ShortHand: Gladiators
RedHanded

ShortHand: Gladiators

B2Upper-intermediateAugust 14, 202632 min
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Watching slaves being ritually hacked to pieces may not seem like many people’s idea of a great day out. But 2,000 years ago, Romans turned up in their thousands to watch exactly that. So, with Gladiator back on our screens, we set out to find the truth behind the spectacle – and it’s even bloodier than the movies could ever allow. So what exactly happened in the gladiatorial games? Were there really lions, elephants, bears – and even full-scale naval battles in water-filled arenas? And did Maximus Decimus Meridius really have his vengeance? Find out in this week’s ShortHan...

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B2 · Upper-intermediate

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A1 41%A2 33%B1 18%B2 7%C1 1%
  • 92% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 167 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 154 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

Hi. Hi. How are you? I'm good.

0:04

Hi. My name is Rová. I'm from the Hello. Hello. And welcome to a very special episode of Short Hand. We who are about to

1:08

die, salute you. Are you not entertained? So many quotes. Not that I can remember any. I've got them in the back, don't worry. I've got them in the tank. My brain is just full of 300, which is not the same film I realised. We're not here to talk about. No, we're not. We're talking about what the Roman gladiatorial games were actually like. We're gonna answer

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