English Recordings

France
17/8/18
Dear Mum
Just a card to let you know I am still alive and well. I am at the base at present but will be going up the line again in a day or two. I hope this finds you all well at home. I just missed seeing George Legrave as he left the camp here three days before I came. I will write a long letter when I get back to my mates. With fondest love and best wishes to all.
your affectionate son
Mick

January 11,2014<Myeong-Dong & Garosu-Gil >Yesterday afternoon, I went to Myeong-Dong in order to help two Chinese visitors with communication. They are interested in Korean style cafés, so they came to Seoul to find/ tour various styles of cafes that are different from those in Beijing. This was the first time I had been to Myeong-Dong in a long time. Anyway, there were a lot of interesting and fun street stalls in the road, and most of the shops were having sales. On the street, there were decorative lights glittering , which made the atmosphere feel exciting. =The street was decorated with glittering lights that made the atmosphere feel exciting." This afternoon, I went to Garosu-Gil to meet them. There are a lot of unique styles of cafes and individual stores on the streets. I took some pictures. The last picture is of a guide map of Garosu-Gil, written in Korean, Japanese, and English, from the entrace of the subway.

In the trenches The First World War was the first modern war, and for millions of soldiers that meant a war fought in the horrors of the trenches.
When the German army was attacked in northern France in 1914 by the French and British armies, the German soldiers were told to dig trenches to protect themselves. The Allies couldn't advance past the German trenches, so they made trenches too. 560 kilometres were soon covered, from Ostend to the Swiss border. For the next four years, the armies faced each other, sometimes just 10 metres apart. Millions of men on both sides lost their lives to capture a few metres of territory.
Trench life The trenches were about 2 metres high and 1.8 metres wide. They were infested with rats and lice*. They were often full of mud and water, and men developed infections and gangrene. Death was a constant companion : raids, attacks, artillery shell fire* and snipers. Food, water, ammunition* and orders all had to come from trenches behind. When men were wounded or killed, they had to be evacuated to the trenches behind, but that was very dangerous job because of bombardments. Often, corpses* couldn't be moved. The smell was terrible.
Over the top. Life in the trenches was terrible, but it was paradise compared with "going over the top". In order to attack the enemy men had to climb over the parapet of the trenches and they had to cross No Man's Land. On July 1st, 1916, the French and British military forces launched an attack on the German army in the Somme. It was disastrous. On the first day alone, the British lost 60,000 men. When the battle ended on November 15th, the Allies had won just 13 km of territory and lost 600,000 men. This is how one officer described "going over the top" with his soldiers at the Somme : "You try to calm everybody and try not to show how terrified you are. Then you start the countdown : ten, nine, eight…You blow the whistle. You climb out of the trench and through the hole in the barbed wire. You lie there for everyone to get out. Some of them are already dead or wounded. Then you stand up and start walking. At normal walking speed. In a straight line. Across open country. In daylight. Towards a line of machine guns, with artillery firing all around." It seemed crazy, but the army didn't know any other way to advance. Trench warfare was new. Many of the weapons were new : rifles* that could reach a distance of 1.5 km, machine guns*, planes, grenades and poison gas. The majority of the soldiers were volunteers with little experience.
By the end of the war, on November 11th 1918, 24 million people were dead and millions handicapped. Most of them had believed they were fighting in "the war to end wars" and that their sacrifice would stop war forever. And yet just 21 years later, World War Two began !

A．We have to renew our gym membership soon.　　　　
B．Do we have to go there to get that done?　　　　　
A．No, we don't have to. We can just do it online.

A．Do I have to get ready for bed now? 　　　　　
B．You don't have to. You have no school tomorrow.
A．Yeah.

A．Peter started a new job 2 weeks ago.
B．He did? How is he making out?
A．So far so good.

A．How are you making out?
B．I'm doing OK.
A．Call me if you need help.

A．Why are you looking for another job? You don't like your boss?
B．No, it's not that. I think I want more challenging responsibilities.
A．I see.

A．Things are not so great right now.
B．Are you two still fighting?
A．It's not that. We just don't have time to see each other.

A．It's too soon to launch this project.
B．But we don't have much time.
A．Talk to my boss. He'll back me up on this.