Kirstenbosch: An English Listening Exercise

This video is intended to be used as listening practice for ESL (English as a Second Language) learners.

Here is a transcription of the audio:

Kirstenbosch is one of the world's most famous botanical gardens. It is the largest of the National Botanical Institute's 8 botanical gardens in South Africa.

It was established in 1913, and it has a spectacular location on the lower eastern slopes of Cape Town's Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch was established to protect the immense floral wealth of the Cape region, and it was the first national garden in the world to be devoted to a country's indigenous plants.

Kirstenbosch is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, which was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2004. The Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest of the six floral kingdoms, and it is home to more types of indigenous plants than any other similar sized area in the world. At least 70% of the 9 600 plant species of the Cape Floral Kingdom are found nowhere else on Earth.

The Cycad Garden shows off a family of plants that dates back some 200-million years. Cycads are known as living fossils because this plant group has survived, almost unchanged, since the Jurassic Era, or "Age of Dinosaurs" (150-200 million years ago).

The genus Protea was named in 1735 after the Greek god Proteus. Proteus could change his form at will, and the Protea was named after him because proteas have such different forms. The King Protea is South Africa's national flower.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Kirstenbosch
• ESL
• English listening

[awiederamos]

THANKS!!!GOOD FOR LISTENING EXERCISES...

[joandelort]

Lovely gardens!

I want to go there!