Text Adjustment: preparing texts for listening tests

Why? It is not always easy to find texts especially designed for listening tests Many written texts are interesting and can be used for listening purposes, but they need to be adjusted so that they are “ear friendly”.

How do we adjust texts? By reducing the lexical density By using everyday vocabulary

Ladybird (Original) Ladybirds are very useful allies to farmers and gardeners, as they like to eat small plant-eating insects that are called aphids. Aphids ruin crops, so farmers and gardeners welcome any ladybirds that happens to drop by. Ladybirds use their sharp jaws and strong claws to catch enough aphids to satisfy their enormous appetites, which can be one hundred aphids a day!

Ladybird (Adjusted) Ladybirds are very useful friends to farmers and gardeners. These bugs like to eat small aphids. Aphids are small insects that eat plants. They ruin the farmers’ crops. That is why farmers and gardeners are happy when ladybirds come and visit them. They have sharp jaws and strong claws to catch aphids. They have great appetites. They can eat one hundred aphids a day!

Bamboo Shoot (original) Tender young shoots from many species of bamboo are eaten. Some are infinitely superior, lacking the bitterness of others; bamboo shoots from a cooler climate including those grown in higher altitudes are generally much sweeter. Only when you have tasted succulent fresh winter bamboo shoots or one of the finest high altitude varieties can you understand why Chinese poets waxed so lyrical over this vegetable.

Bamboo Shoot (Adjusted) Many people eat bamboo shoots. There are many kinds of bamboo shoot they can choose from. Some bamboo shoots have nice taste, but some are really superior. These superior shoots do not have the bitter taste that the others do. Usually, the superior shoots grow in higher places with cooler climate. These shoots are much sweeter compared to the ordinary ones. Once you taste the crunchy fresh winter bamboo shoots, you will understand why the Chinese poets wrote beautiful lyrics about the vegetable.

The Amazing Human Body (Original) A skeleton holds the body together. The 650 different muscles covering the skeleton give the body its shape. Babies have 305 bones at birth but adults have about 206 bones because as people grow some of he bones fuse together.

The Amazing Human Body (Adjusted) A skeleton is the bone structure that holds the body together. Our bones are covered by 650 different muscles. These muscles give our body its shape. Babies have 305 bones when they are born. However, adults have only 206 bones because as people grow some of the bones join together.

Bitter Gourd Also known as bitter gourd, bitter melon or balsam pear, this vegetable is, pedictably, very bitter in flavour. It grows easily and the climbing vine is often seen in kitchen gardens. The fruit looks rather like a pale green cucumber with a bumpy grooved skin. To avoid excessive bitterness, the bitter gourd is picked while young and is usually rubbed with salt and left to stand for about an hour before cooking; it is then rinsed and dried, and the central spongy portion and seeds discarded.

Bitter Gourd (2) Thai and Chinese cooks like to stuff this thick Slices with prawn; it is also popular with eggs. Other cooks in tropical Asia sometimes skip the preliminary salting and instead simmer slices or cubes in salty water before adding them to soups or a seasoned stew. The bitter gourd is rich in vitamin A and C. Perhaps because anything bitter is thought to be good for you, many Asians believe this vegetable has medical properties.

Language Accompanying Action Worm 1.Cut a paper square in half. Each piece makes one worm.

Worm 2. Fold the paper in half lengthwise. 3. Fold the corners in at one end.

Worm 4. Fan pleat the whole length of the paper. Turn paper over. 5. If you make very sharp creases, you can tap the worm on the back and it will creep along very slowly.