The document summarizes an interview with Anderson Cooper where he discusses how he chose his career in journalism. After struggling following his brother's death in college, Cooper took time off and traveled before deciding he wanted a career where he could see history unfold and feel fulfilled. He got his start by sneaking into Burma to report on student protests and selling that story, eventually getting hired by a news program to report from Somalia during a famine.

1. Before you listen
Task 1. You’re going to hear an interview
with a man explaining how he chose his
profession. Look at the photo of this person
at work and brainstorm three possible
professions:
•
•
•
Task 2. Look at the following word cloud created out of the interview transcript. Which of the professions
that your group predicted in Task 1 do you think this person is going to talk about? How many words that
refer to this profession can you find? Circle them.
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2. Listening
Task 3. Watch the interview. What is the man’s profession? Why did he choose it? What other details can
you catch? Take notes and then share what you caught with your partner.
Notes:
Profession:
Reasons:
Further details:
Task 4. Listen to the first part of the interview again. Your teacher is going to play each line several times.
Listen and fill the gaps.
While you’re working, make a note of the words that you found difficult to catch in this box:
Words that were difficult to catch:
1. My brother had committed suicide right before my senior _________ college __________ my senior
year _________ a blur to me.
2. _____________ graduated, I __________ done any job interviews.
3. I ____ _____ no idea what I ____________ do.
4. I ____________ still trying to adjust to the reality of the situation _______________, I took a year
off.
5. _______ ____ lived on Long Island for a while.
6. I did carpentry work. ______ ______ I travelled around in Southeast Asia on my own.
7. _______ ______ _______, I decided--. I made _____ ________ _______ _______ ________ things I
wanted in my life, like things ________ ________ _________ _______ look back on and not
_______ _____ achievement things, but just, I _________ ________ feel fulfilled ________ _______
________ ______ see the world.
8. _________ ________ _________ want to be in a _________ office in a ________ cubicle _______
________ _________ suit.
9. So, of all the things and I watched _______ _______ _______ TV growing up, as I said, and I
watched a lot of news.
10. _______ ________ _______ the only eight-year old who was really into Eric Sevareid. I mean, no
one in this room even knows who Eric Sevareid is.
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3. Task 5. Sit back, close your eyes and listen to this part of the interview again.
Task 6. Your teacher is going to play more sentences that contain some of the words difficult to catch.
First time you hear a sentence, simply try to catch that word. If you’ve caught the word, try to catch the
words before and after it.
Task 7. Listen to the remainder of part 1 of the interview and fill in the missing words:
1. So, "Wow, being a news reporter would be interesting."
2. Being able to see history as it's happening would be really cool.
3. So, entry level job in TV.
4. an entry level job at ABC News could not get hired at ABC News.
5. there was a recession
Task 8. Work in pairs. Cover the transcript below with a piece of paper. Listen to the rest of the interview
line by line. Each time
(a) Listen to a line and try to catch what the speaker says (concentrate on the meaning: there’s no
need to remember the exact words at this stage).
(b) Share with your partner what you caught.
(c) Listen to the line once again and right after that uncover the line, read it and underline the parts
that you failed to catch.
(d) Play the line in your head, preparing to hear it again.
(e) Listen to the line one more time, without reading it. Did you hear everything?
And it'll be an interesting life experience and also, wars seemed dramatic and seemed interesting in terms
of things I could take pictures of.
15:18
So, that's what I did. I snuck into Burma and I hooked up with some students fighting the Burmese
government, which is a struggle which is still going on today, obviously.
15:24
And I shot a story about them. And no one ever checked my fake press pass. And then, I sold that story.
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4. 15:31
I put it together and I sold it to this thing called Channel One, which was a show seen at high schools and
middle schools throughout the United States. Has anyone here had Channel One in their--. One or two.
15:40
>>STEVE GROVE: Um-hmm. Yeah.
15:40
>>ANDERSON COOPER: It was big in the mid-west and south. And then they still didn't hire me full-time, so
then I said, "OK. I'm gonna go to Africa.
15:48
I'm gonna go to ten different countries. I guarantee you ten stories. It's gonna cost you two thousand dollars
a story and here are the ten stories."
15:54
And I made up ten stories. I'd left high school semester early and driven in a truck across the sub-Sahara in
Africa, so I was familiar with Africa, or sub-Saharan Africa.
16:02
And the story I did was I went into Somalia in the early days of the famine there, which was, there was a
famine back in '92.
16:07
And there's a famine now. But there was a famine back in '92. I went there and that was really the first real
major breaking story that I shot stories about. And it had a big impact on the Channel One audience. I got
hired and that's how I became a reporter.
Task 9. Watch the interview again.
Task 10. Later in the interview Anderson Cooper gets the following question:
>>Woman: Hey, Anderson. My question for you is, if you could have five people to dinner with you, living,
deceased, or fictional, who would they be and why?
Watch this part of the interview and then share what you caught with your partner.
Revision
Task 11. Think for a minute about today’s lesson. Think about
• The words that are difficult to catch in fast speech and the reasons they’re difficult to catch
• The ways to identify what you fail to catch in fast speech and train yourself to hear those words and
expressions
• What else have you learned today?
Share with your partner.
Links You can find this interview on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdmkBxguucA
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