💿English Today
This exciting program is designed to help you improve your English skills in a fun and engaging way. In our classes, we watch short videos that cover everyday topics, and then we practice by repeating what we hear. This method helps you build confidence in speaking and understanding English, just like a native! Get ready to immerse yourself in real-life conversations and enhance your language abilities with 'English Today'!
Family 1
English File
Conversations
Comperhension
1. A guide warned us that we would have to climb 937 steps to reach the top of the ancient tower. At first, we started counting the steps ourselves, but we soon lost our patience. We occasionally passed small windows cut into the wall. As this gave a aligned, we felt as if we were going round and round a dark tunnel. It was good to get out into the fresh air at last. From the top, there was an excellent view of the grounds of the castle and of the surrounding countryside. In the distance, we could just see the remains of an ancient wall. Beyond this, we saw a park in which deer were wandering freely. Immediately below us, there was a big ditch with a bridge across it. The bridge was full of people, not enemy soldiers, but peaceful tourists like ourselves who had come to visit the castle and its famous tower.
2. After returning to the surface, the diver told the captain that he had at last found a metal safe in the sunken ship. But he said that it would be impossible to cut it open under the water. The captain decided that the best thing to do would be to blow the safe up. The diver went down again with several explosives, which he fitted to the doors of the safe, and then he came up immediately. After a few minutes, the explosives were set off, electricity sending up a shower of water. When the water settled again, the diver descended for a third time to examine the contents of the safe. The explosion had torn away the door. In the lamplight, he caught a sight of shining metal. Closer examination showed that there were neat piles of gold bars inside the safe. Very excited now, the diver took one of the bars and returned once more to the waiting ship above.
3. The train I was travelling on was already half an hour late. I had arranged to arrive in Vienna at 7:15 in time to catch the 7:25 train to Paris, but there was no hope of that now. I explained the situation to the ticket collector, who advised me to get off two stops before Vienna Central Station and take a taxi. When the time came, he even helped me with my luggage. He wished me good luck as I jumped off, and a few minutes later I was racing towards the centre of the city in a taxi. It was almost 7:25 when we stopped outside the station. I paid the driver quickly, seized my bags and hurried inside. Paris train was all I had time to say to the first official I saw. You can imagine my disappointment when he pointed to a train that was just moving out of the station at great speed.
4. My friend Jones is not a very practical person. Driving along a main road one dark night, he suddenly had a flat tire. Even worse, he discovered that he did not have a spare wheel in the back of his car. Jones waved to passing cars and lorries, but not one of them stopped. Half an hour passed, and he was almost in despair. At last he waved to a car just like his own. To his surprise, the car actually stopped and a lot of young women got out. Jones was terribly disappointed. How could a person like this possibly help him? The lady, however, offered him her own spare wheel, but Jones had to explain that he had never changed a wheel in his life. She set to work at once and fitted the wheel in a few minutes while Jones looked on in admiration.
5. Last year we visited a large modern factory where they make window glass. We first saw workmen mixing sand and other materials together in the right amounts. Then they added some broken glass to the mixture as this helps it to melt. They then fed the mixture into a big hot oven. At the far end of the oven, a stream of liquid glass came out. Here some men lowered a metal frame into the liquid. As the frame came up, it pulled away a hot sheet of glass. Special rollers took hold of the sheet at either side and carried it upwards. Our guide told us that at this stage it was necessary for the glass to cool slowly, as this would make it very strong. At a height of three feet, the sheet of glass became cool and another machine cut it into big pieces, which workmen stored away together. The glass was now ready for use.
