海培之声～Voice of Haipei (15)

　   Hi Everyone,

　　Welcome to Voice of Haipei!

　　Here comes the 15th reading from “Voice of Haipei”. In this series our English teachers will read to you a selection of the following material: an excerpt or the full text of a piece of well-recognized writing (literary or academic), a response to an IELTS, TOEFL, or SAT question (to give you an example of a high-scoring answer), or an original piece of the teacher's own production. We hope that by listening, your interest in reading further or finding other pieces by the same author will be spurred and that your teachers will play a part in this. Remember, especially for our younger learners, lending an eager ear to the input and reading critically and analytically are effective ways to improve your communicative abilities. You will thus be enriched, empowered, and enlightened.

　　This 15th reading is done by Ben in response to five related Part Three IELTS questions on the topics of computer technology, letter writing, calls vs. messages, and shopping. Ben recorded these with limited thinking time to give an idea of an expected authentic response, in this case an authentic response from a native-speaker educator. Even for him it is stressful and difficult so don't be deterred if you find these types of test questions difficult. Just remember that by listening to examples like this (paying attention to pronunciation, word stress and intonation) and then recording your own attempts (listening critically to your own grammar, pronunciation, word stress and intonation) you can improve your IELTS score and your ability to speak with native-level English.

　　Also, this 15th reading comes at a time when the whole world is still doing what they can to fight against mankind’s common enemy – the Covid-19. Let us have faith in human wisdom and compassion – with our concerted efforts, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel and let us work together to bring the world a brighter future!

　　Enjoy SISUHaipei — a cradle of knowledge!

　　May SISUHaipei become a wonderful station in the course of your life journey!Happy listening!

　　Ben has been teaching English for over ten years in the UK, South Korea and China. He is also a yet-to-be-published author, currently working on his third novel.

　　Questions：

　　1.Why do some people still write letters on paper?

　　2.How have computers made life easier?

　　3.Do you think computers have made us smarter or dumber?

　　4.Do you like shopping?

　　5.Do you prefer talking on the phone or sending messages?