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British Council LearnEnglish Central British Council LearnEnglish Central
Listening
How to download files
To download the files, right-click on the title, choose 'Save target as', and select where you want to save the file. If you're a using a Mac, simply double-click on the link and use the on-screen window to select the file's destination.
How to play files on your PC
If you want to listen on your PC, just left click and the file will play in your default player. For Mac users, click the title.
how to read the texts online as you listen
If you want to read the texts online as you listen, first (down)load the audio files and then click on the links below the descriptions on the right. The texts will open in this same window. When you've finished reading and listening, you can do the language activities if you wish. To return to this page, click on 'Back'.
how to read the texts offline as you listen
If you want to print the audio scripts on paper, click the links to 'See/print audio script' on the right. These will open as Word documents in a new window.
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listening downloads
Poems
Develop your English listening and reading skills using our MP3 audio files and audio scripts. You can listen to the files online, or download them onto your PC and put them on your MP3 player, then see if you've understood by reading the scripts. You can also read the poems online as you listen, and then do language activities, or print out the audio scripts and read the poems on paper as you listen.

 Let America Be America Again
This poem, whose title was chosen by John Kerry as the slogan for his 2004 US Presidential campaign, was written by Langston Hughes, particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties.
(Read poem online and do language activities)
(See/print audioscript)

 Mountain fable
In this fable by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement, a squirrel and a mountain have an argument!
(Read poem online and do language activities)
(See/print audioscript)

 The Sick Child
In this sad little poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, a mother spends the night at her sick child's bedside.
(Read poem online and do a language activity)
(See/print audio script)

 the tay bridge disaster
The most famous poem from William Topaz McGonagall, who is renowned as one of the worst poets in the English language!
(Read poem online and do a language activity)
(See/print audio script)

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