A2 English listening practice Using TED Talks

TED.com offers great English listening practice, with over 1,000 attention-grabbing, clear talks on many subjects. However, most are best for intermediate or advanced English learners.

(See  for a number of pages to practice if you have greater-stage English skills.)

This page hyperlinks to 7 TED talks simple sufficient for A2 (excessive beginner) English students, with questions that can assist you focus your listening and to discuss or write about your responses.

For the first three talks, there is a transient introduction and a few comprehension inquiries to reply after the primary and second time you pay attention to each discuss.

(Listen
at leasttwice—more usually is O.K. because you will understand extra particulars every time.) The discuss will open in a second window so you possibly can travel between discuss and questions.

(Click these links to go directly to English Listening,   Listening,

 Listeningor  .)

Pause each talk each time you need to (and later learn the transcript, when you like.) The talks are lengthy—10 to 19 minutes—however tell very attention-grabbing tales.

Concentrate on understanding the stories and the speaker’s main thought the primary time you listen. Check your understanding, and attempt to answer the questions, the second time round.

If you have an interest in the different talks, there are also some questions to consider. You can practice your English writing (or speaking) skills by attempting to reply one or two of them.

All of those talks are related. They are about hope: about individuals caring for each other, overcoming violence, and helping others reach their full potential. You can begin with any of them by clicking the hyperlinks in the list below. 

These questions are additionally obtainable in pdf kind for academics. See The best English for you Beginning Lesson Plans section of.

English Listening Practice 1: Hope for Personal Change

How do you react to problem and failure? Are you prepared to work harder with the hope of doing better? Does it help? Can you change that ‘C’ into an ‘A’ when you maintain learning?

Did you understand that making an attempt something difficult for you possibly can really make new connections in your brain? In this 11 minute speak, Carol Dweck, an training researcher, illustrates She reveals that those who imagine abilities are fixed (an individual is both good at one thing or not, good or not) make very completely different decisions than those who consider they'll get higher with effort and follow.

After listening for the primary time, select one of the best reply (you'll be able to just write the best letter on a sheet of paper, to verify after the 2nd listening):

1. A ‘development mindset’ means understanding that

A. we are able to develop our skills and intelligence; they are not set endlessly at a sure degree. 

B. our skills can develop a certainf amount however are mostly fastened at birth.

C. our bodies and minds grow until we become adults.

D. we have to grow up and act like accountable adults.

After listening for the second time:

2. In one highschool, when students did not cross a take a look at they acquired a grade of “not but” instead of ‘F.’ The speaker likes this, because it helps students perceive that

A. that check wasn’t actually necessary. 

B. it’s O.K. to fail.

C. some folks just aren’t good at taking exams.

D. they will keep learning and cross it subsequent time. 

three. (Choose all the solutions which are true.) Students with a ‘mounted mindset’ were extra more likely to

A. consider in the event that they failed at one thing they might by no means be good at it.

B. consider if they failed at something or made many errors they wanted to follow it more.

C. avoid difficult tasks as a result of they feared trying like ‘failures.’ 

D. look for others who did worse than they did so they could a minimum of feel superior to them. 

four. When researchers taught college students that studying tough new issues helped them make extra connections of their brains, and get smarter over time,Advertisements

A. college students were dissatisfied they didn’t immediately really feel smarter.

B. college students decided finding out was too much work.

C. college students were extra keen to maintain making an attempt, and their grades went up.

D. students started getting all ‘As.’

.

Bonus query to think about, write about or focus on with someone: Dweck suggests that we can help kids develop a growth mindset by praising their effort and improvement rather than their abilities or intelligence (which they might really feel they will’t change.) How necessary do you assume that is?

Practice 2: Education: Taking Risks for a Better Future 

Have you heard of the Taliban, a rebel group in Afghanistan? What have you learnt about them? The Taliban don't like many things about western culture, but they particularly dislike training for women and girls. 

Sakena Yacoobi:  17 min.

Sakena Yacoobi’s father sent her to the U.S. so she could become a doctor and help save lives. After Russia invaded Afghanistan, her family grew to become refugees, and she or he was  capable of convey them to safety in the U.S. 

However, her heart was nonetheless in Afghanistan, and he or she went back to see what she might do to help. Listen to her story and think about what she decided was the best thing to help her people.  

After listening for the primary time:

1. While visiting in the refugee camps, what did the speaker resolve was the best way she might help in Afghanistan, and why?

A. As a doctor, she may take care of maternal and baby well being and save lives.

B. As a health care provider, she may help people who had been wounded during the combating.

C. By opening faculties for ladies she may give her people confidence and a approach to assist their families and move ahead. 

D. By opening schools for women she may distract them from their worries and assist them turn out to be better wives.

After listening for the second time:

2. Once 19 young males with rifles stopped Sakena Yacoobi’s car. What did they need?

A. They wanted to kill her as a result of she was educating women.

B. They wished her to stop educating girls.

C. They wanted her to pay them some huge cash.

D. They wanted her to teach them too. 

3. What did she do about it?

A. After they let her go she never went back there once more.

B. With the assistance of donors she started courses for young males too.

C. When she left she called for navy assist.

D. She gave every of them cash to go to high school.

four. What has occurred to these younger males since then?

A. They have attacked other educators.

B. They received educated and have become her supporters and protectors. 

C. They have joined the Taliban.

D. They have grown up and started companies.

.

Bonus question to consider, write about or focus on with someone: Do you agree with Sakena Yacoobi in regards to the value of training to utterly change individuals’s attitudes and lives? Explain why or why not, discussing the types of change schooling can or cannot cause.

What do you know about the International Red Cross? What are some of the providers they supply? What companies do you assume are so essential that they need to function even in a warfare zone with active combating?

Alberto Cairo labored for the Red Cross as a bodily therapist offering prostheses (synthetic arms or legs) for Afghans disabled by the warfare. At first, the manufacturing unit closed every time the war received too close. Something changed that. Listen to the story the primary time to seek out out why they modified that coverage. What made them determine that preserving their rehabilitation middle open was a priority, even within the war zone?

Alberto Cairo:. 19 min. (Pause as often as you have to—particularly the second time you pay attention.)

After listening for the primary time:

1. What made the Red Cross resolve that serving to disabled individuals was a priority, even when there was preventing nearby?

A. The government started to offer protection to the Red Cross.

B. They got extra donations.

C. They saw the dangers disabled people were willing to take to get help.

D. They didn’t have another work to do.

After listening for the second time:

2. What did Mahmoud and different disabled Afghan men ask for? They needed dignity and

A. a chance to work to assist themselves. 

B. better, stronger prostheses.

C. protection from the struggle.

D. help for their families.

3. Why did the manufacturing unit making prostheses—synthetic limbs—start working towards “positive discrimination,” hiring disabled people each time possible?

A. They learned that even people with major disabilities may handle to do their jobs nicely.

B. They didn’t have to pay as much to disabled people. 

C. Seeing that Best online English speaking course disabled people might work was a source of hope to the people who got here to get prostheses.

D. Both A and C. 

.

Bonus query to consider, write about or talk about with somebody: 

Cairo said he didn’t really feel Mahmoud might keep up with the work of creating prostheses with only one real arm and no legs, however they discovered Mahmoud even speeded up manufacturing, as a result of he wanted to prove himself capable of work. 

Have you ever had an expertise during which someone questioned your ability and you worked exceptionally exhausting to show you could do it? If not, are you aware someone else who has proved himself (or herself) despite nice difficulties?

I found each of those talks excellent. Listen to them, looking for solutions to the questions connected with each talk. (These aren't easy questions to answer in English, however think about them.) Then listen once more, or learn the transcript to deepen your understanding of their tales and build English vocabulary and fluency.

1.Joseph Kim:. (Have you ever needed to go away individuals you liked without knowing if you would see them again?) 14 min.

2.Elizabeth Lindsey:(What does Lindsey want to preserve? What does she fear might be misplaced to humanity? What does she mean when she says this planet is our canoe and that we must work together?) 10 min. 

three.Scilla Elworthy:. (Elworthy says it is usually simpler to battle bullying and violence with nonviolence. Can you give an example? What skills may help?)* 16 min. 

Complete English speaking course .: the mothers who discovered forgiveness and friendship. (What introduced these mothers collectively and helped them perceive one another regardless of language and cultural differences?) 9.5 min.

* #three See her instance of American bombings of terrorist targets growing terrorist numbers. Skills embody self-understanding, dealing with concern and controlling anger—utilizing it as a gas.

You can find TED talks for all ranges, ranked by stage and pace and with English listening follow exercises, at. You also can discover many easy (A1-B2 or so) conversations at. 

For more listening follow (including TED talks) at numerous ranges see additionally

>> A2 English Listening Practice Using TED Talks.

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