A Place for the Cork
Free C1 Advanced English dictation about Daily life (2 min): listen to natural English audio, type what you hear and check every word instantly.
C1 (Advanced) English dictation about Daily life: 10 sentences, about 2 min.
Full transcript
The first spill at supper came not from a careless hand, but from the table tilting toward the window. Whenever someone reached for bread, the serving spoon slid across the cloth and the soup gave a faint shiver. The carpenter had refused to trim the legs because the floorboards had sunk unevenly and were still shifting. A guest folded a paper napkin beneath the shortest foot, then nudged the pot toward the center of the table. The bowls stopped trembling, but the chair nearest the window now sat at a slight angle. Conversation resumed, punctuated by the scrape of serving spoons and the careful passage of bread from hand to hand. When the napkin began to creep outward, a child found a cork in the sideboard and wedged it underneath. The table steadied at once, and nobody needed to keep a hand on the pot. After dessert, the cork remained beneath the leg while the stained napkin waited beside the empty plates. At breakfast, somebody checked that the cork still held before pouring coffee, and nobody paused the conversation.
Listening, trained daily.
A1–C1: Five levels, from slow, clear speech to full native speed.
3 min: Short daily sessions that fit around the rest of your day.
Instant: Every answer checked word by word, with each mistake explained.
Questions? Answers.
How does daily dictation practice improve my English listening skills?
Dictation connects what you hear with how it is written. When you listen to natural English and type every word, you find your blind spots right away: weak forms, silent letters, linked words and fast contractions that slip past you when you only listen.
How does a dictation work?
Each lesson is a short English text split into sentences. Play a sentence, replay it as often as you need, type what you heard and send it. When you finish, you see your accuracy and every mistake, with a short note on why it was easy to miss.
How do I know which CEFR level to start with?
Lessons are grouped into A1 (Beginner), A2 (Elementary), B1 (Intermediate), B2 (Upper-intermediate) and C1 (Advanced). Not sure? Take the free level test: one short story of 10 sentences that gets harder from A1 to C1. It takes about 5 minutes, and if you are signed in, your level is saved to your profile.