Queen Elizabeth II Thank you all for your e-mails, and for your suggestions about subjects for future podcasts. A listener in France has asked, can I make a podcast about the Queen? And several other listeners have said that they would like some help with listening to numbers (which is always one of the most difficult things in any foreign language). I am going to kill two birds with one stone, as we say in English. This podcast is about the Queen, and also about listening to numbers. I have left gaps in the script where there are numbers,. Try to fill in the numbers as you hear them. You can check on the website whether you have heard them correctly. Queen Elizabeth (a)….. came to the throne in (b)….., following the death of her father, King George©…… She is now (d)….. years old, and she has been Queen for (e)….. years. She is the (f)….. monarch (that is, king or queen) since the Norman Conquest of England in the year (g)…… What sort of things does she do? The Queen has all sorts of official engagements in this country – visits to towns and cities, to schools and hospitals, to open new buildings and to attend official dinners. Last year she had (h)….. official engagements, which is (i)….. more than in (j)…… The Queen makes official visits to other countries too. Since she came to the throne, the Queen has made over (k)….. visits to about (l)….. different countries. Last year , she visited the United States, Uganda, Belgium and the Netherlands. The Queen sends messages of congratulations to everyone in Britain who reaches their (m)….. birthday. Since (n)….., she has sent (o)….. of these messages. She has also sent more than (p)….. messages of congratulation to married couples who are celebrating their “diamond wedding”, that is the (q)….. anniversary of their wedding. Last week, her office published the royal accounts for®…… The accounts show that the cost of the Queen’s official duties last year was £(s)…… This was £(t)….., or (u)…..% more than in (v)…… However, officials at the palace want everyone to know that in real terms, that is after allowing for inflation, the cost of the Queen has fallen by (w)…..% in the last (x)….. years. How much is £(y)…..? Well, there are about (z)….. people in Britain, so £(aa)….. is about (bb)….. pence for each of us. Palace officials, who try very hard to keep up with new technology and new fashions, have pointed out to the newspapers that (cc)….. pence is about the cost of a download from the iTunes music store. An important part of the cost of the Queen’s official duties is the cost of travel. Travel, in Britain and overseas, cost £(dd)….. pounds last year. The Queen has a special royal train. Our newspapers love to tell us how much the royal train costs. Last year the royal train was used only (ee)….. times. One of these trips was a visit which Prince Charles made to a pub in the town of Penrith – the cost was £(ff)…… However, palace officials have told the press that there are serious problems because several of the royal palaces need to be repaired. Altogether an extra £(gg)….. is needed for this. The roof at Windsor Castle needs to be replaced – this will cost £(hh)…… Many parts of Buckingham Palace in London have not been redecorated for over (ii)…..years, and the electrical wiring is over (jj)….. years old. It will cost £(kk)….. to rewire the palace, and replace the plumbing (that is, the water pipes and the drains), and to remove dangerous asbestos from the building. In fact, Buckingham Palace seems to be such a mess that I am surprised that the Queen still lives there. If you know of somewhere else where she could live temporarily, until Buckingham Palace is repaired, perhaps you could telephone her office and tell them The number is (ll)….. The Queen has her own web-site…. :: …and YouTube channel. :: Exercise and answers :: File Download (6:02 min / 3 MB) Less

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An iPhone – up-to-date technology. Picture by Niels van Eck/flickr. In today’s podcast, I am going to talk about the English word “up-to-date”. Well, it is really three words – “up”, “to” and “date” – normally we spell it with hyphens in between – but we can think of “up-to-date” as a single word. “Up-to-date” is an adjective. It means “having the latest information or ideas”. We can say that something, or someone, is “up-to-date”. I will give you some examples in a minute. But first, you need to know that the opposite of “up-to-date” is “out-of-date”. If something is out-of-date, it does not contain the latest information or ideas. Sometimes it means “old fashioned” or “no longer valid”. Lets look at some examples. Kevin, as you know, is mad keen about football. Often on Saturday he goes to see his team play. But he also want to know what is happening in the other football matches that are taking place at the same time. So he gets text messages on his mobile phone, to give him the latest scores in the other matches. Kevin likes to be up-to-date. The text messages keep Kevin up-to-date with the other football matches. Joanne is planning to go on a picnic with some friends. Will the weather by OK, or will it rain? The weather forecast yesterday was that the weather today would be cloudy but dry. but perhaps that weather forecast is now out-of-date. So Joanne listens to the weather forecast on the radio to get up-to-date information about the weather. The weather forecast still says that the weather will be cloudy but dry, so Joanne and her friends set off for their picnic. However, they get lost, because they are using an out-of-date map, which does not show some roads which have been built in the last ten years. John loves technology, or – rather – he loves technological gadgets which do clever things. Not all of these gadgets are useful, but John loves them anyway. He has just bought the latest, the most up-to-date iPhone. Is an iPhone useful, or is it just a gadget? I don’t know! Mary has some important exams at the end of the year. She also has to complete a project to show to the examiners. Her teacher asks her, “Are you up-to-date with your project?” That means, have you done everything you should have done by now? If Mary’s work is not up-to-date, we say that she is “behind” with her work. She will have to work hard all weekend in order to catch up. George thinks that it would be a great idea to go to Paris for the weekend with some friends. But he can’t. His passport is out-of-date. That means, it is no longer valid. He will need to get his passport renewed. Kevin sees an advertisement for a job in the newspaper. It looks attractive. It is closer to home, and it would pay more. The advertisement says that he should send an up-to-date CV (CV stands for curriculum vitae, which is Latin and means an list of the things that you have done in your life – what school you went to, what you studied at university, what jobs you have done – things like that.) The last time that Kevin looked at his CV was three years ago, so the CV is out-of-date. He needs to update his CV, by adding information for the last three years. He needs to bring his CV up-to-date. Joanne’s grandmother is 92 years old. Despite her age, she likes the latest pop music, and she always watches the news on television, because she likes to keep up-to-date with what is happening in the world. Joanne’s grandfather, however, has some very out-of-date attitudes – he wants to bring back compulsory military service, for example, and thinks that too many married women go out to work. And finally, I looked in my fridge a few minutes ago. There was some yoghurt at the back of the fridge. The label on the yoghurt pot says “Best before 28 August”. Today is 6 October. The yoghurt is out-of-date. Shall I eat the yoghurt anyway? Maybe not. Exercise about “up-to-date” :: Answers to the exercise :: File Download (5:53 min / 3 MB) Less

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