To my liking, the best site for students to develop their listening skills is the BBC. The video clip section of the site offers a wide variety of interesting videos, usually on the short side. The big problem with the BBC is that they do not offer a transcript, which is really a hindrance for learning.
Self-study activity:
Watch this BBC news story about something that happened in Tower Bridge, London, in May. Watch the video clip through and tell the story in your own words.
Now complete the gaps in the transcript below with the missing words.
They are regularly serviced in accordance with our (2) ... , our maintenance instructions, so we’ve got no reason to think there should be any fault. This comes as a complete surprise to us.
Sixteen people had just got in the lift to go up to the (3) ... above Tower Bridge. It had risen about 10 feet when suddenly it came crashing straight back down.
For nearly two hours Tower Bridge was closed, even pedestrians couldn’t pass.
As people normally do, there’s a lot of emergency vehicles, in London they start worrying whether it’s terrorism, etc. The police did say it’s not (4) ... , just an accident in the Tower.
The Health and Safety Executive has (5) ... an investigation into what led six people to be hurt. They are now being treated in hospital for broken bones.
I mean, we’re desperately sorry we have caused this (6) ... . We clearly very much regret what happened to them and we wish them well.
Those in (7) ... don’t know how long the Tower Bridge exhibition will be shut for, but one of London’s most unique views will go unseen while questions about the accident here go unanswered.
Key:
1 landmarks 2 insurers 3 walkways 4 terrorism-related 5 launched 6 inconvenience 7 charge
