Well hey there, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
Today I have an English listening practice for you.
It's an advanced English dictation lesson.
I'm going to test your English listening skills while I tell you
a story about the most wonderful adventure that I went on
with my friend just a few weeks ago.
And because it's a dictation practice,
you'll need to write down the words that you hear
but you don't see up on screen here.
That's your challenge.
So what do you need?
You will definitely need a notebook and a pen.
And you'll need to write down the numbers one to thirty-five
down the side of the page.
There are thirty-five answers that you need to write.
This lesson actually comes with a free PDF workbook
that I've made for you to help you study and learn
the new English words that you learn through this story.
It's completely free for you, you just need to click the link
in the description below and I will email it through
and you can get started.
There are actually three different ways that you can practise
using your listening skills with this video
and I recommend you do all of them.
The first is to watch the video and listen for the advanced
words that I use in this story
but are missing from the script that you see up here on screen.
There are thirty-five words that are missing from the script
that you'll need to guess after listening to my story.
The second way is to practise listening for gist
so I've included some comprehension questions
in the workbook for you and once you've
finished watching this video
then you can download the workbook and answer the first
questions while the story is still fresh in your mind.
This will help you to confirm that you've understood
the general meaning of the story.
And the third way is to listen for connected speech.
This really is advanced listening practice.
So I'll test your understanding of naturally spoken English
by asking you to fill in some of the phrasal verbs,
the contractions and the grammatical words
that are unstressed in fast, naturally spoken English.
You will need to use the transcript in the workbook
for this section.
Okay so make sure you turn off subtitles down here,
that's going to give you all the answers that you don't need,
you need to be listening for these answers as I speak.
We are about ready to get started.
Let's dive in!
Last Sunday morning was a sunny day and I woke up
with an urge for adventure.
I decided to break out of my usual routine and get out of town.
The first thing I did was call my good friend, Rebecca.
We were best friends when we were growing up and
our friendship has remained strong
even throughout adulthood.
Bec's married now and she has two kids
so I wasn't optimistic when I called her to find out
if she wanted to
drop everything and join me on a spontaneous road trip.
But to my surprise,
Bec was on board!
It just so happened she had her parents-in-law
visiting that weekend,
so she was able to cast aside all of her usual responsibilities
and come along.
I couldn't believe my luck!
I told her that I'd swing past her place in about twenty minutes
and pick her up.
When she asked where we were going
I told her it was a surprise.
To be honest, I didn't know yet.
I was throwing this plan together on the fly!
So I grabbed my hiking boots, some snacks,
a bottle of water and jumped in the car.
There's a place up in the hills where we used to go camping
as teenagers.
I hadn't been there in years but there were some beautiful
waterfalls and great hiking trails so
I figured it'd be a great place to start!
When I pulled up outside her house,
Bec was waiting on the front lawn with her backpack on
looking like a kid about to go on school camp.
I laughed though because I was just as excited
to have escaped the monotony of our daily routines
and for a whole day!
So as we took off up the road
I opened the sunroof,
Bec put on a '90s playlist
of all of our favourite hits from school.
So we were singing at the top of our lungs,
hair blowing in the breeze, music pounding from the speakers,
it was awesome.
After about an hour or so
we turned off the main road and Bec
instantly knew where I was heading.
This place was special to both of us,
a hidden gem that remained a secret to most of the world
even until today.
It's a tranquil lagoon within a steep gorge.
It's an arduous journey to get down to it.
We knew we'd need to scramble over some rocky ledges
so we laced up our hiking boots.
We picked up our backpacks and we started
our descent into the gorge.
And with each step, the air became cooler
and the sounds of the forest seemed to envelop us.
At this point, the lagoon is obscured from view by
soaring trees.
We fell into a peaceful silence
as we made our way down the treacherous cliff face
knowing that a luxurious dip
in the cool dark water below awaited us.
It's a place that demands reverence
as if you're standing in a colossal outdoor cathedral.
It's exquisitely beautiful.
As we reached the bottom of the gorge
there was a disturbance on the water's surface
and I heard Bec's short, sharp gasp.
We stared at each other for a moment and
stealthily made our way through the trees to the water's edge.
We saw it again and this time I knew for certain.
It was a platypus.
These are incredible creatures,
endemic to eastern Australia. You won't see them
anywhere else in the world
and they're incredibly shy.
It's quite rare to see them in the wild. In fact,
it's only the second time in my entire life
that I'd seen one in its natural habitat.
They hide out in rocky crevices or in
tree roots below the waterline.
After watching the platypus for a few moments, it
seemed to disappear.
So we pulled off our sweaty shirts and edged ourselves
into the cool water.
It was divine.
We lay floating on our backs peering up at the blue sky for
what felt like hours but I'm sure it was just minutes!
But I was profoundly grateful to that urge for adventure that
pulled me out of bed that morning.
That moment was everything that I'd hoped for and more.
We ate our snacks, had another dip
and then hold ourselves out of the gorge.
On the journey back home, Bec and I reflected on
how essential this type of spontaneous escape is
to help you reset your perspective,
to nurture friendship
and to spark gratitude for the simple things in life.
It was a great day.
So tell me, have you ever done anything spontaneous like this?
Does it help you to reset when you feel a little bit
stuck or
maybe a bit unhappy about the way things are going in life?
I hope that you enjoyed listening to my story and I
also hope that you got some of those missing words
that you were able to guess some of them.
I'm going to give you the answers in just a minute but
before I do, I want to give a little shout out to the sponsor
of today's lesson.
Meet English-speaking friends with Hey Lady!
an online community connecting women around the world
through English.
We make it easy for you to meet fantastic
English-speaking partners from different countries
to practise speaking English with regularly
in the warmth and the safety of a woman-only environment.
To learn more about what we do
and get a Hey Lady! Conversation Pack for free
just click the link down in the description below.
Okay, here are the answers.
Urge.
Throughout.
Optimistic.
Spontaneous.
On board.
Parents-in-law.
Couldn't believe.
On the fly.
Some snacks.
For years.
Front lawn.
Sunroof.
Breeze.
I was heading.
Hidden gem.
Tranquil lagoon.
Laced up.
Our decent.
Envelop.
Obscured.
Made our way.
Awaited us.
Colossal.
Exquisitely.
Disturbance.
Gasp.
Water's edge.
Eastern Australia.
Quite rare.
Natural habitat.
It seemed to.
Divine.
Profoundly grateful.
Hauled.
Nurture friendship.
Don't forget to download that workbook so you can complete
the two extra listening practice activities
for this lesson.
Plus you'll find all of the definitions for those
advanced words that you learned today.
All of them with examples.
Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next week!