, for their development to play outside if they can.
Jim: I agree. I totally agree. Kids definitely should be outside. And kids should be bored. I think that’s one of the things that kids miss out on is boredom.
Rachel: They’re never bored now. They’ve always got a screen to look at.
Jim: Right. So, obviously when we were young, you had nothing to do, so you had to go outside and find something.
Rachel: Climb a tree.
Jim: Yeah. Exactly. Oh, that’s so fun.
Rachel: I thought of something. We used to have video watching parties.
Rachel: Oh, yeah.
Rachel: Because only one person in 10 had a video machine.
Jim: Right.
Rachel: We would all go to the video store together, and argue over which videos to watch, and choose some horror movies and some comedies. And then go to one person’s house, and all watch them altogether.
Jim: I do remember that. Yeah. It was a big thing.
Rachel: No Netflix binging, but yeah, having a video party at someone’s house was a big deal.
Jim: And I think movies were a much bigger deal back then because we didn’t have screen time. There was no such thing as screen time. You had your TV, but that was not the same thing. Your parents wouldn’t let you watch that much TV anyway. And so a movie was a big deal.
Rachel: It was more of a big deal. You didn’t just watch it on Netflix when you were bored.
Jim: Yeah, but a kid these days, it’s just they’re on their screen all the time. It’s just more digital pixels. Yeah, different times.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer the following questions about the conversation.
1) What did he need to do to meet friends?
<ol>
<li>a) Ask his mom</li>
<li>b) Plan it in advance</li>
<li>c) Take a bus to school</li>
</ol>
 
2) What did she not have at home?
<ol>
<li>a) A phone</li>
<li>b) Any free time</li>
<li>c) An answering machine</li>
</ol>
 
3) What would not work today?
<ol>
<li>a) Old phones</li>
<li>b) Movie plots</li>
<li>c) Answering machines</li>
</ol>
 
4) What was very clean in their area?
<ol>
<li>a) Tap water</li>
<li>b) Rain water</li>
<li>c) Bottled water</li>
</ol>
 
5) What does he think kids miss out on?
<ol>
<li>a) Boredom</li>
<li>b) Social media</li>
<li>c) Movie parties</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=a</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
not (so much) into
I am not so much into texting.
Here, not so much into means to not like something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I am not so much into golf or tennis.</li>
<li aria-level="1">She is not that much into jazz music.</li>
</ol>
 
old school
That’s really old school.
Something that is old school was common before but not anymore. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Car phones are old school.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I prefer old school compared to modern.</li>
</ol>
 
come out with
They started coming out with bottled water.
Here, to come out with means to offer something new. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The author has come out with a new book.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Toyota has come out with a new line of cars.</li>
</ol>
 
no such thing
There was no such thing as bottled water.
No such thing refers to something a person feels does not exist. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">There is no such thing as the perfect life.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I don’t believe in magic. There is no such thing.</li>
</ol>
 
build up
I like to build up the mystery.
When you build something up, you try to create interest in it. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The movie trailer did a good job building up the movie.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Our new boss was built up as this great leader.</li>
</ol>
 
rationale
What’s the rationale?
A rationale is the reason for something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The rationale behind the telephone is to make communication easier.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Many people have a rationale behind their specific lifestyle choices.</li>
</ol>
 
miss out on
One thing the kids miss out on is boredom.
When you miss out on something, you do not get the chance to experience it. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">We got there late, so we missed out on the parade.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Don’t miss out on the sales at the mall this week.</li>
</ol>
 
a big thing / a big deal
It was a big thing.
When something is a big thing, or a big deal, then people consider it important. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Missing work is a big deal.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It’s not a big thing if you do not come.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">come out with</li>
<li aria-level="1">build up</li>
<li aria-level="1">no such thing</li>
<li aria-level="1">rationale</li>
<li aria-level="1">miss out on</li>
<li aria-level="1">big deal</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Apple will…………. a new phone this year.</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is…….. as a free lunch!</li>
<li aria-level="1">Don’t………. the big sale!</li>
<li aria-level="1">A good drama will…….. the tension.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It is no………. if you cannot come to the party.</li>
<li aria-level="1">What is your………. for doing it that way?</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-older-generations-in-english-with-quiz/">Older Generations Dialogue in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Short Dialogue about Being a Podcaster with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-podcasting-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:07:49 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11862</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 6- Dialogue about Podcasting in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s short dialogue about being a podcaster.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Mark talks about being a podcaster. Haruka: […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-podcasting-in-english-with-quiz/">Short Dialogue about Being a Podcaster with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 6- Dialogue about Podcasting in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people’s short dialogue about being a podcaster.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Mark talks about being a podcaster.
Haruka: Mark, you have a podcast, right?
Mark: Yes, I do.
Haruka: What’s your podcast about?
Mark It’s called Zen Sammich, but it’s about Zen, but I also cast the net pretty wide. So I talk about a lot of different topics.
Haruka: Like what?
Mark: Well, I’ve had guests on there from MMA fighters. If you know what an MMA fighter is, mixed martial arts fighters to artists and musicians. I’ve had a famous photographer, pretty much any kind of career field you can imagine.
Haruka: Yeah. How many episodes have you done so far?
Mark: Well, I’ve done about 46 or 47 so far.
Haruka Is it hard work to produce one?
Mark: It’s a lot more work than I thought. When I started the project of doing a podcast, I thought that it was going to be turning on a microphone and just recording people, talking, and that’d be it. But there is so much more to it from sound editing, video editing if I record the video of an interview, to marketing there. There’s a lot more to it than I thought.
Haruka: How long have you been doing it?
Mark: I’ve been doing it for about seven months now.
Haruka: Seven months. All right. And what made you think, starting a podcast?
Mark: Well, originally I had a website that was a blog. I wrote articles or I would get some people I knew to write articles for it. And from that I thought, well, I would rather record a conversation than write an article and I enjoy listening to podcasts. So I thought, why not? So the blog turned into the podcast.
Haruka: So do you love it?
Mark: Yes. I mean, it’s one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done as a personal project. Although, like I said before, it involves so much extra work. I don’t love everything about it. I don’t love marketing it, but I do love the creation part of it.
Haruka: Before becoming a podcaster. What were you doing?
Mark: Well, I used to be a lawyer and I also used to teach at a university.
Haruka: It’s a multi-talented personality.
Mark: Well, I guess. I just didn’t love those things as much as I do podcasting.
Haruka: So what other jobs have you done?
Mark: I’ve had lots of jobs over the years. I’ve worked in the restaurant business. I’ve worked for a plant nursery. I’ve worked at a hotel before, but my main career type jobs were being a lawyer or being a teacher. And I’m trying to turn podcasting into hopefully my final career.
Haruka: So the experience as lawyer and teacher helping podcast?
Mark: Actually yes. Being a teacher, because my podcast has a education element to it. I teach people about Zen. So I certainly use some of my previous teaching skills in terms of organizing my thoughts into what I’m going to say as a tool for how I create a podcast episode.
Haruka: If I wanted to start a podcasting, what advice would you give me?
Mark: To just do it. I think the starting part is the hardest for a number of reasons. One, people usually hate the sound of their own voice when they hear it recorded. Because it doesn’t sound the same to them as it does in their head when they speak. Hearing your recorded voice, it always sounds funny to people. So you have to get used to that part, and it’s a little nerve wracking at first. You’re a little nervous the first time you try it, but eventually, you get over all that stuff.
Haruka: Do you interview people?
Mark: I do, almost 50/50. Half the time, I interview someone and the other half of the time, it’s just me. I just do a solo podcast.
Haruka: For solo episode. How many hours would you spend to as a preparation?
Mark: Well, I mean, from start to finish, it’s maybe ten hours on an episode, because then I’ll prepare for an hour, recording it takes not just the amount of time of the episode, but I might have to record several times or rerecord, then I have to edit it and then of course I’ve got to do the marketing. So I’m just guessing, but maybe about ten hours for a single episode.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) What types of people have been on his show?
<ol>
<li>a) Fighters</li>
<li>b) Activists</li>
<li>c) Only famous people</li>
</ol>
 
2) How many shows has he done?
<ol>
<li>a) Over 50</li>
<li>b) About 50</li>
<li>c) Sixty-seven</li>
</ol>
 
3) How long has he been doing it?
<ol>
<li>a) Over a year</li>
<li>b) Seven years</li>
<li>c) About six months</li>
</ol>
 
4) What do most people hate?
<ol>
<li>a) Editing audio</li>
<li>b) Doing marketing</li>
<li>c) Hearing their own voice</li>
</ol>
 
5) How long does it take to do an episode?
<ol>
<li>a) 1 hour</li>
<li>b) 6 hours</li>
<li>c) 10 hours</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=c</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
cast the net wide / cast a wide net
I also cast the net pretty wide. So I talk about a lot of different topics.
The phrase ‘to cast the net wide’ means that you include many different things or people.
The phrase ‘cast a wide net’ has the same meaning. Notice the following.
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">When hiring people, I cast a pretty wide net.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When looking for podcasts, I cast a wide net.</li>
</ol>
 
that’d be it
I thought … that’d be it.
Here, the phrase ‘that’d be it’ means that the speaker did not expect more needed to be done, which was not the case. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">When I got sick, I thought I’d just take medicine and that’d be it.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I thought I would submit the form and that’d be it, but no!</li>
</ol>
 
there is more to it
But there is so much more to it
The phrase ‘there is more to it’ reveals that something is more complex than expected. Notice the following.
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">There is more to owning a dog than just feeding it and walking it.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I though I just needed to apply online, but there’s more to it than that.</li>
</ol>
 
turn into
So the blog turned into the podcast.
The phrasal verb ‘turn into’ means to become something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">My side job turned into a full-time career.</li>
<li aria-level="1">A small gathering of friends turned into a big party.</li>
</ol>
 
like I said
Although, like I said before, it involves so much extra work.
The phrase ‘like I said’ is used to refer to something the speaker previously said. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The hotel was nice, but like I said, it was too expensive.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I mostly agree with you, but like I said, you’re wrong on some things.</li>
</ol>
 
nerve wracking
it’s a little nerve wracking at first.
The phrase ‘nerve wracking’ means that you are extremely nervous or scared about something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Flying in a plane for the first time can be nerve wracking.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Hiking up that mountain is nerve wracking.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">cast</li>
<li aria-level="1">that would</li>
<li aria-level="1">turned into</li>
<li aria-level="1">more to</li>
<li aria-level="1">wracking</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I completed the work and I thought…………. be it.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The silly argument……….. a huge fight.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When selecting a movie, I try to……….. a wide net.</li>
<li aria-level="1">There is………. soccer than just kicking a ball.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Surfing on huge waves was nerve………. .</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-podcasting-in-english-with-quiz/">Short Dialogue about Being a Podcaster with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Talk about Zen Buddhism in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-zen-buddhism-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:07:41 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11861</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 5- Dialogue about Zen Buddhism in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talk about Zen Buddhism.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Mark talks about the art of being zen. […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-zen-buddhism-in-english-with-quiz/">Talk about Zen Buddhism in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 5- Dialogue about Zen Buddhism in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talk about Zen Buddhism.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Mark talks about the art of being zen.
 
Haruka: I know you love Zen, the concept of Zen. When did you start learning it?
Mark: I started learning about Zen philosophy when I was in college
Haruka: In college?
Mark: Yeah. Zen’s not really a religion, but I’ve studied it in a religion class. It comes from Buddhism originally.
Haruka: Was it a Japanese teacher?
Mark: No, but it was an Asian studies teacher. So he was an expert in Asian religions.
Haruka: And what was the concept of Zen by that teacher?
Mark: Well, it’s difficult to explain, but Zen is basically about appreciating the little moments in life and being in the present moment. A lot of times we think about the future or we spend a lot of time thinking about the past. Zen is mostly about trying to be in the right now.
Haruka Sounds like mindfulness.
Mark: It’s very close to that. Mindfulness is discussed a lot in Zen philosophy.
Haruka : So, is there a way to be good at Zen or, what I can do to-
Mark: I think I understand your question. There is no good or bad about it. It’s really like, do you like taking a walk in nature sometime?
Haruka: I love it.
Mark: Yeah, me too. And I think that in essence is Zen is just appreciating the beauty in nature or the wind on your face, or, the sound of the birds and the trees. It sounds a little corny, but appreciating that moment in time, that’s basically Zen.
Haruka: So if I’m enjoying this conversation right now, that means I am in Zen?
Mark: Sure. In essence, if you’re in this moment, as we speak, that’s a form of Zen appreciation.
Haruka: Is it possible that I will be in Zen all the time, if I’m able to enjoy every moment of my life?
Mark: That’s a great question. I think it’s sort of impossible to constantly be present. It’s a good goal to aim for, but it’s sort of like an unattainable goal, like a goal that you can’t ever get to because your mind is at some point going to think about tomorrow or remember something from the past.
Haruka: How much of a day do you think you are in the Zen moment?
Mark: I’ve never calculated it like that. I don’t know, because I catch myself all the time thinking too much about the future or reliving a memory for too long. And then when I catch myself, I bring my focus back to what I’m doing at the present moment.
Haruka : Mm. Sometimes I focus so much and I feel like I’m in the zone, but it’s different from Zen?
Mark: Well, I don’t really want to define it because that’s the paradox or the confusing thing about Zen, the more and more you try to define it, really, the further away you get from it. It’s not something that there are like rules that are written down and you follow these rules. It’s really more about just being, just being alive and acknowledging that, appreciating that.
Haruka: Maybe we can both go to the Zen garden and see how it works.
Mark: That’s good. I would love to talk to a Zen monk or something.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) Where did he learn about Zen?
<ol>
<li>a) In a temple</li>
<li>b) At university</li>
<li>c) From his religion</li>
</ol>
 
2) What is discussed a lot in Zen?
<ol>
<li>a) Mindfulness</li>
<li>b) The power of the mind</li>
<li>c) Minding your own business</li>
</ol>
 
3) What might sound corny to people?
<ol>
<li>a) A speech on Zen</li>
<li>b) Going to Zen class</li>
<li>c) Listening to birds</li>
</ol>
 
4) He says it is _____ to always be in Zen.
<ol>
<li>a) easy</li>
<li>b) hard</li>
<li>c) important</li>
</ol>
 
5) He says it is _____ to define Zen.
<ol>
<li>a) difficult</li>
<li>b) his life mission</li>
<li>c) not that complicated</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=a</li>
</ul>
 
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
close to
It’s very close to that.
Here, ‘ close to’ means to be similar to something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Marketing is close to advertising.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Going on a walk to clear your mind is close to meditation.</li>
</ol>
 
mindfulness
Mindfulness is discussed a lot in Zen philosophy.
The word ‘mindfulness’ shows a person is aware of the people and situation around them. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">In my yoga class, we practice mindfulness as well as stretching.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Mindfulness lets us be aware of our place in the world.</li>
</ol>
 
in essence
I think that in essence is Zen
The phrase ‘in essence’ is used to summarize information, or give information in a simplistic way. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Investing in the stock market is, in essence, gambling.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Pets are, in essence, a way for people to feel loved.</li>
</ol>
 
sound corny
It sounds a little corny.
If something sounds corny, then it sounds silly or childish or very simplistic. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">It sounds corny, but I love pop music.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It sounds corny, but I love to take selfies with my dog.</li>
</ol>
 
catch myself
I catch myself all the time thinking too much.
If you ‘catch yourself’ doing something, then you realize it is something you should not be doing, and you stop doing it. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">I often catch myself biting my nails.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I caught myself falling asleep, so I got up and made some coffee.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">close</li>
<li aria-level="1">mindfulness</li>
<li aria-level="1">essence</li>
<li aria-level="1">corny</li>
<li aria-level="1">catch</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Yoga is, in…….. , a form of medication .</li>
<li aria-level="1">The joke sounds………. but it is funny.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I often……….. myself getting angry for no reason.</li>
<li aria-level="1">Monks are taught to practice………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">Many Spanish words are………. to Italian words in pronunciation .</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-zen-buddhism-in-english-with-quiz/">Talk about Zen Buddhism in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
</item>
<item>
<title>Talk about Meditation in English with Quiz</title>
<link>https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-meditation-in-english-with-quiz/</link>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[hcbMatt]]></dc:creator>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:07:33 +0000</pubDate>
<category><![CDATA[Series 5]]></category>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://hicafe.app/?p=11860</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 4- Dialogue about Meditation in English In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talk about meditation.   Previous Listening Lesson TBD   English Listening Lesson Audio with Script Lesson Audio Coming soon…   Lesson Script Mark talks about practicing meditation. Mark: Hey, Haruka. I have […]
The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-meditation-in-english-with-quiz/">Talk about Meditation in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2>Advance Listening Series 5 Lesson 4- Dialogue about Meditation in English</h2>
In this lesson, you listen to an English conversation between two people talk about meditation.
 
Previous Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
<h3 id="a1">English Listening Lesson Audio with Script</h3>
Lesson Audio
Coming soon…
 
Lesson Script
Mark talks about practicing meditation.
Mark: Hey, Haruka. I have a question for you. Do you ever meditate?
Haruka: Only occasionally. I know it’s very good for your mental health, but I forget all the time. Do you?
Mark: I do, but not in the most traditional or usual way. I don’t sit in silence very often. I do that too sometimes, but I’ll meditate either by going through a guided meditation, like a voice, someone telling me to relax your shoulders and focus on your breathing, et cetera. Or I meditate at other times like when I’m doing the dishes. I just focus on just the act of the water going over my hands or cleaning the dishes. And that’s a form of meditation to me.
Haruka: Do you feel much better after that?
Mark: I feel calmer. I certainly feel more relaxed. Yeah. I feel like when I do that, my mind usually is going very fast and it’s a good way to slow it down and bring it back to a more tolerable way of thinking.
Haruka: Is meditation similar to zoning out?
Mark: I guess, but to me, zoning out is letting your mind wander. Whereas meditation, you’re bringing it to a single focal point.
Haruka: I see. Actually, I remember that I have used this app called Undo. It’s a very simple three minutes or whatever minutes you choose. And it start with a bamboo sound. And I like it and I feel, yeah, much calmer after that meditation.
Mark: Yeah. I have the same app. That is the one time I will do a silent meditation. I’ll use that app because, like you said, there’s this bamboo sound at the beginning and a gong at the end, but it’s just silent in between. Other than meditation, what else do you do when you get stressed out?
Haruka: Recently, I do try to do deeper breathing, inhale and exhale. And also looking at the window, mountains, skies, feeling the breeze. They are all very calming to me. How about you?
Mark: If I get stressed out or if I’m unhappy, I try to think about other people. What could I do for someone else to make them happy? How could I surprise someone, something like that.
Haruka: That’s very nice of you.
Mark: Yeah, I guess. It just, it helps me. Because if I don’t do tat, I will probably focus too much on whatever’s making me unhappy or stressed out. But if I put my attention on someone else, that makes me happy.
Haruka: I love that way of thinking. I will try that.
 
<h4 id="a2">English Listening Lesson Quizzes</h4>
Answer these questions about the conversation.
1) How often does she do meditation?
<ol>
<li>a) often</li>
<li>b) rarely</li>
<li>c) occasionally</li>
</ol>
 
2) He says he meditates while doing _____ .
<ol>
<li>a) yoga</li>
<li>b) the dishes</li>
<li>c) the laundry</li>
</ol>
 
3) His mind wanders when he _____ out.
<ol>
<li>a) zones</li>
<li>b) freaks</li>
<li>c) gets stressed</li>
</ol>
 
4) What do they have in common with meditation?
<ol>
<li>a) They both love it.</li>
<li>b) They use the same app.</li>
<li>c) They sit on bamboo mats.</li>
</ol>
 
5) What does he try to think of when he is stressed out?
<ol>
<li>a) Happy places</li>
<li>b) Other people</li>
<li>c) His problems</li>
</ol>
 
Answers
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">1=c</li>
<li aria-level="1">2=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">3=a</li>
<li aria-level="1">4=b</li>
<li aria-level="1">5=b</li>
</ul>
 
<h3 id="g">English Grammar Tips</h3>
Coming soon….
 
<h3 id="a3">English Listening Lesson Phrases</h3>
the act of
I just focus on the act of the water going over my hands
The phrase ‘the act of ’ means the actual doing of a thing, in this example water going down arms. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">The act of buying gifts always seems like a waste of money to me.</li>
<li aria-level="1">The act of sitting in a quiet forest can be good for mental health</li>
</ol>
 
zoning out
Is meditation similar to zoning out?
The phrase ‘zoning out’ means that you lose focus or concentration on something. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">My students often zone out in class.</li>
<li aria-level="1">I always zone out when I am stuck in traffic.</li>
</ol>
 
let your mind wander
Zoning out is letting your mind wander.
The phrase ‘to let your mind wander’ means that you allow your brain to think whatever it wants. This can be positive or negative. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Whenever I let my mind wander, I just start worrying about things.</li>
<li aria-level="1">In a boring class, it is easy to let your mind wander.</li>
</ol>
 
bring to a focal point
You’re bringing it to a single focal point.
The phrase ‘to bring to a single focal point’ means that you are concentrating and thinking of just one thing. Notice the following:
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">If you get scared when flying, try to bring your mind to a focal point.</li>
<li aria-level="1">When I meditate, I need to bring my mind to a focal point.</li>
</ol>
 
stress out
What else do you do when you get stressed out?
The phrase ‘to be stressed out’ means that something is making you feel nervous, angry or worried.
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Can I help you? You seem to be stressed out.</li>
<li aria-level="1">It is not important. Don’t get stressed out about it.</li>
</ol>
 
<h4 id="a4">Quizzes for Lesson Phrases</h4>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">act</li>
<li aria-level="1">zone out</li>
<li aria-level="1">wander</li>
<li aria-level="1">focal point</li>
<li aria-level="1">stress out</li>
</ul>
 
<ol>
<li aria-level="1">Breathe deeply and bring your mind to a………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">After a long day, it is easy to let your mind………. .</li>
<li aria-level="1">It is common to……….. in a long, boring meeting .</li>
<li aria-level="1">Try not to…….. when doing your taxes</li>
<li aria-level="1">I miss the……….. getting a nice letter in the mail.</li>
</ol>
 
Next Listening Lesson 
TBD
 
Related Listening Lessons
TBD
 
<h2>All Lessons for Learning English Listening</h2>
Visit our <a href="/improve-english-listening-skills/">Improve English Listening Skills</a> page to see all of <a href="/">HiCafe</a> 300+ lessons for learning and improving your English listening skills.
 The post <a href="https://hicafe.app/learn-english/practice-listening/advance-level/expert-series5/dialogue-about-meditation-in-english-with-quiz/">Talk about Meditation in English with Quiz</a> first appeared on <a href="https://hicafe.app">HiCafe</a>.]]></content:encoded>
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