lunes, 15 de febrero de 2016

Listening test: Natural disasters

In this week's listening task we are going to practice the heading-matching kind of task.
Listen to some people talk about their experience of natural disasters and choose the sentence A-H which corresponds to each of them. There are two sentences you do not need to use.



A - This speaker didn’t experience the worst manifestation of the natural disaster
B - This speaker didn’t pay attention to someone’s advice
C - This speaker had his movements limited
D - This speaker helped someone in a difficult situation
E - This speaker saw earth and rocks moving
F - This speaker was blinded by the natural disaster
G - This speaker was helped by a stranger
H - This speaker’s experience was not as serious as a violent tropical storm

Photo: elllo.org

Speaker 1
I was in a typhoon in Hong Kong, and I just arrived with a big heavy backpack, and I had to hide in a telephone box while the street flooded and the water came up around me.

Speaker 2
Natural disaster? No, I haven't been in a natural disaster. Unfortunately I was very close to a bomb which went off in Manchester when I was about sixteen years old, which was quite scary, but probably not as scary as a tsunami or a typhoon or something.

Speaker 3
Oh, yes, yes. I have been in a natural disaster. I forget what year but Hurricane Yuniki in Hawaii, but I lived on Ohau so we got the eye of the hurricane so it wasn't like harsh at all. In fact, I remember when it hit, I remember telling my parents, I wanted to go out and fly a kite because it looked so nice outside, so it wasn't really that bad of an experience for me.

Speaker 4
Yes, I have. I've been in a fire. A really big one actually. It was just very scary. There was just smoke everywhere, and I couldn't see anything. My eyes were hurting. I was choking, and I really thought I was going to die, but I was rescued by an old man passing by.

Speaker 5
OK, have I been in a natural disaster? Well, I've actually seen one happen while I was driving, and this was along I think the coast. I think it's called the Pacific Ocean Highway, if I'm not wrong. Anyway, there was in December 2004 I think, it was ... there was a big landslide during a the raining season in Los Angeles, and while I was driving I actually saw it, and then I didn't know what was damaged, but it was all over the news, and then it was bad.

Speaker 6
Yeah, actually, I was staying with friends in Norway and we were camping and we got hit by a blizzard and it was really frightening, but luckily I was with some big Viking Norwegian guys, and they knew exactly what to do, because I didn't. It was really ... you couldn't see anything. It was so white and the snow was so heavy and it actually hurt quite a lot, and it didn't help that it was absolutely freezing.


KEY
1C 2H 3A 4G 5E 6F