Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
I want to talk about supporting Coventry City, the team I've supported since I was a young boy at school. Coventry City are a team from the West Midlands near Birmingham, where I grew up. And just to give a bit of background on the club, it was founded back in 1883, and we were founder members of the Premier League. But in 2001, after 34 consecutive years in the top division, we were finally relegated. And since that year, we've been in the Championship or the second tier of the English Football Leagues.
Our only real honour was winning the FA Cup back in 1987. People often ask me why I support Coventry City. Well, in my school, everyone either supported Aston Villa, the local team, or Liverpool, the team that won everything at the time. I didn't really want to support the same as everybody else – I wanted to choose a different team. So after a school trip to Coventry one day, I thought, well, I'll support Coventry City, then. It was the FA Cup win that cemented my support for them. I remember listening to the radio commentary, listening to them beat, I think, Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-final and that was it. I was a City fan then.
Erm … people ask why I don't support one of the big teams. Well, in England, people either support a team that always wins, and we call them 'glory hunters', or a team near from where they were born. And there is a lot of joy in not supporting one of the big teams, especially when we get to play the big teams. I'll always remember beating Manchester United one cold Boxing Day, when we scored two goals in the last minute to beat them 3–2. And even last season we went to Old Trafford and beat Manchester United 2–0. Also, playing in the Championship is surprisingly a better league, I think, than playing in the Premier League. Every team can beat each other, it's much more exciting, every team has got a chance of getting promoted, or there is always the threat of relegation. Every season, there's new teams to visit and it's much more interesting than the Premier League, which is pretty much the same every year.
Supporting a team's like being part of a family: you can't just choose to leave the family if there's some disappointments. And being part of that family means that you share the same dreams and the same desires, and the same disappointments. This season I think we've got a good chance of promotion – we've got a good manager, Chris Coleman, who used to be in charge of Fulham. And we've got an outside chance, I think, of making the playoffs. Last season we were very nearly relegated, but this season I think we'll have a much better season.
I'm from Italy and my favourite team is AS Roma. I think Jose Mourhino is a great manager. I enjoyed the story about Coventry City F.C..
Hello, when i was in secondary school I'm excited to see the Spain's football teams playing because they played professionally. Now, i'm not a fan of none of football teams; i'm not really still in games!
I'm a fan of Arsenal. This season, we were about to win the Premier League after a long while but sadly, Manchester City won the title at last because of having many fabulous players. It was so shocking for us to lose the title. But I'm extremely hopeful to win the next season and be successful in the Champions League.
In my city, Criciuma, there is a team which carries the same name as the city, Criciuma. This year we are very optimistic about going on promotion to the first league. In 1991, it was our glory year, we won the Cup of Brazil. We are the only team in our State, Santa Catarina, which have won this Cup. https://www.criciuma.com.br/ . Just like Neil, I support the city team rather than a big team. I am proudly enough to invite you guys to come and watch a match in my town Criciuma.
Thanks for reading
Bruno Pavei Naspoline ( Rodinei's friend)
Dear Team,
does ''there's a lot of teams to visit'' sound correct, instead of ''there're a lot of teams to visit''? Why there's a syntax like that?
Many thanks to all of you,
Nikos
Hello Nikos,
I think 'are' is the standard choice here as we generally agree with the noun following 'a lot of' - there is with uncountable and there are with countable nouns. However, some people tend to use 'is' and I think there may be a dialectal variance at play here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I did go to two football matches when I was a lot younger and found out that the noisy crowds cheering and the limited view from my seats were a downside to watching a live match at a stadium. Nowadays, when I feel like watching a game, I would rather sit in front of my 60-inch flat screen with some snacks and drinks to accompany me. I am not a fan of any football club but once in a while I would enjoy a match especially the final and I would pay close attention to the upcoming stars just to study their unique skills trying to figure out what is so special about them.
I support GALATASARAY from Turkey. Galatasaray is the biggest football club in Turkey. Because they have the most number of championship cup in Turkey Super League. Also they have European League Cup formerly named as UEFA Cup. That is a big succesful for a team. Nowadays, maybe it doesn't play a good game in the Super League but it continues to play better in European League.