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‘Lord of the Rings’
Click to listen to lotr5.mp3 (459Kb)
Native speaker
Accent: Houston, TX
Author: ElComadreja
Date: 7/18/2005

Description of what is on the sound file:
I am a native speaker of English & have placed this here for the benefit of those learning to listen to English. I have tried to pronounce/read all words naturally, at a natural speed. No attempt at proper acting has been made ;) It may help you to know that I stumbled over a few words.
Send me a private message if you would like me to read another short passage for you, or if you would like the higher quality recording that I have.

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Transcript of sound file:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.
Bilbo was very rich and very peculiar, and had been the wonder of the Shire for sixty years, ever since his remarkable disappearance and unexpected return. The riches he had brought back from his travels had now become a local legend, and it was popularly believed, whatever the old folk might say, that the Hill at Bag End was full of tunnels stuffed with treasure. And if that was not enough for fame, there was also his prolonged vigour to marvel at. Time wore on, but it seemed to have little effect on Mr. Baggins. At ninety he was much the same as at fifty. At ninety-nine they began to call him "well-preserved"; but "unchanged" would have been nearer the mark. There were some that shook their heads and thought this was too much of a good thing; it seemed unfair that anyone should possess (apparently) perpetual youth as well as (reputedly) inexhaustible wealth.
'It will have to be paid for,' they said. 'It isn't natural, and trouble will come of it!'

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