Coffee Break English season 3 episode 7.
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Coffee Break English.
I'm Josie. And I'm Mark.
How are you today, Josie?
I'm well, thank you, Mark.
Very well. How are you?
I'm well and excited because we're going to Australia.
We are. It's very cold in Scotland today, so it will be nice to imagine some sun in Australia.
That's right. And we're going to be hearing from Matthew, who's going to be telling us about what, Josie?
He's going to tell us about a famous coral reef, a famous reef marine park called Ningaloo.
OK. And is there something that we should be listening out for?
Yes, today is a special day because it's our first pronunciation language point.
So we're going to focus on the difference between the E sound and the I sound.
OK, let's listen to our text.
It's over to you, Matthew.
Hi there, it's Matthew here reporting today from Western Australia.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef.
It lies in the ocean of Australia's east coast, but its distance to the shore makes it quite impractical to get to.
If you're looking for something that's still spectacular but a bit more accessible, then Ningaloo Reef Marine Park might be for you.
Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is a world heritage site located on Australia's west coast, covering over 705 ,000 hectares.
The reef itself is over 260 kilometres long and is Australia's largest fringing coral reef.
Or in other words, it's the largest reef that is close to the shore.
The name Ningaloo comes from the Aboriginal Wajari language, which means deep water.
The land along the coast has been inhabited by the Aboriginal Yamadji peoples for over 30 ,000 years.
There are fewer coral species than at the Great Barrier Reef, but there is still a big variety to see at Ningaloo, as well as many species of animals.
The reef is most famous for its whale sharks, which feed there from March to June.
Whale sharks are currently the largest recorded species of fish alive today, so they are an incredible sight to see.
The reef is also part of the migration route for manta rays, dolphins and humpback whales.
So if you're there during the warm winter months of migration season, it's definitely worth going to see the wildlife.
Although Ningaloo is less famous than the Great Barrier Reef, it is still a beautiful part of Australia with lots of coral and sea creatures to discover.
And it's so easy to get to that you have no excuse not to visit.
Thank you very much, Matthew.
Now, before we talk about the text, let's talk about what our language point is a little bit more.
So I said, we're going to talk about the difference between the long e sound in English.
So that's the sound in words like see and me and the short e sound.
So that's the sound in words like fish or sister.
It's shorter. Now, a good way to talk about this in English is to talk about minimal pairs.
Minimal pairs? That sounds a little complex.
It does sound quite technical.
Basically, minimal pairs are pairs of words where there is quite a minimal, a small difference between the pronunciation.
For example, we have sheep, which has the long e sound, and ship, which has the short e sound.
Right. So sheep and ship.
What about heat and hit?
Exactly. They are also minimal pairs.
So in this text, we're going to see lots of words with the e sound and lots of words with the i sound.
And we're going to compare them to their minimal pairs.
That sounds good. Let's get started.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef.
Yes, good. First of all, what is a reef or a coral reef?
Reef is a long, narrow mass of coral in the sea.
That's right. And we already have our first example of the i sound here with the word reef.
Yep. So that sounds quite similar to another word, doesn't it?
Well, there is a word riff.
That's right. And OK, first, what does riff mean?
Well, I can imagine if I'm playing the guitar, I might make a guitar riff like...
or something like that.
Exactly. That's a perfect example of a riff.
So we have reef, a long sound and riff.
They are minimal pairs.
Reef and riff. OK. It lies in the ocean off Australia's east coast, but its distance from the shore makes it quite impractical to get to.
Yes. So the very first word of this sentence, it, there we have that short i sound.
And that could be confused with eat, as in I eat a sandwich.
So eat and it. OK, eat and it.
Yes. So it lies in the ocean off Australia's east coast.
It lies, it is in the ocean off Australia's east coast.
But its distance from the shore.
What's the shore? The shore is the land, which is along the edge of a sea or river.
So the distance of the Great Barrier Reef from the shore, the fact that it's far from shore, makes it quite impractical to get to.
Yes. So impractical is the opposite of practical, of course.
And it means, yeah, not practical.
It's not easy to do.
It's not realistic to do.
OK. If you're looking for something that's still spectacular, but a bit more accessible, then Ningaloo Reef Marine Park might be for you.
Yes. So if you're looking for something that's still spectacular, still in this case means continuing to exist or be true.
For example, if you're looking for something that is spectacular, like the Great Barrier Reef and still has this short sound, what would the minimal pair of still be?
It would be steel. That's right.
That could be steel, spelt, S -T -E -E -L, which is a type of metal, or S -T -E -A -L.
When you take something that doesn't belong to you, you steal something.
Exactly. So still and steel.
Still and steel. OK.
So if you're looking for something that's still spectacular, but a bit more accessible, a bit more easy to get to, then Ningaloo Reef Marine Park might be for you.
Yes. OK. Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is a World Heritage Site located on Australia's west coast, covering over 705 ,000 hectares.
Yes. So it's a World Heritage Site.
A World Heritage Site is a very important place which is protected by law.
That's right. So the World Heritage Sites are looked after.
They are protected by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
And the list of World Heritage Sites includes Machu Picchu in Peru, Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the Taj Mahal in India, and many more.
Lots of important and famous places.
Indeed. Let's continue.
The reef itself is over 260 kilometres long and is Australia's largest fringing coral reef.
Or in other words, it's the largest reef that is close to the shore.
Yes. I'm glad I don't have to give a definition of fringing because that's a difficult word.
So the largest reef that is close to the shore.
Good. The name Ningaloo comes from the Aboriginal Wajari language and means deep water.
Yes. Deep water. The word deep has this long e sound.
And what's the word that sounds quite similar to it?
Well, the minimal pair would be dip.
That's right. So dip with the shorter i sound.
And dip means, well, it's a verb and it means to put something into liquid.
So if you are having a cup of tea, you might dip a biscuit into the tea.
Or if you're at the seaside, you could dip your toes in the water.
Exactly. Yep. Okay.
The land along the coast has been inhabited by the Aboriginal Yamachi peoples for over 30 ,000 years.
Yes. So the land along the coast has been inhabited.
Been. Again, we've got this long open e sound and it sounds quite similar to bin.
Bin in the UK is the waste paper basket, the trash.
That's right. Where you put your rubbish or your things that you don't want.
Okay. So it's been inhabited by the Aboriginal Yamachi peoples for over 30 ,000 years.
Yes. And inhabited just means lived in by people or animals.
So these people have lived in this land for over 30 ,000 years.
Okay. Let's take a very short break and we'll be back in just a moment.
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Welcome back to Coffee Break English.
We're talking about Ningaloo Reef Park and we're doing some pronunciation practice.
Let's continue with the text.
There are fewer coral species than at the Great Barrier Reef, but there are still a big variety to see at Ningaloo as well as many species of animals.
Yes. So we're talking about coral species and species of animals.
First of all, what's a species, Mark?
A species is a type of animal or plant.
Yeah, that's right.
And species is quite a complicated word.
So it ends in S, but that's the singular form, a species.
And then the plural is just many species.
It's exactly the same.
And the word species is spelt S -P -E -C -I -E -S.
We pronounce this species, so the C becomes a SH.
But some people say species as well.
Okay. But you also hear two long E sounds there.
So species. Exactly.
That's right. Okay.
The reef is most famous for its whale sharks, which feed there from March to June.
Yes. Which feed there.
We've got the open E sound.
The word FID with a short sound is not a word.
Thank goodness you said that.
I was confused there.
Maybe you would have learned something too on this episode.
Okay. Whale sharks are currently the largest recorded species of fish alive today.
So they are an incredible sight to see.
Yes. Whale sharks are currently the largest recorded species of fish.
What's currently, Mark?
It's at the moment, right now.
That's right. Yeah.
At the present moment.
So they are an incredible sight to see.
A sight, in this case, is something special that you can see.
Yeah. Okay. The reef is also part of the migration route for manta rays, dolphins and humpback whales.
So if you're there during the warm winter months of migration season, it's definitely worth going to see the wildlife.
The beginning of this sentence has quite a lot of technical sea creature vocabulary.
So the reef is part of the migration route for manta rays.
First of all, what's a migration route?
Well, some animals move from one part of the world to another part of the world, for example, in summer or in winter.
That's right. So their migration route is the path that they take, the way that they take to move to another part of the world.
And a manta ray is basically a large flat fish.
And we also had dolphins and they're quite well known.
Yes. Dolphins are those large, well, they're not fish.
They look like big fish, but they are actually mammals that jump out of the water and make lots of clicking sounds.
Okay. And humpback whales.
Yes. So a whale, the biggest animal in the world, right?
Yeah. And a humpback whale is a type of whale which has a hump or a bump on their back.
Okay. So if you're there during the warm winter months of migration season, we see migration again there, it's definitely worth going to see the wildlife.
What is it's worth doing something mean?
Yes. It's worth means if you do this, it has value.
It will be a good idea, basically.
So you should go to see the wildlife.
Okay. So although Ningaloo is less famous than the Great Barrier Reef, it's still a beautiful part of Australia with lots of coral and sea creatures.
So it's still a beautiful part still compared to steel with the long sound and there's lots of coral and sea creatures, two ee sounds there.
And then we had the ee sound in discover.
Absolutely. And just to go back to sea creatures, a creature is another word for an animal.
Or something that's alive.
Exactly. And it's so easy to get to that you have no excuse not to visit.
Yes. So it's easy, this open ee sound.
And you have no excuse not to visit.
What's an excuse, Mark?
An excuse would be a reason for doing something or for not doing something.
That's right. So maybe a classic excuse for a child that hasn't done their homework.
They say, sorry, the dog ate my homework.
Okay. That's their excuse.
Right. Let us listen again to the whole text now.
Over to you, Matthew.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef.
It lies in the ocean of Australia's east coast, but its distance to the shore makes it quite impractical to get to.
If you're looking for something that's still spectacular, but a bit more accessible, then Ningaloo Reef Marine Park might be for you.
Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is a World Heritage site located on Australia's west coast, covering over 705 ,000 hectares.
The reef itself is over 260 kilometres long and is Australia's largest fringing coral reef, or in other words, it's the largest reef that is close to the shore.
The name Ningaloo comes from the Aboriginal Wajari language, which means deep water.
The land along the coast has been inhabited by the Aboriginal Yamadji peoples for over 30 ,000 years.
There are fewer coral species than at the Great Barrier Reef, but there is still a big variety to see at Ningaloo, as well as many species of animals.
The reef is most famous for its whale sharks, which feed there from March to June.
Whale sharks are currently the largest recorded species of fish alive today, so they are an incredible sight to see.
The reef is also part of the migration route for manta rays, dolphins and humpback whales.
So if you're there during the warm winter months of migration season, it's definitely worth going to see the wildlife.
Although Ningaloo is less famous than the Great Barrier Reef, it is still a beautiful part of Australia with lots of coral and sea creatures to discover.
And it's so easy to get to that you have no excuse not to visit.
Thank you Matthew, and thanks everyone for listening to this episode.
We hope that this pronunciation practice has been useful for you.
Don't forget to check out Coffee Break English on Instagram and also on Facebook, where you can find regular posts to help you improve your English and learn more about the cultures of different English -speaking places from around the world.
That's right. And if you'd like to get the lesson notes and the vocabulary list for this episode, you can go to coffeebreakenglish .com and sign up for free.
Okay, we'll be back on Friday with our extra episode.
But until then, goodbye.
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