(Reading Practice (Improve your pronunciation in English

[Music] foreign practice makes perfect listen and practice hi my name's Camila Torres and I'm from the United States this is a photo of my family our house is in Miami this is my brother his name is Ricardo and he's 14. he's in Middle School this is my mother her name's Anna Sophia she's 45 and she's a Spanish teacher and this is my father Antonio he's 51 and he's a businessman listen and practice hi everyone I'm Jerry and I'd like to talk to you about a problem I had I used to be a workaholic but don't worry I'm okay now I had my own business and I did well in fact I was swamped with work whenever anyone asked me to go to the movies or out to dinner I always asked for a rain check I always stayed in my office late because I kept saying well I'll get one more thing over with and I never took a day off it didn't make a difference if I was sick I still went to work and I have to be honest every day when I woke up I really looked forward to going to the office then one day my family told me that I needed help I asked them what they had in mind a psychiatrist and they told me that I needed to talk to somebody not necessarily a psychiatrist because I didn't have a healthy life wow was I surprised to hear this I thought about what they said and kept going back and forth about getting some help then my son talked me into making an appointment well I was lucky to get really good advice now I'm through with being a workaholic I still work but I spend more time with my family and friends after all they are the most important people in my life listen and practice healthy eating most of us would like to live a long and healthy life increasingly doctors are telling us that in order to do so we must eat a healthy diet too often we ignore the advice in most countries of the developed World there is no shortage of food but their inhabitants could be suffering from a form of malnutrition this is something that we are accustomed to associate with poor countries which regularly suffer from famine caused by primitive agricultural methods and overpopulation the problem in the developed countries is that all too many of us are eating food Which is far from being nutritious and which is lacking in many of the vitamins essential to health because of our busy way of life we rely too much on convenience Foods not taking the time to prepare a nourishing meal for ourselves instead we grab something from the supermarket shelves or freezer and put it in the microwave even when we decide to eat in a restaurant many of us decide that we have very little time and that our food must be served instantly it is for this reason that there are in many countries so many restaurants that specialize in serving fast food unfortunately much of this food is also junk food and even more unfortunately many children have become addicted to this refusing to eat healthier alternatives in general we are eating too much processed food and not enough Whole Food ideally we should eat more cereal products in order to increase our intake of fiber since there is some evidence that this reduces the risk of certain cancers antioxidants too are thought to have some effect in preventing cancer and these are found in significant quantities in fruit and vegetables formerly it was considered important to eat plenty of eggs and dairy products to remain healthy such foods are now known to be high in cholesterol which can be a contributory factor in heart disease fashions in healthy eating may have changed but the message Remains the Same watch what you eat listen and practice on the moon on the moon there's dust and Rock there are tall mountains and big holes called craters there's black space all around and no Blue Sky there's no weather because there's no sky it's hot in the day and it's cold at night astronauts can go to the Moon this astronaut is on the moon how amazing he has a spacesuit and he breathes air from a tank Footprints are on the moon for a million years there's no wind to blow them away listen and practice mountains mountains are high places on Earth Earth has a crust Earth's crust moves very very slowly it can move up and make mountains mountains are very high Mount Everest is about 8 850 meters high mountains are very old too some mountains are millions of years old volcanoes are mountains a volcano is a hole in Earth's crust under Earth's crust there's hot rock The Hot Rock comes out of the volcano volcanoes can be dangerous listen and practice where fruit grows all around the world there are different types of fruit some fruit is big and some fruit is little bananas apples and oranges are types of fruit do you like to eat fruit what is your favorite fruit grows on plants trees are a type of plant some types of fruit grow on Big Trees apples oranges peaches and mangoes grow on Big Trees some mango trees are very tall some types of fruit grow on little plants some fruit plants grow on the ground strawberry plants grow on the ground listen and practice living in the mountains can be difficult for people high in the mountains there aren't any big roads some people don't have a car they use animals for transportation high in the mountains some people don't have electricity people use rocks from the mountains to make their homes in the mountains people grow food near their homes some people make Terraces and they grow food there on some Terraces there's lots of water people grow rice in the water listen and practice different fruit there are many different types of fruit can be green red orange yellow white purple blue or black fruit can be long or short oval or round different types of fruit grow in different places bananas and mangoes grow in hot rainy places lemons and oranges grow in hot places apples and strawberries grow in cool places what fruit grows where you live listen and practice fruit is good for you fruit is good for your heart eyes and skin fruit is good for your body it can stop you getting sick fruit helps you to walk run play Learn and Grow you can eat fruit when you are hungry you can eat fruit when you are thirsty too fruit has water inside it stops you being thirsty it's good to eat two or three different types of fruit every day listen and practice summer Sports in summer some people climb mountains climbers have a helmet and a rope climbing is a difficult sport climbers have strong arms and legs climbers find good rocks for their hands and feet mountain biking is a summer sport mountain bikes have big strong Wheels the wheels are good on rocks rafting is a great summer sport rafting people have a helmet and a life jacket rafts are very strong they can go over rocks in the water thank you listen and practice food and drink we use soft fruit to make jam we use fruit to make cakes and cookies too olives and tomatoes are types of fruit we use tomatoes to make pizza we press olives to make olive oil we use olive oil to cook food we press some fruit to make fruit juice do you like to drink orange apple or pineapple juice we mix some fruit with milk or ice cream to make milkshakes listen and practice sometimes my mother gives me advice she tells me to save my money for a rainy day she says that I should eat my vegetables if I want to be strong when I grow up She says that you reap what you sow I didn't know what that one meant so I asked her she said that if you are good to people they will be good to you if you do bad things then bad things will come back to you my mother is always giving me advice she says that a penny saved is a penny earned I am still thinking about that one some of these things are difficult to understand my mother is very wise she says that she has learned from her mistakes she tells me that she would like me not to make mistakes but she says that everyone does make mistakes the important thing is that we learn from our mistakes my mother says that nobody is perfect my mother tells my sister that time is precious my sister wastes time and my mother doesn't like that my mother tells me to be true to myself she says that I should not follow the crowd I should listen to my own conscience and do what I think is right she says that it doesn't matter if you fail at something the important thing is that you try if you've done your best then that is all that matters I listen to my mother I think she gives very good advice my mother has a lot of common sense I hope I am as wise as she is when I have children of my own sometimes I wish that she would not give me so much advice I think that I know what I'm doing but in the end I always remember what she has said and I try to live by the standards that she has set for me take the advice that your parents give you they only have your best interests at heart listen and practice winter sports can you ski lots of children go skiing in the mountains in winter they go with their family or with their school snowboarding is a winter sport too snowboarding is difficult snowboarders fall in the snow a lot good snowboarders can do amazing tricks do you like walking in the mountains you can walk in snowshoes snowshoes are big so you can walk on the snow sledding is a great sport you can go very fast on a sled listen and practice water in the desert deserts are very dry places but all deserts have some water an oasis is a place where water from under the ground makes a lake or pond some oases are small but some are very big The siwa Oasis in Egypt is 80 kilometers long and 20 kilometers across about 23 000 people live here some deserts have Rivers the Nile River travels through the Sahara Desert many people live near this River they can catch fish and use the water for farming foreign s there are big rainstorms then there's no more rain for a long time so it's very important to collect rainwater in the tar desert people collect water in ponds Wells and big tanks people in some cold deserts use Nets to collect the water from fog each net can catch about 14 liters of water every day listen and practice trees are all around us in forests Gardens and Parks there are many different trees and they give us many things what is a tree a tree is a tall plant it has leaves branches a trunk and roots a tree makes its food with light from the sun it grows tall so it can get lots of light A Tree Grows every day look at this old tree trunk how old is it count the Rings every ring is one year listen and practice trees are good for us we use oxygen in the air to live too much carbon dioxide in the air is bad for us trees clean the air they take carbon dioxide out of the air and they put oxygen into the air trees protect us from the rain and the light from the sun trees are good for the ground too The Roots make the ground strong the ground around trees isn't dry so other plants can grow listen and practice fun at the beach you can do many things at the beach you can kite Surf and the wind moves you on the ocean you can snorkel too then you can see amazing fish in the water the ocean is big and strong don't go away from the people you know look for Flags they tell you where and when you can swim have fun at the beach but remember the ocean plants and animals keep the beach clean for plants animals and other people listen and practice desertification deserts are getting bigger every year the land around many deserts gets dry and changes into new desert this is called desertification the land can get too dry when there's no rain for a long time sometimes people also make the land dry when there are too many farms in one place animals eat all the plants and the soil blows away then new plants can't grow and there isn't food for everyone listen and practice desertification is a big problem in countries in Africa near the Sahara Desert in 50 years these countries have lost 650 000 square kilometers of land that's about the same size as France millions of people here are hungry because they can't grow food in the desert how can people help to stop desertification in many countries people are growing more trees trees stop the soil blowing away in China people are using a wall of trees to stop desertification near the Gobi Desert the wall is 4 000 kilometers long listen and practice plants and people plants give us food and oxygen but we need plants for lots of other things too our clothes books and many other things come from plants lots of our doors chairs and tables are made of wood are erasers and bicycle tires are made of rubber wood and rubber come from trees we need plants to keep us healthy too lots of the medicines that we use come from plants listen and practice jobs at night you sleep at night but some people do jobs at night many doctors and nurses work at night some stores and factories are open all night so people have to work there in the day people buy lots of food from stores at night store workers put more food in the stores cities are busy at night people go out to meet friends or to see a movie when they go home they can take a taxi taxi drivers are busy at night listen and practice my father used to smoke he got very ill the doctor told him that he had to quit smoking my father tried for a long time to quit it was very difficult for him smoking is an addiction after many months my father finally gave up smoking but he still craved a cigarette once in a while he says that quitting smoking is the hardest thing that he has ever done when my father did smoke he smoked everywhere he smoked in restaurants stores and many public buildings now you are not allowed to smoke in a lot of public places when my father smoked the rules were not so strict people could smoke just about anywhere it really wasn't fair to the people who didn't smoke their clothes always smelled like smoke and they breathed in second-hand smoke some people think that the secondhand smoke is actually worse for you than if you smoke yourself people would smoke in their houses and very young children would inhale the smoke that was in the air some people still smoke in their houses and their children breathe in the smoke some restaurants have areas for smokers and non-smokers but usually the smoke drifts from one area to the other there are some businesses that have banned smoking altogether personally I think that smoking in public places should be completely banned I don't think that I should have to breathe in another person's smoke if I choose not to smoke myself it wouldn't be fair for a non-smoker to get lung cancer because they had to be in a place where smokers were allowed to light up I know that smoking is a powerful addiction and that it is very difficult to quit but smokers should restrict their smoking to places where there is nobody else around lung cancer is an awful disease nobody should have to suffer with lung cancer people should be educated about the dangers of smoking smoking should be banned in public places but eventually I would like to believe that fewer people will smoke it would be nice to live in a smoke-free environment listen and practice water activities we use a lot of water outside the home we need water for the food we eat meat comes from animals and animals drink water fruits and vegetables also need water to grow we need water to travel we can travel by ship and by boat we can also make Power with water hydroelectricity is electricity made from water we have fun with water we like to go to the beach in the summer we also like to visit rivers and lakes lots of sports need water sailing surfing swimming water skiing and Diving all use water which water sports do you like listen and practice energy is incredible because we use it for everything that we do energy can make things work make things move and make things happen people use energy to work and to play when people do things like cook food listen to music and use a lamp they are using heat energy sound energy and light energy energy is everywhere and energy is in everything we can't make energy and we can't destroy it when we use energy to make something happen we don't lose it it becomes a different type of energy listen and practice tourists it's fun to be a tourist in a city there are lots of things to do you can go to a park a museum or a zoo you can ride on a bus and listen to a guide it's good to walk around a city too you can take photos of the streets and buildings in some cities there are lakes you can swim there and have fun in udaipur in India there's a big lake you can ride in a boat on the lake in Hanoi in Vietnam you can ride in a rickshaw and see the city listen and practice light when something is Luminous it gives off light lamps candles fires televisions and the sun are luminous light energy travels from luminous things in straight lines light can move through transparent things like air water and windows it can't move through opaque things like walls trees or people Shadows happen when something opaque stops light moving through it Shadows happen on the other side of an opaque thing where light can't reach for example when we stand outside on a sunny day we block the sunlight and we make a Shadow some transparent materials can make a thin Shadow because they stop some light listen and practice bicycles the first bicycles were made of wood then after 1850 they were made of metal early bicycles called high wheel bicycles were uncomfortable because they had no tires the front wheel was very big and there were no gears or brakes cyclists often crashed modern bicycles are safer because they have brakes and their wheels are both the same size they also have rubber tires so they are comfortable people cycle to work or school and for fun and Sport bicycles are good because they don't produce pollution listen and practice fruit and animals many animals eat fruit Birds monkeys and mice eat fruit they eat it in the trees and on the ground many animals eat little fruit seeds animals don't eat very big fruit seeds some animals carry fruit to a new place then they eat it they drop fruit seeds on the ground new plants grow from the seeds it's good for plants to grow in a new place listen and practice what job do you want to do do you like singing or dancing do you play music or do you play soccer you can do these things at school or in your free time some people do these things for a job that's how they make money these soccer players are working these musicians are working they are playing instruments people pay money to watch the musicians these people are making a movie the actors act in the movie the camera operator uses the camera the director tells them what to do there are so many jobs listen and practice many big cities are by an ocean they have a harbor for ships ships bring materials for new buildings ships bring tourists to there's a big Harbor in Sydney in Australia there are nice apartments and restaurants by the harbor Sydney is a big city but it has lots of parks and trees ships can come to a city by river too many cities are on big Rivers in these cities you can find great Bridges there are bridges for people cars and trains listen and practice it's great to walk in a city but you can't walk everywhere many people in cities use transportation lots of people come to cities by car so there are traffic jams cars make pollution cars are not a good type of Transportation in big cities trams are a good type of Transportation they run on tracks and they don't make pollution lots of cities have underground trains underground trains are fast thousands of people use them every day some underground stations are very deep listen and practice what my cat did one day I was sitting in a chair drinking a cup of tea my cat came into the room and sat on my lap she was quite content and she sat there purring my cat likes to drink water and sometimes she drinks milk I would never give her tea to drink cats just don't drink tea we were sitting there quietly when suddenly my cat stood up she was looking at something on the floor She crouched down low and got ready to pounce I saw what she was looking at it was a huge centipede I think that centipedes are ugly they have many legs and they move very fast I would hate to have one crawl over me my cat jumped to the floor and she ran over to the centipede she was incredibly fast I was surprised that she caught the centipede she put her paw on it and then she reached down and ate the centipede the centipede must not have tasted very good my cat got a funny look on her face and she looked like she was trying to get a bad taste out of her mouth I was thinking that I would be sick if I ate a centipede my cat looked at me and jumped back up in my chair she stuck her face in my teacup and took a big drink of tea I was shocked I had never seen a cat drink tea before I think that the centipede must have tasted so bad that my cat just needed something to wash the taste out of her mouth guess what I didn't finish my tea I threw it out and washed out the cup my cat has never had a drink of tea since that day she has also never eaten another centipede if a centipede walks by she just pretends that she doesn't see it listen and practice the gasoline in our cars comes from plants and very small animals that lived 300 or 400 million years ago very slowly mud and rocks covered them and they changed into oil gasoline is made from this oil today people are also using plants to make other fuels like ethanol and biodiesel we can make plastic from plants sometimes there is plant plastic in our cell phones computers or even our socks listen and practice plant parts a flowering plant has four main parts leaves stems roots and flowers The Roots hold the plant in the soil they take water and minerals from the soil the leaves make food for the plant the stems take water from the roots to the leaves they also take food from the leaves to other parts of the plant the stems support the plant too the flowers make seeds and new plants grow from these seeds listen and practice animals grow and change during their life to produce young some animals have babies and others lay eggs these young animals then grow up and produce young too this journey from being born to producing young is called a life cycle animal life cycles are amazing there are millions of different species of animal in the world some animals like the blue whale are very big others are so small that we almost can't see them these animals all have very different life cycles listen and practice mammals mammals are the only animals that give birth to their young they don't lay eggs like fish amphibians reptiles or birds do mammal mothers are special because they produce milk for their babies to drink today we can find many different types of mammal some live on land like horses camels and monkeys others live in the ocean like whales and dolphins bats are special because they are the only mammals that can fly did you know that you are a mammal too listen and practice hot places a lot of hot places on Earth are near the equator near the equator the light from the sun is strong it's often hot in summer and in winter there are many hot deserts near the equator Monument Valley is in a desert in the USA it's very hot and sunny there are weeks and months with no rain in some very hot places in summer there's no water in the rivers plants and fish can't live there listen and practice snow Sports in Nunavut in the north of Canada winter is from September to June so there's a lot of time for snow Sports skiing and tobogganing are very popular dog sledding is another exciting snow sport the driver sits in the sled and the dogs pull it over the snow every year there is a big dog sled race in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates the summer is very hot it's even warm in winter but it's still a good place for snow Sports Dubai has the biggest snow dome in the world people come here for skiing snowboarding and tobogganing it's very very cold in the snow dome but it's much hotter outside the snow Dome is in the desert listen and practice sound and light are types of energy that travel in the air we use sound energy to hear to listen to music and to communicate by telephone we use light energy from the Sun to see during the day and light from lamps to see when it's dark sound happens when something vibrates when we hit a drum it vibrates and this makes the air around the drum vibrate too the vibrations of sound travel through the air in all directions these movements are called sound waves sound waves are invisible we can't see them we hear the sound of the drum when the sound waves reach our ears listen and practice radio waves sounds lose energy and get weaker when they move that's why we can only hear people speaking if they are near us to send sounds from one place to another sound waves are converted into radio waves radio waves are a type of energy that can travel a long distance through the air like sound waves radio waves are invisible when you use a cell phone the phone converts sound waves into radio waves it sends the radio waves to a cell tower near you cell tower sends them to a base station that sends them on to a cell tower near the person you're calling their cell phone converts the radio waves back into sound waves so that they can hear you listen and practice lasers a laser is a type of light that we get from machines it's a very thin beam of light that has a lot of light energy and heat energy lasers have more energy than sunlight we use lasers in many machines like CD players and DVD players lasers have so much energy that some factories use them to cut through metal and doctors use lasers to operate on some parts of the body like eyes enclosed factories people use lasers to cut through hundreds of pieces of fabric at the same time listen and practice superstitions I am not superstitious are you yesterday was Friday the 13th some people think that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day I think that it is just like any other day some people believe that if a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck I don't believe that either my mother always gets upset if I open an umbrella in the house she says that is bad luck she is probably right about that one because an open umbrella would take up a lot of space and you might knock things over if your left hand is itchy you are supposed to get money I have had an itchy left hand before but I haven't received any money because of it it is bad luck to walk under a ladder that is probably true because you might knock somebody off the ladder or have a can of paint fall on top of you if you are acting in a play it is bad luck if someone says good luck to you this is very confusing you are supposed to tell an actor to break a leg it doesn't mean that you want the actor to break his leg it means good luck to the actor actors have a lot of superstitions that are very unusual I am not superstitious I don't believe in superstitions at all it is just fun to learn about superstitions some of them are very old and have been passed down from generation to generation I once did a project at school on superstitions it was a very interesting topic and I got a good Mark for it listen and practice thank you fall is a season of festivals all around the world it's the season of the Harvest Farmers cut the crops and pick the fruit after the Harvest people want to say thank you for the good things in the world in South Korea there's a big festival called chusock in September or October families eat traditional food like rice cakes sometimes people also dance in the USA the Festival of Thanksgiving is in November in Canada it's in October people have dinner with their family they eat turkey and pumpkin pie in Europe there are lots of festivals after the Harvest in Poland girls wear crowns made of flowers they dance and sing songs in Italy people wear traditional costumes and they dance with wreaths the wreaths are made of wheat listen and practice at the game basketball is the most popular team sport in the USA many students are in school or college teams lots of other people play the game in their free time on courts or in their Gardens basketball is a fast game it's fun to play and it's fun to watch people like to support their friends or family at the games they also watch their favorite team on television basketball is very popular in China about 300 million people play it and 450 million people watch it on television listen and practice scouting scouting started in the United Kingdom in 1907. the first Scouts were boys from 11 to 18 years old they went camping and walking in their free time they learned how to read maps and make fires today scouting isn't only for boys anyone from 6 to 25 years old can be a scout Scouts still go camping and walking but there are lots of other exciting activities Scouts can do land activities like climbing and skateboarding and water activities like sailing kayaking and snorkeling sometimes they can even do air activities like paragliding Scouts have fun but they also work together to help other people and the countryside do you have Scouts in your country listen and practice Greg is a waiter and Sophia is a teacher's assistant in an elementary school Sophia gets up at 7 30 a.

m and takes a shower she has breakfast at eight and then she walks to school she starts work at 8 40. Greg gets up at 11 and takes a shower he doesn't have breakfast because he has lunch at 12. he leaves home at 5 30 and goes to work by bus he starts work at six Sophia finishes work at 3 45 and walks home Sophia and Greg have a very early dinner at five they cook and they chat until Greg leaves for work Sophia relaxes at home until about 7 30.

then she goes to Greg's restaurant for an hour she goes home at about nine watches TV until 10 30 then she goes to bed Greg arrives home at about 1 30 in the morning he has a glass of milk and goes to bed at two listen and practice free time is very important it's good for you to do something different after school or work it's also fun of our favorite free time activities are popular all around the world cycling is a very popular free time activity all around the world in the Netherlands about 85 percent of people go cycling most of the land is flat so it's a good place to cycle it's also very safe there are 17 000 kilometers of cycle paths and most of the time cars have to wait for bicycles listen and practice homes we build different homes in different ways to build an apartment block people make shapes for the floors and columns from long pieces of Steel then people put wood around the shapes and they put a liquid called Concrete in them when the concrete becomes hard like Stone they take the wood away people build walls to make the rooms in each apartment they put wires in the walls to carry electricity and they put pipes in the walls and Floors to carry water they often fix tiles on the floors and on the walls in the bathroom and kitchen they put plaster on the walls then they can paint the walls listen and practice cars to make a car people use a metal called steel to make a strong chassis people also use steel to make big shapes for the outside of the car then robots fix the outside to the chassis a conveyor moves the chassis around the car factory and people fix many parts on the chassis later other machines paint the car then people fix other parts on the car like the engine doors wheels and seats for people to sit on there are about 35 000 Parts in a car around the world people make 48 million cars every year this uses lots of Steel we can recycle steel from old cars and use it again listen and practice do you like noodles or chocolate do you know how people make this food people make noodles from grains like rice or wheat to make rice noodles people grind rice into flour then they mix flour with water to make dough in factories machines push dough through holes to make noodles some people make noodles by hand they pulled the dough between their fingers listen and practice to make chocolate people take seed pods from cacao trees and leave them in the Sun then they throw away the outside and keep the seeds machines grind and heat the seeds and then the seeds become a liquid then people cook this liquid with sugar and sometimes milk they put the liquid in molds to make chocolate bars listen and practice Jade is a soccer player San Antonio is her favorite City she loves it there next October she's in Sydney for a soccer game she's married to a Brazilian they have two daughters and a baby son Thursday is their favorite day listen and practice when I grew up I'm going to be a soccer player a really good one I'm on the school team and I play three times a week but I'm going to train very hard every day so I can be really really good first I'm going to play for a major league soccer team then I'm going to travel all over the world and I'm going to be famous I'm not going to marry until I'm very old about 25. then I want to have two sons I'm going to play soccer until I'm 35. that's a very long time and I'm going to teach my sons to play I want them to be famous soccer players too listen and practice fuels for energy coal oil and gas are fossil fuels we use fossil fuels and nuclear fuels to make electricity we use fossil fuels to heat homes and to power cars buses and trucks fossil fuels are made from plants and animals that lived on earth millions of years ago coal was made like this when giant plants and ancient jungles died they sank into mud slowly over millions of years the mud became hard and changed into rock the heavy Rock pressed down on the plants and heat from inside Earth helped to change the plants into black coal oil and gas were also made like this but they come from animals that lived in ancient oceans listen and practice things from trees apples oranges bananas nuts and lots of other fruit grow on trees we get rubber from trees too we make car tires and many other things with rubber the Trunks and branches of trees give us wood we make toys tables homes and many other things with wood we make paper with wood we use wood to make fires too listen and practice when I retire next year I'm going to retire early I'm not going to stay at home and watch TV I'm going to try lots of new things first I want to go mountain climbing in fact I want to climb Mount Everest so I'm going to train very hard for that I'm going to learn to scuba dive too because I want to go scuba diving in Australia there are so many things I want to do I'm going to travel all over the world then I'm going to write a book about my Adventures I want to call it life begins at 60.