Chào các thính giả yêu mến của chương trình Học Tiếng Anh qua các chủ đề của chương trình học tiếng anh cùng Radiome. Mình là Diệu Hoa.
Chủ đề nghe Tiếng Anh của chúng ta ngày hôm nay có tựa đề là: Lightning and Electricity có nghĩa là sấm sét và điện năng.
Vì bài nghe khá dài nên mình sẽ tách làm hai phần để các bạn dễ dàng theo dõi hơn nhé!
Các bạn cùng chú ý lắng nghe với tiết tấu chậm rãi của chương trình Spotlight nhé. Note lại những từ bạn nghe chưa rõ và xem lại ở bản text để làm phong phú thêm vốn từ vựng của mình nhé!
Voice 1 
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Anne Muir.
Voice 2 
And I’m Colin Lowther. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1 
The sound of thunder. Lightning is bright in the sky. The storm is coming closer. Some people hide in fear. They put their hands over their ears. And they wait for the storm to finish.
Voice 2 
In the past, many people believed that thunder and lightning were punishments from God. Lightning came from the sky, so they believed that it came from God. It was powerful. It could cause great damage. But no one knew what lightning really was. That changed in 1752. Today’s Spotlight is on the experiment that showed the true nature of lightning.
Voice 1 
Benjamin Franklin was a scientist and statesman. He lived almost 300 years ago, in the United States. Franklin is mainly known today as a political person. His writings greatly influenced the United States, and many other countries too. But he is also known as a scientist and inventor. His most important discoveries were about electricity.
Voice 2 
At that time, electricity was a new discovery. Franklin did many experiments with electricity in his home. He began to think that lightning acted like electricity in many situations. Franklin suspected that lightning was an electrical current. But he wanted to test his theory. He developed an experiment. The experiment would discover if lightning would pass through metal. He decided to use a metal key. But first, he had to find a way of linking the key to the lightning - high up in the sky.

Voice 1 
Franklin’s experiment is quite famous. However, Franklin did not record this experiment until much later. So some experts believe that it did not happen the way stories describe it. Scientists debate the details of the experiment. They say that it could not have happened exactly as most people imagine. It is unclear how Franklin actually did the experiment. But Franklin’s results are clear. Later experiments proved that he was correct. Most modern versions agree that it happened something like this.
Voice 2 
The story says that Franklin decided to use a kite. We usually only see children playing with kites. They like to make them using brightly coloured paper, sticks, and very thin string. They stretch the paper over the sticks and attach the string to the sticks. And then they hold onto the long string and run. The wind carries the kite through the sky.
Voice 1
Franklin made his kite from light cloth. He tied a metal key to the bottom. He expected the lightning to strike the kite. He believed that the lightning would flow down the kite string to the key at the end.
Voice 2 
The experiment took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was June, 1752. Franklin and his son waited for a thunderstorm. When the storm began, they carried the kite outside. They flew it high. It entered a rain cloud. Franklin put his hand on the key. And then, bang! Electricity flowed through. The experiment had worked! The lightning behaved like electricity. It flowed through wet kite-string and the metal key!
Voice 1 
Some modern scientists say that the lightning would have killed Franklin. But they do suggest other possible ways that the kite experiment could have happened. For example, they suggest that lightning did not strike Franklin’s kite. They say that the string got electricity from the air in the storm.
Phần 1 của bài nghe hôm nay tạm dừng ở đây. Các bạn chú ý và theo dõi phần 2 ở những bài học tiếp sau nhé! Cảm ơn các bạn.