This is an English lesson designed to help you practice and improve your English listening and pronunciation skills. The listening lesson is a short story about something that happened in my life in Canada. There is also a short pronunciation explanation about a word or sound I used in the story.

This week’s story is about my trip downtown Toronto to see “Stars on Ice”! The pronunciation explanation is how to pronounce the word ‘figure,’ and how to pronounce adverbs that end in -ally.

If you have trouble with your listening skills, here’s something that may help:
How to practice listening

Listen to the podcast:

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Watch the video:

Listening Comprehension Questions:

1. What did I do on Friday night?

2. Who performed during the show?

3. What medal did Joannie Rochette win at the Vancouver Olympics?

4. Why was Kurt Browning’s routine difficult?

5. Did I have fun?

Transcript

(*Click on the links to learn more about the grammar, vocabulary and expressions used in the story!)

On Friday night I went to see “Stars on Ice” at the Air Canada Centre in the heart of downtown Toronto. Usually, Air Canada Centre is the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors, but on Friday night they were not there. Instead, the rink was alive with some of the best figure skaters that Canada has ever produced! “Stars on Ice” is a figure skating tour that is currently travelling across the country. The performers are all Canadian, including past and present Canadian Champions, World Champions and Olympic Medalists. It was an amazing show!

One of the performers was Joannie Rochette. She won a bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, just days after her mother died of a sudden heart attack. Her grace and courage at such a devastating time in her life inspired the entire country. At “Stars on Ice” she performed a beautiful routine to the Evanescene song ‘My Immortal.’

Four-time World Champion Kurt Browning performed a routine in hockey skates, which is very difficult because hockey skates are not made for jumps and spins and intricate footwork. Kurt Browning is often called the Wayne Gretzky of figure skating, not only for his achievements in figure skating, but because he, too, is a popular and beloved icon in Canada.

I loved to go skating when I was younger. I could never skate backwards, though. It was always so difficult. Yet whenever I watch figure skating live or on TV, they make it look it so easy, like anyone could go out on the ice and do a triple axel. Realistically, I know it’s not easy and that years of hard work and dedication went into making it look so effortless.

I thought the crowd at “Stars on Ice” was really boring. I was expecting a lot more excitement – standing ovations, loud cheers that never ended. I was really surprised the cheering was so short and dull. Other than that, I had a great time. I thought all of the skaters were phenomenal. Canada is a small country in population. There are only 30 million of us, so it’s impressive that Canada has been able to produce so many world-class figure skaters! I always enjoy spending time downtown Toronto, too.

Discussion Questions:

Do you like figure skating? Who’s your favourite skater?

If you don’t like figure skating, what’s your favourite sport? Let me know in the comments below.

Pronunciation:

Part I:
The word figure is two syllables. The first syllable is ‘fig.’ In the second syllable, the e at the end of the word is not pronounced. The syllable begins with a ‘y‘ sound, like the word ‘you,’ and ends with the vowel r sound ‘er.’ The 2nd syllable is pronounced ‘yer,’ and the entire word is pronounced ‘figure.’
figure skating
figure skater

Part II:
In adverbs that end in –ally, like:
realistically
basically
romantically
academically,
the letter ‘a‘ at the end of the word is not pronounced. The last sound in all these words is –ly, not ‘a-ly.’

Listen again and repeat after me:
realistically
basically
romantically
academically

Vocabulary:

the heart of
…in the heart of downtown Toronto
= right in the middle (of something)

the home of
Air Canada Centre is the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors
= where the Maple Leafs and Raptors are usually located

Toronto Maple Leafs
= Toronto’s professional hockey team (part of the NHL)
* The Maple Leaf is the symbol of Canada. It’s a proper noun, so it’s not ‘leaves.’

Toronto Raptors
= Toronto’s professional basketball team (part of the NBA)
= ‘A raptor’ was a type of dinosaur in the movie Jurassic Park.

a triple axel
= a very difficult jump in figure skating; 3 ½ rotations

a standing ovation
= when a crowd stands (on their feet) to applaud at the end of a performance

Related Posts:
Vocabulary Spotlight on: The Olympics
Reading – The Olympic Torch Relay