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.

Story: My little cousin’s soccer game!
Pronunciation explanation: linking consonant sounds

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

Listen to the Podcast:
*Try to listen at least once without looking at the words!

Download the podcast in .mp3 from Podbean.com or itunes!

Listening Comprehension Questions:

1. Who’s soccer game did I watch?

2. What position does he play?

3. Why did we tell him we were coming?

4. What is strange about this sports league?

5. Where did we go after the game?

Transcript:

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

Last Thursday, my parents and I went to watch my little cousin’s soccer game. Actually he’s my cousin’s son, but it’s too confusing to say ‘my 1st-cousin-once-removed, so I just say ‘my little cousin.’ He’s only 6 years old, but he loves soccer and he’s already a skilled player!

He gets really nervous when someone other than his parents or grandmother comes to watch his games, so my parents and I didn’t tell him we were coming. We arrived after the game had started so he wouldn’t notice us. My older cousin – my little cousin’s father – is the coach of the team. His voice was so loud that we could hear him yelling instructions to the players before we had even reached the park! We knew we were in the right place.

My mom and I hid behind a huge evergreen tree while my dad went to find out where my little cousin was, because there was more than one game in the park. My little cousin was the goalie for his team and he was on the opposite side of the field. For the first half of the game, we stayed near the other team’s goal, so he didn’t see us at all! In the second half, I snuck a bit closer so I could get some pictures of him in goal. He finally saw me, and gave me a big smile and a thumbs up!

It was so much fun watching all the mini-soccer players! Some of them were a bit lost and didn’’t really know what to do, while other kids were really good! A couple kids would slide across the field on their knees whenever they scored a goal, just like the pro soccer players do! It was so cute. My little cousin is a superstar goalie! He stopped every goal except one and his team won 5-1!

This league has some strange rules, though. If a team is up by more than 3 goals, they have to take a player off the field. If they score another 3 goals, the other team puts an additional player on the field. That’s the only reason they keep score! At the end of the game, there is no official winner or loser (although the kids are silently keeping score themselves). Have you ever heard anything so dumb in your life? What’s the point of teaching the kids that they’re playing to not win the game? What’s the point of even scoring a goal then?

When the game was over, we all went to a nearby McDonald’s for an after-game treat! We had caramel and hot fudge sundaes. All in all, it was a fun summer night! If I lived closer to him, I’d go to his games every week!

Discussion Questions:

What sports do children like to play in your country?

Are there organized sports leagues for kids in your country?

Do they have dumb rules?

Pronunciation – Linking Consonants:

Listen carefully to some groups of words from the story:

It was so cute
my dad went to find out
he loves soccer

When the final consonant sound of a word is the same as the first consonant sound of the next word, the sound is pronounced only once. It’s becomes one long consonant sound.

Listen again:
I didn’t say ‘He loves soccer’. I said ‘He loves soccer.‘

I didn’t say ‘…my dad went to find out…’ I said ‘…my dad went to find out.‘

This is called linking and it’s a very common element of spoken English. Listen to some more examples of linking consonants and repeat after me:

a black cat
a bad day
stop pushing
some money
a tough fight

Listen to the story again. Can you hear more examples of linked consonant sounds?

Vocabulary:

…it’s too confusiong to say ‘my 1st cousin once removed,’
= my cousin’s son; my cousin is my ‘1st cousin’ – our moms are sisters.

an evergreen tree
My mom and I hid behind a huge evergreen tree…
=trees that have leaves all year round, even in winter! [Think of a Christmas tree!]

a thumbs up
[He] gave me a big smile and a thumbs up!
=a sign of approval; curl your fingers into a fist, but stick your thumb straight up.

a [sports] league
This league has some strange rules…
=a group of sports teams that play games against each other; my little cousin plays in a ‘minor sports league.’

to be up (by a number)
If a team is up more than 3 goals
= if a team has scored 3 goals, 3 more goals than the opposing team