A Long Train Journey — Calm English Listening

Transcript

Introduction

A: Hello, and welcome.

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

A: Tonight you’ll hear two gentle stories about long train journeys.

A: Then we’ll review ten phrases, practice quietly, and take one slower final pass.

A: Listen for six of them: to look out the window, the rhythm of the train, and a quiet train car.

A: To watch the fields go past, to doze off, and to arrive slowly.

A: If a word goes past you, 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.

The early train

A: It is a quarter past six in the morning.

A: It is late October, and it is still dark.

A: Ana is standing on platform four with a small bag and a paper cup of coffee.

A: The station is almost empty.

A: A man is sweeping. A pigeon is walking under the benches, very slowly, as if it has all day.

A: An announcement over the speaker begins with something about platform two.

A: Then it stops in the middle, and it doesn’t come back.

A: Ana checks her ticket, although she already knows the number of her seat.

A: Seat forty-one. Window. Facing forward.

A: The train comes in so quietly that Ana almost doesn’t notice it.

A: Ana gets on and finds her seat by the window.

A: It is a quiet train car.

A: There are six other people in it, and none of them are talking.

A: One man is asleep already, with his coat over his knees.

A: A woman is reading something on her phone with the sound off.

A: Ana puts her bag on the empty seat beside her.

A: She takes out a book, and she puts the book on the little table.

A: She will not read it today. She knows this already, and it doesn’t matter.

A: The train starts to move.

A: First the city goes past. Gray buildings. A road. A bridge over a river that looks pale in the early light.

A: Then the buildings get smaller, and there is more sky between them.

A: And then the city is gone, and there are fields.

A: Ana looks out the window.

A: This is the whole plan for today. To look out the window for four hours.

A: She has a long journey ahead of her. Four hours west, to a small town beside a wide river.

A: There is no faster train, and she is glad about that.

A: She watches the fields go past.

A: Green fields. Yellow fields. A field with nothing in it but a tractor and a lot of birds.

A: A line of trees. A small white house with a red roof, and then it’s gone.

A: She watches the fields go past and she doesn’t think about very much.

A: Her phone is in her bag. She left it there on purpose.

A: For the first hour, part of her still wants to reach for it.

A: Then the feeling slowly fades, and she forgets the bag is there.

A: After a while she notices the sound.

A: The rhythm of the train.

A: Two beats, then a pause. Two beats, then a pause.

A: It is very regular, and after ten minutes Ana stops noticing it as a noise.

A: It becomes part of the space around her. Something steady that she can sit inside.

A: The rhythm of the train is the reason she takes the slow one.

A: At home there is always something to do next.

A: Here there is nothing to do but sit.

A: A man comes through with a small cart. Coffee, tea, water, cookies.

A: Nobody buys anything. He pushes the cart on to the next car.

A: The coffee gets cold in its paper cup. She drinks it anyway.

A: The man with the coat over his knees shifts in his seat and goes on sleeping.

A: Somewhere behind her, somebody opens a sandwich, trying not to make much noise.

A: At half past eight the light changes.

A: The sun comes over the trees on the right side of the train, and everything turns warm for a few minutes.

A: Ana closes her eyes and lets it fall on her face.

A: When she opens them again, there is a river beside the track.

A: It is not a big river. In some places it is only a line of bright water between two fields.

A: The river stays with the train for a long time, and then it turns away.

A: By ten o’clock the woman with the phone has put it away and is looking out her own window.

A: Everybody in the car is doing the same thing now, and nobody planned it.

A: Somewhere in between the river and the last green field, Ana dozes off.

A: It is only a light sleep, and the rhythm of the train stays at the edge of it.

A: When she opens her eyes, she has lost track of the hours.

A: A quiet voice says that the next station is Linden.

A: The next station is hers.

A: Ana closes the book she never opened and puts it in her bag.

A: The train arrives slowly. First there are a few roofs, then a clock tower, then the wide river beside the track.

A: Nothing important has happened.

A: It is the best morning she has had in a month.

Phrase review

A: Now, slowly, the ten phrases.

A: A quiet train car. A train car is one part of a train, where the seats are. A quiet one has few people and low voices.

A: “I found a quiet train car and sat by the window.”

A: To look out the window. To turn your eyes to the window and watch what is outside.

A: “I looked out the window for an hour.”

A: To watch the fields go past. The fields don’t move, of course. The train moves. But in English we often say they go past.

A: “I watched the fields go past and drank my coffee.”

A: The rhythm of the train. The regular sound and movement of the train on the track.

A: “I like the rhythm of the train. It makes me feel calm.”

A: Nothing to do but sit. The only thing you can do is sit. We usually say it with “there is” or “there was”: “There was nothing to do but wait.”

A: “For six hours there was nothing to do but sit.”

A: To doze off. To fall asleep lightly, often without planning to, and usually for a short time.

A: “I dozed off after lunch and woke up an hour later.”

A: To lose track of the hours. To stop knowing what time it is.

A: In everyday English we usually say “lose track of time.” This episode uses “of the hours” as a more descriptive version for the long journey.

A: “I lost track of the hours somewhere after the second station.”

A: The next station. The station where the train will stop next.

A: “The next station is a big one. We stop there for ten minutes.”

A: Somewhere in between. Not at the start and not at the end. In the middle, without an exact place.

A: “Somewhere in between, I stopped checking the time.”

A: To arrive slowly. To come into a place little by little, without hurrying. This is a descriptive phrase for a train, a boat, or even an evening that seems to arrive gradually.

A: “The train arrives slowly, and you see the town before you reach it.”

The afternoon train

A: Now a different journey, on another day.

A: It is one o’clock in the afternoon.

A: Leo’s train left the city an hour ago.

A: He is traveling north to the lake town where he grew up.

A: His father will meet him at the station. They have not seen each other since spring.

A: Leo takes his lunch out of his bag. Bread, cheese, and two apples.

A: He eats slowly, looking out the window between bites.

A: As he eats, he notices that the land outside has changed since the train left the city.

A: There are more trees now, and the fields are smaller.

A: The houses are made of wood instead of stone.

A: The city feels like one world, and the lake feels like another. Somewhere in between, the view changed, and nobody announced it.

A: Across the aisle, a boy is drawing something in a notebook.

A: He holds it away from himself to look at it.

A: His mother is asleep with her hand still on his arm.

A: After the apples, Leo leans his head against the window.

A: The glass is cool. The rhythm of the train is still there, under everything.

A: Two beats, then a pause.

A: He doesn’t decide to sleep. He just dozes off.

A: It is the light kind of sleep people sometimes have on a train, where part of the mind keeps listening.

A: He hears a door. He hears somebody laugh, two rows back.

A: A voice over the speaker says the name of a town, and he doesn’t catch it.

A: A few minutes later, he opens his eyes.

A: For the next few hours, he reads a little, watches the trees, and sometimes closes his eyes again.

A: When he looks up again, the light is orange.

A: He has lost track of the hours completely.

A: His watch says ten to five, and that number means nothing to him for a moment.

A: The train slows down. There is a station.

A: A small one, with two benches and a man waiting with a bicycle.

A: The train stops there for six minutes. Two or three people step down onto the platform, just to stand in the fresh air.

A: One of them lifts his arms over his head and turns his face to the sun.

A: An old couple gets on with one suitcase between them and sits down without saying anything to each other.

A: Three people take their bags and leave. The old couple stays.

A: The doors close, and the train starts again, and the man with the bicycle is gone.

A: An announcement over the speaker says, “The next station is Vellen.”

A: The next station is his.

A: Leo sits up a little. But he doesn’t get his bag yet.

A: There is still half an hour, and he wants all of it.

A: The daylight is fading now. Everything outside looks softer than it did an hour ago.

A: The fields have long shadows lying across them.

A: Now there is water on the left side of the train.

A: The lake. Long and flat and the color of the sky, which is turning pink.

A: He watches it go past between the trees. Water, trees, water, trees.

A: The train arrives slowly.

A: First there is a road beside the track. Then two houses. Then a football field with the lights on.

A: Then the backs of the buildings, and the town shows itself, piece by piece, before the train reaches the station.

A: This is why he likes to arrive slowly.

A: On a faster journey, one place can seem to change into another all at once.

A: On this train Leo has watched the fields and the trees slowly turn into the town he remembers.

A: People are standing up now, taking bags down, putting on coats.

A: The old couple is already at the door with their one suitcase.

A: Leo stays in his seat until the last minute, watching the town come closer.

A: The platform slides into view. The train stops.

A: Leo takes his bag and steps outside.

A: The air outside is cooler than the air in the city, and it smells like water and cut wood.

A: The station has one lamp and a schedule behind glass.

A: The train goes on north without him, and the sound of it gets smaller for a long time.

A: Near the lamp, his father is waiting in a gray coat.

A: Leo lifts one hand. His father lifts his hand too.

A: Five hours and twenty minutes. Nothing to do but sit.

A: As they walk away from the station, Leo feels as if the city is much farther away than it felt when he boarded.

Quiet repetition

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

A: How would you say that a train car has very few people and low voices?

A: A quiet train car.

A: How would you say that you fell asleep for a short time, sitting up?

A: To doze off. I dozed off.

A: How would you say that you stopped knowing what time it was?

A: To lose track of the hours.

A: The station where the train will stop next. How would you say that in English?

A: The next station.

A: The train comes into the town little by little, without hurrying.

A: It arrives slowly.

A: There is nothing else you can do. You can only sit. How would you say that?

A: Nothing to do but sit.

A: Not at the start, not at the end. In the middle, with no exact place.

A: Somewhere in between.

A: And the fields outside, moving from one side of the window to the other?

A: You watch the fields go past.

A: And the sound of the train on the track, two beats and a pause?

A: The rhythm of the train.

A: And when you turn your eyes to the glass and watch what is outside?

A: You look out the window.

A journey, more slowly

A: One more time now, more slowly. Nothing to learn here. Just listen.

A: It is early. The station is almost empty.

A: You are on the early train.

A: Your bag is on the seat beside you.

A: There is a book on the table, and you are not going to read it.

A: It is a quiet train car, and your seat is by the window.

A: There is nothing to do but sit.

A: You look out the window.

A: The city goes past. Then the fields.

A: You watch the fields go past.

A: A line of trees. A small white house with a red roof.

A: Under everything, the rhythm of the train.

A: Two beats. Then a pause.

A: Two beats. Then a pause.

A: The sun comes over the trees and falls on your face for a few minutes.

A: Somewhere in between, you stop checking the time.

A: After lunch, you doze off.

A: You lose track of the hours.

A: When you open your eyes, the light is orange.

A: There is a lake on the left side of the train.

A: Water, trees, water, trees.

A: A voice announces the name of the next station.

A: And the train arrives slowly.

A: A road. Two houses. The backs of the buildings.

A: The town, piece by piece, before you reach it.

A: A long journey.

A: Nothing to do but sit.

Final phrases and goodbye

A: The ten phrases, one last time.

A: A quiet train car.

A: To look out the window.

A: To watch the fields go past.

A: The rhythm of the train.

A: Nothing to do but sit.

A: To doze off.

A: To lose track of the hours.

A: The next station.

A: Somewhere in between.

A: To arrive slowly.

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

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

A: Sleep well, or have a good evening, wherever you are.