My story today is about looking back at when we were younger.
I've tried this story with some students today at school.
So we're talking about teenagers.
I asked them, well, would you like to be young again?
Young again?
I mean, they're only 15, 14, 15, 16 years.
One or two of them actually said yes.
One of them said to me, I would like to be five years old again.
I said, why?
I mean, you're still young.
You're only 16.
He said, because when I was five years old, I didn't have to do all this studying.
When you get to 16, things get a little bit difficult.
You have to start preparing to go to university and the studies get a pretty heavy, big workload.
So, even for younger people, it seems that sometimes we would just like to go back and get rid of all these adult problems and workload that we have.
For the simple life of being young.
So my story is about that today.
It's a B2 story.
Right, and what you need to do is just to listen to the story.
I'll just read it through once.
And I want you to try to identify the B2 language.
Which words are B2 words?
As I've said before, it's very important to be able to identify the language so you can use the language when you're being tested on it in an exam.
And there'll be some interesting B2 language in there which I'll analyze for you with a little test at the end.
So here we go.
Hello and welcome to Practicing English.
My name is Mike Bilbre and these are podcasts for students of English at B1 or B2 levels.
For transcripts, please go to practicingenglish.com.
If only we could go back.
On Tuesday morning, Alice decided to call in sick.
Not because she was ill, but because the clouds outside looked like elephants marching across the sky.
Today she felt like the little girl that she used to be many years before.
She simply couldn't be bothered to sit at her office desk when such wonders were happening around her.
She set off to the fields near her country home carrying a picnic basket.
A rabbit wearing a red jacket ran beside her and said, You've picked a magical day for an adventure.
Alice asked the rabbit how it could talk, to which it didn't reply.
So instead she chose to change the subject and offered the rabbit a sandwich.
As they walked together, a clumsy, rather overweight fairy flew past, dropping fairy dust everywhere.
She apologised for her carelessness, then laughed and raced through the air.
Alice, trying to be cautious, didn't touch the fairy dust, unsure what it might do.
"'Don't be suspicious,' the rabbit said in a cheeky voice.
Magic works best when you trust it.
Under normal circumstances, Alice might have turned back, but today she followed them the fairy and the rabbit, just as a little child follows that which is innocent and wonderful.
And when they came to a golden door that appeared among the trees inviting them to go in, Alice couldn't face doing the safe thing anymore.
With a deep breath, she pushed the door open, ready for whatever lay beyond.
Right, okay, so that was the story.
Did you identify some of the B2 words and expressions?
I imagine you did.
The title was, If Only We Could Go Back.
So that nice if only phrase, which is B2, which is really second conditional, isn't it?
If we could go back, if only we could go back.
So it's like the I wish.
I wish we could go back.
It's a similar meaning, I suppose.
If only.
And we use the past tense of the verb here, can, to could.
If only we could go back.
If only I had wings.
If only I could fly.
So these hypothetical situations, things that are not true, we express using the past tense in English.
Remember, it's not really a past tense.
It's a sort of a subjunctive, but we don't really have a subjunctive.
So we borrow from the past tense verbs and we use them, but they're not past at all.
Let's carry on.
That's only the title.
On Tuesday morning, Alice decided to call in sick.
So to call in sick means to telephone your place of work, or perhaps, if you're a student, to telephone the school.
Your mum telephones the school and you say that you can't go because you're not well.
To call in sick.
Not because she was ill, but because the clouds outside looked like elephants marching across the sky.
Today she felt like the little girl that she used to be many years before.
She simply couldn't be bothered.
Couldn't be bothered.
If you can't be bothered to do something, so with the infinitive, after with to the full infinitive.
If you can't be bothered, it means you really feel so lazy, you just don't want to do it.
I can't be bothered to do the washing up.
I'll do it tomorrow.
She couldn't be bothered to sit at her office desk when such wonders were happening around her.
She set off, which is B1 really.
But nice little phrasal verb there, to set off meaning to start a journey.
She set off to the fields near her country home, carrying a picnic basket.
A rabbit wearing a red jacket ran beside her and said, you've picked a magical day for an adventure.
You've picked or you've chosen a magical day for an adventure.
The B2 word there is magical, actually.
The adjective of magic.
Alice asked the rabbit how it could talk, to which it didn't reply.
So instead, she chose to change the subject.
There's a B2 phrase there, to talk about something else.
To change the subject.
And offered the rabbit a sandwich.
As they were walking together, a clumsy, rather overweight fairy flew past. clumsy.
Now, that's C-L-U-M-S-Y.
But, as I have said before, if you want to check on the spelling of these words, well then you can read the complete script, the audio script of the story, in your app, or It could also be at my website at practicingenglishcom.
Podcast 263.
So I'll continue.
Clumsy.
What does it mean?
Clumsy means awkward, which is another B2 word.
Awkward, which means that the way you walk or the way you move is a way in which it's not very controlled.
Maybe you knock things down.
A clumsy person is somebody who knocks into things, doesn't do it on purpose.
It's just naturally a person who is a bit not able to control his movements or her movements very well.
And this is a clumsy, rather overweight, rather too fat fairy, which is a mythical being, isn't it?
With wings that flies.
Flew past, dropping fairy dust everywhere, as fairies do.
She apologized for her carelessness.
So it's interesting how language evolves from... its frequency of use.
Yesterday we saw B1, the word careless, the adjective.
And as you can imagine, the noun carelessness is not so frequent, not so common.
And that's why it's a B2 word.
But that's interesting to know, for example, for part three of the reading use of English B2 FCE exam, where you have to change the root words into the noun or the adjective or the adverb.
So that's the noun of careless.
Carelessness.
N-E-S-S at the end.
Then laughed and raced through the air.
To race.
If you race anywhere, it means you're going very fast in a hurry.
Alice trying to be cautious.
Cautious is similar to being careful.
Or perhaps cautious is more if you think there's some danger around, so you are careful.
So trying to be cautious, she didn't touch the fairy dust, unsure what it might do.
So it's the negative of sure.
If you're sure of something, you know what's going to happen.
If you are unsure, the opposite, well, then you're not.
Don't be so suspicious, the rabbit said in a cheeky voice.
Suspicious be to a word, which means that you suspect there might be something which will not be good for you nearby.
If you're suspicious, perhaps you don't trust somebody or trust something.
Suspicious.
And that is the adjective of the verb to suspect.
And then you get the noun as well, wouldn't you, from that, which is suspicion.
Ending in I-O-N.
Suspicion.
The rabbit said in a cheeky voice.
So in many languages you have this word which is referring really to the side of the face, the cheek.
And it means idiomatically somebody who is making fun of you in a way.
They're making fun of you.
Like children often speak in a cheeky way, sort of making fun.
Magic works best when you trust it.
Under normal circumstances, the plural of circumstance events, normal events.
Alice might have turned back.
Might have turned back.
Alice might turn back, past tense, we use the perfect infinitive, might have turned back.
But today she followed them, just as a little child follows that which is innocent.
Innocent, a B2 word, the opposite of another B2 word, which is guilty.
Guilty.
But children are innocent, aren't they?
And wonderful.
And when they came to a golden door that appeared among the trees inviting them to go in, Alice couldn't face doing the safe thing.
To face doing the safe thing.
If you can't face something, it's...
Well, I suppose it's similar to what I said at the beginning, couldn't be bothered.
Whereas couldn't be bothered is because you're feeling lazy.
If you couldn't face doing something, you don't want to do it because it's somehow too much for you.
Maybe too difficult.
It needs too much energy.
There's something that you just can't go on.
You can't face.
And then doing, so it's the verb with ing there, the infinitive, if you like, with ing.
The safe thing anymore.
With a deep breath, she pushed the door open.
Ready for whatever lay beyond.
Beyond means which is further away.
Further into the distance.
Beyond.
As Buzz Lightyear said.
To infinity.
And beyond.
I'm sure you remember that film.
It wasn't so long ago.
Right.
Okay.
What I'm going to do now then is to give you a short test.
I'm going to read the story again.
And some or most of the B2 words I will replace with a beep.
And then I'll leave a space for you to say the word which I have omitted.
Okay?
So, here we go with the test.
If only we could go back.
On Tuesday morning, Alice decided to call... in sick.
Not because she was ill, but because the clouds outside looked like elephants across the sky.
Marching Today she felt like the little girl that she used to be many years before.
She simply couldn't be bothered to sit at her office desk when such wonders were happening around her.
She set off to the fields near her country home carrying a picnic basket.
A rabbit wearing a red jacket ran beside her and said, You've picked a day for an adventure.
Magical.
Alice asked the rabbit how it could talk, to which it didn't reply, so instead she chose to change the subject and offered the rabbit a sandwich.
As they walked together, a clumsy, rather overweight rabbit Fairy flew past, dropping fairy dust everywhere.
She apologized for her... Carelessness.
Then laughed and... Through the air.
Raced.
Alice trying to be... Cautious.
Didn't touch the fairy dust.
What it might do.
Unsure.
Don't be so... The rabbit said.
Suspicious.
In a... Voice.
Cheeky.
Magic works best when you trust it.
Under normal... Circumstances.
Alice might have turned back, but today she followed them.
The rabbit and the fairy, just as a little child follows that which is and wonderful.
Innocent.
And when they came to a golden door that appeared among the trees inviting them to go in, Alice couldn't doing the safe thing anymore.
Face.
With a deep breath, she pushed the door open, ready for whatever lay beyond.
That's the end of the podcast for today.
I hope you enjoyed it.
I'll be back next week with another B1 and B2 podcast.
Have a lovely weekend.
Goodbye for now.
