Practice English Listening B2 Exercises – Fake news

1   a (Chevron) gas station

2   the gas station’s owner

3   ramen noodle theft (in Fayette County)

4   29 cents

5   an animal with strange stripes

6   he’s an artist and he knows what the two animals look like

7   zebras usually have a black nose and mouth, and this animal didn’t

8   the animal was a donkey

Story 1

And now, news from around the country. In Fayetteville, Georgia, a truck filled with instant ramen noodles worth approximately $98,000 was stolen from a Chevron gas station near Georgia Interstate Highway 85 North. According to a report filed by the victim with local authorities, the truck disappeared sometime last week. The victim persuaded the gas station’s owner to give him permission to park the tractor-trailer there. When the truck driver went back to the gas station to get his truck, it was gone, along with all the instant noodles. Lt. Allen Stevens, who works for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office was reported as saying that this is the first “ramen noodle theft that has ever occurred here in Fayette County.” What does $98,000 worth of instant ramen noodles translate into? Well, on average, one package costs about 29 cents. That means that there were more than 300,000 packages of instant ramen in the stolen track. While most nutritionists probably would not recommend eating instant ramen more than once or twice a month, there is enough for one person to eat three times a day for the next 300 years!

Story 2

And now for our last story today – a zoo in Egypt has denied painting a donkey with black stripes in order to make it look like a zebra. Egyptian student Mahmoud Sarhan, 18, was visiting the zoo in Cairo when he noticed the animal, which had strange-looking black stripes. Mr. Sarhan was suspicious and took a photo of the animal, which appeared to have strange black marks on its face, and posted it online. He later told the media, “I knew that it was a donkey as soon as I saw it. I’m an artist. I know the different shape of a donkey and a zebra, so it was easy to tell the difference.” After the image was shared on social media, it went viral. Egyptian news site Extranews.tv approached a local vet, who agreed to examine the photo. He pointed out that zebras usually have a black nose and mouth, whereas the animal in Mr. Sarhan’s photo appears to be pale in this area. The vet added that authentic zebra stripes are usually straighter and clearer than those on the animal in Mr. Sarhan’s photo. The local radio station contacted the zoo’s director, Mohamed Sultan. However, he refused to admit that the animal was a donkey.

1 a   2 c   3 b   4 a

1

I = interviewer, M = Melanie

I      Is there anyone you often have arguments with?

M   I suppose I often have arguments with my sister, and that is mostly about, you know, who’s going to clean the dishes, whose turn is it to bring out the trash, who’s going to get the toilet paper next, things like that.

I      Who usually wins the argument? Why?

M   Depends on who’s more awake at the time, they usually win the arguments.

2

I = interviewer, E = Erica

I    Have you ever acted in a play or a movie?

E   I have acted in both plays and films actually. I, that’s my profession, I’m an actor.

I    What was your most recent play?

E   Hmm, OK, so my most recent play was called A Woman’s Worth, where I played Jayda who is a wedding planner, whose fiancé just refuses to make the commitment and actually get married to her.

I    Did you enjoy the experience?

E   I did enjoy the experience. I got a chance to perform in front of my friends and my family and my boyfriend, so that was really cool.

3

I = interviewer, V = Victoria

I     Have you ever witnessed a crime?

V   Um, I have witnessed a crime when I was in Barcelona about ten years ago. We were sitting out at a table, um eating, and I had my video camera on the table…um…and a woman came up and distracted us and grabbed my camera and ran away with it. Um and the waiter actually chased her and grabbed the camera back, so it was…it was a crime that was stopped, but it was a crime.

4

I = interviewer, D = Diarmuid

I     Where do you get your news from?

D   Uh, I read most of my news online or on my phone. Um, and I do use newspaper apps, um, but I’m ashamed to say that a lot of my news does also come through social media.

I     What kind of news are you most interested in?

D   Uh, I’m interested in politics, uh, sports, um, and really most news. I studied journalism, so I have an interest in it.

I     Do you mostly believe what you hear or read in the news?

D   Uh, no, I don’t believe anything I read in the news. And I, I think, um, you have to filter everything you read through the organization that it comes from, because every, uh, media outlet has some kind of bias.