Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Early birds

A

1 He wakes up at 5:45.

2 He exercises for 30 minutes.

3 He goes for a walk around a local park.

4 He starts work at 9:00 a.m.

5 He studies German at 5:20 a.m. on Thursdays.

6 He works 70 hours a week.

B

…it helps him to do more during the day.

Tim Powell isn’t a morning person – which is surprising, because on weekdays he gets up very early. While most of us are still asleep, Powell wakes up at five forty-five, exercises for thirty minutes at his home gym, and has a big breakfast. Then he gets ready for work and drives to the office. When he gets to the building where he works, he goes for a walk around a local park, and then he goes inside to start work at nine. And on Thursdays, he gets up even earlier, at five twenty a.m., to study German.

Powell is a lawyer. He works seventy hours a week, and he says that getting up early helps him to do more during the day. He isn’t the only one – many busy, successful people get up very early.

1 quiet   2 go to bed   3 do things, energy

Experts agree that getting up early is a big help if you have a lot of things to do. There are three main reasons for this. The first reason why it’s good to get up early is that the early morning is quiet.

Nobody phones you at six a.m. There aren’t any important emails or messages to answer. There aren’t any meetings. There aren’t any people. The morning is your time.

The second reason is that if you get up early, you go to bed early. Most people don’t do anything useful in the evenings. People who go to bed late spend many hours watching TV, seeing their friends, and spending time on social media. So if you want to do a lot, it’s better to go to bed early, and have shorter evenings and longer mornings.

The third reason is that it’s better to do things in the morning, when you have energy. Most people are tired after a day at work or college. And when you’re tired, the last thing you want to do is to exercise, or to study, or to practise a musical instrument.

And if you find it impossible to get up early? Set your alarm five minutes earlier than you usually get up. And the next day set it five minutes earlier again. After three weeks, you’ll have nearly two hours that you never had before!

1 c   2 a   3 b   4 c   5 a

1

I = interviewer, H = Hope

I   What animal would you most like to see in the wild, for example on a safari?

H   Oh, that’s a really good question. Probably an elephant.

I   Why?

H   I think they’re amazing. They’re so big, and just, they sort of live in the wilderness, and yeah.

2

I = interviewer, M = Mairi

I   Do you have a phobia?

M   I’m frightened of spiders.

I   How long have you had it?

M   Er, since I was about five or six I think, but I’m not sure.

I   How does it affect your life?

M   Um, I normally have to check a room to see if there’s a big spider in it before I go to sleep, because, one time a spider, er, joined me in my bed.

3

I = interviewer, D = Dave

I   Who’s the oldest person you know well?

D   My great aunt is a hundred and four, living in California.

I   What kind of life has she had?

D   She has had a great life. She’s still travelling at a hundred and four.

4

I = interviewer, S = Sarah

I   Do you do any sport or exercise?

S   I run and I hike, and I do yoga.

I   Do you enjoy it?

S   I love hiking, hiking is my favourite, and I just love being in nature and outdoors, and experiencing nature on foot.

5

I = interviewer, K = Kathy

I   Are you a morning or evening person?

K   Um, I’m a morning person. Um, I feel a lot more awake in the morning than in the evening, um, so I tend to get up early, even when I’m not at, even when I’m not at work. Um, and I prefer to go to bed earlier.