Podcast / Lessons

Have you a dream? I mean, is there something that you would really like to do in your life – such as travelling round the world, or writing a best-selling novel, or climbing Mount Everest, or learning a new language. Good. It is important that we have dreams like these. But what would you do to achieve your dream. Would you, for example, walk out of your job so that you could do the thing you really want to do? Hmm. That might be difficult. How would you get the money you need to live on? And suppose you had a well-paid and very important job. Would you give that job up to pursue your dream? This morning's newspapers tell us about someone who has done just that. His name is Paul Drayson. He is 47 years old. He started his career as a businessman, and he was very successful. He made a fortune as boss of a company which makes equipment for giving people medical injections without sticking a needle into them. Then he became interested in politics. He gave a lot of money to the Labour Party. The government made him a member of the House of Lords, which is the upper chamber of the British parliament. (This means that he is now Lord Drayson, and not plain, ordinary Mr Drayson.) Then Lord Drayson became a minister in the government, at the Ministry of Defence. He was responsible for buying equipment for the British armed forces. Both the government’s supporters and his opponents said that he was good at his job. He obviously had a bright political career ahead of him. But Lord Drayson had a dream. It was a dream about driving motorcars very fast. He bought a 6-litre Aston Martin racing car. He drove it around race tracks. He competed in races; then he started to win some of the races, and this year he came third in the British GT championship. (The GT championships are for cars which are nearly the same as cars which you can drive on normal roads). People who know him say that, as a racing driver, Paul Drayson is both brave and intelligent.

Andrei Scherbak

4.762 reviews

Create a lesson by adding multiple slides, each capable of holding a diverse range of content blocks, including text, video, images, and more. Choose the appropriate type and quantity of content for each slide as needed. Create a lesson by adding multiple slides, each capable of holding a diverse range of content blocks, including text, video, images, and more. Choose the appropriate type and quantity of content for each slide as needed.

Ignat Voronov

Hello everyone. A few years ago, I moved from England to New Zealand to coach football to children in Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand. I'd like to tell you about the differences between football in England and football in New Zealand. I grew up in London in England and spent many hours as a child playing football with my friends in the park. We used to play football after school and at the weekend, and often all day long in the school holidays. One of the first things I noticed when I moved to New Zealand was that very few children play football after school or at the weekends. Even on a sunny day in New Zealand, many of the parks will be completely empty! In cities in England, children will arrange to meet their friends for a game in the park, but in New Zealand the children only ever play football when it's organised for them by their parents or by their team coach. If you've ever played football, you will know that it takes many hours of practice to get skilful and make the ball do anything you want it to. Sometimes it can take lots and lots of mistakes before a child gets it right! In New Zealand, children don't spend a lot of time playing football on their own so they don't try new things and make mistakes. Instead they spend an hour or two a week being told what to do by a parent or a coach. This means they don't get to make their own mistakes and learn things for themselves. Imagine learning English and never being allowed to make a mistake? It would be very difficult, and not much fun either!

Andrei Scherbak

4.762 reviews

IN QUESTO PODCAST Uno degli aneddoti più ricorrenti durante le fasi di scavo per la costruzione di metropolitane o di parcheggi sotterranei è il ritrovo casuale di vasellame o strumenti di uso domestico appartenenti alle epoche storiche passate. Vengono così a galla vasi, gioielli, ceramiche dei nostri antenati. Materiale che troverà posto nei musei e che lascerà il posto alle macchine delle città nuove. Un modo originale di accostare passato e presente. Forse i due più famosi e recenti eventi archeologici sono: la scoperta dei Bronzi di Riace, a Riace appunto, in Calabria e il ritrovamento della Villa di Agrippina a Roma.

Eugeniia Klimutina

4.945 reviews

oday we learn about how to get rid of things. Kevin and Joanne have an old sofa. In fact, it used to be Kevin's sofa in the good old days when he was a student and before he had met Joanne. The sofa is dirty and stained, because Kevin has spilled beer on it, several times. The wooden frame is broken, because Kevin and about 10 friends sat on the sofa once to watch the World Cup final on television. The sofa is torn, because Kevin's cat used to sharpen his claws on it. Joanne has had enough. "That sofa has to go," she says. "We have to get rid of it." "That is my sofa", says Kevin. "We go back a long way. It is part of my history. We cannot get rid of it." "Yes, we can," says Joanne. "We will go to IKEA on Saturday to buy a new sofa." That was the wrong thing to say. Kevin does not want to get rid of his old sofa. And especially he does not want to go to IKEA on Saturday with hundreds of other people. He wants to go to a football match with hundreds of other people instead. Kevin and Joanne reach a compromise. They will get rid of the old sofa. They will buy a new sofa on the internet. There will be no trip to IKEA. And Kevin can go to the football match. "How shall we get rid of the sofa?" asks Kevin. "Perhaps we could sell it on eBay." "Don't be silly," says Joanne. "No-one will want to buy a dirty, broken sofa on eBay." "Perhaps we can just take it outside and leave it in the street," says Kevin. "Eventually the Council will take it away." "No they won't," says Joanne. "And we will probably be prosecuted for dumping rubbish in the street." "I could take the sofa into the garden and set fire to it," suggests Kevin. "Now you are being ridiculous," says Joanne. "George can borrow a van from his work, and you and George can put the sofa in the van and take it to the tip." The "tip" is the place where people can take things they do not want in order to get rid of them. There are big containers for different sorts of rubbish – for paper and cardboard

Eugeniia Klimutina

4.945 reviews

Hay una canción de los Beatles que se titula Christmas time is here again. ¡Es decir, la Navidad está aquí otra vez! La Navidad en España se vive con intensidad. Si eres estudiante de español, es importante que entiendas los conceptos básicos.

Eugeniia Klimutina

4.945 reviews

Подкаст, продолжительность 11 минут, Как в Австралии решают вопрос где и с кем оставить детей после школы, пока родители работают.

Анжелика Луговская

“In school, most people learn Spanish by memorizing and being focused on grammar, but when they have to speak, nothing comes out. That’s my situation, but as I am learning with Oscar’s lessons, I am enjoying the process, and actually, I understand real spoken Spanish more and more, and now little words of Spanish are popping up into my head. This method is much powerful, much faster and it’s the way to learn Spanish when you really want to speak it.”

Eugeniia Klimutina

4.945 reviews