VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed3:582025-02-06public domain
As It Is is VOA Learning English's daily news magazine. Each report covers a current story in clear, learner-speed English with a controlled vocabulary — the closest thing to real news broadcasts that intermediate learners can fully digest, and ideal raw material for dictation.
Hit "Start dictation practice" — all 4 minutes are already sliced into sentences, so practice starts immediately. No wait.
Learner-speed news English: clear delivery, everyday vocabulary, natural sentence rhythm.
Switch to Dictation mode, type each sentence, and get a word-by-word diff with your accuracy score.
01The Gettysburg National Military Park is in the small town of Gettysburg in the eastern state of Pennsylvania.
02Much of the area around Gettysburg still looks like it did in the 1860s during the American Civil War.
03The town is in the middle of good farmland.
04Roads pass through Gettysburg that lead to Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and other eastern cities.
05It is hard to believe that two huge armies fought there.
06One fighting force was the United States Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George Meade.
07The other was the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by General Robert E.
08Lee.
09Lee's troops had moved north into Pennsylvania from Virginia.
10Lee believed that a southern win of a battle on northern land would force a negotiated settlement of the Civil War and mean independence for the Confederate States.
11The Battle of Gettysburg began on July 1, 1863.
12About 170,000 soldiers fought for three days.
13When it ended on July 3, more than 50,000 soldiers were dead, wounded, or missing.
14Lee's army lost the battle.
15Many visitors start their visit to Gettysburg at the Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War.
16The museum has a large collection of Civil War objects.
17The museum has more than one million artifacts, from soldiers' private notebooks and clothing to maps of the battlefield.
18The museum also houses the Gettysburg Cyclorama painting.
19This kind of artwork completely surrounds the people looking at it.
20The painting shows the artist's vision of the final major attack of the battle on July 3, 1863.
21Over time, it has come to be called Pickett's Charge.
22George Pickett was one of several Confederate commanders ordered to make the charge.
23The Confederate soldiers reached a point close to the northern lines and headquarters.
24Today, the point is called the High Water Mark.
25Northern forces then turned the Confederates back.
26The charge failed.
27Southern forces would never again reach so far north.
28Soon after the battle, people began to visit Gettysburg to try to understand what happened there.
29One of those visitors on November 19, 1863, was President Abraham Lincoln.
30He was invited to help dedicate a burial ground for Union soldiers killed in the battle.
31Lincoln spoke for just two minutes, but his speech, known as the Gettysburg Address, is one of the most famous pieces of American Oratory.
32I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
Practice it by ear
