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Engramme: Your Daily English Programme #60: The Vatican Pope (Listening B2-C1) |
Welcome to Week #16 lessons on Engramme: Your Daily English Programme. Today, we'll be looking at how a new pope is chosen to lead the Catholic Church. Interesting topic? Let's find out!
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Think Before You Listen |
What do you see in these pictures? What is special about the person and the place?
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The pope is the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. To this day, 266 cardinals have been appointed 'pope' in the Catholic Church. The current pope is Pope Francis who was chosen in 2013, after the unexpected resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. Before that, it was Pope Saint John Paul II who was elected on October 16, 1978.
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Watch and Listen |
Watch the Video: What color smoke signifies that a new pope has been chosen?
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Let's Practice |
It may happen in your first language too: you may be listening to the news and there might be something, the words, environmental noise, or some other factor preventing you from understanding every single word. But, you still manage to get "the message". How? By focusing on the words that you hear, the key words, and/or other audiovisual clues that help you recognize the subject.
These conditions may also occur when you are listening in a foreign language: you may not know all the words, e.g. in a news broadcast (like the one above), the topic may be rather unfamiliar, or you might be under exam conditions1 where you are not allowed to use a dictionary or other resources to help you with unknown words and/or difficult structures. But still, you need to understand as much as you can to be able to answer the questions. This lesson is designed so as to help you practice this skill in English.
Watch & Listen Again: Try and find the answers to the following general comprehension questions(you may need to listen more than once):
(compare your answers to the ones in the first comment)
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Over to You |
What is the journey to becoming a pope? Do you think anyone can become a pope? Why (not)?
This video from CGP Grey helps you answer the above questions.
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1 Listening comprehension questions are a regular part of many standardized exams, including the TOEFL test.↩
Answers to the listening comprehension questions:
ReplyDelete1. The 115 cardinals of the Vatican Church; 2. Inside the Sistine Chapel; 3. One stove to burn the (finalized) ballots, the other to control the color of the smoke (‘black’ for an inconclusive vote; ‘white’ for a new pope); 4. His white papal garments (in various sizes)