Practice Listening English Exercises for B1 – Communities

1   for promoting her band

2   photos and quotes “talking about what we’re doing?

3   restaurant reviews

4   He takes lots of photos of his food, and Instagram is social media for uploading photos. Also, it’s free, and people like looking through pictures of the different dishes.

5   organizing parties

6   seeing people’s family photographs

Audioscript

Speaker 1   I’m in a band, so I use the Internet all the time just to promote it. So, for example, we have to have a website. I didn’t really know anything about the Internet, but I absolutely have to. So, we have a website, and, from there, it links to things like Twitter and Facebook and other social media. And then every time we have a gig coming up, we use it as a promotional tool: we can send out newsletters by email to people who sign up to the website and let them know what we’re doing. Then, when we’re actually in the process of a gig, we’ll, you know, put photos online and post quotes talking about what we’re doing so people can see it. Then, it usually leads, you know, from one person to the next person to the next person. They share it on their wall, for example, or they’ll post the photo. It just means you can reach a ton of people rather than, you know, the old-fashioned way of just showing somebody a photo after the event—that’s no good. So, the Internet’s amazing for that. You can just reach thousands really quickly, which is exactly our goal.

Speaker 2   So, I have a food blog where I review restaurants and post my reviews onto this blog, just as a hobby. It’s something I really enjoy doing, but it means I take a lot of photos of food. You know, anything I eat I take a photo of it. So, for me, using Instagram, which is social media for uploading photos, is the perfect sort of tool for advertising my blog because it’s free and people love looking through pictures of all the different dishes. So I find that, you know, I have about two … over two thousand followers just from people wanting to look at photos of a steak or a piece of chicken, which sounds crazy, but it’s very popular. So, I use Instagram a lot to link up with my blog.

Speaker 3   Um, well I use Facebook, mainly because I work from home and I don’t really chat to people much during the day. So, it’s a good way of … of staying in touch with people. You know, it’s an online community, isn’t it, and I like to keep in touch with people that way—and, you know, old friends. Probably one of the best uses, though, is organizing parties and things because you can just do one blanket invitation to everyone. Most people usually get a notification in their email inbox to say they’ve been invited to something, don’t they? So I think… I think it’s really handy. Rather than calling a lot of people, you can do it all through social media rather than making lots of phone calls. But, probably what I like most about it is just seeing people’s family photographs. People are always posting their … their … the pictures of their children or … or you know … parties or friends, and it’s just … it’s nice to see those and keep in touch with people.

A

Speakers in conversations 1, 3, 4 and 5 did something wrong.

Speakers 2 and 6 are asking for advice.

B

1 smoke in the house.   2 a dish.   3 ten minutes.

4 her shoes off.   5 wear a jacket.   6 meat

Audioscript

1

A:   Hi, Dave. Sorry. Do you mind?

B:   What?

A:   We don’t smoke in the house.

B:   Oh, sorry about that. I didn’t know.

A:   That’s all right. It’s no problem.

2

A:   So they’ve invited me to dinner at their house.

B:   Great. And they’re also from Morocco?

A:   The same as you. From Morocco.

B:   That’ll be fun.

A:   So, do I need to take a dish? Like, take some food?

B:   No, it’s not necessary. You can take a small gift if you want, but you don’t need to take food.

3

A:   Hello?

B:   Hello?

A:   Hi, I’m Richard Davies. From Brooklyn? I’m here to visit your offices.

B:   Ah, hello.

A:   I’m a bit early. Is this a bad time?

B:   Umm.

A:   I can come back later.

B:   I wasn’t expecting you so early. Can you come back in ten minutes? I just need to finish some work here, and then I’ll be able to show you around.

A:   Of course. Sorry about that.

B:   Not at all. It’s fine.

4

A:   So, I walked into your parents’ house, but I forgot to take my shoes off. Did I do something wrong?

B:   Oh, I see.

A:   My shoes weren’t dirty or anything, but I still felt really bad.

B:   It’s OK—I’ll tell my parents you forgot. Don’t worry about it.

A:   I don’t know. Should I call them up to apologize?

B:   No, it’s nothing. You really don’t have to apologize.

5

A:   Excuse me, sir, would you mind putting this on?

B:   What?

A:   Put on your jacket. In this restaurant you have to wear a jacket.

B:   My apologies. I didn’t know.

6

A:   So, we’re staying with an American family for Thanksgiving.   

B:   For what?

A:   Thanksgiving. You know, people from the United States celebrate it.

B:   So, what’s the problem?

A:   Americans always eat turkey on Thanksgiving, don’t they? But we’re vegetarians—we never eat meat. So, well, what should we do?

B:   Um … if I were you, I’d tell them the problem, and maybe they can cook a turkey while you and your family just eat something else.

1   somewhere in France

2   a mix of people, fairly small

3   not to physically hurt someone else

Audioscript

BJ = Ben Jacques   SH = Sharon Hills

BJ:   So Sharon, imagine you had to start a brand new community.

SH:   Yes?

BJ:   I know it’s a difficult question, but ideally where would it be?

SH:   Umm, I’d probably choose somewhere quite warm, so you didn’t have any issues of flooding, or, you know, too much snow to deal with—something like that. And then I’d choose another place most people would probably choose, not an island …

BJ:   Where … where exactly?

SH:   But, I think, hmm … somewhere in France, I don’t know why.

BJ:   Oh, somewhere in France? OK, and, and who would be there: the French only or a mixture of people?

SH:   No, I … well, it would need to be a mix of people and they’d need to be able to help one another.

BJ:   In what way?

SH:   Well, … I’d like to take one person who’s an expert in one field, another person who’s an expert in another field, so you have—you know—arty people, manually skilled people, good speakers, good writers …

BJ:   Ah, so a whole range of skills …

SH:   Exactly!

BJ:   … all going into the melting pot.

SH:   Yes, but, I wouldn’t have too many people to start with, although, if it’s too small a group, then I suppose you risk, um, not getting along with each other. But I think if you keep that group fairly small to begin with, then you can draw up your own special laws, you know, to govern yourselves.

BJ:   Would it need laws do you think … this, this utopian society?

SH:   Mmm … well, ideally there’d be no laws, but, because people are human, I think you would probably have to come up with some ground rules, yes.

BJ:   What would be the most important one?

SH:   Oh! um, I think, … not to physically hurt somebody else, I suppose.

BJ:   Right, so pretty much like we have now …

SH:   Yes, I guess so.

A

1    Elise’s neighbors are her parents and her brother’s family.

      Mark’s neighbors are ‘a couple of cows’ / a farmer.

2    Elise likes this situation because they ‘help each other’.

      Mark likes the situation because he and his wife ‘just love the peace and quiet’.

3    Elise sees her neighbors every day. They work together and they all eat together once or twice a week.

      Mark never sees his neighbors, apart from the cows.

4    Elise has lived there all her life.

      Mark has lived there for ten years.

B

1 perfect   2 family   3 eleven   4 Sunday   5 normal

6 husband   7 ten   8 Paris   9 transport   10 farmhouse

11 online   12 first

Audioscript

Elise

E = Elise   I = Interviewer

E:   I live next door to my parents, who are on one side, and my brother’s family, who is on the other side.

I:   Right.

E:   It’s really, really useful. They’re the perfect neighbors.

I:   In what sense?

E:   Well, I like the situation because we help each other. For example, if I need a babysitter for my kids, it’s no problem.

I:   And you see each other a lot?

E:   We work together in the family business, so we see each other every day. And I guess the whole extended family, which is eleven of us including the children. We eat together maybe once or twice a week, always on Sundays and sometimes during the week. So, yes, we do see each other a lot.

I:   You never get fed up with the family?

E:   No. I think this situation is quite normal in a lot of countries, maybe like Italy. It certainly is for our family. We’ve always lived in the same town. I’ve lived here all my life, and we always wanted to live side by side. I hope our children continue the business and live here, too.

I:   And what about your husband? Does he like being so close to your family?

E:   Um, I’ve never asked him, actually! Yeah, course he does! I think.

Mark

M = Mark   I = Interviewer

M:   We don’t have any neighbors. Our nearest neighbors are a couple of cows that live in a field about ten miles away.

I:   Are they good neighbors?

M:   Fantastic! Very quiet! No, we really are completely isolated.

I:   So, how come? I mean, was this your dream?

M:   Well, it wasn’t at first. We were living in Paris, which is a great city, but it’s kind of big. We got tired of crowds of people and all the noise and using public transportation. So about ten years ago, we bought an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It’s not a functioning farm, but it has an Internet connection, and my wife and I both work online. And we just love the peace and quiet.

I:   So, the cows aren’t yours?

M:   No, they belong to a farmer about ten miles away!

I:   And isn’t it a bit lonely out here?

M:   We love it. We never see our neighbors, apart from the cows, which is just fantastic for us because we’re a bit antisocial. Actually, you’re the first person we’ve seen this year!

I:   Oh, sorry to interrupt your peace!

M:   Not a problem. Just don’t stay too long!