VOA · What's Trending Today?
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:502018-09-21public domain
What's Trending Today? covers viral stories and social media moments in short, punchy reports. The episodes are brief and topical — perfect for a quick daily dictation session.
Hit "Start dictation practice" — all 5 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.
01This is what's trending today.
02American President Donald Trump has questioned the honesty of a woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
03The woman, Christine Blasey Ford, says Kavanaugh attacked her at a house party in 1982.
04Both were in high school at the time.
05Kavanaugh has denied the accusations, saying he never attacked Ford or any other woman.
06Ford's accusation, and how it may affect Kavanaugh's nomination, has been a leading news story this week in the United States.
07On Friday morning, Trump praised his Supreme Court nominee on Twitter.
08He also wrote, if the attack on Dr.
09Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with police.
10Trump continued, I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place.
11By Friday afternoon, people had posted more than 50,000 messages in answer to Trump's tweet.
12Many noted some of their own reasons for not reporting attacks to police.
13The hashtag, why I didn't report, exploded on social media.
14It soon became the top trending topic on Twitter.
15Some described why they feared coming forward.
16Others said they knew they would not be believed by the police, their community, or their family.
17Some described being abused by members of their own family.
18And some said they were too young at the time to know what to do.
19RAINN is the largest American organization against sexual violence.
20Its website says 310 out of every 1,000 sexual attacks are reported to police.
21The Senate Judiciary Committee had completed its confirmation hearings for nominee Brett Kavanaugh on September 7th.
22Then, on September 12th, the Intercept online news site reported about a letter that described how Kavanaugh had assaulted a woman in 1982.
23Ford came forward as the writer of the letter on Monday.
24Ford is a university professor in California.
25Her lawyers say she has received death threats since her name and story became public.
26She and her family have fled their California home.
27Her lawyers say Ford is willing to answer questions in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee if her safety can be promised.
28Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican, has announced a public hearing for Monday, where both Ford and Kavanaugh can appear to tell their stories.
29However, Ford's lawyer, Deborah Katz, answered that Monday's date is not possible.
30She added that the committee's request that it happen on that date is without reason.
31Katz said Ford's strong preference is that a full investigation be completed before she testifies.
32On Thursday night, the White House released a letter from Kavanaugh to Grassley, in which he said he wants to tell his side in a Monday hearing.
33I will be there.
34I continue to want a hearing as soon as possible so that I can clear my name, he wrote.
35Republican lawmakers are trying to win Senate confirmation for Kavanaugh ahead of the court's start of a new term on October 1st.
36And that's what's trending today.
37I'm Katie Weaver.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
Practice it by ear
