Hello, and it's B2 podcast time here at Practicing English.
I'm going to be reading you an extract from a B2 level story, which I've written myself.
An extract from a very well-known book, The Count of Monte Cristo.
And that was by Alexandre Dumas, the French writer.
Alexandre Dumas was born on the 24th of July 1802.
He was a French novelist and playwright.
So a playwright is somebody who writes plays.
And his famous books are The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, of course.
The Three Musketeers that we have all heard of.
How many films have been made of The Three Musketeers?
In fact, actually, in the early 20th century, his novels were adapted into nearly 200 films.
So he was a lot more famous, perhaps, after his death than during his lifetime.
So B2 words and expressions for you today.
We'll analyze some.
Then I'll read the extract of the story to you and perhaps a little test on those B2 expressions later on.
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.
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.
The expressions which you'll hear in this extract from The Count of Monte Cristo.
So we've got to think twice.
So there's a B2 expression which means when you consider a decision carefully or hesitating doing something.
Okay, so that situation where you're not too sure if you're Doing the right thing, so you stop and you think about it.
And that is to think twice in English.
I have an example for you here.
I saw the cat in the tree and, without thinking twice, I climbed up to save it.
Without thinking twice,
So in that case, I didn't think about it.
I just knew it was something very important and I should save that poor cat in the tree.
My next one then is to lose your nerve.
And to lose your nerve means To suddenly become afraid or lose the courage to do something intended.
So courage means being brave.
Something that you intended to do and then, at the last moment well, I guess you thought twice about it.
My example sentence is...
He wanted to go skydiving, but he lost his nerve as soon as he looked out of the airplane door.
How many people would do the same?
Skydiving sounds such a romantic idea.
But when you look down from an aeroplane, the door open and they say jump.
I can imagine you might think twice again about that.
So you lose your nerve.
You lose your nerve, N-E-R-V-E.
Nerves, by the way, are those long threads that carry messages between the brain and parts of the body, enabling you to move, feel pain, fear as well, for example, to lose your nerve right, meaning to suddenly feel frightened.
And my next one is to cross your mind.
So, to cross your mind, your mind being your brain.
So it is to have a sudden or brief thought about something.
An idea really comes to you, occurs to you.
My example sentence is, it never crossed my mind that I might actually win the competition.
I sometimes buy the lottery.
There's lotteries here in Spain for all sorts of things.
And there's one for the Blind Association in Spain, the Spanish Blind Association.
And they sell tickets on the street.
And I sometimes buy one.
I suppose it really never crosses my mind that I'll actually win.
So why do I buy a lottery ticket if I don't think that I'm going to win?
Well, I suppose it's possible, isn't it?
There's a very slim possibility of winning.
To cross your mind, an idea comes to you.
Okay, and the next one is to switch.
Now, to switch is to change something.
The act of changing or swapping that word swap S-W-A-P.
Swapping one thing for another is to switch.
Now, if you think about the first use of switch, which is on the wall where you control the light, it's called a switch.
You switch from on to off and off to on.
So the verb to switch is to change from one thing to another.
So, for example, I was going to buy the black shoes, but in the end I changed my mind.
I bought the brown ones.
I switched from the black ones to the brown ones.
My example sentence is we made a switch at the last minute and went to the cinema instead of going to the park.
We made a switch.
We changed our plan that we had.
My next one is to shiver.
In this story, I imagine there's quite a lot of shivering going on, which is when your body shakes.
Now Your body can shake for different reasons when you are very cold or when you are very frightened, when you lose your nerve, when you're standing in an airplane looking down through an open door and you don't want to jump.
Your body shivers or shakes with fear.
So my example sentence of shiver is, The cold wind made me shiver as I waited for the bus.
Okay, to shiver.
Your body shakes with cold.
And my last one then is to rip open.
Rip, R-I-P.
To rip is a verb, an English verb.
And if I say to rip something open, well then...
What I'm doing is opening something, but in a very special way.
To rip is like to tear.
This is a mistake a lot of my students make when they're talking about a material, for example, that clothes are made of, or paper.
And they often say it's broken.
I've broken my shirt.
Of course, in English, we don't use that word.
The word to break, when we're talking about a material or paper, we use the word to tear, T-E-A-R.
In English we also have another word, which is to rip, which has a similar meaning, just like to tear.
But if we use it with a word, for example, like open to rip something open, well then it's the same action but done in a different way.
If you rip something open, it means to tear something quickly and forcefully.
My example sentence is, He was so excited that he ripped open the present in seconds.
So a little boy or girl, it's their birthday.
They're very excited.
And there's a present for them on the table.
And they don't pull the paper back little by little.
They rip it open to get inside.
What is the present, Mummy?
They want to get inside that present, so they rip it open.
There is an example of that in the story.
You want to listen for that.
Where does something get ripped open in the extract that I'm going to read you?
To think twice, lose your nerve, cross your mind. to switch, to shiver, and to rip open.
You can also see these at your podcast app in the show notes.
I always put the words there, with the definitions as well, for you to look at, in case it's difficult for you to remember what they are while you're listening to the story.
Okay then, let's get on with the story.
It's an extract from the story, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Introduction.
Edmond Dante is spending a time in prison for something that he didn't do.
It's a terrible prison, a castle in the middle of the sea on a huge rock, and he has been locked up in a cell.
He receives his food once or twice a day from the prison guards.
But he manages to dig a tunnel and the guards don't find out.
He digs a tunnel in the floor of his prison cell.
And he connects to another cell where there is another prisoner.
And his name is Faria.
And Faria dies. becomes his great friend.
But Faria has a secret.
And the secret is that he knows where there is a wonderful treasure.
Faria is injured while they are digging another tunnel, and eventually he dies.
He's put into a sack and the guards are going to take his body away.
And then Edmond Dante has the idea.
What if he got inside the sack instead of his dead friend?
Here is the extract of the story.
Good God, he whispered, where does this idea come from?
Is it from you, Faria, my good friend?
Since only the dead can free themselves from these prison walls, let me take the place of the dead, without thinking twice about his decision.
And to ensure he didn't lose his nerve, he leaned over the body.
He opened the sack that contained the body with a knife that Faria had made.
He pulled out his friend's body, carried it through the tunnel to his own cell and laid it on his bed.
He tied his own nightcap around the dead man's head and covered him with a blanket.
He kissed the cold forehead one last time and tried to close the eyes which were staring in a frightening way.
He turned the body towards the wall so the guard would assume he was sleeping, as he frequently did.
Dante then entered the tunnel again, moved his bed against the wall and returned to Faria's cell.
He took out a needle and thread from a hiding place.
He pulled off his old clothes so that the guards would only feel skin through the rough material.
After getting into the sack he lay exactly like the dead body and sewed up the opening from the inside.
If the guards had entered at that moment, they would have found the truth just by hearing his heart beating.
Dante could have waited until the evening visit was finished, but it crossed his mind that the prison guards might come and move the body earlier.
If that happened, his last hope would be completely ruined.
Now his plans were fully prepared.
If the workers realized they were carrying a living man, he didn't intend to give them time to catch him.
He would cut through the sack and escape.
If they tried to stop him, he was prepared to use his knife to defend himself.
If they took him to the cemetery, he would deal with being covered in dirt.
Since it was night, he expected to dig his way out as soon as the workers turned their backs.
He hoped the weight of the earth wouldn't be too heavy to overcome.
If he was caught or if the soil was too heavy, he would be trapped and he felt that might be better anyway.
Dante hadn't eaten since the previous evening, but he didn't feel like eating now.
His situation was too risky to think about anything else.
The first danger was that the guard might notice the switch at seven o'clock.
Fortunately, Dante had often stayed in bed due to exhaustion, so the guard usually just left the food and walked away.
However, if the guard tried to start a conversation and got no answer, he might investigate and discover the trick.
When seven o'clock arrived, Dante's suffering truly began.
He tried to calm down his racing heart while wiping the sweat from his forehead.
He felt his body shiver.
However, the hours went by without any trouble.
He had managed to survive the first test.
It was a positive sign.
Finally, at the time arranged, he heard footsteps.
Edmund gathered his courage and held his breath.
He heard two men place down on the floor a wooden frame for carrying bodies.
The door opened and a faint light shone through the sack.
Two men approached the bed.
He's heavy for a thin old man, said one, picking up the head.
They say you put on weight in your bones every year.
The other replied, lifting the feet.
Did you tie the knot?
The first one asked.
Why carry more weight now?
I can do it when we get there.
The other replied.
They placed what they suppose was a dead body on the frame.
Edmund made his body go stiff, as though he were a dead man.
As they carried him up the stairs, he suddenly felt the cold night air.
It was a mixture of pleasure and pain.
The men walked a short distance and then stopped.
One of them went to find something.
He is certainly not light, the man said, sitting down to rest.
Dante's first thought was to run, but he controlled himself.
Give me some light, the man called out, or I'll never find what I'm looking for.
The man with the torch obeyed, though he wasn't happy about it.
Edmund wondered if they were looking for a spade.
Instead, he heard a heavy metal object being dropped next to him.
Suddenly, a rope was tied around his feet with painful force.
Is the knot tight?
Yes, it's secure, the man answered.
Let's go!
They continued for fifty more steps.
Dante could clearly hear the waves crashing against the rocks.
Bad weather, one man said.
It's not a nice night for a swim.
Well, somebody's going to get wet and it's not us, the other joked cruelly.
Dante didn't understand the joke, but he felt terrified.
We've arrived at last, said one.
A bit further, the other insisted.
The last one hit the rocks because we weren't careful.
They climbed a few more steps.
Then the men took him by the head and heels and began to swing him backwards and forwards.
One, two, three.
Dante felt himself thrown into the air.
He was falling with a speed that made him feel sick.
Even though the heavy weight pulled him down quickly, the fall felt like it lasted forever.
Finally, with a loud splash, he hit the freezing water.
He let out a scream as he fell beneath the waves.
Dante had been thrown into the sea with a 36-pound weight tied to his feet.
The sea was the grave of the prison Chateau d'If.
Although he almost became unconscious, he was still able to hold his breath.
Since he was prepared for anything, he used his knife to rip open the sack.
He struggled to free himself from the weight which was dragging him down.
He bent his body and cut through the rope.
With a final effort, he swam to the surface.
He breathed the fresh air and realized that, after many years, he was finally free.
And that's the end of the extract from The Count of Monte Cristo at B2 level.
I remember the film. with Gerard Depardieu.
There's a wonderful scene when he swims up from the freezing cold water and manages to take a deep breath as he comes up to the surface.
Free.
Right, so what I'll do.
I'll now give you a quick test then, on the phrases, the B2 phrases, which were included in the story which I mentioned at the beginning, and they were think twice to lose one's nerve, to cross one's mind, to switch, to rip open and to shiver.
I'll give you a test on four of those.
When you hear the bleep, you say the phrase which is missing.
Then afterwards, I will repeat the phrase so you'll know if you are correct or not.
Here we go with the test.
Number one.
Wow, it never... that I might actually win something in the lottery.
Crossed my mind.
It never crossed my mind.
Number two.
Well, she'd been waiting for that parcel for ages.
And when it finally arrived...
She took it and she... The parcel in seconds.
Ripped open.
She ripped open the parcel.
Number three.
Well, the weather is terrible, so I don't think we're going to go to the beach.
Look, I think we need to make a... in our plans.
Why don't we go to a museum instead?
Switch to make a switch in our plans.
Number four.
Did you hear?
What?
Well, John, he was going to ask Mary to marry him.
Well, did he?
What happened?
While he was going to, he took her out for a lovely meal.
But the last minute, he... lost his nerve.
At the last minute, he lost his nerve.
Right, that is the end of the test.
It's Holy Week here in Seville.
And for many people, especially teachers, there's a week's holiday.
So wherever you are, if you're getting a holiday, I hope that you enjoy it.
May you have a peaceful week.
Goodbye for now.
