English Listening Practice for Beginners: Understanding Family Meals

Just 15 minutes a day makes listening easy! This book selects 2-minute short passages with moderate difficulty, perfect for beginners. Through the four stages of “pre-listening — catching keywords — understanding sentence by sentence — overall retelling,” learners progress step by step to understand over 90% of the content. With persistent practice, quantity turns into quality, and your English listening skills will improve rapidly! Below is a collection from Qicai website editors of simple English listening content, suitable for junior and senior high school (beginner level).

Breakfast is very rushed at our house. My brothers and sisters and I have toast or cereal. We also have orange juice. On weekends, my mother makes bacon and eggs for us. My father just has a cup of coffee for breakfast.

My mother packs a lunch for all of us. We usually have a sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a drink of juice or milk. My favorite sandwiches are egg salad, tuna, roast beef, and ham. My brother always wants peanut butter and jam sandwiches. My mother sometimes packs a treat for us. Today we had cookies with our lunch.

At supper time, the family sits around the table and talks about what they did all day. My mother makes good suppers. We sometimes have spaghetti. My mother makes a roast of beef with potatoes and vegetables quite often. She makes many different dishes out of chicken. She makes soups or stews. She also makes casseroles.

My brothers and sisters and I have milk with our dinner. My parents sometimes have wine with their dinner. Sometimes we have salad before our dinner. I set the table for my mother. I put all the forks, the knives, and spoons. I also put out glasses and fill them full of milk or water.

For dessert, we sometimes have ice cream, cake, or pie. My mother says that it is better to have fruit because it is better for you. Tonight I ate a peach for dessert. My favorite fruits are apples, peaches, plums, and bananas.

After supper, my mother always has a cup of tea with sugar and cream in it. After dinner, I help my mother with the dishes. Usually she washes the dishes and I will dry them.