English Recordings

Listen and take notes PART 1

number 1: as busy as a bee!

number 2: to have other fish to fry!

number 3: a waste of time!

number 4: not my cup of tea!

number 5: like chasing a rainbow!

number 6. A knight in shining arnour!

Who is she ?

Aline Sternberg, [1] who was a student in social sciences from Belgium, volunteered abroad for two months. [2] when.she was 24.
she joined a program with « Volunteers Without Borders in India [3] where she provided educational assistance to children [4] who lived in slum areas and in the streets.
Why volunteering ?

To Aline volunteering is an enriching experience [5] which allows you to get a taste of new lifestyles and get in touch with the locals.

listen to the verbs:

To fight for
...
to combat
...
to care for
...
to help
...
to provide
...
To defend
...
to fight agaist
...

Food insecurity
...
world hunger
...
cruelty to animals
...
the right to education
...
the wildlife or nature
...
overfishing
...
human rights
...
medical aid
...
welfare
...
food assistance

People know this about me:

I've lived 7 decades in the United States. I have two adult daughters who have very fine husbands. I have two tiny beautiful granddaughters and I live alone.

Living alone is great for me because I can do all the things I love whenever I choose. They are drawing and painting, knitting and calligraphy, photography and learning about everything French. My hands have begun trembling, so my writing isn't as perfect anymore. Beautiful writing, I'm afraid, has become a lost art.

I can work from home as an audio transcription typist, which makes use of my many years working with words, and requires that I keep up to date with technology.

I watched this great saga which lasts 6 hours with my dad last year .
There are amazing action scenes and the special effects are brilliant !
It's about freedom fighters who try to destroy an evil empire in the future. .
They fight with light sabres and swords.

This movie was released 3 years ago .
I watched it with my brother at the cinema when it was released.
It's about a kid who has problems with his older brother.
It's an adaptation from a book.
It's really funny and some scenes are really hilarious! We loved it !

The last film I saw is a romance .
I saw it with my girlfriend a month ago .
I just hated it ! It was so boring and sad !
But my girlfriend loved it .
It's about two teengagers ,a girl who is sick and a boy who has only one friend.

The intensive agriculture of the “New World” (= American colonies) demanded a large workforce. Crops such as sugar cane, tobacco and cotton required an unlimited and cheap supply of strong workers to assure production for the European market. Slaves from Africa offered the solution.

The slave trade started in the seventeenth century and it was part of the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and America. The trade moved Africans along 3000 miles of Africa’s west coast to the New World. Slaves used to be captured by Africans and Europeans for sale or trade. British ships from Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow sailed to Africa and sold British goods to African chiefs in exchange for slaves. And when they returned from America, they brought back tobacco, rum and cotton.

The slave trade between Western Africa and the Americas reached its peak in the mid-18th century when it is estimated that over 80,000 Africans annually used to cross the Atlantic for several months in terrible conditions. It was called the Middle Passage. Forty to fifty hundred people used to be shipped in the same boat with little air and very little food, so there were lots of diseases and dead. Then the slaves who survived the voyage and finally reached their destination, used to spend the rest of their lives in chains.

It was a profitable business. A slave bought on the African coast for the equivalent of 14 English pounds in 1760 could be sold for 45 pounds on the American market. African slaves were chosen because they were resistant to Western diseases, strong and they could work in the hot weather. They mostly used to work in cotton, sugar cane and tobacco plantations in the Southern states such as Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, etc. Slaves had no rights and were their master’s property. Many tried to escape but there was a risk of being shot or beaten.

Hello ! I’m Kelly, I’m 14 years old and I’m Canadian.
I go to school in Saint Lucie’s and I’m in Year 10. In Canada, we don’t have a uniform.
I go to school from Monday to Friday. Everyday I start at 8.30 and I finish at 3.30. I have lunch from 12.30 to 1.30. On Friday afternoon, I have PE and Music. I love Music because it’s easy and fun ; but my favourite subject is History because it’s very interesting. And I don’t like Science because it’s difficult !