Listen&Learn: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

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Posted by: Jaksyn Peacock

A humorous story about a man’s adventures in space.

Pre-listening vocabulary

science fiction: a genre of stories about futuristic ideas like aliens and time travel
protagonist: the main character of a story
escape: to leave a dangerous situation
reveal: to give someone information that they didn’t know before
satirical: using humour to criticize something
adventure: an exciting and sometimes dangerous experience

Listening activity

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13 — 1.1MB)

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Gapfill exercise

Comprehension questions

[wp_quiz id=”20468″]

Discussion/essay questions

Can you think of some other books, movies, or TV shows that use humour to criticize society?

Transcript

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction novel by English author Douglas Adams. The book is based on a radio series that Adams created in 1978. The protagonist, Arthur Dent, learns from his alien friend Ford Prefect that the world is about to end. Ford helps Arthur escape, and the two begin to travel through the galaxy. Along the way, Arthur learns that Earth was really a computer built to reveal the truth about “life, the universe, and everything”. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a very satirical story. Many of the humorous events in the book represent problems in society. Adams published four more novels about Arthur Dent’s adventures before his death in 2001.

Written and recorded by Jaksyn Peacock for EnglishClub

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10 comments

English Club Indonesia says:

There are many movies or TV shows that do the same thing, but I can’t think of one right now.
Hotma Nurhayati says:

Thank you for sharing with us. It improves my listening skill in learning English
Nur alyaa says:

I think some of other books , movies or tv shows that we humour to critize society is the student.
Alma J. De León mora says:

I really appreciate the material you bring as support. overall the listenings are really useful thanks!!!!!
Shaheen says:

If I have time, I wish to read the novel. Thanks.
Lutur Alam says:

Hey there,

Thank you English Club for helping us to improve our Basic English.

I highly appreciate it,
Phương says:

Thank you very much!
The King Of Love From IRAN says:

Thank you for sharing it with us,
Michael J. Sullivan says:

What about Charles Dickins’, novel, “Oliver Twist?” A satire of societal attitudes towards children in an industrializing Britian of the 1800’s.
Ramu says:

I am from Myanmar and I want to learn English and work at US .Now I am a student and my dream is to shift my family to Canada ,I don’t want to live here .My countries people of 80% have no brain like kindness on each other and a lot of are poor .So I am now study English and work in other development country and etc.