Section 1 - “Susan, this is Paul” – introducing
your friends
Ravi: Hello, and welcome to LearnEnglish
elementary podcast number one. My name’s
Ravi…
Tess: … and I’m Tess. We’re your presenters and
we’ve got lots of things for you to listen to today,
but before we start, I think we should introduce
ourselves. Ravi?
Ravi: OK … erm … I’m Ravi.
Tess: Or, I tell you what, I’ll introduce you and you
can introduce me. How about that?
Ravi: Well, OK then. Erm, this is Tess. She’s from
London. She’s … how old are you?
Tess: None of your business, Ravi!
Ravi: And she loves dancing and riding her
mountain bike. OK?
Tess: OK. And this is Ravi. He comes from
Manchester. He’s 23. Oh … aren’t you?
Ravi: Oh yes.
Tess: He likes football, and … he’s a great cook.
Ravi: Thanks! And there’s one more person for
you to meet. I’d like to introduce our producer,
Gordon. Say hello to everyone Gordon!
Gordon: Hello! Pleased to meet you!
Ravi and Tess: Hi Gordon
Tess: And how are you today?
Gordon: Very well thank you Tess.
Section 2: I’d like to meet
Tess: Good! We’ll speak to Gordon again later in
the show but now it’s time to get on with our
programme. We’ve got an excellent show for you
today, and let’s start with our first section, called
‘I’d like to meet’. We ask people a simple question
– which famous person, dead or alive would you
like to meet? And of course, we ask them to
explain why. Our guest today on ‘I’d like to meet’
is Zara Heller from Bristol. Hello Zara and
welcome to the show.
Zara: Hello.
Ravi: Hi Zara.
Tess: And what do you do Zara?
Zara: I’m a student, I’m in my last year at school,
I’m 16.
Tess: Right. Now let’s ask the question. So Zara,
which famous person, dead or alive would you
like to meet?
Zara: I’d like to meet Angelina Jolie.
Ravi: Angelina Jolie. Great - good choice! Tell us
a bit about her.
Zara: She’s an American film actress, she was in
‘Tomb Raider’, and she’s an ambassador for the
United Nations too.
Tess: And why did you choose her to talk about
today?
Zara: Well, because I really admire her. She’s a
famous film star with a lot of money and a famous
celebrity film star husband, but she really cares
about helping people and she uses her money
and her fame to help children and people who are
very poor or have a difficult life. I saw a film about
her on MTV the music channel – it was a video
diary of her visiting Africa and talking about how
to stop poverty, and they were really simple
things, and I thought it was really cool because
MTV doesn’t usually show programmes like that,
it’s usually just music videos and things, but
because she’s famous and beautiful then people
want to see her so she can get a lot of attention
for the things that she wants to change.
Tess: Do you like her films? Do you think she’s a
good actress?
Zara: Yes I do. I don’t think she’s a great actress,
but she’s a good actress, and she’s so beautiful
that you just want to look at her all the time.
Ravi: Yeah.
Zara: I think she’s one of the most beautiful
women in the world. I love watching her, I love all
her films.
Ravi: And what would you like to talk to her about
Zara?
Zara: I’d like to talk about her trips to different
places all around the world, and about Hollywood,
and her family and about what people like me can
do to help poor children.
Tess: Well thank you very much Zara. That was
really interesting. Personally, I’d like to talk to her
about her husband, Brad Pitt. I think he’s
gorgeous.
Ravi: OK Tess, calm down. Erm, for all of you
listening, we’d like to hear from you. Which
famous person, dead or alive, would you like to
meet? And why? Email us at
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org, that’s
learnenglishpodcast - all one word – AT -
britishcouncil – all one word DOT org, that’s o-r-g.
Let us know which famous person you would like
to meet and why.
Elementary Podcast Series 01 Episode 01
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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
Section 3: Quiz
Tess: OK. Now it’s quiz time. Every week we’ll
have a little quiz to get you thinking. This week it’s
the ten second quiz. It’s very easy. We give you a
topic and you give as many answers as you can -
in 10 seconds. Our two players today are Daniel –
Daniel’s 16 and comes from London. Hello Daniel.
Daniel: Hi
Tess: And Alice – Alice is also 16 and she comes
from Liverpool. Hi Alice.
Alice: Hello
Tess: Do you both know what to do? OK. We give
you a topic, and you have to write down all the
words you can think of. For example, we say
‘bathroom’, and you write a list, bath, soap,
shampoo, and so on. As quick as you can. Got
the idea?
Alice: Yeah
Tess: Good. Okay. Let’s play. You’ve got ten
seconds to write down … things you can find in a
kitchen. OK? So, for example you could say
‘microwave oven’. OK? Things you can find in a
kitchen. Go! (sound of clock ticking) OK, Daniel.
How many?
Daniel: Erm, five, Tess.
Tess: How about you, Alice?
Alice: Erm, seven, I think.
Tess: OK, let’s hear your seven words, Alice.
Things you find in a kitchen.
Alice: Erm, fridge. Cooker. Pans. Plates. Knife,
fork, spoon.
Tess: That’s seven. Well done, Alice. How many
did you get, Ravi?
Ravi: Oh, the clock makes me nervous – I can’t
think when the clock’s ticking like that. Maybe the
question next week will be about football.
Tess: Thanks Daniel, thanks Alice. And if any of
you listening have a good game we can play in
quiz time, write to us and let us know. The
address is
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org. We’d
love to hear your ideas for games we can play.
What’s next, Ravi?
Section 4: Our person in...
Ravi: The next part of the show is called ‘Our
person in’. We’ll listen to people in interesting
places all over the world telling us something
about life in the country they’re in. Today, we’ll
hear from Mike Southern. Mike is … Our man in
New York.
Mike: New York. What do you think of?
Skyscrapers. Taxis. Noise. People. John Lennon
said that New York is the capital city of the world
– and it certainly feels that way.
But in the centre of this exciting, noisy, polluted
city there is a place to find peace and quiet. A
short walk from busy Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
you’ll find Central Park. Central Park is the green
heart of New York City and over 25 million people
come here each year to escape the city. People
run, swim, climb or simply sit and read a book in
the huge park’s different scenery. And it’s not just
for people. Lots of rare birds have made their
home in the park and there are legends of big
cats hiding in the dark trees.
Although it looks completely natural, the park is
man made, created over 150 years ago. Frederick
Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed the park
at a time when the city was a very crowded, dirty
and unhealthy place to live. They wanted to make
a place where rich and poor people could find
fresh air in the dirty city.
It does the same job today. As a friend of mine
always tells me, “Life in New York would be
impossible without Central Park”
Tess: Wow! Really interesting. We’ll hear from
another one of our people next time. Or if you’d
like to write in and tell us something interesting
about your city or town, we’d love to hear from
you. You can send it to us at
learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org
Section 5: Your turn
Tess: Now we’re going out into the street to listen
to ‘Your Turn’
Ravi: In this part of the show, we go out into the
street to find out what people think about our
question of the day. And today we’re going to ask
a question about celebrities - like film stars,
actors, singers – who promote charities and ask
people to give them money or aid. At the
beginning of the show, we listened to Zara from
Bristol talking about Angelina Jolie. Zara talked
about Angelina Jolie’s work for charity. And
nowadays, lots of famous people – celebrities - do
the same. But is it a good idea? So today’s
question is … ‘Is it a good idea for celebrities to
do work for charity?’
Tess: Hmm. ‘Is it a good idea for celebrities to do
work for charity?’ Interesting question. Let’s listen
to the answers.
Voice 1: I think it’s a good thing. People don’t
want to listen to boring politicians but everyone
likes celebrities so they listen to what they have to
say. When Bob Geldof and Bono organised Live8
a few years ago, everybody was talking about
Elementary Podcast Series 01 Episode 01
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The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.
how to end poverty in Africa. My little brother was
only twelve years old, but he was talking about it.
That can’t be bad.
Voice 2: I hate it. The celebrities only want
publicity, and they want us to think that the
