A Walk in the Autumn Park — Calm English Listening

Transcript

Introduction

A: Hello, and welcome.

A: This is slow, calm B1 English for a quiet walk or evening.

A: Today you’ll hear two gentle stories about walks in autumn parks.

A: Between them, we’ll review ten phrases. Then there will be some quiet practice and a slower final pass.

A: You’ll hear six of the ten. Three now: to stretch your legs, to crunch through the leaves, and to bundle up.

A: And three more: the smell of woodsmoke, to feed the ducks, and to head home before dark.

A: If you miss a word, let it go. Another one will come.

A: You can practice the phrases in Recursio another day. The link is in the description.

A: For now, just listen.

A morning in October

A: It is eight in the morning, in the second half of October.

A: Halina has been awake since six, the same as always, but nobody is waiting for her now.

A: She retired in the spring, after thirty-one years in the same office.

A: For the first month she did not know what to do with a Tuesday.

A: Now she has a shape for the day, and the walk is the first part of it.

A: For thirty-one years, other people shaped her days: a bus at ten past seven, a desk, and a short lunch break.

A: Now she misses the people, but not the schedule.

A: There is a dog in the hall, waiting, already turning in small circles.

A: The dog belongs to her daughter, who is away for three weeks.

A: Halina takes the dog out twice a day. The dog is the reason she leaves the house before nine.

A: Before she opens the door, she bundles up properly, the way she tells other people to.

A: A thick coat, a scarf, and the gloves she found in the pocket of last year’s coat.

A: It is cold enough to see your breath. The air is cold and dry, but there is no wind.

A: The park begins two streets away, behind an iron gate that is never closed.

A: At eight in the morning in October, there is almost nobody in it.

A: A man far away with a bag of tools. A woman running, in a blue jacket.

A: Apart from them, Halina is alone. It is a good time to have the park to yourself.

A: In July that was impossible. In July the park belonged to everybody.

A: She knows the man with the tools by sight. They nod near the second trash can, and that is enough.

A: The main path is covered with leaves, and nobody has swept them yet.

A: She could walk on the grass beside it, where it is quiet.

A: She does not. She walks in the middle and crunches through the leaves on purpose.

A: The dog does the same, fast, and looks pleased with the noise.

A: The trees are not bare yet. They are somewhere in the middle of the change.

A: The tall ones near the gate are yellow all the way up.

A: The small ones by the water are still half green, but their edges are yellow.

A: The sun is low, and it comes from behind the trees.

A: The light through the trees falls in long lines across the path.

A: Halina walks in and out of those lines, warm, cold, warm, cold.

A: Somebody has lit a wood fire in a garden on the other side of the wall.

A: The smell of woodsmoke comes over the wall and stays in the park for the whole walk.

A: It is the smell she remembers from when she was eight, and it has not changed at all.

A: The path bends around a small lake.

A: It is really a big pond, but everybody calls it a lake.

A: There are ducks on it, and two swans that do not speak to the ducks.

A: In October it is clean and dark and holds the whole sky in it, upside down.

A: Halina has a small paper bag of oats in her coat pocket.

A: She feeds the ducks at the same corner every morning, with the dog sitting behind her.

A: She scatters a small handful of oats on the ground near the water.

A: A woman with a small boy arrives while she is doing it.

A: The boy watches the ducks with his whole body, leaning forward, holding his mother’s coat.

A: Halina gives him half of what is left in the bag. He is too busy watching the ducks to speak, and his mother thanks her.

A: After the lake there is a bench that gets the sun until about ten.

A: Halina sits on it for a few minutes with the dog lying down beside her.

A: Then her knee feels stiff, so she gets up to stretch her legs.

A: On the way back she does not go around by the road.

A: She takes the shortcut through the park, past the old tennis courts.

A: There is a gap in the fence there, so this is a shortcut through the park. It saves her eight minutes.

A: They are home a little after nine, and the day is not even properly started.

A: The rest of it will be small things: the store, a phone call, some soup, and a book.

A: The dog sleeps from ten until two, in the one square of sun on the kitchen floor.

A: Halina reads at the table with her coat still on the back of the chair.

A: The house is warm and the windows are shut, and outside the leaves keep coming down.

A: Late in the afternoon she takes the dog out once more, and this walk is shorter.

A: By five o’clock the light is already low and orange between the trees.

A: The park is fuller than in the morning, and most people near the gate are heading home before dark.

A: In October the day ends early, and people go inside early too.

A: A man carries a folding chair and a fishing rod away from the water. Two women walk quickly with shopping bags.

A: At the gate she turns around and looks back down the path she has just come up.

A: The lines of light are gone. The trees have gone flat and gray.

A: Tomorrow at eight it will all be there again, for twenty minutes, for her.

Phrase review

A: Now, slowly, the ten phrases.

A: To take the dog out. To take a dog outside, usually for a short walk.

A: “I take the dog out before breakfast and again after work.”

A: To bundle up. To put on a lot of warm clothes before going outside.

A: “Bundle up. It’s colder than it looks.”

A: To have the park to yourself. To be the only person there, or almost the only one.

A: “Go early. You’ll have the park to yourself.”

A: To crunch through the leaves. To walk on dry fallen leaves so that they make a sound under your feet.

A: “The children ran ahead, crunching through the leaves.”

A: The light through the trees. The sunlight that comes between the trunks and branches, often in long lines.

A: “I stopped to look at the light through the trees.”

A: The smell of woodsmoke. The smell of burning wood in the air, usually from a fire, a wood stove, or a chimney.

A: “You could smell woodsmoke all along the street.”

A: To feed the ducks. To give ducks food that is safe for them, usually near a lake or pond.

A: “We brought some oats to the park to feed the ducks.”

A: To stretch your legs. To stand up and walk a little after sitting for a while.

A: “We stopped halfway to stretch our legs.”

A: A shortcut through the park. A shorter way to a place that passes through a park.

A: “There’s a shortcut through the park, if you don’t mind the mud.”

A: To head home before dark. To start going home while there is still some light.

A: “It’s four already. We should head home before dark.”

The walk back from the station

A: Now a different walk, in a different city, at the other end of the day.

A: Ivan is twenty and finishes his last class at half past four, twice a week.

A: On the other days he finishes at one, and those days feel much longer.

A: The bus from the university goes to the station, and the station is a fifteen-minute walk from his room.

A: There are two ways to make that walk.

A: The road is straight and full of cars. The path through the park is longer, and he takes it anyway.

A: This park is big and less carefully kept. The leaves lie where they fall, in deep piles at the sides.

A: Ivan walks down the middle and crunches through the leaves without thinking about it.

A: He has headphones in, and today, for once, nothing is playing in them.

A: He put them in out of habit and forgot to start anything. By the time he notices, he has walked a long way with only the sounds around him.

A: Leaves, a bird, a car somewhere behind the trees. He leaves the music off.

A: It is October, so at five the light is already going.

A: The sun is behind the buildings on the west side, and the light through the trees is thin and low.

A: Everything has an orange edge on one side and a dark edge on the other.

A: He passes the pond, where an old man is feeding the ducks from a plastic box.

A: The ducks are loud, and they push each other. The old man does not seem to mind.

A: Ivan slows down for ten steps to watch, and then keeps walking.

A: Ivan does not know anyone in this park, and that is part of why he likes it.

A: He is not bundled up enough, and he knows it.

A: A jacket and no scarf, because at half past eight this morning it was warmer.

A: October does that. The morning and the evening are two different seasons.

A: Somewhere near the far gate there is the smell of woodsmoke, thin and sharp.

A: He cannot see where it comes from. He never can.

A: It smells like his grandmother’s village, and he decides to call her when he gets home.

A: In the middle of the park there is a bench under a wide old tree.

A: Ivan sits down without planning to. He has been sitting in classrooms all day, but sitting outside feels different.

A: The bench is cold, but he stays for a few minutes.

A: For a while he does nothing at all.

A: The park is emptying. A woman goes past with a stroller, moving quickly.

A: Two students go the other way, talking cheerfully. Then the path is empty, and for a few minutes he has the park to himself.

A: The lamps along the path come on, all at once, before it is really dark.

A: Their light still looks weak beside the evening sky.

A: Ivan stands up to stretch his legs and finds that his hands are cold.

A: His cold hands tell him it is time to head home before dark, or as close to dark as he can manage.

A: He walks the last five minutes faster than the rest.

A: He goes through the gate and past the store on the corner. His room will be too warm, and tonight that is exactly right.

A: A few minutes later, Ivan is in his warm room. Before he takes off his jacket, he calls his grandmother.

A: She answers on the second ring. Her voice is warm, and he is glad he called.

A: From his window, the park looks dark and empty.

A: The leaves go on falling through the night. In the morning, somebody else will walk down the same path early and have it to themselves.

Quiet repetition

A: Now a few quiet questions. Try them in your mind, or just listen if you feel sleepy.

A: What do we call putting on a thick coat, a scarf, and gloves before going outside?

A: To bundle up.

A: At eight in the morning in October there was almost nobody in the park. What did Halina have?

A: She had the park to herself.

A: She could have walked on the grass, but she walked in the middle of the path on purpose. Why?

A: To crunch through the leaves.

A: What do we call the sunlight coming between the trunks in long lines across the path?

A: The light through the trees.

A: The smell came over the wall. What could she smell?

A: The smell of woodsmoke.

A: She had oats in a small paper bag. What were they for?

A: To feed the ducks.

A: She had been sitting on the bench, and her knee told her to get up. What did she do?

A: She got up to stretch her legs.

A: Instead of going around by the road, she went past the old tennis courts. What did she take?

A: A shortcut through the park.

A: It is five o’clock in October, and most people near the gate are walking in the same direction. What are they doing?

A: Heading home before dark.

A: What does Halina do twice a day because her daughter is away?

A: She takes the dog out.

The same day, more slowly

A: Now that same day again, more slowly. Nothing to remember this time. Just listen.

A: It is eight in the morning, in the second half of October.

A: There is a dog in the hall, waiting, turning in small circles.

A: Nobody is expecting you anywhere this morning.

A: Before you open the door, you bundle up: a thick coat, a scarf, and gloves.

A: It is cold enough to see your breath. The air is cold and dry, but there is no wind.

A: You take the dog out through a gate that is never closed.

A: There is almost nobody here.

A: A man far away with a bag of tools. A woman running, in a blue jacket.

A: You nod at each other, and that is all it needs to be.

A: For twenty minutes you have the park to yourself.

A: Nobody has swept the path, so you walk in the middle.

A: You crunch through the leaves on purpose, and so does the dog.

A: The sun is low behind the trees.

A: The light through the trees lies in long lines across the path.

A: You walk in and out of them. Warm, cold, warm, cold.

A: Over the wall, from somebody’s garden, comes the smell of woodsmoke.

A: It has not changed since you were eight years old.

A: At the corner of the lake, you take the small bag of oats out of your pocket.

A: You scatter the oats near the water, and you feed the ducks.

A: The water is dark and clean, and it holds the whole sky in it, upside down.

A: You sit on the bench that gets the sun until ten.

A: After a few minutes you stand up to stretch your legs.

A: On the way back you take the shortcut through the park, past the old tennis courts.

A: You are home a little after nine, and the day has not properly started.

A: Later, when the light goes orange, you go out once more.

A: And like the other people near the gate, you head home before dark.

Final phrases and goodnight

A: The ten phrases, one last time.

A: To take the dog out.

A: To bundle up.

A: To have the park to yourself.

A: To crunch through the leaves.

A: The light through the trees.

A: The smell of woodsmoke.

A: To feed the ducks.

A: To stretch your legs.

A: A shortcut through the park.

A: To head home before dark.

A: That’s all for today. Thank you for listening.

A: If you’d like to practice these phrases later, the link is below.

A: Enjoy the rest of your walk or your evening, wherever you are.