Adults|Spoken|Intermediate|9. Incredible stories

A German man was evicted from his flat in Berlin because he laughed too much and too loudly. Rudi Bauer, 52, was forced to leave his home after neighbours complained.

New University courses

New degree courses on offer at some of Britain’s universities include: golf at Birmingham, theology and water resources at Oxford Brookes, philosophy and waste management at Northampton University College, and watersports studies at Southampton Institute.

Pea shooting controversy

This year’s World Pea Shooting Championships — contestants shoot dried peas at a soft clay target — take place in Witcham, Cambridgeshire. It is hoped there will not be a repetition of last year’s controversy when the winner used a laser guidance system.

Talking washing machines

Electrolux has just announced the launch of its first talking washing machine, which has gone on sale in India. The company is also developing a cooker which will learn how cooks like to cook their food.

Stuck in the air

A woman on a Scandinavian Airlines flight became stuck to a lavatory seat when she used the vacuum flush while still seated. She was freed when the plane landed.

Save the best till last

Most people think that an index is a boring, but sometimes useful, bit at the back of a book. But it is much more than that. The British Library has just published a collection of the 71 best indexes of all time — from 1427 to the present day.

Back into the records

Grant Melville, 45, has walked into the record books backwards! He climbed Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, making the whole ascent backwards. The climb and descent took 15 hours 37 minutes.

New University courses

New degree courses on offer at some of Britain’s universities include: golf at Birmingham, theology and water resources at Oxford Brookes, philosophy and waste management at Northampton University College, and watersports studies at Southampton Institute.

Pea shooting controversy

This year’s World Pea Shooting Championships — contestants shoot dried peas at a soft clay target — take place in Witcham, Cambridgeshire. It is hoped there will not be a repetition of last year’s controversy when the winner used a laser guidance system.

Talking washing machines

Electrolux has just announced the launch of its first talking washing machine, which has gone on sale in India. The company is also developing a cooker which will learn how cooks like to cook their food.

Stuck in the air

A woman on a Scandinavian Airlines flight became stuck to a lavatory seat when she used the vacuum flush while still seated. She was freed when the plane landed.

Save the best till last

Most people think that an index is a boring, but sometimes useful, bit at the back of a hook. But it is much more than that. The British Library has just published a collection of the 71 best indexes of all time — from 1427 to the present day.

Back into the records

Grant Melville, 45, has walked into the record books backwards! He climbed Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, making the whole ascent backwards. The climb and descent took 15 hours 37 minutes.

Original story

A nine-year old Chinese girl was playing in Songjian near Shanghai, in July 1992 when she was carried off by a whirlwind and deposited unhurt in a treetop almost two miles away. According to a wire report from May 1986, a freak wind lifted up 13 children in the oasis of Hami in Western China and deposited them unharmed in sand dunes and scrub 12 miles away.

Original story

Margaret Bell, who kept bees in Leintwardine, about 7 miles from her home in Ludlow, Shropshire (England), died in June 1994. Soon after her funeral, mourners were amazed to see hundreds of bees settle on the corner of the street opposite the house where she had lived for 26 years. The bees stayed for an hour before buzzing off over the rooftops. The local press ran a photograph of the bees hanging on the wall in a cluster.

Original story

While on holiday a woman, referred to by the British Medical Journal (1997) as AB, heard two voices in her head telling her to return home immediately. Back in London the voices gave her an address that turned out to be a hospital’s brain scan department. The voices told her to ask for a scan as she had a brain tumour and her brain stem was inflamed. Though she had no symptoms, a scan was eventually arranged and she did indeed have a tumour. After an operation, AB heard the voices again: «We are pleased to have helped you,» they said «Good-bye.» AB made a full recovery.

You know I love animals so much. I love animals and I think they’re smarter than we ever give them credit for. We should respect their intelligence is different than ours. But this is incredible. This is a video. It happened a few days ago, I think, in Alaska. And I’ll just tell you before we start showing it. There’s a state trooper gets a call in the middle of nowhere in Alaska that there’s a house on fire. His GPS is frozen. So, we’ll take it from here.

The dog is waiting right there. We had to cut this down because it ran for a minute and a half. This dog ran, waited on a road for the state trooper. And the state trooper was smart enough to follow the dog. There’s another bend in the road. He follows the dog that way. And like I said we’ve cut it down because it was much longer than is… So, I guess the trooper thinks, «That must be the fire, but it’s just reflective, cause you can see here he almost goes straight. The dog’s still running. He turns the corner and like I said the GPS was frozen, he never would have found this house fire, saved the family. There’s the fire. The dog led them all the way to that fire. And then after the state trooper got there, the dog ran all the way back and waited for the fire truck and led the fire truck all the way to that house as well.

Wow, ha? Amazing! The dog’s name is Buddy and so, Buddy, you know I have a pet food company called Halo. And we’re gonna send Buddy a case of these Liv-a-Littles that dogs love. And he deserves this, ’cause these are like his dids. So, Buddy, actually, Buddy if you could meet UPS truck at the intersection and…