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This page has the online practice materials for:
LearnEnglish Elementary Podcast Magazine No. 02
Section 4 -Our Person in...
You can listen online or download the podcast at Podcast 02 Home
You can also get print versions of the practice materials below in our Podcast 02 - Support Pack (pdf 400 k)
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This section begins when the counter on your audio player is on (approximately) 08.06
Section 4 is based on 'Our Person in...'. It helps you to listen to other people speaking for a little longer than they speak in a conversation, like a radio or television news report. When people prepare written reports, they are often a little more formal, and use more complex words and structures.
Suggestion: The notes here are to help you to think of things to say, and the best order to say them. Make notes and then join these together to make a paragraph. Why not send it to us?*
You listened to Rachel talking about the tango in Argentina.
Can you think of a special dance that you can tell people about? It could be a dance that’s traditional in your country, or maybe in your city or town. Or it might be a dance that you’ve seen in another place.
Think about these questions:
Where can you see the dance?
When can you see it? Is it only danced on special occasions?
What is the history of the dance? How old is it?
Can you do the dance? When and where did you learn?
Now put your ideas together to write a paragraph about the dance. Go to the bottom of the page to do this.
Transcript
Rachel: I came to live in Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, in 1998. On my first night in this beautiful city I went for a walk in the streets near my new flat. In a small square, close to my home, I heard music. I went to have a look, and for the first time I saw people dancing the tango.
The tango is a dance that Argentina gave to the world – but no-one knows exactly when or where people first danced the tango – or even where the word ‘tango’ comes from.
At the start of the twentieth century the population of Buenos Aires got much bigger as people arrived from all over the world to start a new life in South America. More than a million people came from Africa and from Europe – Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Poland. The tango began around this time. For me, the dance shows both the sadness of these people who had said goodbye to their homes and also the hope of new start in Argentina.
An Argentinian friend told me that you have to learn the tango if you want to understand Argentina. I decided to learn this beautiful dance.
I went to a tango school in the centre of Buenos Aires and joined a class. I was very surprised to find that my teacher was not Argentinian but Scottish. Her name was Claire Flanagan – she came to Buenos Aires 15 years ago – because of her love for tango. “I fell in love with the tango and now I’ve fallen in love with Buenos Aires” she says.
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