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This page has the online practice materials for:
LearnEnglish Elementary Podcast Magazine No. 08
Section 4 -Our Person in...
You can listen online or download the podcast at Podcast 08 Home
You can also get print versions of the practice materials below in our Podcast 08 Support Pack (pdf file - 363 KB)
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This section begins when the counter on your audio player is on (approximately) 09mins.00secs
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 Bill talking about a Christmas tradition in Prague.
Can you say something about Christmas traditions in your country? Or maybe a different celebration that happens in your culture or religion? Or you could write about traditions in another country or place that you’ve visited.
Think about these questions:
• What is the celebration?
• When is it? Does it happen at the same time every year?
• Is it a family celebration?
• What do people do before the celebration? What do they buy?
• What do people do on the day(s) of the celebration?
• What do people do after the celebration?
• What do people eat?
• Is there anything that you think is unusual or interesting about what happens?
Now put your ideas together to write a paragraph about a tradition in your country. Go to the bottom of the page to do this.
Transcript
Bill Steadman is our man in Prague.
Bill: When the huge fish tanks appear outside supermarkets here in Prague you know that it must be almost Christmas. The tanks are full of carp – the fish traditionally eaten at Christmas here in the Czech Republic and in other central European countries.
For my first Christmas in the Czech Republic I found this tradition a little strange. Carp isn’t usually eaten in Britain – it’s a fish that is often full of small bones and the flavour is a little, well, different. But what I found really strange about the Czech habit of eating carp at Christmas is how they do it.
People usually buy the fish from tanks outside supermarkets and take them home– alive – and put them in the bath. Spending a few days in clean bath water cleans the carp and makes it taste better when it is eaten on Christmas Eve. A friend of mine told me that when her son was four years old he asked why they were keeping the carp in the bath. “To clean it” she told him. Later that day my friend went to look at the carp in the bath and saw, to her horror, a bath full of bubbles. Her helpful son had added a generous handful of soap powder to the bath to make sure their carp was lovely and clean. That was one family that didn’t eat carp that year.
All my friends with children tell me that there is one golden rule – never give your carp a name. When Christmas Eve arrives you’ll find it very difficult to explain to your children why their pet has suddenly disappeared.
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