📘 1984 CH1 Audiobook for English Learners (CEFR B1 Level) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03War is Peace
2. 0:11Freedom is Slavery
3. 0:15Ignorance is Strength
4. 0:27Big Brother is watching you.
5. 0:37The story you are about to read is not the original verion of George Orwell’s 1984.
6. 0:47This version has been specially edited for beginner learners of English.
7. 0:56The level of English is at a CEFR B1 level.
8. 1:01The story is the same,
9. 1:03but the language has been adapted to make it easier and more enjoyable to read.
10. 1:12Make sure you visit the Essential English website to get access to the full text.
11. 1:19The link is in the description below.
12. 1:22Enjoy the sotry!
13. 1:28Part One
14. 1:30Thoughtcrime
15. 1:35Chapter One
16. 1:37Big Brother is watching you
17. 1:41It is a bright, cold day in April
18. 1:45and the clocks are ringing 13
19. 1:48Winston Smith walks home
20. 1:51quickly to victory mansions
21. 1:53with his head down to escape the terrible wind.
22. 1:57He does not close the door fast enough
23. 2:01and dust comes inside with him.
24. 2:04The hall smells of yesterday's food.
25. 2:09At the end of the hall, there is a poster that covers one wall.
26. 2:15There is an enormous face on it.
27. 2:18It is more than a meter across.
28. 2:22The poster shows the face of a handsome man of about forty-five years old,
29. 2:29with a large, black mustache.
30. 2:33The man’s eyes seem to follow Winston as he moves.
31. 2:38Below the face are the words
32. 2:41BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
33. 2:45Winston goes up the stairs.
34. 2:48He does not take the elevator.
35. 2:50It does not work very often
36. 2:53and at the moment the electricity is turned off during the day to save money for Hate Week.
37. 3:02The apartment is on the seventh floor.
38. 3:05Winston is thirty-nine years old and he has a bad knee.
39. 3:11He goes up the stairs slowly.
40. 3:16Winston is a small man
41. 3:18and looks much smaller in the blue overalls that Party members must wear.
42. 3:24His hair is blond
43. 3:26and the skin on his face is red from cheap soap,
44. 3:31old razor blades and the cold winter that just ended.
45. 3:37Inside his apartment,
46. 3:40Winston can hear a voice.
47. 3:43It is reading numbers from a list:
48. 3:47the amount of iron produced last year.
49. 3:51The voice comes from a metal box on one of the walls, a telescreen.
50. 3:58Winston turns down the volume,
51. 4:01but it is impossible to turn the sound off completely.
52. 4:06He walks to the window.
53. 4:08Outside, the world looks cold.
54. 4:12There seems to be no color in anything,
55. 4:16except in the posters that are everywhere.
56. 4:21The face with the black mustache watches from every corner.
57. 4:27There is one on the wall of the house opposite his window.
58. 4:31BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, it says,
59. 4:35and the eyes look into Winston's eyes.
60. 4:40Behind him the voice from the telescreen is still talking about iron.
61. 4:47The telescreen has a microphone too,
62. 4:50so the Thought Police can listen to Winston at any time of the day or night.
63. 4:56They can also watch him through the telescreen.
64. 5:00Nobody knows when they actually watch you,
65. 5:04but everybody behaves correctly all the time.
66. 5:08The Thought Police might be watching you and listening to you.
67. 5:14Winston does not look at the telescreen.
68. 5:17It is safer that way - they can't see your face.
69. 5:22He looks out the window at the city of London,
70. 5:25the biggest city in this part of Oceania.
71. 5:29The old houses are all falling down.
72. 5:32There are holes in the streets from the bombs.
73. 5:36Winston asks himself if it was always this way?
74. 5:40He tries to think about when he was a boy,
75. 5:44but he cannot remember anything.
76. 5:48He looks at the Ministry of Truth, where he works.
77. 5:52It is one kilometer away.
78. 5:55It is an enormous white building,
79. 5:57three hundred meters high.
80. 6:01The building is much taller than the houses around it.
81. 6:05From Winston's apartment,
82. 6:07it is possible to see the three slogans of the Party that are written in enormous letters on the side of the building:
83. 6:16WAR IS PEACE
84. 6:19FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
85. 6:23IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
86. 6:27The Ministry of Truth is called Minitrue in Newspeak,
87. 6:32the new language of Oceania.
88. 6:35They say that the Minitrue has more than three thousand rooms above the ground
89. 6:42and a similar number below the ground.
90. 6:46The people who work there work mainly on news and entertainment.
91. 6:52There is another building that is much taller than the other buildings around it:
92. 6:57the Ministry of Peace,
93. 6:59where they focus on war.
94. 7:02It is called Minipax in Newspeak.
95. 7:06And the Ministry of Plenty - Miniplenty -
96. 7:10which is responsible for the economy.
97. 7:13And he can see the Ministry of Love - Miniluv -
98. 7:17which is responsible for law and order.
99. 7:22The Ministry of Love is the really terrifying ministry.
100. 7:27The building has no windows.
101. 7:30Nobody is permitted to go near it if they do not have business there.
102. 7:35There are guards with guns in black uniforms in the streets all around the building.
103. 7:42Winston turns around quickly.
104. 7:46He smiles.
105. 7:47It is a good idea to look happy when you are facing the telescreen.
106. 7:53He goes into his small kitchen.
107. 7:56He didn't eat lunch before he left work,
108. 7:59but there is no food in the kitchen.
109. 8:02There is only a piece of hard bread.
110. 8:05The bread is for breakfast tomorrow.
111. 8:09He pours some gin into a dirty cup and drinks it quickly, like medicine.
112. 8:16It burns him inside,
113. 8:18but he feels happier afterwards.
114. 8:22He goes back to the living room and sits down at a small table to the left of the telescreen.
115. 8:30It is the only place in the room where the telescreen cannot see him.
116. 8:35From a drawer in the table
117. 8:37he takes out a pen and a big diary with beautiful white paper.
118. 8:43He bought the diary in a shop that sells antiques,
119. 8:47in a poor part of the town.
120. 8:51Party members like Winston
121. 8:53are not allowed to go into ordinary shops,
122. 8:56but many Party members do.
123. 8:59It is the only way to get things like razor blades.
124. 9:03Winston opens the diary.
125. 9:06This is not illegal.
126. 9:09Nothing is illegal,
127. 9:11because there are no laws now.
128. 9:14But if the diary is found
129. 9:16they will punish him with death
130. 9:19or they will put him in prison for twenty-five years.
131. 9:24He picks up the pen,
132. 9:26then he stops.
133. 9:29He feels sick.
134. 9:31It is a decisive act
135. 9:33to start writing.
136. 9:36Earlier that morning,
137. 9:38a terrible noise from the big telescreen at the Ministry of Truth
138. 9:43called all the workers to the center of the hall for the Two Minutes Hate.
139. 9:49The face of Emmanuel Goldstein,
140. 9:52Enemy of the People, was on the telescreen.
141. 9:56It was a thin, intelligent face,
142. 9:59with white hair and a small beard.
143. 10:03But there was something unpleasant about it.
144. 10:07Goldstein began to speak in his strange voice.
145. 10:11He criticized the Party and verbally attacked Big Brother.
146. 10:17In the past
147. 10:19(nobody knew exactly when),
148. 10:22Goldstein was almost as important in the Party as Big Brother himself,
149. 10:27but then he worked against the Party.
150. 10:31Before he could be punished with death,
151. 10:33he had escaped - nobody knew how, exactly.
152. 10:39Somewhere he is still alive,
153. 10:41and all crimes against the Party come from his teaching.
154. 10:47Behind Goldstein’s face on the telescreen,
155. 10:50there were thousands of Eurasian soldiers.
156. 10:54Oceania is always at war with either Eurasia or Eastasia.
157. 11:01The enemy changes,
158. 11:03but the hate for Goldstein never changes.
159. 11:07The Thought Police find his spies every day.
160. 11:13They are called “the Brotherhood”, people say.
161. 11:17But Winston sometimes asks himself if the Brotherhood really exists.
162. 11:23Goldstein also wrote a book,
163. 11:26a terrible book,
164. 11:28a book against the Party.
165. 11:31It has no title;
166. 11:33it is just known as <i>The Book.</i>
167. 11:38As Goldstein’s face filled the telescreen
168. 11:42and Eurasian soldiers marched behind him,
169. 11:46the Hate became stronger.
170. 11:49People jumped up and down.
171. 11:52They shouted and screamed.
172. 11:54They could not hear Goldstein’s voice.
173. 11:58Winston was shouting too;
174. 12:01it was impossible not to shout.
175. 12:04A girl behind him, with dark hair, was screaming “Pig! Pig!” at Goldstein,
176. 12:13and suddenly she picked up
177. 12:15a heavy Newspeak dictionary and threw it at the telescreen.
178. 12:21It hit Goldstein on the nose and fell to the floor.
179. 12:26Winston often sees this girl at the Ministry but he never speaks to her.
180. 12:33He does not know her name,
181. 12:35but he knows she works in the Fiction Department.
182. 12:39He sees her with tools
183. 12:41so he guesses she is a mechanic who fixes the story-writing machines.
184. 12:48She wears the thin red belt of the Young League tied around her waist.People's
185. 12:55Winston disliked her from the first moment he saw her.
186. 13:01He dislikes nearly all women,
187. 13:03especially young and pretty ones.
188. 13:07The young women are always the most loyal to the Party
189. 13:11and they are happy to spy on other people.
190. 13:15But this girl is especially dangerous, he thinks.
191. 13:20Once, when he saw her in the cafeteria,
192. 13:23she looked at him in a way that terrified him.
193. 13:28He even thought she was working for the Thought Police.
194. 13:32As the screaming at Goldstein became louder.
195. 13:36Winston's dislike of the girl turned to hate.
196. 13:40He hated her because she was young and pretty.
197. 13:46Suddenly he noticed someone else, sitting near the girl
198. 13:51wearing the black overalls of an Inner Party member.
199. 13:56O'Brien is a large man with a thick neck and glasses.
200. 14:02Even though he looks scary,
201. 14:04Winston is interested in him.
202. 14:07His face sometimes seems intelligent.
203. 14:12That intelligence in his face suggests that maybe he questions the official beliefs of the party.
204. 14:21Winston has seen O'Brien about 12 times over the years.
205. 14:26Many years ago, he dreamed about O'Brien.
206. 14:30He was in a dark room,
207. 14:32and O'Brien said to him,
208. 14:34“We will meet in the place where there is no dark.”
209. 14:39Winston did not know what that meant,
210. 14:42but he was sure it would happen, one day.
211. 14:47The Heat increased.
212. 14:49The screaming increased.
213. 14:52The voice and face of Goldstein became the voice and face of an animal - a sheep.
214. 15:00Then the sheep-face became an enemy soldier,
215. 15:04walking towards them with his gun.
216. 15:07He came so close that some people were afraid and moved back in their seats.
217. 15:14But at the same moment,
218. 15:16the soldier became the face of Big Brother,
219. 15:20with black hair and a mustache.
220. 15:23The face of Big Brother filled the teller's screen.
221. 15:27Nobody could hear what Big Brother said,
222. 15:31but it did not matter.
223. 15:33It was only important that he was speaking to them.
224. 15:37Then the face of Big Brother disappeared from the telescreen
225. 15:42and the party slogans appeared.
226. 15:46WAR IS PEACE
227. 15:49FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
228. 15:52IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
229. 15:56Then everybody started shouting,
230. 15:59"B-B!
231. 16:02B-B!"
232. 16:04again and again.
233. 16:07It began slowly,
234. 16:09with a long pause between the first “B” and the second.
235. 16:14Of course, Winston shouted too - you have to.
236. 16:18But there was a second when the look on his face showed what he was really thinking.
237. 16:24And at that exact moment,
238. 16:26O'Brien looked into Winston's eyes.
239. 16:31O'Brien was adjusting his glasses on his nose.
240. 16:35but Winston knew - yes, he knew that O'Brien was thinking the same thing as he was.
241. 16:44"I am with you," O'Brien seemed to say to him with his eyes.
242. 16:49"I hate all this too."
243. 16:53And then the moment of intelligence was gone,
244. 16:56and O'Brien's face looked like everybody else's face.
245. 17:01Winston writes the date in his diary:
246. 17:05April 4th, 1984.
247. 17:09Then he stops.
248. 17:11He does not know definitively that the year is 1984.
249. 17:16He is thirty-nine, he believes -
250. 17:19he was born in 1944 or 1945.
251. 17:24But nobody can be sure of dates, not really.
252. 17:30“Who am I writing this diary for?” he asks himself suddenly.
253. 17:36For the future, for the unborn.
254. 17:40But if the future is like the present,
255. 17:43it will not listen to him.
256. 17:46And if it is different,
257. 17:47his situation will have no significance.
258. 17:52The telescreen is playing marching music.
259. 17:56What does he want to say?
260. 17:59Winston looks at the page for a long time,
261. 18:02then begins to write:
262. 18:05Freedom is the freedom to say that two and two make four.
263. 18:11If you have that, everything else follows...
264. 18:15He stops.
265. 18:17Should he go on?
266. 18:19If he writes more or does not write more, the result will be the same.
267. 18:24The Thought Police will get him.
268. 18:28Even before he writes anything,
269. 18:30his crime is clear.
270. 18:33THOUGHTCRIME, they call it.
271. 18:37It is always at night - the strong hand on your shoulder, the lights in your face.
272. 18:44People simply disappear, always during the night.
273. 18:50And then your name disappears,
274. 18:53your existence is denied and then forgotten.
275. 18:57You are, in Newspeak, vaporized.
276. 19:02Suddenly he wants to scream.
277. 19:05He starts writing, fast:
278. 19:09DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN
279. 19:12WITH BIG BROTHER DOWN
280. 19:14WITH BIG BROTHER
281. 19:18There is a knock on the door.
282. 19:20Already!
283. 19:22He sits as quietly as a mouse,
284. 19:24hoping that they will go away.
285. 19:28But no, there is another knock.
286. 19:31He can not delay -
287. 19:33that is the worst thing he can do.
288. 19:35His heart is beating very fast,
289. 19:38but even now his face, from habit, probably shows nothing.
290. 19:44He gets up and walks slowly towards the door.