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Neil: Hello, I"m Neil.
Rob: And I"m Rob.
Neil: And welcome to 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Today we"re
looking forward to this New Year which stretches out ahead of us...2012. Now
Rob, you"ll have to remind me, there is something happening in London in 2012, I
can"t quite remember what it is.
Rob: Have you been asleep Neil, or are you just having a joke with me?
Neil: I think both...
Rob: Well of course we at BBC Learning English are based here in London and after
years of waiting we have finally arrived in Olympic year.
Neil: And we"ll get in to more of the Olympics later in the programme. Before that I
have a question for you, Rob. 2012 is not the first time the Olympics has come to
London. It is in fact the third time London will have hosted the Games. The last
time they were here was 1948, but when was the first time? Was it:
a) 1918
b) 1908
c) 1848
Rob: Well, it can"t be as far back as 1848, as I don"t think the modern Olympics had
started then. So I"m going to go for the middle one, 1908.
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Neil: OK. Well we"ll find out the answer. But now we"re talking about hopes and what
you are looking forward to in 2012. What are your hopes, Rob?
Rob: My hopes, as every year, are to get fit and eat more healthily.
Neil: Well people are listening to this and can"t see you. I can assure people that you
are not a fat man.
Rob: I could be leaner.
Neil: Well good luck with that one.
Rob: What about you, Neil?
Neil: As for me, it"s going to be a big year for me. My wife and I are expecting a second
child at the end of February. So that"s going to be dominating my year.
Rob: And you"ll be hoping for more sleep. That"s your hopes.
Neil: Well I was hoping for more sleep but it"s not going to happen. It"s not going to
happen. We"ve been asking some of our colleagues from BBC Learning English
what their hopes are and what they"re most are looking forward to in 2012.
Vox
Well, I would like to say the Olympics but, unfortunately I didn"t get any tickets, so I think
probably what I"m looking forward to most is going to Disneyland, Paris so I can be a child again
and go on all the rides and meet Mickey Mouse.
I"m currently a student doing a Master"s degree, so in 2012 I look forward to finishing that
successfully and to getting a bit of rest.
Three of my very good friends are getting married so I"m looking forward to going to a lot of
weddings because I love weddings and I just think it"ll be a lovely day of drinking and being
happy and watching my school friends getting hitched and going off into the distance with their
lovely husbands.
Neil: Some interesting responses there - and the Olympics was only mentioned once, so
perhaps it"s not as much a part of people"s lives as you"d think. One of our
colleagues there, Carrie, mentioned that she"s looking forward to going to
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Disneyland Paris. Is that something you"d fancy, Rob? Do you have any secret
childish dreams you still want to fulfil?
Rob: Well luckily I"ve already been to Disneyland, so I think I"d really like to go to
Lapland to meet Santa Claus, because apparently he really lives there.
Neil: Right, OK, well it"s a long wait, you"re going to be waiting until the end of the
year for that - you"ve just missed your chance but good luck with that one.
Another of our colleagues, Kaz, mentioned that he"s also studying at the moment,
as well as working. How about you, Rob? Do you have any academic ambitions?
Rob: Only really to do my degree again and perhaps get a better grade this time.
Neil: Right, I always promised myself that I"m going to brush up a language I"ve failed
to learn before and I think I"ll say that to myself again. The final colleague we
spoke to, Michelle, mentioned that three of her friends are getting married. I went
to a wedding for the first time in a long time in the summer. Do you have any such
wedding plans?
Rob: No. Well, I"ve been to a lot of weddings recently, but actually this year looks like
being wedding free. All of my friends are married. I suppose we"re looking
forward to the next stage in their life - whatever that may be.
Neil: Michelle used an interesting expression there - she said to get hitched. To get
hitched is an informal expression for getting married. So let"s end our programme
where we started - with the Olympics. Rob, are you excited?
Rob: I am excited. I"ve got tickets for the Olympics and the Paralympics, so I"m very
lucky.
Neil: Wow! What events have you got tickets for?
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Rob: For the Olympics I"ve got athletics and the football. And I"ve got athletics and
swimming for the Paralympics, so it should be very exciting for me at least. Let"s
hope we win some gold medals.
Neil: Well you"re a lucky man because a lot of people applied and a lot of people were
disappointed and you"ve got some fairly popular sports there as well. 2012
Olympics: will this be the even that defines the year for us in the UK, do you
think?
Rob: I think so. I don"t think we can avoid it really, I think it"s really going to be a big
thing for us in this country.
Neil: I think you"re probably right. By the end of the year we might be happy to see the
end of it!
Rob: We"ll be sick of it by then.
Neil: Let"s just hope it goes well. Now it"s time for you to answer our quiz question,
Rob. It"s the third time that London will have hosted the Olympics: when was the
first time?
Rob: I said 1908 here in London, wasn"t it.
Neil: Yes, you are absolutely correct: it was 1908. So that means all we have time for
now is to wish our listeners a Happy New Year.
Neil: Happy New Year!
Rob: Happy New Year!
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6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2011
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to look forward to something to want something to happen
lean thin but strong and fit
to get hitched an informal expression meaning to get married
to miss your chance to fail to take advantage of an opportunity
to brush up to revise or improve your knowledge of
something
to be sick of something to be annoyed or bored by something
More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/2012/
Read and listen to the story online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2012/01/120105_6min_english_2012hopes.shtml
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