Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
… and the next part of this talk is on the Panama Canal. It's amazing how this one small section of a small country can be so important to the world. Let's learn a little bit about the canal itself, before we look at how it connects to everything else.
The Panama Canal is an artificial waterway in the Central American country of Panama that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. It is only 82 kilometres long. If you go around South America by ship then you need to travel another 15,000 kilometres. So the canal saves a lot of travel time. It takes around 8 to 10 hours to cross the canal.
The French started building the canal in 1881, but they couldn't finish it. The project was started again in 1904 by the United States and the canal was finally finished in 1914. Many people died while they were building the canal, some say up to 25,000. For the rest of the 20th century, the United States controlled the canal, but gave control back to Panama in 2000.
Every year, around 40,000 ships come through the canal. These are mostly commercial ships. They transport goods for trade between Asia and America, or Europe. In 2016 the government of Panama made the canal bigger, so that now 99 per cent of ships can pass through it.
Let's now turn to the role of the Panama Canal in the global economy …
I love numbers because I am scientific
Hello my name is angel, I'm from Indonesia and i'm an education English student
Are you good with numbers?
Hello browwnie,
Often the problem is recognising the different ways in which a particular point or topic may be described. For example, one of the points in Task 1 is How many ships cross the canal. To answer this you need to listen not for the word cross but rather a synonym come through. If you recognise that come through means the same as cross here then you should be able to do the task. My tip, then is before you listen to think about synonyms and alternative ways to say the things you are listening for.
Also, remember that if you get one item wrong (say, putting the fourth item first) it may mean that the others are all wrong even though they are in the correct order. Sometimes the answers are wrong but not as bad as they look!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Memorizing numbers are a good manner to activate memory.
Are you good with numbers?
No I'm not at numbers. Especially with another language like Arabic and English its so confusing for me. And ı hate math .
No, I'm not good with numbers, I have problem with memorize the numbers.
I'm no bad, but it isn't my best.
Are you good with numbers?
I am just normal with numbers, but I am not scared about math, I can calculate fast math like add, minus, times, and divide in business but I am not good at geometry. I felt I could work with the number because I was patient with it.
Yes, I am good at numbers while listening it is difficult for me to understand it. I am now trying to listen more to numbers by practicing listening tasks and will be able to increase my listening skills.