Hello and welcome back to Practicing English.
We're in December.
It's getting colder, even here in Seville.
You notice it in the evenings especially.
It's not a city which gets particularly cold in winter, although sometimes the temperatures might fall or drop down to 5 degrees Celsius, 3 maybe.
It doesn't usually freeze here in Seville.
But outside the city it does, and on the hills sometimes, rarely, we have snow as well.
Today's story is a B1 story.
I'm starting a series of Christmas-related stories.
So this is a B1 story with lots of interesting B1 vocabulary in there for you to listen to and learn.
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.
Would you like to see my books for learning B1 and B2 level English?
Then go to the show notes at your podcast app, and just below today's lesson you'll see a link to Amazon and there you'll be able to read about my new B1 book and my B2 book.
Check it out today.
Right, what I'll do, I'll read the story to you as I usually do.
And what you need to do is to Try to identify, to listen out for those words you think are B1.
I always say it's very important to be able to know the B1 words so you can use them if you're about to do a B1 exam or you will be doing one, if you're studying for a B1 exam in the future.
So here we go.
It's called White Christmas.
Steve Matlock worked in a car factory in Bristol.
Every day at lunch he sat in the canteen with his colleagues.
They had discussions about their families, their aims and their dreams.
It was Christmas Eve and the canteen felt warm and cheerful.
What are you doing for Christmas, Steve? one colleague asked.
Steve smiled politely.
I intend to spend Christmas with my brothers and sisters in Bath, he said.
It will be lively and fun.
The kids play games all day long.
His colleague smiled, happy for him.
But when the day ended and everyone went home, Steve walked slowly back to his small flat.
Nobody was expecting him.
He had no brothers, no sisters, no family at all.
He would spend Christmas on his own, as usual.
When Steve got up on Christmas morning, he felt the silence in the flat.
He looked out of the window and stopped.
There was thick snow covering the whole city, shining white as the morning sun came out.
For a moment, he forgot about being lonely.
He put on his thick coat and gloves and stepped outside.
The snow sounded under his boots.
Children were laughing, throwing snowballs and making snowmen.
People were greeting neighbours, and the city was shiny and bright.
As long as I can enjoy moments like this, he thought to himself, maybe things aren't so bad after all.
The greatest gift is friendship and the company of those we love.
Yet a close second is knowing how to be happy when we are alone.
That's the end of the story.
What I'm going to do now is to read through and look at some of the B1 words in there.
OK, so to unpack the story, as I often say, to unpack the story of the B1 language.
So here we go with that.
Steve Matlock worked in a car factory in Bristol.
Every day at lunch, he sat in a canteen with his colleagues.
So a canteen is a dining room, usually for people who work in a business, in a factory, for example.
They had discussions about their families.
So, the word discussion is a B1 word from to discuss.
Sometimes it may sound like another meaning, but all it means is just to talk to each other.
The verb to discuss is just to talk to each other.
It's not to have an argument, which is when we get angry about something.
So, discussion is the noun.
So they have discussions about their families, their aims.
A-I-M-S.
Here I am spelling words again.
But you can read this at your podcast app and all the text will be there for the story, with the B1 words highlighted.
So anyway, I was spelling that AIMS A-I-M-S, which are objectives, things that we want to do in life.
It was Christmas Eve.
So Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas Day.
So you have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and then Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas Day.
And the canteen felt warm and cheerful.
So, cheerful meaning a happy place to be.
It's an adjective really, so a cheerful canteen, a cheerful atmosphere.
Very happy.
What are you doing for Christmas, Steve?
One colleague asked.
And Steve smiled politely.
I intend to spend Christmas with my brothers and sisters in Bath.
I intend, meaning I have the intention or I want to.
It is what I am thinking about doing.
It's to intend.
Again, this could be a false friend in some languages where it might sound like to try.
But it's not.
It's I'm going to do this.
I intend to do it.
It will be lively and fun, he says.
Lively meaning lots of activity.
The kids play games all day long.
His colleagues smiled, happy for him.
But when the day ended, when it finished and everyone went home, Steve walked slowly back to his small flat.
Nobody was expecting him.
Expecting means nobody was waiting for him at home.
He had no brothers, no sisters, no family at all.
Really, this expression, at all, is an emphatic expression.
We say he has no family.
But if I say he has no family at all, I'm putting emphasis on that.
I'm putting more stress on the fact that he has nobody there.
Nobody at all.
No wife, no girlfriend, no family.
No brothers or sisters.
He would spend Christmas on his own as usual.
On your own means you are not with anybody else.
You are by yourself.
In this story, I have the three versions of this.
On your own, alone and also lonely.
And we'll look at those words in a moment.
So on my own, on your own, on his own, on her own, if we're talking about a girl.
On their own, if we're talking in the plural.
When Steve got up on Christmas morning, he felt the silence in the flat.
Silence is the noun for silent, the adjective meaning very quiet.
There was thick snow covering the whole city.
So this be one word, thick, meaning there is a lot of it.
When we talk about thick, it's really like the opposite of thin.
So if it's thick, snow there would be I don't know what.
About 20 centimetres of snow on the ground?
Shining white as the morning sun came out.
So shining means giving off a light, a bright light, as the sun does, to shine. as the sun came out.
So the sun can come out usually from behind a cloud, and it can go in when it goes back behind a cloud again.
For a moment he forgot about being lonely.
So lonely is being on your own.
But there's an additional meaning, which also means that you are sad as well.
You don't want to be alone or on your own.
Lonely.
He put on his thick coat and gloves.
So here we have the word thick again.
We have thick snow and here a thick coat.
So that means then that it is a very heavy coat.
It is something which will keep the cold off him because it is very thick.
It's not a thin material.
It's a thick material. and gloves and stepped outside.
To step somewhere means really just to put your foot down.
If you step, you put your foot somewhere.
To step outside meaning to walk outside then.
The snow sounded, made a sound, this is the verb, to sound, under his boots.
Children were laughing, throwing snowballs and making snowmen.
So that's what we call those people that we make out of snow, when there's enough of it, with a body and a head, and maybe a couple of eyes, nose and a mouth.
That is a snowman.
I suppose it could be a snow woman as well.
But the first word that comes to mind really is a snowman.
Oh, and also throwing snowballs.
So you make a ball with the snow and you throw it at your friend and you can have a kind of a snowball fight, as we say.
People were greeting neighbors.
To greet means to say good morning or good afternoon.
In this case, it would be good morning.
To greet.
And the city was shiny and bright.
So we had the word shining, shining white as a verb.
And this is the adjective shiny ending in Y.
And bright, which really is a very similar word to shiny.
A lot of light coming from it.
As long as I can enjoy moments like this, he thought to himself.
So that was a linking word that we had last week.
As long as.
If I can enjoy moments like this, maybe things aren't so bad after all.
As long as.
The phrase after all means, or rather we use it when we think something bad is going to happen and then it doesn't.
So Steve is feeling happy.
He thought he would be sad, but he thinks that now things aren't so bad after all.
The greatest gift is friendship, a gift, a present. is friendship, which is the noun of friend.
It's what we have when we have friends.
When we are with friends, there is friendship.
The feeling that we have between people is friendship.
And the company is that of being close to other people, like family and friends, for example.
So the sentence reads, the greatest gift is friendship and the company of those we love.
Yet, however, a close second is knowing how to be happy when we are alone.
Which is a useful lesson, isn't it?
It's important, too, to know how to be happy if and when we are alone.
Right, that's the unpacking of the story with the B1 language.
What I'll do now is to read the story again.
And I will put a bleep where there is a B1 word, not all of them, some of them.
And then I will leave a space for you to say the word which is missing.
OK, here we go with the test.
White Christmas.
Steve Matlock worked in a car factory in Bristol.
Every day at lunch, he sat in the... with his colleagues.
Canteen.
They had...
About their families, their aims and their dreams.
Discussions.
It was Christmas Eve and the canteen felt warm and... cheerful.
What are you doing for Christmas, Steve?
One colleague asked.
Steve smiled politely.
Oi!
To spend Christmas with my brothers and sisters in Bath, he said.
Intend.
It will be and fun.
Lively.
The kids play games all day long.
His colleagues smiled happy for him.
But when the day ended and everyone went home, Steve walked slowly back to his small flat.
Nobody was him.
Expecting.
He had no brothers, no sisters, no family at all.
He would spend Christmas as usual.
On his own.
When Steve got up on Christmas morning, he felt the in the flat.
Silence.
He looked out of the window and stopped.
There was snow covering the whole city.
Thick.
Shining white as the morning sun came out.
For a moment he forgot about being lonely.
He put on his thick coat and gloves and outside stepped.
The snow sounded under his boots.
Children were laughing, throwing snowballs and making snowmen, people were neighbors greeting and the city was shiny and bright.
As long as I can enjoy moments like this, he thought to himself, maybe things aren't so bad.
After all, the greatest gift is friendship and the company of those we love.
Yet a close second is knowing how to be happy when we are alone.
Right, that's the end of the podcast for today.
I hope you've learned some new B1 language.
I'll be back tomorrow with a B2 level podcast and also about the subject of Christmas.
Until tomorrow then, goodbye for now.
