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B1 English Vocabulary Builder 22 Short Stories so that you can learn the words and phrases that you need to pass the B1 Cambridge exam or other similar exams.
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It would be great if you could share that opinion at the Amazon website, where you write the reviews.
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OK, so today this is a B2 podcast and today we're going to talk about sport.
Do you play sport?
Do you do sport?
Do you play football or do you do karate or judo or basketball?
Perhaps you go swimming or you go horse riding.
Those three verbs we use, don't we?
Play, do and go to talk about different sports.
Do you like to keep fit?
Do you go to the gym?
Do you like to lift weights?
Or do you perhaps prefer something more aerobic?
Like, well, an aerobics class.
They've got lots of funny names these days, actually.
I go down to the gym as well.
I don't do a lot of gym work.
I prefer to go to the swimming pool and I prefer to swim.
And I just swim up and down.
And that's the way I try to keep fit.
I like swimming.
I think it's a good all-round sport to keep yourself trim, to keep yourself fit.
And it's for arms and legs.
And also it's aerobic as well.
So the story today anyway is about about sport.
It's a story I wrote really for the vocabulary.
It's not particularly exciting, but listen, because there are lots of good B2 words in there.
So your task will be to listen for the words that you think are B2 language, B2 level words talking about sport and related words to sport.
OK, and then afterwards I'll talk about the words and then there'll be a short test on the vocabulary, so that you go away from this podcast with a few more B2 words in your head.
All right.
Okay, 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.
A True Champion Sophia had always dreamed of becoming a professional tennis player.
She trained every morning, even when she was tired, because she knew success would depend on her hard work.
Some people tried to discourage her from doing so much training, saying it was a waste of time.
But Sophia refused to listen.
Her first big tournament didn't go well.
She suffered a terrible defeat and her confidence began to decline.
Deep down, she felt that maybe everyone had been right.
For a moment, she even hesitated to enter the next competition.
However, her coach reminded her that real champions never give up.
He said that despite the fact she had lost, she had learned something important.
Sophia realized he was right.
She returned to the court, determined to demonstrate her true ability.
In the final match, her opponent tried to deceive her with tricky shots, but Sophia stayed calm and focused.
This time, she won.
When she lifted the trophy, she smiled, not because of the victory, but because she had proved to herself that determination and a belief in yourself are stronger than fear.
Right, there's a story, a text, really with lots of useful vocabulary in there related to sport and also how people feel about sport.
I'll go through it again fairly quickly and I'll go to those beta words and I'll explain them to you.
So, Sophia had always dreamed of becoming a professional tennis player.
She trained every morning, even when she was tired, because she knew success would depend on her hard work.
Okay, so depend on is a B2 word.
Which has that on as a preposition.
In many languages, the preposition is similar to of, as it is in Spanish.
And so the depend of is an easy mistake to make.
But notice it's to depend on something, which means that you rely on it, which is another B2 word, or that you need it very much to depend on it.
Some people try to discourage her from doing so much training.
So we have these two opposites to encourage, which is a B1 word, and the opposite, which is less common, to discourage.
Discourage, D-I-S.
As a suffix before the word courage, which means then, if to encourage means to encourage.
Get somebody to do something, to tell them, yeah, you can do it.
Go on, off you go.
To discourage is the opposite and say, wait a minute, are you sure you can do this?
I think perhaps it's too difficult.
I wouldn't do that if I were you.
That's to discourage. saying that it was wasting her time and saying that she was wasting her time.
But Sophia refused to listen.
Her first big tournament competition didn't go well.
She suffered a terrible defeat.
So notice the word defeat, meaning that you have lost.
So when somebody beats you, then you suffer a defeat.
So notice the collocation there, the verb to suffer a defeat.
And a terrible defeat, meaning a very terrible, Big defeat.
You were defeated easily.
And her confidence began to decline.
Her confidence began to decline.
Confidence is a way that you feel about yourself.
If you are a confident person.
That's the adjective confident ending in T.
A confident person is somebody who believes in themselves and thinks that they can do and carry out any challenge that is put before them.
And the noun is confidence, ending in E-N-C-E.
So her confidence began to decline, meaning to become less.
So it's like decrease, decline, decrease.
And then we've got deep down, she felt that maybe everybody had been right.
So deep down is an expression we use when we're talking about our feelings.
Deep inside us, feelings that we hold, perhaps that we don't usually want to talk about.
And we say those feelings are deep down.
Deep down inside us, somewhere in your heart.
I don't know, where do feelings live?
But we say deep down.
For a moment, she even hesitated to enter the next competition.
So to hesitate, the B2 word to hesitate means that before doing something, you think about it carefully.
Should I do this?
Maybe it's not a good idea.
That's to hesitate.
However, her coach, her trainer, reminded her that real champions never give up.
So that B1 phrasal verb to give up, which means to say, I can't go on.
I'm not going to do it anymore.
He said that despite the fact she had lost, she had learned something important.
Despite the fact.
Despite is the B1 word, but here the despite the fact or despite the fact that is a B2 combination of words, which means the same thing.
Despite.
Although, in other words, it's just that despite and although use different grammar in the sentence.
Well, that's interesting.
I've just said that.
But actually, despite and although use different grammar, despite requires a noun phrase.
And if we say despite the fact or despite the fact that, that is a noun phrase.
So it would be very similar to although.
So I could say despite the fact she had lost or although she had lost.
So there the grammar is the same.
It's followed by a subject.
She had lost subject and verb.
She had learned something important.
Sophia realized he was right.
She returned to the court.
So the court being the place where you play tennis.
So you have those words, don't you?
Where do you play football?
You play football on a... pitch or field.
Where do you play tennis and basketball?
You play on a court.
Determined to demonstrate her true ability.
True ability, the nice two words that go together there.
And determined, meaning that you are going to put all your energy into doing something, your physical and mental energy to doing something.
You are determined to demonstrate, which is to show?
To show her true ability so that people can see it.
To demonstrate.
In the final match, her opponent tried to deceive her with tricky shots.
So the word opponent, being the person you are playing against, is your opponent.
It's a B2 word.
Tried to deceive her, which means to trick somebody to do something which confuses somebody, the opponent, so that they make a mistake to deceive.
With tricky shots.
So tricky means very difficult.
If something is tricky, it's difficult to do.
Shots.
A shot is what you do with the racket, the tennis racket.
You hit the ball.
We call that a shot.
It's the same in football.
When you kick a ball, that is called a shot.
And in football, there is a verb for it as well, which is to shoot, to shoot the ball.
But we don't say that in tennis.
You hit the ball in tennis, but you make a shot.
OK, so the noun is shot.
And the verb, though, is to hit the ball rather than to shoot the ball, which is for football.
Sophia stayed calm and focused.
This word being used more and more.
I think it's from the Americans to stay focused.
It's a nice word, actually.
I use it quite a lot as well.
It means to concentrate hard on something.
On the note of concentrate, be careful of not saying I am concentrated today.
Or somebody is concentrated on something.
You can't say that in English.
You use the verb.
You say he is concentrating and not concentrated.
The word concentrated is used for orange juice, which means that the water is taken out of the orange juice to make it concentrated.
More pure, more juice and less water.
Okay, that's concentrated.
But people concentrate.
So you have to say they are concentrating in the present continuous.
That's just another very common mistake with to concentrate.
So if you're worried about making a mistake, use the word focus.
So it's an easier one.
You can say that with the ed ending, to be focused.
This time she won when she lifted the trophy.
That's the cup, the cup made of gold.
No, not likely.
Silver, perhaps, or tin.
She smiled, not because of the victory.
So, the victory being the fact that you won.
You have won a victory, but because she had proved to herself that determination and a belief in yourself are stronger than fear.
So determination is from determined, which we had earlier.
She returned to the court determined to demonstrate.
Determined there is the adjective and determination is the noun.
All right.
OK, that's a lot of explanation.
I'm just going to read through the story again.
I will stop just before some of those B2 words and you will hear a beep.
And what you have to do is to say the word.
I will leave a space so that you have time to say it.
OK, and then I will say the answer as well quietly so you can check your own answer.
All right.
Remember that you can see this text at your podcast application or at my website practicingenglishcom podcast 265.
Okay, so here we go then with the test.
A true champion.
Sophia had always dreamed of becoming a professional tennis player.
She trained every morning, even when she was tired, because she knew success would on hard work.
Depend.
Some people tried to... her from doing so much training.
Discourage.
Saying she was wasting her time, but Sophia refused to listen.
Her first big tournament didn't go well.
She suffered a terrible... defeat.
And her... began to decline.
Confidence.
Deep down, she felt that maybe everyone had been right.
For a moment, she even to enter the next competition.
Hesitated.
However, her coach reminded her that real champions never give up.
He said that the fact she had lost.
Despite, she had learned something important.
Sophia realized he was right.
She returned to the court determined to her true ability.
Demonstrate.
In the final match, her opponent tried to deceive her with tricky shots.
But Sophia stayed calm and focused, not concentrated.
This time she won when she lifted the trophy.
She smiled not because of the victory, but because she had proved to herself that and a belief in yourself are stronger than fear.
Determination.
That's the end of the test.
I hope you have learned a few words which will be useful for you for your studies.
I'll be back next week with another B1 and B2 podcast for you.
Have a lovely weekend.
Goodbye for now.
