English Recordings

Betty bought a bit of butter, but she found the butter bitter, so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make the bitter butter better.

Bill had a billboard.
Bill also had a board bill.
The board bill bored Bill,
So Bill sold his billboard
And paid his board bill.
Then the board bill
No longer bored Bill,
But though he had no board bill,
Neither did he have his billboard!

Six thick thistle sticks

Theophilus Thistler, the thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.

The shrewd shrew sold Sarah seven sliver fish slices.

Sister Susie sat on the sea shore sewing shirts for sailors

Moses supposes his toses are roses,
But Moses supposes erroneously,
For nobody's toeses are posies of roses
As Moses supposes his toses to be.

(When I read this story for my daughter, this part is difficult to read to me. Please help me!)

"Someone has been sleeping in my bed," shrieked tiny, little baby bear.
"And she's still here!"

Baby bear's shrill, little voice woke Goldilocks with a start. When she saw the three bears staring down at her, she was out of bed... down the stairs... and out of the door in a flash.

What a surprise! What spoiled cattle there are in Japan!

The Wikipedia article about kobe beef says that "as beef became more prominent in society, farmers began hiring geishas to massage the animal's backside." I did not know that geishas had offered such services even to cattle!

Kobe beef is considered to be top grade beef in Japan, and it probably is some of the most expensive beef in the world. It is well marbled and very tender. Thus, it is very delicious. It is said that it currently costs over $100 per pound; it is over 10,000yen for only 450g.

Kobe beef comes from a specific breed of Japanese black-haired cattle and is raised in with organic practices.

They are fed natural foods, such as barley ,wheat and grass and they are given good water.

They are massaged by humans daily, in a special way over their whole body! The cattle must remain muscular and well marbled to be ranked Grade A by the Japanese Association of Meat Rankings.

If I tell you this, you would feel green with envy of the cattle. They can drink beer like crazy!

Do you think they are spending happy days by having massages and tons of bottles of beer every day~?

A question popped into my mind while driving today.
This(It) is about the way people greet one another in English.

Why do you always ask people " How are you?" , " How are you doing?" or " How is it going?", when you meet them? Why do you reply , " I'm fine" or " I'm good" most of the time?

When I go to an English school, two of the American teachers ask me that ( this). I can reply to them, " I am fine, thank you, and you?", which is just like what I learned in school. I feel bored saying this in the same old pattern, actually.

I wonder how I can continue the conversation after saying "I am fine."

Is it a good idea to talk about what I did over the weekend or maybe how I felt when I did something during the week? Can I say those things abruptly?

I think that lots of Japanese English learners have this (the) same question as me. The ways people greet one another in English and Japanese are different, but I can't explain how they are different right now.

Would you start off with small talk, like about the weather?

I am not a person who comes under the influence of the weather much, so it is kind of boring to talk about it and hear about it...

Hello, everyone!

I am Ringo from Japan. I happened find this website just before, and I don't know exactly about how it works.

I really want to improve my speaking skills and get rid of my Japanese accent.

Please listen to me and give me some suggestions. Thank you!

Hi, please, record it in two version. First version would be unnatural English (English that teachers speak at school - fluently, word by word) and second one would be natural English).
No wonders that people could not understand real English when they are used to listening just this kind of "language".
Pay attention while you are studying a language...I talked about it with my friend from Germany and they usually make "a little pause" after each word.
Have a look at: http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/linking.htm

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Learn how to work and earn your own money.
Pronounce your vocabulary properly.
The cook looks up a recipe in a cookery book.
Our outdoor swimming pool is larger than our indoor swimming pool.
I can’t say if it’s thirty or forty meters long.
Make an effort to participate in the discussion.
This is a great idea.
Pronounce the sounds and stress the right syllables.
The vowels and the consonants are important.
I’ll send you a discussion report.
Your effort will be rewarded.
The podcast is about nuclear fission.
The question is whether nuclear fusion is possible.
You have a lot of experience in this field.
I have been living in England for six months.
We want to learn about the old traditions.
Can you catch the bus? I think I can’t catch it.
It takes a long time to improve one’s pronunciation.
They teach English and other languages.
My teacher taught me how to talk.
I was watching a video.
Do you have the latest DVD?
I like watching DVDs.
Do you have twenty twenty vision?
When do you want to catch the bus?
We caught the last bus.
She paints using water colours.

Study Sheds Light on What Makes People Shy

By LiveScience Staff

The brains of shy or introverted individuals might actually process the world differently than their more extroverted counterparts, a new study suggests.

About 20 percent of people are born with a personality trait called sensory perception sensitivity (SPS) that can manifest itself as the tendency to be inhibited, or even neuroticism. The trait can be seen in some children who are "slow to warm up" in a situation but eventually join in, need little punishment, cry easily, ask unusual questions or have especially deep thoughts, the study researchers say.

The new results show that these highly sensitive individuals also pay more attention to detail, and have more activity in certain regions of their brains when trying to process visual information than those who are not classified as highly sensitive.

The study was conducted by researchers at Stony Brook University in New York, and Southwest University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, both in China. The results were published March 4 in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

The sensitive type:

Individuals with this highly sensitive trait prefer to take longer to make decisions, are more conscientious, need more time to themselves in order to reflect, and are more easily bored with small talk, research suggests.

Previous work has also shown that compared with others those with a highly sensitive temperament are more bothered by noise and crowds, more affected by caffeine, and more easily startled. That is, the trait seems to confer sensitivity all around.

The researchers in the current study propose the simple sensory sensitivity to noise, pain, or caffeine is a side effect of an inborn preference to pay more attention to experiences.

They first used an established questionnaire to separate the sensitive from the non-sensitive participants. Then, the 16 participants compared a photograph of a visual scene with a preceding scene, indicating whether or not the scene had changed. Scenes differed in whether the changes were obvious or subtle, and in how quickly they were presented. Meanwhile, the researchers scanned each participant's brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Sensitive persons looked at the scenes with subtle differences for a longer time than did non-sensitive persons, and showed significantly greater activation in brain areas involved in associating visual input with other input to the brain and with visual attention. These brain areas are not simply used for vision itself, but for a deeper processing of input.

Role in evolution:

The sensitivity trait is found in over 100 other species, from fruit flies and fish to canines and primates, indicating this personality type could sometimes provide an evolutionary advantage.

Biologists are beginning to agree that within one species there can be two equally successful "personalities." The sensitive type, always a minority, chooses to observe longer before acting, as if doing their exploring with their brains rather than their limbs. The other type "boldly goes where no one has gone before," the scientists say.

The sensitive individual's strategy is not so advantageous when resources are plentiful or quick, aggressive action is required. But it comes in handy when danger is present, opportunities are similar and hard to choose between, or a clever approach is needed.

Once upon a time, when giants still stomped the land, a widow lived with her son, Jack. The widow was too sick to work, and one day they ran out of money.
« Son, » Jack's mother said, « I'm too weak to take the cow to town. You must go and sell her. »
Now, Jack was brave and kindhearted. But he didn't always use his head. So his mother told him to think carefully before selling the cow. Jack promised he would.
He was halfway to town when a man stopped him.
« Jack, » said the man, « I'll give you five magic beans for your cow. »
Hmmmmm, Jack thought. How could this stranger know my name? And how could he know that I'm selling the cow? He must have magic powers. Then the beans could be matic, too.
He traded the cow for the beans and went home, very pleased with the deal.
His mother was not pleased.
« You were tricked, you silly boy! » she cried. « There are no such things as magic beans. »
Angrily, she threw the beans out the window.
« Now we have no cow and no money, » she said. « What shall we do? »
The next morning, something tickled Jack's nose and woke him up. Surprised, Jack saw that a huge leaf had poked in his window. He pushed it away and peeked outside. A thick beanstalk stretched up, up, up, its top hidden by clouds.
« They were magic beans, » he whispered.
Without waking his mother, Jack started climbing the beanstalk. His arms and legs began to ache, but he forgot about them when he saw the castle.
Jack knocked on the castle door. A giant woman opened it.
« Who's there? » she asked, peering around. « I don't see well, so speak up. »
Jack wasn't sure that he wanted her to see him, but he was very hungry.
« I'm down here, » he said. « Do you have any work I can do for food? »
The giantess picked up Jack by his collar and plopped him on a huge stone floor.
« Start scrubbing, » she ordered.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
« Argh! » said the woman. « It's my husband. Hide in the cupboard so he doesn't eat you. Scrub the floor later. »
The giant came, took one sniff and said, « Fee, fi, foe, fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread! »
« Don't be silly, » his wife said. « You smell breakfast. Eat while it's hot. »
After breakfast, the giant opened his bags of gold. He began counting the pieces, but fell asleep after 135,091.
Just a little gold would feed mother and me for a long time, Jack thought.
He snatched a small bag and climbed quickly down the beanstalk.
Jack's mother was delighted. But when she heard where Jack had gotten the gold, she hugged him tight.
« Those giants robbed us of that gold and two other treasures, » she said. « They killed your father. I grabbed you and escaped. Promise that you won't go back for more gold. »
Jack promised.
The next morning, he climbed the beanstalk again.
I promised not to go back for gold, the boy thought as he climbed. I didn't say I wouldn't go back for something else. After all, it was ours.
Jack banged on the castle on the castle door. The giantess squinted her eyes and peered down at him.
« Are you the thief who was here yesterday? » she demanded.
« I'm no thief, » Jack said. « I'm a hard worker, though, and I expect to be paid for it. »
The giantess picked up Jack by his collar and plopped him in front of a huge tub of dirty dishes.
« Start washing, » she ordered.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
« Argh! » said the giantess. « It's my husband. Hide in the cupboard so he doesn't eat you. Do the dishes later. »
The giant came in, took one sniff and said, « Fee, fi, foe, fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread! »
« Yeah, yeah, yeah, » interrupted his wife. « You smell breakfast. Eat while it's hot. »
The giant grumbled, but he ate.
Then he got a goose from a crate in the corner. He put the goose on the table and roared, « Lay! »
The goose honked twice, then waddled back to its crate. On the table was a golden egg.
The giant tossed it up and down like a ball. Then his eyes began to hurt from looking at the shiny gold, so he shut them.
As soon as the giant fell asleep, Jack grabbed the goose and quickly slid down the beanstalk.
His mother was waiting at the bottom of the beanstalk. She was very angry with Jack.
« I didn't exactly promise not to go up again, » Jack explained.
« You knew that you weren't supposed to, » said his mother. « Go to your room. »
Jack knew that he shouldn't. But the next morning before his mother woke, he climbed to the castle.
Instead of banging on the door, he crawled in a kitchen window when the giantess wasn't looking.
The giant's wife hid me in the cupboard, Jack thought. I'll hide somewhere else.
He climbed into washtub.
Soon he heard, Thud! Thud! Thud!
The giant came in, took one sniff and said, « Fee, fi, foe, fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread! »
« You certainly do, » interrupted his wife. « That little thief probably sneaked in again. He always hides in the cupboard. »
But Jack wasn't there.
The giant ate his breakfast. Then he got out a golden harp.
« Play! » he roared.
The harp sounded like sparkling steam pouring over pebbles. The lady of the Harp sang a song with no words. Jack was entranced.
The music put giant to sleep. Jack grabbed the harp, but he almost dropped it when it screamed, « Master! Master! »
The giant woke and thudded after Jack.
Jack half-scrambled, half-slid down the beanstalk.
« Mother! » he yelled. « Get the axe! »
Jack's mother saw the giant close behind Jack. She grabbed the axe and whacked the beanstalk.
« Jump, Jack, jump! » she hollered and whacked again.
Jack jumped to the ground. He snatched the axe and whacked the stalk until it snapped in two.
Kaboom!
The giant and the beanstalk hit the ground together. And that was the end of the giant.
Jack, his mother, the goose and the harp lived very happily together. Except for the time Jack went to town to buy a pig...
Ah, but that is another story.

This is a story all about how
My life got twist-turned upside down
And i liked to take a minute
And sit right there
And tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where i spent most of my days
Chillin out maxin relaxin all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys
Who were up to no good
Startin makin trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one lil fight and my mom got scared
She said your movin with your auntie and uncle in bel Air

I whistled for a cab
And when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything i can say this cab is rare
But i thought naw forget it yo homes to Bel Air

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And i yelled to the cab "yo homes smell ya later"
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air