Shadowing Practice: 📚 IELTS Listening Podcast Ep.25 - Go Travel Booking Form - Luyện Nghe Tiếng Anh Thụ Động Mỗi Ngày - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Section 1.
305 sentences
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Section 1.
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You will hear a woman telephoning a travel agent to book a holiday.
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Hello, you're through to GoTravel.
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This is Darren speaking.
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How may I help you today?
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Hello, I'm calling to book a holiday.
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Great.
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May I take your name please?
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Yes, it's Greaves.
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Anna Greaves.
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Is that G-R-E...
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No, G-R-I-E-V-E-S.
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And Anna is with double N.
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Right.
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Thank you, Anna.
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Now, we're delighted you've called us.
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Can I ask where you heard about us?
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It was your advertisement in one of the magazines.
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Was it Holiday World?
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Yes, that's the one.
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Good, thank you.
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It's useful to know.
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Of course.
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And did you have a particular holiday in mind,
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or was it a general inquiry?
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I think I've chosen.
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I like the look of the one with the code FT4551.
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The right destination and the prices seem reasonable.
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Right.
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Now, was it for yourself only, or...?
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Oh no, I want to go with a couple of friends,
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so there'd be three of us going.
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Okay.
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Now, there's a choice of dates, as you know.
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Yes, I think.. well, we've got to be back by the end of August.
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So, if we say going on August the 16th, that would work fine.
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No problem.
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And you can also choose the length of your holiday.
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There's, let's see, 7, 11 or 14 nights.
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We thought the middle one would be great.
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Longer would be nice, of course, but...
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Maybe next year.
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Yes.
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And you do need to have insurance.
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Uh-huh.
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Uh-huh.
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We've three levels.
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Standard, Super and Super Plus.
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Standard seems a bit basic.
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Let's say Super.
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That should be sufficient.
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Fine.
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Well, that's all good so far, and the availability's okay.
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Have you looked through the list of options?
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They're in the advertisement.
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I have, and I've got the list here.
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Some of them do seem a good idea.
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Which ones would you like to take?
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In terms of the hotel,
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the offer of picnic lunches, we'd leave that.
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We'd rather go to cafes.
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I think a balcony for the room is a must.
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It's so nice to sit out, enjoying the view.
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Oh, yes.
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And then the trips.
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Uh, I think we'll pass on the night bus one.
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I never really enjoy the commentaries.
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And museums aren't really my sort of thing,
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to be honest, any more than dances.
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Uh-huh.
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But I like practical things,
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so I think the demonstration of local arts could be fun.
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Yes, I would think so.
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And then, in terms of getting out of town,
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going up the river on a boat sounds delightful,
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and I wouldn't want to miss that.
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But the mountains, well, sitting in a coach on those winding roads...
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I understand.
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OK, well, that's all I need for the booking at this point.
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Just a few details for you,
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and then we'll check the payment.
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Section 2.
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You will hear a talk about RunWell,
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a charity that raises money by organising running races.
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I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to tell you something about the RunWell charity and the work we do.
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I'll give a brief overview of what we do,
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and I hope you may be able to help,
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and then there'll be time for questions at the end.
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Runwell's founder, Mike Hughes, took up long-distance running in 1987,
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raising money by doing sponsored half-marathons,
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and in 1992 established the charity as we know it today.
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By 1997, the runs were being filmed by local TV,
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and today they appear on national TV every year.
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All the funds collected by RunWell go to the hospital,
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with the idea
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that those fit enough to run use their energy to assist the provision of people who are unwell for whatever reason.
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Now if you want to race,
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and I assume that's why many of you are here,
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let me explain a couple of the basics.
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are run by teams, so you need to form and register a team.
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What you wear to run in is up to you,
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and I know some teams come up with some pretty wacky ideas.
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We have a standard design for your numbers,
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which we ask you to reproduce,
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so you make them up according to that standard.
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We don't want to spend valuable funds on doing that ourselves.
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Now the race is run as a kind of relay,
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so while you won't actually compete side by side,
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we do recommend that you train as a group.
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This helps to optimise performance and build team spirit.
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It will also give you a fair idea of how much you need to eat and drink over the race distance.
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This is clearly essential for an effective performance,
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so please make sure you come along to the race with sufficient food and drink.
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Again, we don't spend money on providing that.
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But you do need to keep yourself going for the 20km course.
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The course goes through the town,
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then out through Highfield Park,
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concluding in the main square,
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where the applauding spectators will be ready to greet you.
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There are many different prizes,
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including oldest runner, youngest runner,
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team with the most sponsorship,
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team with the best costume.
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That one's donated by Zoom Fashions.
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The Mayor will introduce the Minister for Health,
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who will hand over each prize to the winners,
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and then the hospital president will make a short speech.
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OK, that's the big race.
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But I know there are many people who don't feel they are up to running a 20km race,
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but who would nevertheless like to raise money for Run Well.
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Over the years we've had experience of many ways of trying to collect money,
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some very successful, others less so.
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Now, of course, 20km is too far for children to run.
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But there was a sponsored swimming event at the local school last year and that did very well.
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People have also tried to organise food-based events,
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such as selling homemade cakes and bread and so on at the market.
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And there was a large picnic arranged in four bright gardens,
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although these events failed to justify the efforts put into them,
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though I'm sure they were very tasty.
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These days so many people are out at work all day
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that going from house to house to collect money isn't very effective
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but it is possible to raise useful funds by selling small
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promotional items such as badges with the Runwell motif on them we're currently checking to see
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if postcards and perhaps showing the races winners each year might also be a good idea
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or not we do appreciate the efforts that have gone into selling second-hand goods,
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but to be honest, the returns have not been very high on this.
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One very dedicated group organised a team quiz recently,
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which went very well, and it would be good to see more such activities.
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There's also been talk of a concert,
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but we'll have to see how plans for that progress.
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Now, are there any questions at this stage?
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Section 3.
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You will hear three linguistics students,
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Joe, Martin and Angela, discussing the presentation that Joe is giving soon as part of his course.
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Hi, Martin.
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Hi, Angela.
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Hi, Joe.
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Yeah, hi, Joe.
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So, you're really worried about your presentation, the one about names?
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I am.
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Well, you know your stuff on names pretty well,
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so it's just a question of selecting what you want to use.
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That's right.
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But there's so much.
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Well, you don't have to include everything.
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Let's start somewhere.
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Well, for example, there's a lot to discuss about people's names in terms of culture.
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It would be a good way to start,
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bringing in issues of religion, society.
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I thought so.
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As long as you can keep it concise,
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since it's potentially a large area.
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I'll pick out some key points.
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Good.
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Now, that will tend to be about differences.
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What about something on ways in which naming practices are often similar across different languages?
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Hmm, that sounds good.
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I'm not sure how much I could say that's really about just names and not really general language.
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Maybe you need to give that some more thought.
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Yes, I'm not ruling it out.
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Well, what about what first names mean?
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That's got to be specific to languages or language groups.
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Yes, there are all sorts of different principles at work.
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It's a rich area for discussion.
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And you can present lots of examples.
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It would mean a good slide or two.
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I'll enjoy making those up.
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Don't forget to put our names in.
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No, OK.
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Right, where have we got up to?
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Yes, now, there's the question of place names.
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Ones where the name of the place is the word for the situation,
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like something to do with sea or mountain,
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etc.? Yes, people often don't realise the origin.
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It sounds like it's just a translation issue to me.
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Don't you think you might give that a miss?
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Given the time limit, perhaps you're right.
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You need something on place names.
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Could you get history in?
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Actually, the way migrants often used to name places after somewhere in their country of origin is interesting.
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Sounds a bit narrow to me.
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Well, I'd hope to build it up a bit.
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Perhaps you should make a final decision on that later.
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Okay, I'll see how the rest of it goes first.
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Is that the lot?
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No, there's still country names, the origins of those.
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I think that's an interesting area.
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Yeah, because it's something we often don't think about.
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It'd be a way to bring in various aspects.
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History, certainly.
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I could project a map of the world and have people match the original meanings to the countries.
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Well, that seems to be a foregone conclusion.
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Fine.
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Yes, I'm feeling clearer already.
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You know, there's another aspect that I think I'll cover.
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Yes?
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Brand names.
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Isn't that more to do with business studies?
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Well, international companies are finding it increasingly important to have brand names that can be used in many different countries.
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Oh, so they can advertise the same product everywhere?
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Yes, and it seems that brand names are very special in our brains.
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How so?
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Well, there was a research study recently carried out on a group of about 50 students.
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They showed them 108 words and the students had to say whether they recognised them as real words or not.
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The list included all mixed up,
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ordinary nouns, brand names and meaningless words,
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and they were shown all the words quickly.
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And the brand names seemed to be recognised strongly and in the emotional right-hand side of the brain.
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It was interesting that the brand names were recognised more readily if they were displayed in capital letters rather than lowercase,
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something which doesn't apply to normal words.
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How strange!
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What else did the researchers find out?
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Of course, it's a relatively small study,
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but they suspect that other visual features are at play,
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and so that, for example,
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colour has a major effect in helping us to store brand names in a special way in our brains.
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I suppose that's logical.
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But what do you.. well,
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they mean by a special way?
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I'm not saying I understood everything about this study.
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Of course not.
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But they seem to be saying that the power of brand names is
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that they conjure up a range of associations inside our brains,
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more so than ordinary words or names do.
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I guess this is great news for international companies.
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Potentially, certainly.
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Though exactly what they do...
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Section 4.
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You will hear part of a lecture about balloons and airships.
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Now, balloons and airships are worth consideration because while on the one hand they represent humans' first successes at airflight,
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after centuries of less than successful theory and experimentation,
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they also, on the other hand,
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continue to be used today.
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We may have appeared to have moved on to jet planes and space rockets,
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but you can still see these more primitive flyers in the skies.
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OK, um, gas balloons first.
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France saw the first balloon flight in 1783,
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and this began a process of development.
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By 1862, in the Civil War in the United States,
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we find Thaddeus Lowe replacing spies with balloons to go behind enemy lines.
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The success of this led to the continued use of balloons in peacetime,
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and they were employed in the creation of maps.
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And such applications continue to this day,
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with balloons assisting in increasing our knowledge and understanding of the world we live in.
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Unmanned balloons are still widely used to collect data to inform scientific research of various kinds.
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You'd be surprised at how much they contribute.
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All sorts of instruments can be mounted in a balloon,
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and ongoing investigations into climate benefit from the information that can be gathered from a flight.
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Well, that's gas balloons.
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Now, the increase in the popularity of ballooning as a sport
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or leisure activity has been mainly due to the development of the modern hot air balloon,
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being cheaper and safer than the gas balloon.
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Heating air, rather than using potentially explosive gas,
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is what makes these rise,
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although the process doesn't generate as much lift as with gas balloons.
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But this is a small price to pay for its other benefits,
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and this type of balloon is no doubt here to stay.
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Airships are also fairly old in their origins.
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The idea for a balloon that could be powered and steered was first published in France in 1784,
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although 1852 was the date of the first successful airship flight.
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The first airships, like the first aircraft,
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didn't provide any weather protection for their crew,
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so it must have been rather uncomfortable up there.
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But designs continued to develop in sophistication.
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It was realised that the ships would drift about if they weren't strengthened and that to work effectively,
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they would have to have a framework.
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Once design started incorporating this,
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flights became longer and more reliable.
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Airships were deployed for various uses in the First World War,
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and once peace returned, designers began to turn their attention to ambitious plans for regular intercontinental flights.
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However, in the 1930s, this program more or less came to an end.
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For one thing, the speed and popularity of airliners meant that the airship appeared superseded.
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They just couldn't compete.
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And as if that weren't enough in itself,
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another factor in the decline of the airship was an alarming number of crashes.
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And this, of course, put people off.
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Nevertheless, several countries have continued to build smaller airships for various uses,
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such as naval observation or publicity purposes.
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In fact, their popularity seems set for a slight revival,
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and in the past few years,
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there has been renewed attention paid to the possibility of using them to transport cargo.
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Who knows?
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Maybe the 21st century will be the age of the airship.
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Now, if you look at your handouts,
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you'll see that I've included some information...
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you'll practice your listening skills through a dialogue between a customer and a travel agent. The conversation revolves around booking a holiday, which is a common task during travel planning. By engaging with this content, you will not only enhance your listening comprehension but also learn how to express your travel preferences and understand the necessary vocabulary used in the context of booking trips. This is essential for anyone looking to travel or enhance their IELTS speaking practice, particularly in scenarios involving customer interaction.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Holiday - A vacation or a time spent away from home for leisure.
- Travel agent - A person or business that arranges travel plans for clients.
- Insurance - A protection plan that covers unforeseen events during travel.
- Prices - The amount of money required for services or products.
- Particular holiday - A specific vacation or travel option.
- Booking form - A document used to reserve a service, like a holiday.
- Dates - The days when the travel is scheduled to begin and end.
- Length of stay - The duration of time spent on vacation.
Practice Tips
To effectively enhance your listening comprehension and speaking skills using this transcript, try the practice method known as shadowspeak. This technique involves listening to the audio multiple times, ideally using a shadowspeaks app to repeat phrases in real-time. Start by listening to the dialogue at a slower speed, focusing on pronunciation and intonation. Once you feel confident, switch to normal speed to challenge yourself further. Remember to pay attention to the tone and emotion in the speaker's voice, as this can reflect important nuances in communication.
Consider shadowing the conversation by mimicking the speakers' punctuation and pauses. For instance, when the travel agent says, “May I take your name please?”, pause briefly before you respond, just as in a real conversation. This will help you develop a more natural speaking rhythm that is crucial for your IELTS speaking practice. Also, practice saying key phrases out loud, such as, “I like the look of…” or “We thought the middle one would be great.” This repetition not only aids in retention but also boosts your confidence when using these phrases in real-life situations.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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