Basic English Listening: Easily Master Common Opposites

Practice listening easily with just 15 minutes a day! This book selects 2-minute short passages with moderate difficulty, perfect for beginners. Through four stages — “pre-listening, catching keywords, sentence-by-sentence understanding, and overall retelling” — learners progress step by step to understand over 90% of the content. Persistent practice leads to qualitative improvement and rapid advancement in your English listening skills! Below is a collection organized by the qicai website editor, starting from the simplest English listening materials suitable for middle and high school beginners (beginner level).

Opposites are pairs of things that are completely different from each other. For example, the opposite of black is white, and the opposite of happy is sad. If I am standing at the opposite side of the room from you, it means I am on the other side where you are not. Similarly, the opposite of up is down, and the opposite of left is right. Do you know what the opposite of young is? It is old. The opposite of dirty is clean, and the opposite of big is small. A man is the opposite of a woman, and a boy is the opposite of a girl.

Sometimes, people think differently and may have opposite opinions. Someone might be wrong, and someone might be right. For example, the opposite of mother is father. Can you think of more opposites? It is cold in the winter but hot in the summer. My father is very tall, while my brother is very short. A rock is hard, but a pillow is soft. An ocean is deep, but a puddle is shallow. I might tell the truth, but I might also tell a lie. All of these are examples of opposites.

The morning is bright, but the night is dark. A feather is light, but an elephant is heavy. Sugar is sweet, but a lemon is sour. A jet plane is fast, but a turtle is slow. I can go out during the day, or I can go out at night. I might love to swim, or I might hate to swim. It is interesting to see how many opposites you can think of. I could say hello, but now I think it is time to say goodbye.