English Listening Practice | Story + Dictation

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.

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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!