听播客学英语 171 如何活到100

Recently, Mr Buster Martin had a birthday. He went to work as normal, and his colleagues at work organised a party for him. There was a birthday cake, and candles, and everyone sang Happy Birthday to you. It was a special occasion. Buster Martin was

听播客学英语 179 堤坝

Todays podcast is about the word run. You know what run means. If you are late, you have to run to catch the train. In a football game, the players run after the ball. But we can use run in lots of other ways as well. As we shall see. Last week, I vi

听播客学英语 178 夜间邮件

The English poet Wystan Hugh Auden was born 100 years ago this week. He wrote over 400 poems, and he was always known by his initials W H Auden. When he was young, he was a radical, both in his politics and his poetry. But like many of us he became m

听播客学英语 177 家庭

This podcast is about families, and the names which we give in English to the relationships between family members names like mother, grandparent, cousin and uncle. You will probably find it helpful to look at a diagram while you listen. I have uploa

听播客学英语 176 房子里的大象

Today we will discover three English expressions or idioms. All of them use the names of animals big animals. The first animal that we meet is a bull. Imagine a bull standing in a shop. The shop sells china plates, cups, saucers, bowls, tea-pots. The

听播客学英语 175 去中学

In England, children normally start school when they are about five. They go to a primary school until they are 10 years old. Then they move to secondary school. This is big change for children. Secondary schools are much bigger than primary schools.

听播客学英语 174 上议院

I have some political stuff for you in todays podcast. In Britain, we have a Parliament. Parliament makes new laws and oversees the government of the country. There are two chambers, or Houses of Parliament the House of Commons and the House of Lords

听播客学英语 173 彼得兔

Todays podcast is about a woman called Beatrix Potter. She was born in London in 1866, and grew up there. But her family used to go to the Lake District in north-west England for holidays, and she came to love the Lake District and to know it well. A

听播客学英语 172 骗局

Todays podcast introduces the English word scam. What is a scam? Imagine this situation. I set up a website. The website says that you can buy new digital cameras really cheaply. You are interested. You think you would like to buy one of my cheap cam

听播客学英语 170 与朱丽叶“的一天

Juliet is seven years old. Her mother has just had a new baby, so it is arranged that Juliet can stay with Kevin and Joanne for a few days, so that her Mum can rest. Joanne told Kevin that Juliet was coming to stay, but Kevin was watching a football

听播客学英语 169 凝望大海...

Do you know what to gaze at something means? It means to look at something for a long time. And normally the thing that you are gazing at is a long way away. So we might say, for example, that I gaze at the distant hills, or I gaze at the horizon. An

听播客学英语 168 跑遍世界

Robert Garside is 40 years old and he has run all the way round the world. He started in New Delhi in India in 1997, and finished his epic journey four years later. In the course of his run, he crossed 29 countries in 6 continents. He covered 35,000

听播客学英语 167 愚人节

Today is the first of April. The first of April is traditionally called All Fools Day, or April Fools Day. It is a day for mischief, or playing tricks on people; and for getting people to believe things which are not true. Today is the 50th Anniversa

听播客学英语 166 春天

is April, and the spring has arrived, even here in Birmingham. When we talk about the spring, what sort of things can we say? What words and expressions do we use? Here are some examples: In spring, the days grow longer. We put our clocks forward by

听播客学英语 165 耻辱

Welcome back. I hope you all had a good Easter break. Today I want to tell you about the English expression in disgrace. The best way to explain is to give you some examples. Example one. A little girl wants to make some new clothes for her doll. She

听播客学英语 180 Getting on

Todays podcast is about the expression getting on. What does it mean? Well, if I ask someone How are you getting on? I mean How much progress have you made?. It is easiest to explain with some examples. Example number one. I ask my children, How are

听播客学英语 181 英格兰游人最少的地方

In the county of Norfolk, in Eastern England, during the Middle Ages, people used to cut peat from the ground. They dried the peat in the sun, and used it as a fuel for fires. Over time, the places where people had cut the peat filled with water, to

听播客学英语 182 玛丽有只小羊羔

Reading poetry for children can often help you to learn a foreign language. Why? Because poetry written for children is simple, and uses words and language which are close to the ordinary spoken language. And generally these poems are short, and make

听播客学英语 183 大灰狼

The Russian composer Sergei Prokoviev once wrote a musical story called Peter and the Wolf. The different instruments of the orchestra represent the different characters in the story Peter, the cat, the bird, Peters grandfather and so on. Here is par

听播客学英语 184 英格兰最后的女巫

Do you know what a witch is? A witch is a woman who has magical powers (or, at least, other people think she has magical powers). In England, in the 17th century, witches were often treated very cruelly. Practising witchcraft was against the law. Man