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Listening

BBC Learning English (Watch and Listen)
Watch and listen to TV and radio programmes

British Council LearnEnglish in Listening
Listen to stories, articles and poems, all with audio scripts

Listening tips

Listen to the radio news or watch a television news programme at the same time every day. How many stories are there? Note down what each story is about (think: when, where, who, what).

If you can, record the programme and listen to/watch it again to check details from the first time. You cannot do this in “real life” but it is very useful practice and it means you find out what you got right the first time and this will boost your confidence.

Alternatively, record a news programme without listening to/watching it. Then play only the headlines. Stop the tape and predict what the stories will be about. Then listen to check your predictions. Use one of the stories as a dictation text. Listen several times and write down what you hear.

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National Emblem of the People’s Republic of China

第十一届政治协商会议 (the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, CPPCC) 已经在这个星期一（3月3日）开幕，全国2千多名政协代表将在北京参加为期11天的会议。3月5日，十一届全国人大 (the National People’s Congress) 一次会议开幕，温家宝作政府工作报告说今年CPI控制在4.8%以内。近来在各个渠道略微看到关于两会的消息，特别昨晚在跑步的时候听到BBC放了一小段温家宝关于CPI的讲话才意识到重要的两会已经开始了。至于为什么是重要的，我想我们亲爱的党举行的会议都是很重要的缘故吧。

昨天是Extra Free Class的最后一天，很幸运，没有超过空课的底线因此拿回了课程开始的预存款。很是抱歉，没有记下第二批老师的名单，只能在下面以图片代替了。也祝贺Melic拿到证书。另外，新的免费课程也开始报名了，但是不知道要在BC呆多久就不参和了，一般来说，再去参加还是有益处的。Ricky从韩国回来后就直接跳一级还是跟我同班，因为Academic 1没有空位，从这里看出BC的分级制度是乱来的呀。现在感觉到课程好像用处不大了，可能还的在平时多下功夫。Feb 28日是Petra的生日，Zerlinda送了一个小小的蛋糕，很有意义。而且Petra的新婚丈夫送了一张写满甜言蜜语的贺卡给她，超赞耶，虽然我看不懂匈牙利文。Jan春节回来后只在上part time的speaking lessons，一个星期两节课，据她说每天都去学跳舞，伦巴、恰恰还有华尔兹，一段时候可能还会有证书拿呢，感觉她是越活越有精神了。Lisa，我的韩国新同学，嗯，怎么介绍她呢，well, generally speaking, er, let me see, 这个课程开始以来我俩都坐在一块，I’m very enjoying the time with her。当然在Foundation 6同学的印尼餐馆聚会上就认识她了。Andy，来自香港的同学，恭喜他通过了新加坡sunrise学校的面试，两年后将会产生一个厨师，很佩服他能够按照自己的兴趣来重新选择一个方向。他的一绝是能够将短信写成信那样的长度，可怜我的blackberry 7290要运行一段时间才能够将信息全部显示出来。Fitri，现在在准备8号的雅思考试，然后应该会申请新加坡的某间大学吧，今天给我一个小册子，名称是“你知道关于圣灵的。。。”（忘了名称了，有时间将摘抄一下段出来）。May the force be with her. Yang Kun, my boss’s nephew, 谢谢他的关心，哈。在没有下来这里联上网的时候，感觉有很多要说的一样，但是发现那只是感觉而已。天晚了，该睡觉了。

the teachers of Extra Free Class

最后为大家送上大前天在Cathay的电视屏上看到的传说中超强的新加坡华南早报 (South China Morning Post) 广告。

Bush reads off the scmp.com website during a meeting with the President of China - produced by SCMP.com

早上硬硬的爬起来，胡乱洗刷一遍登上了174，还好没有迟到。今天的Free Extra Class是四个老师教我们的最后一节课，然后他们要转到另外一个班去，而我们将迎来新的老师。为什么有这个free的class？原来是British Council能够出那种教师certificate的资格，这些free class就是考核老师。他们要交S$5000，大概上20节课左右吧，然后由British Council决定是否已经合格。

谢谢Barbara，Erica，Jacqueline和Mel，愿你们能顺利拿到认证。也谢谢你们的kindness，原来我还有一点humor的呀。

Hi, Tommy,
Thank you for your support during our training. We all enjoyed your contributions and humor! You helped us a lot. Good luck with your future studies.
From Barbara, Erica, Mel and Jacqueline

家里好几天都在下雨，而且是超冷，但是不会达到下雪的程度啦。下午的时候终于给Jimmy打了电话，然后跟Jason见了面，谢谢Jimmy的晚餐和邀请，让我在这里不会感到陌生。

发现了一个缺点，就是懒动症，对什么东西都是停留在念头阶段，有行动才可以。做个记号。

Today is the first day for the IELTS lesson. And we learned some skills about the Part 1 of Speaking exam. Here are some tips:

a. Give full answer and add extra information about the topic (expand your answer).
b. Don’t make the examiner work hard.
c. Try to be interesting.
d. Be friendly.
e. Don’t fidget!

And following are some information about the IELTS:

What is IELTS?
1. IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System.
2. It is designed to help universities and colleges test the skills of people who want to study in English.
3. It is also used as a general test for immigration and employment in many countries.
4. Candidates can choose to sit either the Academic Test or the General Training Test.
5. The IELTS test is divided into four sections: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.
6. There is no pass or fail mark in IELTS.
7. Candidates are marked on a band scale of 1 to 9.
How can you get the best score possible?
8. Firstly, you need to know the test format.
9. Secondly, you should do practice tests.
10. Finally, you should make sure you use English every day.
11. Many students do an IELTS preparation course at a language school to help them prepare.
Preparing for the Listening Test
12. You will learn to notice intonation patterns and different types of English.
13. You also need to practise listening for general and specific information.
Preparing for the Reading Test
14. You will need to skim for general understanding and scan for specific information.
15. You will also learn to develop your vocabulary.
Preparing for the Writing Test
16. This includes learning how to write paragraphs, introduction and conculsions.
17. You will also organise information logically and use examples and evidence to support an argument.
Preparing for the Speaking Test
18. You will practise your pronunciation, intonation and fluency.
19. You will learn to use common phrases and interact with other speakers.
20. Finally, you will learnn to speak for an extended time on a topic.

Study English - IELTS Preparation

At the end of module 12, which is also at the end of the Cutting Edge Intermediate book, there is a song lyric named Out of Reach. But there are some missing words between the lyric, we need to listen the song and fill the missing words in. It seems that I have known this song for a long time, maybe I had heard it before. There are some scenes come from a movie which has the Huge Grant as the main actor when I watch this song’s MTV in Youtube, this song must have been one of the movie’s soundtrack. So I unlocked my DOG to search the connections between the song and one unknown movie. You know, in China, we call the Google as DOG just like a nickname. I couldn’t found the relations according to IMDB, however, there is another song which was mentioned by David while he was playing a Charades game with us. Its name is Can’t get you out of my head.

Gosh, I got it. Out of Reach was the soundtrack of Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Can’t get you out of my head was for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Bridget Jones’s Diary 2).

Gabriellle - Out Of Reach

Knew the signs, wasn’t right
I was stupid for a while
Swept away by you
And now I feel like a fool
So confused, my heart’s bruised
Was I ever loved by you?

Out of reach, so far
I never had your heart
Out of reach, couldn’t see
We were never meant to be

Catch myself from despair
I could drown if I stay here
Keeping busy everyday
I know I will be OK
But I was so confused, my heart’s bruised
Was I ever loved by you?

Out of reach, so far
I never had your heart
Out of reach, couldn’t see
We were never meant to be

So much hurt, so much pain
Takes a while to regain what is lost inside
And I hope that in time, you’ll be out of my mind
And I’ll be over you

But now I’m so confused, my heart’s bruised
Was I ever loved by you?

Out of reach, so far
I never had your heart
Out of reach, couldn’t see
We were never meant to be

Out of reach, so far
You never gave your heart
In my reach, I can see
There’s a life out there for me

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