eng8-u2-listening· UNIT 2. FOOD AROUND THE WORLD· ~19 min

Unit 2 Listening: Four popular foods

Follow the narrator’s accounts of chocolate, popcorn, ice cream, and potato chips.

The talk gives four short accounts: chocolate, popcorn, ice cream, and potato chips. Treat dates, origins, and inventions as information reported by the narrator. On a first listen, identify the four sections. On later listens, make a small timeline for each food and notice cause-and-effect language: ingredients changed a drink, hand mixing made ice cream difficult, and a complaint about thick fries led George Crum to make very thin ones. Words such as then, in, later, and soon signal sequence. Compare details only after assigning them to the correct food.

Listening

Track 6

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Key terms

bitter — having a strong taste that is not sweet
seed — the part of a plant from which a new plant can grow
dessert — sweet food commonly eaten at the end of a meal
account — a spoken description of events or history
Four-section listening map
SectionListen forReported turning point
Chocolatedrink, Europe, milk candyDaniel Peter makes milk chocolate candy
Popcornuses of corn, cave find, Native American preparationold popcorn is found in a cave
Ice creamearly mixtures, hand method, machineNancy Johnson invents a machine
Potato chipsBelgium, complaint, thin friesGeorge Crum responds to a customer
✎Trace cause and result
  1. 1Hear the problem: The customer says George’s French fries are too thick.
  2. 2Hear the response: George makes fries that are very thin, like paper.
  3. 3State the relationship: The complaint leads to the thinner preparation in the narrator’s story.
💡Attribute the account

Say according to the narrator when answering a date, origin, or invention question.

🚫Keep timelines separate

Do not attach the chocolate date to the popcorn cave find or the ice-cream machine.

Rules

  1. 1Answer historical and origin questions as claims made in the audio account.
  2. 2Use section names to keep chocolate, popcorn, ice cream, and potato-chip details separate.
  3. 3Record dates beside the event they modify rather than memorising an isolated number.
  4. 4Listen for cause and result: a complaint can lead to a change, and a machine can make a difficult process easier.
  5. 5Use sequence signals such as then, later, and soon to order events.
  6. 6Replay the relevant section before choosing between two plausible details.

Practice

5 easy · 5 medium · 5 hard

Up to 10 random questions per test