Learn English Through Stories - An English Comprehension Lesson

41,196 views ・ 2023-02-15

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
In today's English lesson,
0
150
1590
00:01
I'm going to tell you two stories.
1
1740
2490
00:04
One of the stories will be true.
2
4230
2310
00:06
The other story will be a lie
3
6540
1560
00:08
and you'll need to try and figure out which one is which.
4
8100
3900
00:12
I like English lessons like this
5
12000
1830
00:13
because as an English learner,
6
13830
2010
00:15
you really need to understand each story
7
15840
2620
00:18
in order to make a decision.
8
18460
2330
00:20
So I'll tell you two stories, two stories about me.
9
20790
2940
00:23
One will be true, one will be a lie.
10
23730
2400
00:26
Are you ready?
11
26130
833
00:26
(bright upbeat music)
12
26963
2978
00:33
Story number one.
13
33090
1950
00:35
Let's call this story The Kite.
14
35040
2520
00:37
Once when I was a kid,
15
37560
1680
00:39
my mom's uncle visited us from the Netherlands.
16
39240
3930
00:43
He flew over on a plane
17
43170
1620
00:44
and he came to visit us here on the farm,
18
44790
2820
00:47
and he brought gifts.
19
47610
1620
00:49
He brought gifts for me and my brothers and sisters.
20
49230
3540
00:52
We were very, very excited.
21
52770
2130
00:54
The gift that I received was a kite,
22
54900
2670
00:57
a really cool, orange kite.
23
57570
2700
01:00
It was really big.
24
60270
1200
01:01
It came in a box
25
61470
1380
01:02
and I remember I had to put it together.
26
62850
2610
01:05
I had two sticks and I had to attach
27
65460
2580
01:08
all of the strings and the fabric.
28
68040
2550
01:10
And when I was all done,
29
70590
1140
01:11
the kite was ready to test out
30
71730
2100
01:13
but it wasn't windy on the day I got the kite,
31
73830
3630
01:17
so I couldn't go outside with my mom's uncle and try it out.
32
77460
3840
01:21
But I do remember putting it all together.
33
81300
2340
01:23
It was a really nice-looking kite.
34
83640
2850
01:26
The next day, my mom's uncle came back
35
86490
2700
01:29
for tea or coffee or something,
36
89190
1740
01:30
and it was a windy day,
37
90930
2070
01:33
so we went outside and we spent some time.
38
93000
3517
01:36
He taught me how to fly the kite.
39
96517
2963
01:39
I would hold the string and he would go
40
99480
2490
01:41
and throw the kite in the air and I would run,
41
101970
2130
01:44
and eventually the kite was flying.
42
104100
2100
01:46
It was super fun.
43
106200
1320
01:47
So I let the kite go really high in the air
44
107520
3420
01:50
and eventually the string broke,
45
110940
3180
01:54
and the kite flew away and landed down by the river.
46
114120
4650
01:58
I ran down really quickly and I found the kite.
47
118770
3030
02:01
Luckily, it wasn't broken.
48
121800
2460
02:04
I was very, very happy that it wasn't broken.
49
124260
3120
02:07
Then, my mom's uncle and I
50
127380
2280
02:09
went with my dad to the hardware store
51
129660
2820
02:12
and we bought really strong fishing line.
52
132480
3330
02:15
Fishing line is something you use with a fishing rod
53
135810
3000
02:18
and it's very thin but it's very strong.
54
138810
2610
02:21
When we came back home,
55
141420
1380
02:22
we attached the fishing line to the kite
56
142800
2700
02:25
instead of the string that came with it.
57
145500
2760
02:28
And then, we tried flying the kite again
58
148260
2430
02:30
and it worked way better.
59
150690
2010
02:32
I was super happy.
60
152700
1470
02:34
It was a fun experience.
61
154170
1800
02:35
I flew the kite quite a bit when I was a kid,
62
155970
3180
02:39
lots of fun.
63
159150
833
02:39
I don't know if you've ever had a kite.
64
159983
1897
02:41
Anyways, that's story one, The Kite.
65
161880
2580
02:44
Do you think it's true or do you think it's a lie?
66
164460
2910
02:47
Story number two, let's call this one Basketball.
67
167370
4350
02:51
When I was a kid,
68
171720
1020
02:52
I really wanted to be on the basketball team at school
69
172740
3750
02:56
but I wasn't a very good basketball player.
70
176490
2760
02:59
A lot of my friends lived in town
71
179250
2242
03:01
or they lived in the city
72
181492
2108
03:03
and they could practice basketball all the time
73
183600
2370
03:05
but I lived out here on the farm.
74
185970
2640
03:08
There are no really good spots to bounce a basketball
75
188610
2957
03:11
and I didn't have a basketball net
76
191567
2833
03:14
but I really, really, really wanted to play basketball.
77
194400
3570
03:17
So my parents got me a basketball
78
197970
2130
03:20
and I would practice in the barn.
79
200100
2160
03:22
And eventually, they got me a basketball net.
80
202260
2520
03:24
They bought me a basketball net
81
204780
1830
03:26
and we mounted it on the wall of the barn.
82
206610
2880
03:29
Many, many evenings I would practice
83
209490
2910
03:32
shooting the basketball, bouncing the basketball.
84
212400
2760
03:35
We also call it dribbling by the way.
85
215160
2010
03:37
I would practice a lot.
86
217170
1890
03:39
I would try and get my brothers and sisters
87
219060
2280
03:41
to practice with me
88
221340
1050
03:42
but none of them wanted to play basketball with me.
89
222390
2850
03:45
So I just practiced by myself and I got better.
90
225240
3960
03:49
I got better and better,
91
229200
1590
03:50
and I knew that basketball tryouts
92
230790
2619
03:53
were coming up in a few months,
93
233409
2181
03:55
so I practiced almost every night of the week.
94
235590
2820
03:58
I became really good at dribbling.
95
238410
1740
04:00
I became really good at shooting the basketball
96
240150
2430
04:02
and getting it in the net.
97
242580
1530
04:04
So basketball tryouts came.
98
244110
2400
04:06
I went, I signed up on a piece of paper at school
99
246510
3570
04:10
that I wanted to try out.
100
250080
1800
04:11
I went to the basketball tryouts
101
251880
2100
04:13
and I showed off all of my basketball skills
102
253980
3090
04:17
as best as I could.
103
257070
1710
04:18
And then I waited
104
258780
1020
04:19
because after, I think there were two tryouts,
105
259800
2910
04:22
after two tryouts,
106
262710
1230
04:23
the coach was going to post the list of who made the team.
107
263940
4110
04:28
So I was very nervous.
108
268050
1830
04:29
On that day,
109
269880
833
04:30
I remember going to school
110
270713
1267
04:31
and I looked at the list
111
271980
1440
04:33
and my name was not on the list.
112
273420
3000
04:36
I was heartbroken.
113
276420
1410
04:37
I was very, very sad.
114
277830
1710
04:39
I had spent all this time learning to play basketball
115
279540
2763
04:42
and I didn't make the team.
116
282303
2367
04:44
So that was story number two, Basketball.
117
284670
3000
04:47
Do you think it's true
118
287670
1140
04:48
or do you think it's a lie?
119
288810
2250
04:51
Okay, so you've heard both stories
120
291060
1950
04:53
and now you need to decide which one you think is true
121
293010
3480
04:56
and which one you think is a lie.
122
296490
1920
04:58
If you need to,
123
298410
930
04:59
you can go back and listen to each story again.
124
299340
3120
05:02
Maybe you'll hear a few hints in one of the stories
125
302460
2436
05:04
that make you think it's either true or that it is a lie.
126
304896
4044
05:08
I'll let you think about it for a few seconds here.
127
308940
2010
05:10
And then, I'll tell you which one is which,
128
310950
2730
05:13
one, two, three.
129
313680
1920
05:15
The story about the kite is true.
130
315600
2760
05:18
The story about me trying to learn how to play basketball
131
318360
3077
05:21
and make the basketball team,
132
321437
2023
05:23
that was just a lie.
133
323460
990
05:24
I know I probably told it in a way where you believed it
134
324450
3420
05:27
but that one was not true.
135
327870
1830
05:29
I do remember a time when my mom's uncle
136
329700
2250
05:31
came from Holland and he gave me a kite.
137
331950
2730
05:34
It was super fun.
138
334680
833
05:35
I had never had a kite before,
139
335513
2647
05:38
and so I did a lot of kite flying,
140
338160
3030
05:41
I guess you would say.
141
341190
1050
05:42
And I do remember that the string broke
142
342240
2400
05:44
and we went to the hardware store
143
344640
1290
05:45
and bought fishing line to use instead.
144
345930
2610
05:48
Anyways, once again, sorry for lying to you.
145
348540
3120
05:51
Sorry for telling you a story that wasn't true
146
351660
2280
05:53
but I hope both stories allowed you to learn
147
353940
2280
05:56
just a little bit more English.
148
356220
2010
05:58
Anyways, if this is your first time here,
149
358230
1710
05:59
don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there.
150
359940
2340
06:02
Give me a thumbs up.
151
362280
1170
06:03
Leave a comment about what you thought of this lesson
152
363450
3060
06:06
and if you have some time,
153
366510
1230
06:07
why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?
154
367740
3467
06:11
(bright upbeat music)
155
371207
3167
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7