Hello everybody, this is Mike Bilbre, back today with another podcast for B1 learners of English.
I'm just going to mention my new book.
Please be patient.
Very quick mention of my new book, B1 English Vocabulary.
This is a textbook which is full of wonderful stories which will help you build the vocabulary that you need for a b1 level, especially if you're going to take an exam, for example the preliminary english exam pet by cambridge.
It will help you with the vocabulary side of the exam More than 1200 B1 words in 22 stories for you to read and listen to, with lots of interesting questions too.
Okay, enough of the advertisement.
Now let's go on with the podcast, which is a short story today about a detective.
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.
As I said, a detective story with lots of interesting B1 words.
What I'll do first of all is to read the story to you, and your task is to identify the words which are B1.
As I said, this is a very interesting task for you to know which words are B1, so you know which words to use when you want to do an exam speaking or writing part of the exam and show the B1 English that you know.
So, which are the B1 words?
Here we go.
The Missing Actor Detective Anna Jones had a long career solving strange crimes.
One rainy night, the police had called her to a dark hotel outside the village to help them.
A film actor and celebrity, John Kelly, had disappeared from his locked room.
The manager had knocked on the door to bring his dinner, but there had been no reply.
Unfortunately, the local police had been careless and Anna realized they had touched and moved objects in the room.
Anna couldn't stand this lack of professional behavior.
It made her job even more complicated.
However, she couldn't help feeling that probably there was a simple explanation to this mystery, despite the locked door.
There usually was.
Although the window had been pushed shut, it wasn't, in fact, locked.
The actor had left by the window.
The room was only on the first floor.
But why?
Search the gardens around the hotel, she ordered.
He can't have gone far.
Walking through the rain, Anna went in a different direction from the police.
She came to a part of the huge gardens where there was a single lamppost.
And in its light, a young man was dancing and singing, holding an umbrella.
He's mad, thought Anna.
John Kelly then saw Anna.
Hello, he said.
Good evening, Mr Kelly.
I'm Detective Jones.
We've been looking for you.
Are you all right?
John Kelly laughed.
Yes, thank you.
Please don't tell anybody.
They'll think I'm crazy.
But I'm practicing for a play in the West End, singing in the rain.
I saw this lovely lamppost in the hotel garden, and it was raining.
I thought, what a wonderful opportunity.
Right, so there's the story.
I'm going to go through the story again and pick out those B1 words and talk about them.
So the story is called The Missing Actor.
Missing is in fact a B1 word.
I think we had that last week.
If somebody or something is not there, it's missing.
Okay, Detective Anna Jones had a long career.
Now, career in English, this B1 word career, means your professional life.
In some other languages, for example Spanish, it means also your studies.
But in British English, career means the job that you do or that you have done all your life.
As I've said before in earlier podcasts, you can read this story at the application where you are listening to this podcast, or at my website practicingenglishcom, podcast 262.
So she had had a long career solving.
So to solve is to find the solution, find the answer to something.
Solving strange crimes another b1 word, a crime being something you do which is illegal, which is not good and you can be taken away and put in prison for it.
That is a crime.
One rainy night, the police had called her to a dark hotel outside the village to help them.
A film actor and celebrity.
Be one word.
Celebrity is a famous person.
John Kelly had disappeared, be one word, meaning really to go missing, I suppose.
So appear meaning to be present, to suddenly be there and disappear, to suddenly go away so people can't see you to be missing.
So disappear being the opposite of appear.
So John Kelly had disappeared from his locked room.
The manager had knocked on the door to bring his dinner, but there had been no reply.
Unfortunately.
The opposite of fortunately.
Unfortunately, meaning unluckily, meaning something which is bad.
The local police had been careless.
And careless is the opposite of careful.
So we've got lots of opposites today.
This is a B1 word, careless, opposite of careful.
Careful is to do something in a very well thought out way, to do something in a way which is planned and does not cause any damage or harm to anything, and careless is to do something in a way where you're not really paying attention to what you're doing and things can go wrong.
So the local police had been careless and Anna realized this word, which can be confused also with a false friend in many languages.
Realize it means that the idea came to her head.
She realized They had touched and moved objects in the room.
Anna couldn't stand this lack of professional behavior.
So all these words are B1 words.
If you can't stand something, you dislike it.
You hate it.
I can't stand... Hey, I'm going to say it.
I can't stand pizza.
Okay, so that's for the general good, isn't it?
To say something bad about pizza because I'm always saying good things about pizza.
I don't like pizza.
It's too fattening.
So Anna couldn't stand, past tense of can't stand, this lack of professional behavior.
A lack of something means there is not enough of something if there's a lack of something.
So, for example, we could say, sometimes in Seville there is a lack of rain.
There is not enough rain to make the grass grow.
Of professional behavior, it made her job even more complicated.
Be one word complicated.
Usually in Latin-based languages that would be understood as something which is difficult to do.
Complicated.
However, she couldn't help feeling that probably there was a simple explanation.
A lovely B1 word, explanation is the pronunciation of that.
The verb to explain and the noun is explanation to this mystery. despite the locked door.
So despite, then, means that something is true, although there is something to stop it being true.
Wow.
So Detective Anna Jones thinks that there is a simple explanation, but there is something to stop it being simple, and that is the locked door, despite the locked door.
So it's something which is stopping.
Something being true, I went out for a walk despite the rain.
So I'm saying that the rain could have stopped me going out, but I still went out for a walk.
I bought myself a new pair of trousers last weekend, despite the cost.
They were very expensive, so that nearly stopped me buying those trousers, but I did buy them.
Okay?
Although the window had been pushed shut, it wasn't, in fact, locked.
Locked meaning closed with a key.
So although and despite have the same meaning here, but I can't use despite because of the grammar.
Despite needs a noun phrase after it.
Despite the window being shut, it would be.
So this is a little bit different with although.
Although the window had been pushed shut, it wasn't, in fact, locked.
To go on then.
The actor had left by the window.
The room was only on the first floor.
But why?
But why had she left by the window?
Search the gardens around the hotel.
She ordered.
So to order is to tell people what to do.
Two meanings in English, isn't there?
With B1 English.
To order food in a restaurant, which means to ask for something to eat from the waiter and to order to tell people what to do.
And as she is superior as a detective to the other police, she tells them what to do.
She ordered them.
He can't have gone far.
Walking through the rain, Anna went in a different direction.
Be one word. meaning the way you go.
You can go in one direction, towards one place, or in another direction, towards a different place.
So Anna went in a different direction from the police.
She came to a part of the huge gardens huge meaning very, very big where there was a single lamppost.
And a lamppost is a long, tall thing made of metal with a light on the top that you often see in streets.
A lamppost.
And in its light, a young man was dancing and singing, holding an umbrella.
He's mad, thought Anna.
Mad meaning crazy.
In British English, it means crazy.
In American English, it means angry, which is interesting, isn't it?
It means angry.
But in British English and in the Cambridge exams, it's always going to be crazy.
John Kelly then saw Anna.
Hello, he said.
Good evening, Mr. Kelly.
I'm Detective Jones.
We've been looking for you.
Are you all right?
John Kelly laughed.
Yes, thank you.
Please don't tell anybody.
They'll think I'm crazy or mad.
But I'm practicing for a play in the West End, singing in the rain.
I saw this lovely lamppost in the hotel garden, and it was raining.
I thought what a wonderful opportunity.
An opportunity be one word or a chance, which means something, an event comes along that we want to take advantage of.
We say, hey, I'm going to stop, I'm going to take advantage of that.
In this case, this actor thought the lamppost was a wonderful way to practice his singing for the play.
The play that he was going to be in in the West End.
Maybe you've heard of, a long time ago, 1950-something, Gene Kelly.
Gene Kelly, not John Kelly. was the actor who sang and acted in the film, Singing in the Rain.
I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain.
What a wonderful feeling, I'm happy again.
Maybe that rings a bell.
Or maybe not!
Anyway, that's the explanation of the story.
I'm going to read it again with a little test.
I will stop at some of the B1 words.
You will hear a bleep.
And I'll leave a space so that you have time to say the word.
Then I'll say it quietly afterwards to give you the answer.
So you need to just say one word when you hear the beep like this.
Here we go with the test.
The Missing Actor Detective Anna Jones had a long career solving strange crimes.
One rainy night, the police had called her to a dark hotel outside the village to help them.
A film actor and Celebrity John Kelly had ****** from his locked room.
Disappeared.
The manager had knocked on the door to bring his dinner, but there had been no reply.
Unfortunately, the local police had been ******.
Careless.
And Anna realized they had touched the moved objects in the room.
Anna couldn't stand this of professional behavior.
Lack.
It made her job even more complicated.
However, she couldn't help feeling that probably there was a simple explanation to this mystery.
The locked door.
There usually was.
Despite.
Although the window had been pushed shut, it wasn't, in fact, locked.
The actor had left by the window.
The room was only on the first floor.
But why?
Search the gardens around the hotel.
She ordered.
He can't have gone far.
Walking through the rain, Anna went in a different from the police.
Direction.
She came to a part of the gardens huge, where there was a single lamppost and in its light a young man was dancing and singing, holding an umbrella.
He's, thought Anna.
Mad.
John Kelly then saw Anna.
Hello, he said.
Good evening, Mr. Kelly.
I'm Detective Jones.
We've been looking for you.
Are you all right?
John Kelly laughed.
Yes, thank you.
Please don't tell anybody.
They'll think I'm crazy.
But I'm practicing for a play in the West End, Singing in the Rain.
I saw this lovely lamppost in the hotel garden and it was raining.
I thought, what a wonderful opportunity.
Right.
That's all from me for this week.
If you want to check out the text, you can find it on your app, your podcast app, or at Practicing English Podcast 262.
And you'll see a link there as well to Amazon where you can buy my book for B1 learners of English.
B1 English Vocabulary Builder.
I'll be giving a B2 podcast tomorrow.
Until next time, goodbye for now.
