Listen to News with Tara Benwell - Instructions:
1. Preview the vocabulary and read the gapfill text.
2. Play the news report and try to fill in the blanks.
3. Answer the comprehension questions by writing full sentences.
4. Use the discussion question to write an essay or discuss the story with other students.
5. Click "show Answers" to see the full text.
6. Pretend to be a news anchor by reading each story out loud.
dateline: 31 July 2012
NB! For WEEKLY audio stories check out LISTEN & LEARN ๐
Soldiers Fill Empty Seats At Olympic Games
Pre-Listening Vocabulary
- premium: high quality or value
- VIP: very important person
- scramble: to suddenly try to fix or find something
- venue: a place such as a stadium where an event takes place
- allocate:ย to set aside for a certain person or reason
- spectator: a person who watches an event
Comprehension Questions
- Why were Olympic fans upset?
- What caused the problem?
- Why does the report mention the military?
Discussion Question: Why is it so important for Olympic venues to appear full? What do you think should be done if VIPs or foreign ticket holders don’t show up for events?
show Answershide Answers
Soldiers Fill Empty Seats At Olympic Games
Premium seats that had been reserved for VIPs at the London Olympic Games sat empty during the first weekend of the competition. Fans who had been trying to get tickets to “sold out” events such as gymnastics and swimming, expressed anger and discouragement when they saw the large blocks of empty seats in the TV coverage. The Olympic Committee began scrambling to avoid the embarrassment of unfilled seating, and invited soldiers who had finished their security shifts to fill up some of the venues. Some of the vacant seats had been allocated to foreign countries, though the tickets were never sold or returned. A similar problem occurred at the Beijing Olympics, and spectators were bussed in to fill up the venues.
- Olympic fans were upset because they wanted to attend these events but they had been told there were no seats left.
- Some tickets had been allocated to foreign countries, but were never sold or returned.
- Soldiers who had finished their shifts were invited to take up empty seats at some of the venues.
Written and recorded by Tara Benwell for EnglishClub
Tara Benwell is a Canadian freelance writer and editor who specializes in materials and articles for the ELT industry.
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