oCoder Education - English listening Audios are suitable for learners with different levels of English. Here are some ways to make them easier (if you have a lower level of English) or more difficult (if you have a higher level of English).
You can choose one or two of these suggestions – you don't have to follow all of them!
Making it easier
Read all the exercises before you listen to the audio.
Look up the words in the exercises that you don't know or don't understand in a dictionary.
Play the audio as many times as you need.
Play each part of the audio separately.
Answer all questions in the exercise.
Read the transcript after you have listened to the audio.
Making it harder
Listen to the audio before you read the exercises.
Only play the audio once before answering the questions.
Play the whole audio without a break.
Don't read the transcript.
Now, listen to the audio and do the exercises on the following tabs.
If you do not complete all the question, you can play the audio again.
After that, read the dialog to make sure that you understand all word in the audio.
What is the main purpose of the speaker's talk?
To share her complex feelings toward maths
To encourage other students to study maths
To explain why maths is so beautiful
To show how much maths she knows
How does the speaker describe her reputation among her family?
She has a lot of accidents.
She is good with people.
She does well in math.
She always does surprising things.
Why does the speaker describe her decision to study maths as a mistake?
She often wanted more time with friends.
She often got the wrong answers.
She would have preferred an economics degree.
She should have had a better reason.
Why does the speaker mention a dress?
To give an example of personal tastes
To point out what students are interested in
To explain her future career interests
To share what she thought about during lectures
4
http://ocodereducation.com/
Why did I do a maths degree. Uh, by accident really. Um... I had this big family reputation, as a people person. And I didn't really want to be defined as a people person. It sounded far too fluffy. And, I felt, that it would just be amusing, ha ha, when I discovered that maths, was less hard than I'd anticipated. 'Cos I did quite well in my exams so... I swapped it to do maths really, just to kind of surprise, and startle my family. Ha ha. It worked. Ha ha. It was a bit of a mistake when I got there. I got the degree. Um, I do like maths, but then I do like, almost everything. So, that wasn't necessarily a good enough reason. Um, I like maths because there's a right answer. What I'd got accepted for_ to do at university, was economic and social history. And there's no right answers. You always feel like you're going to be wrong. You can always completely rewrite the essay. You can always take, the opposing point of view. When you've finished a maths problem, you've got the right answer. That's it, you can go to the pub. You're done. Ha ha. That's a_ that's very... very reassuring, actually. Um, and there's no background reading, so you have more time, anyway, to play around, and enjoy being a student. Um, there's also stuff about, how beautiful maths is. But, unless you can see that, in the first place, you_ it's, it's not explainable. It's, you know, a matter of taste like, whether or not you think that a certain kind of dress is pretty. You know, sometimes I would_ even in my incredibly cynical, half-hearted way of doing a maths degree, I would sit there in a middle of a lecture, losing my place, and the notes I was taking just going, 'wow, that's, beautiful.'