photo Tara Benwell 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: 10 March 2015

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Couple Cancels Big Wedding For Kindness Tour

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

  • honeymoon: a trip newlyweds take after a wedding
  • budget: money set aside for a specific purpose
  • social media: online media networks, such as Facebook or Twitter
  • philanthropist: one who supports charities and people (often financially)

Couple Cancels Big Wedding For Kindness Tour

A young couple in the US decided to give up their plans for a big wedding and honeymoon, and use their budget to go on a tour of kindness instead. Rather than having the wedding of their dreams, Mark and Ismini Svensson their vows in a courthouse. For the past two years, they have been using their wedding budget to travel to every state in the US to complete an act of . Along the way, the couple has been taking suggestions they receive on social media. During the tour, they have done a variety of kind acts, including helping the elderly with , raising money for an animal shelter, and visiting disabled athletes and children in the hospital. The couple decided to do this Ismini Svensson’s father, a philanthropist tragically at a charity event while talking about love and kindness.

Comprehension Questions

    1. What is the couple doing instead of having a big wedding and honeymoon?
    2. How are they deciding which act to do in each state?
    3. Why did the couple decide to do this?

Discussion Questions: Do you think big weddings are a waste of money? Why, or why not?

show Answers

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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