Listening and reading skill pre intermediate

Listening and reading 

Bruce Lee 
Bruce Lee was the man who brought kung fu to the West with his famous film Enter the Dragon. 
Although Bruce Lee was born in Chinatown in San Francisco in 1940, his parents soon moved 
back to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Hong Kong shortly 
afterwards but the family survived. 
His father Lee Hoi Chuon was a famous Cantonese opera singer and actor and his mother 
Grace was a wealthy aristocrat from Hong Kong. In 1957 Lee fought and won the Hong Kong 
high school boxing championship and then became the Hong Kong cha cha cha champion for 
1958. 
At the age of 18, he returned to the United States where his sister and brother lived. He studied 
drama and philosophy at the University of Washington in Seattle. Then he opened his first 
martial arts school where he taught his friends Jun Fan Gung Fu. 
Bruce Lee then had the original idea behind the very famous TV series Kung Fu but Warner 
Bros. decided not to have a  Chinese person as the star of the series. As a result, Bruce and 
wife and children caught a plane to Hong Kong. 
Back in Hong Kong, Bruce immediately made three very successful films with director Raymond 
Chow called The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and The Way of the Dragon. There is a very famous 
fight scene in The Way of the Dragon with Chuck Norris filmed in the Colosseum in Rome 
where the gladiators fought. His last film was Enter the Dragon and was also a huge hit. The 
movie has made more than 200 million US dollars. 
Bruce Lee was a philosopher as well as a fighter and wrote a lot of books. He believed that all 
knowlegde eventually became self­knowledge. 
221words 
Grammar: GHT irregular verbs

www.autoenglish.org 

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2009 

Listening and reading 

Jackie Chan is Angry! 
Less than 150 years ago, the magnificent Chinese Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing was 
robbed and burnt by the British and the French. At the time, more than 1000 tons of hard drugs 
a year were smuggled into China by Britain, who used the military to protect their drug 
trafficking interests from the Chinese government. 
300 men and women were burned alive inside the palace. 3,500 British troops carried out the 
destruction and massacre. Charles Gordon of the Royal Engineers took part. “We went out, and 
after pillaging it, burned the whole place... We got upward of 48 pounds apiece prize money... I 
have done well... You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we 
burnt... It was wretchedly demoralizing work for an army.” 
Many of the treasures were more than 3,500 years old. 
The wonderful palace grounds, known as the Garden of Perfect Brightness, were destroyed so 
completely that the area was used for farmland until the 1980s. Inside the garden, there was an 
amazing zodiac water clock. It consisted of twelve bronze statues representing the signs of the 
Chinese zodiac. All these statues were robbed in the attack. 
The Chinese Poly Art Museum is being helped by billionaire Stanley Ho to recover the twelve 
bronzes. He bought the horse for 6.3 million pounds in 2007 and gave it to the museum. So far, 
the museum has recovered the tiger, the monkey and the ox, as well as the horse of course. 
In February 2009, the rabbit and the rat appeared in an auction at Christie’s in Paris. They had 
been in the possession of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent until his death. The price 
of the statues was estimated to be worth 8.8 million pounds! 
The Chinese government tried to stop the auction and the film star Jackie Chan was very angry. 
“The statues were stolen. It was stealing yesterday and it is still stealing today. And now we are 
going to lose two more pieces of the clock to who­knows­who.” 
When the auction was held at Christie’s in Paris, the rabbit and the rat were sold for 13 million 
pounds! They were bought by Cai Mingchao. But now Mr Mingchao says he will not pay for 
them. 

The author of Les Miserables, the great French writer Victor Hugo, gave his opinion about the 
robbery and destruction of the Chinese Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860. “ Two 
robbers broke into a museum, destroying, robbing and burning. They left together with their 
bags full of treasure and laughing. One robber is called France and the other Britain.” 
It is now March 2009 and the rabbit and the rat are still in France. 
449 words 
Grammar: the passive voice

www.autoenglish.org 

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2009 


Listening and reading

J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is the author of the books about Harry Potter played by Daniel Radcliffe in the
films.
At university JK studied French and the classics. Her first husband was Portuguese but
unfortunately the marriage was not a success. After, she was very sad and cried a lot. She was
unemployed and poor.
J.K. prepared the first Harry Potter book in the Nicolson’s Café in Edinburgh. Then JK tried to
find a publisher. She offered her first book to twelve publishers in England but they didn’t like it.
Fortunately, a little girl called Alice enjoyed reading the first chapter. She is the daughter of a
publisher and he agreed to publish the book.
Six more books followed and the films of course. Now JK isn’t sad or worried about money. In
fact, her life is more magic than Harry Potter’s!
140 words
Grammar: regular verbs ending in vowel sounds.
Some Questions

1 What did J.K. Rowling study at university?
............................................................................................................................
2 Where did J.K. Rowling prepare the first Harry Potter book?
............................................................................................................................
3 How many publishers did she offer her book to?
............................................................................................................................
4 Why did the publisher agree to publish the book?
............................................................................................................................

www.autoenglish.org

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2009


Listening and reading

If I were Mayor
If I were mayor of my city, the first thing I would do is pedestrianize the main shopping streets and also the
old part of town.
Studies in Germany show that pedestrianization increases business in 80% of shops and in 60% of
restaurants, although it has a bad effect on hotels. In Copenhagen, pedestrianization had a very positive
effect on society. People left their cars at home, became more friendly with their fellow citizens and
revitalized the centre of the Danish capital.
Another effect of pedestrianization is making the streets safer for children and old people and so I would
provide more street furniture and children’s areas. In the pedestrianized zones, it also causes a greater
variety of shops to appear as well as markets and performances by street artists. Pedestrianization reduces
air and noise pollution too.
To reduce air pollution even more, I would provide free parking for electric vehicles next to the city centre.
The next thing I would do is build a network of bike lanes all over the city, just like Mayor Enrique Peñaloca in
Bogota. Doing this quadrupled the amount of people using bikes in Colombia’s capital. I would also integrate

bus stops with safe places to park bicycles. Intermodal passenger transport is absolutely vital to smooth flow
and safety within a city and I think it is something mayors and mayoresses everywhere need to study.
After that, I would introduce a community bicycle programme, similar to Paris and Barcelona. This means
that people can use public bikes for free and then leave them in a special stand. Paris now has public bike
stands every 300 metres and more than 20,000 public bicycles.
When I finished that, I would pass a law saying that all buildings must install solar panels, solar water heaters
and wind turbines in order to reduce the city’s carbon footprint.
The last thing I would do is create green corridors which allow animals to move freely between the city and
the country without being killed by cars.
I realise my programme would probably be very unpopular with a lot of people and I think I would lose the
next election. However, if I finished my programme to help make my city more environmentally-friendly, I
would be happy.
376 words
Grammar: the second conditional

www.autoenglish.org

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2009


Listening and reading 

The Opium Wars 
The Opium Wars between the United Kingdom and China lasted from 1839 to 1860 and started 
because the Chinese government wanted to stop the British from smuggling drugs into China. 
th 

From the mid­17  century, Britain imported porcelain, silk and tea from China in large quantities. 
Because Britain exported very little to China, the British paid for these goods in silver. 
Eventually, the British government decided to stop this trade deficit. They illegally transported 

hard drugs from India to China and so created drug addicts in China. More and more Chinese 
people became addicted to opium and in 1729 the Chinese government prohibited the sale and 
use of the drug. 
In 1757 the British invaded Bengal and after that the British East India Company had the 
monopoly on opium production and exportation. By the 1830s, the British exported more than a 
thousand tons of opium to China every year. In 1839, the Chinese Emperor appointed a new 
commissioner of Canton called Lin Zexu. He confiscated about a thousand tons of the drug from 
the British and destroyed it. Then he demanded that the British sign a treaty promising to stop 
dealing drugs to China. The British rejected this proposal so Lin wrote to Queen Victoria to tell 
her about what was happening. Historians believe she never got the letter. 
Suddenly, the British attacked China with warships and an army. They captured Canton and 
destroyed a lot of Chinese boats on the Yantse River. In 1842 the Treaty of Nanjing was signed 
to negotiate peace. However, the Chinese had to surrender Hong Kong to the British. 
The Second Opium War started when the Chinese authorities conducted a search of a British 
ship suspected of carrying drugs. This time the British invaded Peking. They stole the art and 
treasures from the Imperial Summer Palace and annihilated the beautiful buildings and gardens. 
The stolen objects included famous bronze statues from a fountain which have recently 
appeared in the news. The destruction of the Imperial Royal Palace is considered a terrible 
tragedy even today. 
339 words 
Grammar: D and T regular verbs

www.autoenglish.org 

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2009 


Listening and reading

Paella

Getting from the airport to the centre of Valencia, which is where paella originally comes from, is
easy. You unpack and settle into your downtown self-catering apartment and already you are
thinking about paella, although no one has warned you that ordering paella in the centre of
Valencia is the equivalent to a culinary catastrophe. Other things you probably do not know are
that there are dozens of kinds of paella as well as the fact that for the best paellas you need to
order in advance.
For a delicious seafood paella, take the metro to the Las Arenas beach where there is a row of
famous and reasonably priced restaurants right by the sand. Here you will not have to book
ahead but you will need to be patient as real paellas are made individually and take half an hour
or so to prepare. While away your time munching tellinas or clams.
If you decide to rent a car, book a Valencian paella in Serra, which is a town up in the
mountains, to savour what the Valencians consider to be the authentic paella. It is made with
chicken, rabbit, snails, rosemary, butter beans and green beans and cooked over a log fire. You
have to book though or your journey will be wasted. My favourite restaurant is La Balsa de San
Antonio, just out of town tucked into a bend in the mountain road by a small reservoir. Take
advantage of having a car and drive out to the fishing village of El Palmar by the lagoon. Order
arros a banda or arros amb caranc, which is crab and rice stew along with a serving of spicy
eels with potatoes called all i pebre.

(287 words)

Phone number and address
La balsa de San Antonio - Carretera Serra-Torres-Tores. (Valencia) tel. 961.688.434

www.autoenglish.org

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2010


Listening and reading

Paella
Fill each gap with just one word.
Getting from the airport to the centre of Valencia, (1). . . . . . . . . . is where paella originally comes
from, is a doddle. You unpack and settle into your downtown self-catering apartment and
already you are thinking about paella, (2). . . . . . . . . . no one has warned you that ordering paella
in the centre of Valencia is the equivalent to a culinary catastrophe. Other things you probably
do not know are that there are dozens of kinds (3). . . . . . . . . . paella as (4). . . . . . . . . . as the fact
that for the best paellas you need to order in advance.
(5). . . . . . . . . . a delicious seafood paella take the metro to the Las Arenas beach where there is a
row of famous and reasonably priced restaurants right by the sand. Here you will not
(6). . . . . . . . . . to book ahead but you will need to be patient as real paellas are made individually
and take half an hour or so (7). . . . . . . . . . prepare. While away your time munching tellinas or
clams.
(8). . . . . . . . . . you decide to rent a car, book a Valencian paella in Serra, which is a town up in
the mountains, to savour what the Valencians consider to be the authentic paella (9). . . . . . . . . . .
is made with chicken, rabbit, snails, rosemary, butter beans and green beans and cooked over
(10). . . . . . . . . . . log fire. You have to book though or your journey will be wasted. My favourite
restaurant is La Balsa de San Antonio, just out of town tucked into a bend in the mountain road
by a small reservoir (11). . . . . . . . . . . advantage of having a car and drive out to (12). . . . . . . . . .
fishing village of El Palmar by the lagoon. Order arros a banda or arros amb caranc, which is
crab and rice stew along with a serving of spicy eels with potatoes called all i pebre. (287)

Phone number and address
La balsa de San Antonio - Carretera Serra-Torres-Tores. (Valencia) tel. 961.688.434

www.autoenglish.org

1

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2010


Listening and reading
Answers

Paella
Getting from the airport to the centre of Valencia, which is where paella originally comes from, is
a doddle. You unpack and settle into your downtown self-catering apartment and already you
are thinking about paella, although/though no one has warned you that ordering paella in the
centre of Valencia is the equivalent to a culinary catastrophe. Other things you probably do not
know are that there are dozens of kinds of paella as well as the fact that for the best paellas you
need to order in advance.
For a delicious seafood paella take the metro to the Las Arenas beach where there is a row of
famous and reasonably priced restaurants right by the sand. Here you will not have/need to
book ahead but you will need to be patient as real paellas are made individually and take half an
hour or so to prepare. While away your time munching tellinas or clams.
If you decide to rent a car, book a Valencian paella in Serra, which is a town up in the
mountains, to savour what the Valencians consider to be the authentic paella. It is made with
chicken, rabbit, snails, rosemary, butter beans and green beans and cooked over a log fire. You
have to book though or your journey will be wasted. My favourite restaurant is "La Balsa de San
Antonio", just out of town tucked into a bend in the mountain road by a small reservoir. Take
advantage of having a car and drive out to the fishing village of El Palmar by the lagoon. Order
arros a banda or arros amb caranc, which is crab and rice stew along with a serving of spicy
eels with potatoes called all i pebre.
(287 words)

www.autoenglish.org

2

Written by Bob Wilson ©Robert Clifford McNair Wilson 2010