This is an English lesson designed to help you improve your English listening and pronunciation. 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: One of the worst bus rides I’ve ever had in my life!
Pronunciation lesson: How to pronounce the letter ‘x’!

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!

Watch the video:

Listening Comprehension Questions

1. How did I get downtown Toronto?

2. Why didn’t I drive?

3. Who did I sit next to and what did he do?

4. What did the guy on the floor next to me do?

5. What expression did I use to describe someone who is not very bright?

Transcript

As you know from a previous listening lesson, I went to see ‘Stars on Ice’ downtown Toronto. I like going downtown Toronto, but I don’t like driving there, so I decided to take the bus. The highway into Toronto is always so packed with traffic, and I find driving downtown very stressful. There’s so much traffic and it’s so chaotic. Toronto also has a streetcar system criss-crossing the downtown core, and I find it difficult to drive on roads with streetcar tracks. In addition, parking downtown costs an arm & a leg! I thought taking the bus would be much more relaxing and less stressful. I was wrong!

Southern Ontario has an extensive bus and train network. I can get an express bus from my suburb that will take me straight downtown Toronto without stopping. The buses are really nice. You get a comfortable seat to yourself with armrests and a headrest, and you can even recline the seat if you want to (although this is a bit impolite to the person behind you!)

On that Friday night there were tons of people heading downtown, so the bus was packed. My friend and I couldn’t get 2 seats together, so we had to sit on opposite sides of the aisle. I had the great misfortune to sit next to a complete stranger who insisted on telling me his entire life story … for 45 minutes! I even put my ipod earphones in my ears and turned the music on … but he still kept talking! I don’t think he was the sharpest tool in the shed! I felt sorry for the guy because his life really sucked, but who knows if it was true or not, or whether he was exaggerating. At the end of the bus trip, he asked me to go out with him and then tried to give me his phone number. I said, “no, that’s OK!”

Did I mention that the bus was so packed that people were standing in the aisle or sitting on the aisle floor? There was a guy sitting on the floor next to me who had not showered for days. Then, he started eating the smelliest crackers ever. He ate the entire package. It was disgusting.

You know, I think I would have been better off driving downtown instead of taking the bus!

Discussion Questions:


Do you prefer driving or taking public transportation?


Have you ever had to sit next to someone who wouldn’t stop talking?


You can discuss these questions in the comments below!

Pronunciation:

In the story I used a few words with the letter ‘x’:
extensive
express
relaxing
next
exaggerate

Let’s look at how to pronounce the letter ‘x.’ The general rules are as follows:

a) if there is a consonant after the letter ‘x’, then ‘x’ is pronounced /ks/
extensive
express
next
relaxing

b) if the words ends in the letter ‘x’, then it’s pronounced /ks/ as well:
six
box
complex

b) if there is a vowel after the ‘x’, then ‘x’ is pronounced /gz/:
exaggerate
example
exam

Vocabulary

packed (adjective)
…the highway into Toronto is always so packed with traffic
…the bus was packed
= very full (of people, cars, etc.); things are so close together, there is no space between them.

an arm and a leg
…parking downtown costs an arm and a leg!
= it’s very expensive; it costs a lot of money.

Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario has an extensive bus and train network
= Ontario is a province in Canada; a province is similar to a state in the U.S.
= I live in the southern part of the province.

extensive (adjective)
Southern Ontario has an extensive bus and train network
= large and complete, covering a large area;