Practice Listening English Exercises for A2 – Media

1

TV in my country is pretty good. We have cable – there are at least 30 channels, specializing in movies, sports, music, and so on. That’s great because there’s lots of choice. You can almost always find something you want to watch. And the quality of the programs is pretty good too. There are too many quiz shows though, which I find very boring, and too many soap operas at prime time. Yuk.

2

TV? Well, it’s okay. I like the nature channel, you know, the documentary type programs. Those are very interesting. I’m especially interested in programs about animals. For me, there aren’t enough educational programs. My children watch a lot of cartoons and movies. I mean I’d rather they watch something educational, you know? And the advertisements – there are too many. I hate the way they interrupt the programs. There’s an ad every five minutes!

3

I like the radio, really. We don’t have TV at home. I know – that’s really weird! Everybody has TV, right? But my parents don’t like it, so we don’t have it. I like listening to fun shows on the radio, like music and talk shows. They’re great. There’s probably too much news for me – I mean every hour is too often.

1 a   2 b   3 b   4 b

Claire   Okay, we now continue with Business Today. Chloe, can you tell us a little more about the power of advertising historically?

Chloe   Yes, I mean this is a nice example of the period. In the 1950s it was an exciting time, a period of liberation for women.

Claire   Yes. Women were starting to make more decisions, and some were even starting to work outside the home.

Chloe   That’s right. Okay, this ad shows a young woman with her stove. She is not cooking, and she is not tired or stressed.

Claire   Right. So that’s attractive for housewives.

Chloe   Yes, definitely. This woman looks sexy and elegant, so the message is, if you want to be sexy and elegant, get a stove like this one!

Claire   I see. That seems very obvious! And it’s pretty ridiculous, isn’t it? A stove can make you sexy?

Chloe   Yes, it seems ridiculous to us today, but at the time marketing was very new. Another important point is that there is no male figure – no husband making the decision.

Claire   Yes. I see. So is she single?

Chloe   Not necessarily, but she, the woman, is in control. The product is marketed to women. Really, in the 1950s, this was very new, because men had most of the buying power. Nowadays, of course, markets are much more segregated – we have ads directed at not just women, but middle-aged women, African-American women, women who are working, mothers …

1 c   2 f   3 d   4 b   5 a   6 e

Rebecca

Well, I really like watching TV. I mostly watch black and white movies – you know, the ones with the great actors like Dean Martin and Rock Hudson.

David

I love using computers, especially surfing the net … there’s some cool stuff out there.

Victoria

I prefer reading a good book to watching TV … there’s so much trash on nowadays.

Maureen

I enjoy reading – but not books. No, I love magazines – you know, the ones with celebrities in them.

Maggie

Uh, I don’t like using computers – I’m a bit of a technophobe – but I do enjoy listening to the news on the radio.

Susie

I just adore listening to classical music, especially concerts on the radio. So much better than the music the youngsters listen to today.

1 f   2 a   3 e   4 c   5 b   6 d

1

What? You’ve never seen it? I can’t believe it! It’s on every week. It’s a great show – seriously funny. It’s about the lives of six friends who live together. The show basically shows their lives but it’s very funny and a lot of what happens between them centers around a café where they all hang out.

2

I’ve been watching it since it started and it’s been running now for around six years. Can you believe I’ve never missed a single episode? I’ve followed the lives of those families like they were my own! It’s on four nights a week. I mean, the reason I like it is because the show deals with the kind of issues that happen in real life and I think that’s important.

3

Wow, did you see that guy last night? He won a quarter of a million dollars! His face when the host told him he’d answered that final question correctly – he nearly fell off the chair! I didn’t think he’d do it because he didn’t seem too sure about the answer, but yeah, he deserved it.

4

It’s on tonight at 8:30 and I really want to watch it because it’s about the effects of air pollution and what the government is doing to stop it worsening. It sounds interesting. I saw the one last week and that was about the increase in crime figures in the capital.

5

I usually try to catch the evening one because that’s when I normally get in from work. I think it’s important to know what’s going on around the world and often I don’t get the chance to read the newspaper …

6

Well, last night Madonna was on – it was great to see her close up! The host asked some good questions and I thought she answered them pretty honestly. I wished he’d asked more about her early music career though. The studio audience gave her a good welcome, too.