A2 English listening practice Using TED Talks

TED.com offers great English listening apply, with over 1,000 fascinating, clear talks on many topics. However, most are finest for intermediate or superior English learners.

(See  for a number of pages to follow if you have greater-degree English expertise.)

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

For Spoken English course online , there's a temporary introduction and some comprehension inquiries to answer after the first and second time you hear to each discuss.

(Listen
at leasttwice—extra often is O.K. because you will perceive more particulars every time.) The talk will open in a second window so you can go back and forth between talk and questions.

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

 Listeningor  .)

Pause each talk each time you should (and later read the transcript, when you like.) The talks are long—10 to 19 minutes—however inform very attention-grabbing tales.

Concentrate on understanding the tales and the speaker’s major idea the primary time you listen. Check your understanding, and attempt to reply the questions, the second time round.

If you are interested within the other talks, there are additionally some questions to consider. You can practice your English writing (or talking) expertise by trying to reply one or two of them.

All of those talks are related. They are about hope: about people caring for each other, overcoming violence, and serving to others reach their full potential. You can start with any of them by clicking the links within the listing under. 

These questions are also obtainable in pdf kind for teachers. See the Beginning Lesson Plans section of.

English Listening Practice 1: Hope for Personal Change

How do you react to problem and failure? Are you keen to work harder with the hope of doing better? Does it assist? Can you modify that ‘C’ into an ‘A’ should you keep studying?

Did you understand that making an attempt one thing troublesome for you can truly make new connections in your mind? In this eleven minute speak, Carol Dweck, an schooling researcher, illustrates She exhibits that those that consider abilities are mounted (a person is both good at one thing or not, smart or not) make very completely different choices than those who consider they will get higher with effort and practice.

After listening for the first time, choose the best reply (you'll be able to just write the proper letter on a sheet of paper, to examine after the 2nd listening):

1. A ‘growth mindset’ means understanding that

A. we can develop our talents and intelligence; they are not set endlessly at a sure stage. 

B. our abilities can grow a certainf amount however are principally mounted at birth.

C. our our bodies and minds develop until we turn into 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 move a test they received a grade of “not but” as an alternative of ‘F.’ The speaker likes this, because it helps students understand that

A. that test wasn’t really important. 

B. it’s O.K. to fail.

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

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

three. (Choose all the solutions that are true.) Students with a ‘mounted mindset’ have been more prone to

A. believe if they failed at one thing they'd by no means be good at it.

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

C. avoid difficult tasks because they feared wanting like ‘failures.’ 

D. search for others who did worse than they did so they might a minimum of really feel superior to them. 

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

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

B. students determined learning was too much work.

C. students had been more prepared to maintain making an attempt, and their grades went up.

D. college students began getting all ‘As.’

.

Bonus question to think about, write about or discuss with someone: Dweck means that we can help youngsters develop a development mindset by praising their effort and enchancment quite than their abilities or intelligence (which they could really feel they can’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 insurgent group in Afghanistan? What are you aware about them? The Taliban don't like many issues about western culture, however they particularly dislike schooling for women and girls. 

Sakena Yacoobi:  17 min.

Sakena Yacoobi’s father sent her to the U.S. so she might turn into a physician and assist save lives. After Russia invaded Afghanistan, her family grew to become refugees, and she or he was  able to deliver them to security in the U.S. 

However, her coronary heart was nonetheless in Afghanistan, and he or she went again to see what she may do to help. Listen to her story and take into consideration what she determined was one of the best factor to assist her people.  

After listening for the primary time:

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

A. As a health care provider, she might look after maternal and baby well being and save lives.

B. As a doctor, she could help people who had been wounded during the fighting.

C. By opening schools for ladies she could give her people confidence and a way to assist their households and move forward. 

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

After listening for the second time:

2. Once 19 young 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 wanted her to cease educating women.

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

D. They wished her to coach them too. 

3. What did she do about it?

A. After they let her go she by no means went again there again.

B. With Improve English of donors she started courses for younger males too.

C. When she left she referred to as for military assist.

D. English school for adults gave every of them money to go to highschool.

four. What has happened to those young men since then?

A. They have attacked different educators.

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

C. They have joined the Taliban.

D. They have grown up and started companies.

.

Bonus question to think about, write about or talk about with somebody: Do you agree with Sakena Yacoobi in regards to the value of training to fully change folks’s attitudes and lives? Explain why or why not, discussing the kinds of change education can or can not cause.

What do you know about the International Red Cross? What are some of the services they provide? What providers do you assume are so important that they need to operate even in a struggle zone with lively combating?

Alberto Cairo worked for the Red Cross as a bodily therapist providing prostheses (artificial arms or legs) for Afghans disabled by the struggle. At first, the manufacturing unit closed whenever the warfare obtained too close. Something modified that. Listen to the story the first time to search out out why they modified that policy. What made them decide that maintaining their rehabilitation heart open was a priority, even within the warfare zone?

Alberto Cairo:. 19 min. (Pause as usually as you should—especially the second time you listen.)

After listening for the first time:

1. What made the Red Cross determine that helping disabled folks was a priority, even when there was fighting close by?

A. The authorities began to provide safety to the Red Cross.

B. They received more donations.

C. They noticed the risks disabled individuals have been keen to take to get assist.

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

After listening for the second time:

2. What did Mahmoud and other disabled Afghan males ask for? They wished dignity and

A. a chance to work to support themselves. 

B. higher, stronger prostheses.

C. safety from the warfare.

D. assist for their households.

3. Why did the factory making prostheses—synthetic limbs—begin practicing “positive discrimination,” hiring disabled individuals whenever attainable?

A. They learned that even folks with main disabilities may manage to do their jobs well.

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

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

D. Both A and C. 

.

Bonus query to consider, write about or discuss with someone: 

Cairo stated he didn’t really feel Mahmoud could keep up with the work of creating prostheses with only one actual arm and no legs, however they discovered Mahmoud even speeded up production, as a result of he wanted to show himself able to work. 

Have you ever had an experience by which somebody questioned your capability and you labored exceptionally onerous to show you could do it? If not, have you learnt someone else who has proved himself (or herself) despite great difficulties?

I found every of these talks excellent. Listen to them, on the lookout for solutions to the questions linked with each speak. (These are not straightforward questions to answer in English, but take into consideration 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 had to leave people you really liked without understanding when you would see them again?) 14 min.

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

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

four.: the mothers who found forgiveness and friendship. (What introduced these mothers together and helped them understand one another regardless of language and cultural differences?) 9.5 min.

* #3 See her instance of American bombings of terrorist targets growing terrorist numbers. Skills include self-understanding, dealing with worry and controlling anger—using it as a gasoline.

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

For more listening practice (together with TED talks) at varied ranges see also

>> A2 English Listening Practice Using TED Talks.

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