Thai Street Food | IB English B Listening Test Practice

Thai Street Food: Listening Practice

In this lesson, we will practice mainly our listening skills by learning about Thai Street food.

Exercise 1Exercise 2Exercise 3Word List

Thailand has some amazing Thai Street food and it is so cheap. Watch this video by Drew Binsky who takes you through the streets of Bangkok. Answer the questions in the video.

You will hear a reporter who visited Bangkok where he sampled some Thai Street Food.

A. Identify true or false statements: According to the reporter, which of the following statements are true or false?

1. The reporter selects a very hot and spicy dish.

2. Street food is an important part of Bangkok life.

3. Half the people in Bangkok eat street food daily.

4. Many top chefs prefer visiting street food vendors rather than expensive restaurants.

5. The current government support the vendors selling food on the street.

6. Vendors are being allocated to new places in the city by the Thai government.

7. New shops and expensive restaurant will soon replace the street vendors.

B. Gap-fill. Complete the text.

The food writer believes that it is (8) to remove the street food as she feels that it is part of Bangkok’s (9). The reporter explained that many vendors have built a (10) customer base at a certain location and that they will (11) a lot of their customers if they move.

C. Multiple Choice Choose the correct statement.

12. The reporter believes

A. lots of people won’t bother to seek out their favourite food cart.

B. some people may switch to buying food from a convenience store.

C. many people will switch to eating in restaurants.

D. some people will change to cook at home.

Click here to view the transcript.

Instructions: This is the IB English page listening practice test one text a the start and end of the audio text will be indicated by this sound text you now have four minutes to read the questions. You are going to listen to a reporter living in Bangkok talking about Thai Street food.

Reporter: That is the sound of deliciousness ‘Pat Kapow Moo’ minced pork with holy basil served on rice with a fried egg on top, the chilli dialled in at about nine out of ten for my foreigner’s tongue for me. It’s the pic of the street food options near my house in Bangkok and every evening six days a week there’s a crowd of office workers waiting patiently for their portion at a dollar sixty. It’s a bargain and it’s just one of the many street food options available on this corner. There’s buttery sweetcorn, satay sticks, spicy papaya salad, noodle soup and ice-cold coconuts. Any visitor to Thailand will know just how important street food is to life. One survey found that two-thirds of Bangkokian’s eat at least one meal a day from street food stalls. Someone who’s particularly passionate about the subject is Garanapoksin is also known as Nim she’s a food writer and travel show host.

Nim: You can go and get any Brooklyn style in the Parsian food style anywhere in the world with three-foot of Bangkok it’s here’s the blood of Bangkok you cannot get it anywhere else you know it had been embedded in our life for so long.

Reporter: When the world’s top chefs visit Bangkok they’ll often ask me to take them on a guided tour.

Nim: Ask me to go to either the expensive restaurant they ask me too the three thought that you like take me to the street food that you never been eaten and that is the charm of Bangkok you know it says as Chan is this of Fame it is an identity of Bangkok no one else have the the street food like this I dare you to find.

Reporter: But Bangkok’s legendary street food faces a challenge and it comes from the country’s military which ousted to the government in 2014 and is on a mission to make the capital a more organized place. The generals are evicting thousands of street food vendors. They say to clear footpaths and make it easier to walk. Some of the best-known Street food zones have already been cleared and others have been told to leave by the 17th of April. So fancy new apartment blocks will spring up in some of the areas with expensive restaurants and shops to serve the new residents.

Nim: It’s a little bit short-sighted for you know Bangkok Authority to do this thing. To all the life in Bangkok that I consider Street food is a part of Bangkok culture perhaps Thai culture you know.

Reporter: The evictions are a big deal for sellers who built a loyal customer base at a particular spot. I spoke to vendors who’d sold from their locations for more than 30 years. One woman took over from her mother when she was 25 and she’s now 61 her daughter working by her side. Three generations of not just income but pride in their hard work and happy customers. There were some teary eyes as the vendors explained their next moves mostly trying to find a spot off the Main Street but not too far away. Hoping their customers would find them. Of course, people are resilient and Bangkok residents are passionate about their food so no doubt many will track down their favourite food carts, but some will be forced to go elsewhere for affordable options or succumb to the processed crap served at convenience stores. And they sure are plenty of those. In fact, only Japan has more 7-Elevens than Thailand. Now I’m not saying that Street Food is always the healthiest food around. There’s plenty of sugar and fat and MSG but it’s mostly real ingredients fresh on the spot. Life is impermanent all things change and cities do develop but many Thais feel that some of the things that make Bangkok unique are being discarded in the rush for economic development.

Instructions: You will now have two minutes before you hear text a for our second and final time.

Script repeated again.

Instructions: You now have two minutes 30 seconds to finish answering the questions

There are many idioms and expression that are based on ‘food’. Here are a few that you may find useful to add to your vocabulary.

bad egg – a person who is often in trouble

butter someone up – be extra nice to someone (usually for selfish reasons)

nuts about something/someone – like a lot

one smart cookie – a very intelligent person

souped up – made more powerful or stylish

spice things up – make something more exciting

You can find more common idioms based on food here.

Here are the keywords and phrases covered in this lesson:

affordable
buttery sweetcorn
discarded
economic development
evictions
portion
deliciousness
food stalls
food writer
foreigner
legendary
portion
Thai Street Food

Answers for Exercise 2
Part A
1. True 2. True 3. False 4. True 5. False 6. False 7. True
Part B
8. short-sighted 9. culture 10. loyal 11. lose
Part C
12. B

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