Practice Listening English Exercises for A2 - Narrow Escapes

1. Read the sentences, then listen and say who said what: David, Eva, Patrick, Patrick’s mother or Eva’s father.

a “Hold your mother’s hand and don’t be afraid.”

b “Don’t play on the rocks.”

c “He should have come with us.”

d “As I was turning a sharp corner, the back tyre skidded.”

e “I screamed for help.”

Answer & Audioscript

a Eva’s father b Patrick’s mother

c Eva d David e Patrick

Audioscript

A David

David Franklin was riding his motorbike through the Canadian mountains. It was a cool evening. He loved the quiet, lonely road and really enjoyed the feeling of speeding along in the fresh air.

“As I was turning a sharp corner, the back tyre skidded. That’s the last thing I remember,” says David. David lost control of the bike and when he woke up, he was at the bottom of a hill. He was bleeding and his left leg was broken.

He knew he had to get back to the road for help. Slowly, he began the painful crawl up the hill. He was in agony, but kept going.

Eventually he reached the road. A passing car stopped to help him. David felt extremely relived. He was exhausted, but he knew he was lucky to be alive.

B Eva

Eva Hart felt excited when, in 1912, she and her family boarded the famous new ship, the Titanic. It was the first voyage of this amazing ship, and also the last, as the ship never reached its destination. On the fourth day of its voyage the Titanic crashed into a huge iceberg. The engines stopped and water started rushing into the ship.

“All around me, people were screaming and running to the lifeboats. My father lifted me into one of them. ‘Hold your mother’s hand and don’t be afraid,’ he said to me. I was shaking with fear.”

Eva’s father stayed behind to help the other passengers. Tragically, there weren’t enough lifeboats for everyone. Eva never saw her father again. “He should have come with us,” she kept repeating as the ship disappeared into the sea.

C Patrick

“Don’t play on the rocks, Patrick!” my mother said as I left the house. It was a rather cloudy day, just a week before our holiday was over. The beach was lovely but the tides were dangerous; twice a day the sea came up and covered the rocks.

I was playing on the rocks when suddenly, to my horror, I realised I was surrounded by water. I climbed up higher, but the water was rising fast. The rocks were wet and I kept slipping. I thought I was going to drown.

The water had reached my waist when I saw a fishing boat. I screamed for help. The boat came towards me and the fishermen was able to rescue me just in time. From that day on, I never played on the rocks again.

2. Read the dialogue between a policeman and a witness of a car accident and fill in the words from the list.

brakes, traffic lights, collided, speeding, skidded, crashing

Policeman: Now sir, I’d like to ask you a few questions. What is your name?

Witness: My name is Brad Richards.

Policeman: Where do you live, Mr Richards?

Witness: I live just round the corner, on Maple Street.

Policeman: What were you doing at the time of the crash, sir?

Witness: I was on my way home from work.

Policeman: What did you see, Mr Richards?

Witness: Well, I saw a red car (1)……………… down the street just as a blue car was turning the corner. The blue car’s driver put on the (2)……………… and then the car (3)……………… . The two cars (4)……………… with a horrible (5)……………… noise.

Policeman: Just one more question, sir. Were the (6)……………… on the corner red or green?

Witness: Oh, I’m sorry. I can’t remember.

Policeman: Thank you, Mr Richards. You’ve been most helpful.

Answer & Audioscript

1 speeding 2 brakes 3 skidded 4 collided

5 crashing 6 traffic lights

3. Listen and answer the questions.

1 When did the event happen?

2 Where was the narrator?

3 What did he see?

4 Where did the event happen?

5 Who did he call?

6 What did he do afterwards?

7 Who saved Tommy/John?

8 Where were the boys taken?

9 What was Mrs Blake’s comment?

Answer & Audioscript

1 The event happened last Monday at half past one, just after lunch.

2 The narrator was cutting the grass in his back garden.

3 He saw thick black smoke coming from the kitchen window of his neighbours’ house.

4 The event happened in the Blakes’ house.

5 He called the fire brigade.

6 He ran over to the Blakes’ house.

7 The narrator saved Tommy. / The firefighters saved John.

8 The boys were taken to hospital by ambulance.

9 The boys’ mother said that she shouldn’t have left them alone.

Audioscript

It was about half past one, just after lunch last Monday. I was cutting the grass in my back garden when I smelt something burning. I looked around and noticed thick black smoke coming from the kitchen window of my neighbours’ house.

I immediately called the fire brigade and then I ran over to the Blakes’ house. I had just spoken to Mrs Blake, who told me she was going out for a few minutes to do some shopping. I knew Mr Blake was away on a business trip, so their two children, aged six and eight, were alone in the house. Fortunately the door was unlocked so I went in and raced to the kitchen. It was in flames. Little Tommy was lying unconscious on the floor with a box of matches in his hand. I wrapped him in a blanket and took him to the garden. Then I went back into the house to find John. He was in the bathroom. He had locked the door and I could hear him crying but I couldn’t do anything to help him. Luckily the fire brigade arrived. The firefighters managed to save John, who was shaking with fear, and to put out the fire.

Mrs Blake, who came back a few minutes later, couldn’t keep back her tears as she got into the ambulance with the boys. “I shouldn’t have left them alone,” she kept saying.