Part I Listening and Reading
I Listen and read along.
ea—peace, leave, breathe, please
—teach, deal, dream, bean, heat
—health, weather, feather, treasure
—break, great
ee—need, speech, queen, cheese
ew—threw, blew, grew, flew
—new, few, dew, view, knew
er—her, serve, deserve, certain
—computer, answer, September, butter
ey—they, grey, obey, prey
—key
—monkey, donkey, money, hockey
II Listen to the sentences and underline the monograms mentioned above.
1. She reached for her coat and car keys.
2. He saw a monkey in the forest last week.
3. The survey claims loan companies prey on weak families already in debt.
4. The dew gathered on the leaves.
5. I asked her if she would allow me to interview her, and she readily agreed.
Listening Skills
Listening for Time
Time is an important factor in learning English listening. Understanding the expressions of time can help the listeners grasp the theme better. There are two ways to express time:
1. Direct way
For example: 7:10 can be read as seven ten; 9:15, nine fifteen; 10:30, ten thirty; 8:40, eight forty. In this way, 15 and 30 can not be replaced with “a quarter” or “half”.There is another case: on the hour. 5:00 can be read as five or five o’clock, five o’clock sharp, five o’clock on the hour, etc.
2. Indirect way
For example: 7:10 can be read as ten past seven; 9:15, fifteen past nine or a quarter past nine; 10:30, thirty past ten or half past ten; 8:40, twenty to nine.In the 12 hour system, “a.m.” and “p.m.” are usually used to express in the morning and afternoon. For example: It’s 6:30 a.m. (It’s six thirty in the morning.) It’s 6:30 p.m. (It’s six thirty in the afternoon.)
Of course, there are some fixed expressions. For example, “at noon” means “at 12:00 a.m.”;“at midnight” means “at 12:00 p.m.”.