A2 English listening practice Using TED Talks

TED.com offers great English listening follow, with over 1,000 attention-grabbing, clear talks on many topics. However, most are greatest for intermediate or superior English learners.

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

This page links to 7 TED talks straightforward sufficient for A2 (high newbie) English college students, with questions that can assist you focus your listening and to discuss or write about your responses.

For the primary three talks, there is a brief introduction and some comprehension inquiries to reply after the primary and second time you hear to every speak.

(Listen
a minimum oftwice—more typically is O.K. as a result of you'll understand extra particulars each time.) The discuss will open in a second window so you'll be able to travel between discuss and questions.

(Click these hyperlinks to go on to English Listening,   Listening,

 Listeningor  .)

Pause each speak every time you should (and later read the transcript, if you like.) The talks are long—10 to 19 minutes—but tell very attention-grabbing stories.

Concentrate on understanding the tales and the speaker’s main thought the primary time you hear. Check your understanding, and attempt to answer the questions, the second time around.

If you have an interest in the other talks, there are additionally some questions to think about. You can follow your English writing (or speaking) abilities by making an attempt to answer one or two of them.

All of these talks are associated. They are about hope: about people caring for each other, overcoming violence, and helping others attain their full potential. You can begin with any of them by clicking the hyperlinks in the record below. 

These questions are also obtainable in pdf type for academics. See the Beginning Lesson Plans part of.

English Listening Practice 1: Hope for Personal Change

How do you react to issue and failure? Are you keen to work more durable with the hope of doing better? Does it help? Can you modify that ‘C’ into an ‘A’ when you maintain finding out?

Did you understand that trying one thing difficult for you possibly can actually make new connections in your mind? In this eleven minute talk, Carol Dweck, an training researcher, illustrates She shows that those that imagine skills are fastened (an individual is both good at one thing or not, smart or not) make very totally different decisions than those who consider they can get higher with effort and apply.

After listening for the first time, select the best reply (you'll be able to simply write the right letter on a sheet of paper, to check after the 2nd listening):

1. A ‘development mindset’ means understanding that

A. we will develop our talents and intelligence; they aren't set forever at a certain stage. 

B. our skills can grow a certainf amount however are principally fastened at delivery.

C. Learn English language online courses and minds develop till we turn into adults.

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

After listening for the second time:

2. In one high school, when college students didn't move a check they received a grade of “not but” as an alternative of ‘F.’ The speaker likes this, as a result of it helps students understand that

A. that take a look at wasn’t actually necessary. 

B. it’s O.K. to fail.

C. some individuals just aren’t good at taking tests.

D. they can keep studying and move it next time. 

three. (Choose all the answers which might be true.) Students with a ‘fixed mindset’ had been more likely to

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

B. imagine in the event that they failed at one thing or made many errors they wanted to practice it extra.

C. avoid difficult duties as a result of they feared wanting like ‘failures.’ 

D. look for others who did worse than they did so they may no less than really feel superior to them. 

four. When researchers taught college students that studying difficult new things helped them make more connections in their brains, and get smarter over time,Advertisements

A. students have been disappointed they didn’t immediately feel smarter.

B. college students decided finding out was an excessive amount of work.

C. students were more willing to maintain attempting, and their grades went up.

D. college students began getting all ‘As.’

.

Bonus question to consider, write about or talk about with someone: Dweck means that we can help kids develop a growth mindset by praising their effort and improvement quite than their talents or intelligence (which they may feel they'll’t change.) How important do you suppose this is?

Practice 2: Education: Taking Risks for a Better Future 

Have you heard of the Taliban, a insurgent group in Afghanistan? What are you aware about them? The Taliban don't like many things about western culture, however they particularly dislike schooling for women and girls. 

Sakena Yacoobi:  17 min.

Sakena Yacoobi’ English lessons for adults despatched her to the U.S. so she may turn into a doctor and assist save lives. After Russia invaded Afghanistan, her household grew to become refugees, and she was  in a position to bring them to security within the U.S. 

However, her heart was still in Afghanistan, and he or she went back to see what she could do to help. Listen to her story and think about what she determined was the most effective thing to help her people.  

After listening for the primary time:

1. While visiting in the refugee camps, what did the speaker determine was one of the simplest ways she could help in Afghanistan, and why?

A. As a physician, she may care for maternal and baby well being and save lives.

B. As a physician, she could assist individuals who had been wounded through the preventing.

C. By opening faculties for ladies she may give her folks confidence and a way to support their households and transfer ahead. 

D. By opening faculties for women she might distract them from their worries and help them become higher wives.

After listening for the second time:

2. Once 19 younger males with rifles stopped Sakena Yacoobi’s automobile. What did they want?

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

B. They needed her to stop educating women.

C. They wanted her to pay them a lot of money.

D. They wanted her to educate them too. 

3. What did she do about it?

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

B. With the help of donors she started courses for younger men too.

C. When she left she referred to as for army help.

D. She gave each of them cash to go to school.

4. What has occurred to those younger males since then?

A. They have attacked other educators.

B. They got educated and have turn into her supporters and protectors. 

C. They have joined the Taliban.

D. They have grown up and began companies.

.

Bonus question to consider, write about or talk about with somebody: Do you agree with Sakena Yacoobi about the worth of education to fully change folks’s attitudes and lives? Explain why or why not, discussing the types of change education can or can not trigger.

What have you learnt in regards to the International Red Cross? What are some of the companies they provide? What companies do you think are so necessary that they should function even in a war zone with lively preventing?

Alberto Cairo worked for the Red Cross as a bodily therapist offering prostheses (synthetic arms or legs) for Afghans disabled by the war. At first, the manufacturing facility closed each time the war obtained too shut. Something modified that. Listen to the story the first time to find out why they modified that policy. What made them determine that preserving their rehabilitation heart open was a precedence, even in the warfare zone?

Alberto Cairo:. 19 min. (Pause as typically as you have to—especially the second time you hear.)

After listening for the first time:

1. What made the Red Cross decide that serving to disabled people was a precedence, even when there was fighting close by?

A. The government started to supply safety to the Red Cross.

B. They got extra donations.

C. They noticed the dangers disabled folks were keen to take to get assist.

D. They didn’t have some other work to do.

After listening for the second time:

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

A. a chance to work to help themselves. 

B. higher, stronger prostheses.

C. English lessons online from the struggle.

D. assist for his or her families.

three. Why did the factory making prostheses—synthetic limbs—begin training “constructive discrimination,” hiring disabled people every time potential?

A. They realized that even folks with main disabilities might handle to do their jobs properly.

B. They didn’t have to pay as a lot to disabled individuals. 

C. Seeing that other disabled folks may work was a supply of hope to the individuals who came to get prostheses.

D. Both A and C. 

.

Bonus question to think about, write about or talk about with somebody: 

Cairo said he didn’t really feel Mahmoud could keep up with the work of constructing prostheses with only one real arm and no legs, but they found Mahmoud even speeded up manufacturing, because he wanted to show himself able to work. 

Have you ever had an expertise by which someone questioned your capacity and you labored exceptionally hard to show you would do it? If not, are you aware another person who has proved himself (or herself) regardless of nice difficulties?

I found every of these talks outstanding. Listen to them, looking for answers to the questions linked with every discuss. (These aren't simple questions to answer in English, however think about them.) Then pay attention once more, or learn the transcript to deepen your understanding of their stories and build English vocabulary and fluency.

1.Joseph Kim:. (Have you ever needed to go away folks you loved with out knowing when you would see them again?) 14 min.

2.Elizabeth Lindsey:(What does Lindsey want to protect? What does she worry might be lost to humanity? What does she imply when she says this planet is our canoe and that we should work collectively?) 10 min. 

three.Scilla Elworthy:. (Elworthy says it's usually more practical to struggle bullying and violence with nonviolence. Can you give an instance? What expertise might help?)* 16 min. 

four.: the moms who found forgiveness and friendship. (What introduced these mothers collectively and helped them perceive one another in spite of language and cultural variations?) 9.5 min.

* #three See her example of American bombings of terrorist targets increasing terrorist numbers. Skills embrace self-understanding, dealing with fear and controlling anger—utilizing it as a gas.

You can find TED talks for all ranges, ranked by degree and speed and with English listening apply exercises, at. You can also find many simple (A1-B2 or so) conversations at. 

For more listening apply (including TED talks) at various levels see also

>> A2 English Listening Practice Using TED Talks.

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