English Listening B1 Episode 06 - Track 04
Fill in the Blanks Exercise
HOST: What’s in a
? Well, it depends on who says it, and what they
. Many of us believe that most
in relationships are the result of
, and so often this comes down to
. Sometimes just one word. Take the word ‘
’ for instance.
LUISA: A few days before my friend’s
, she sent me a message saying that she wanted to invite me to her birthday
. It was in a private room at an expensive restaurant. I knew the
, but only from the outside. But I messaged her back and replied that I’d be there. I bought her a
, and when the day came, I went. At the end of the meal, when the
came, it was clear all of the guests were expected to pay our part of the bill. I was really
. She should have been clearer. It cost me a whole week’s
. It was such an expensive place.
HOST: Well that can’t have been good for your
. And what about other types of relationship? Maybe workplace ones? Rich has a
from his workplace.
RICH: I was in my first
on the job and my manager said she wanted to
to me and could I come to her office. I felt really
. She had a very serious
, kind of scary. I walked into her office, and sat down. She was actually really
. She wanted to know if I liked the job. Then she asked whether I’d had any
with colleagues or anything. I answered her and we had a good
. Then she started checking her computer and she said, ‘OK, could you
the door?’ I got up, closed the door – on the inside – and stood there. My manager kept looking at something on her computer, and there was dead
. Finally, she looked up and said, ‘Oh, are you still here?’ I was so
.
HOST: That is embarrassing! At least
time you’ll know what to do. If there is a next time. And speaking of next time, when is next
Sometimes it’s not so clear, like in Josh’s story.
JOSH: Not long ago my friend Endre
me on a Wednesday night and asked me if I was doing anything the following
– he said, ‘Are you doing anything next Saturday?’ and I said no. He said he was giving a surprise
for his wife, Moni, and asked me if I could come. I said yes. Endre told me that I’d be in
if I told her! I promised that I’d keep it a
. Anyway, it was at their house, and the plan was for me to go there at 7 p.m. on Saturday and
things up, then the other guests would arrive at 8 p.m., and Endre and Moni would come back from a restaurant at
. So three days later, on Saturday at 7 p.m., I drove over to their house and
on the door. Moni answered the door, and said ‘Josh, what are you doing here?’ I just said, ‘What happened to the
?’ Endre walked up behind her and looked at me with an angry
and said, ‘I told you, it’s next Saturday.’ I basically
the whole thing.
HOST: Very awkward. I would have been pretty
with you, too. Meanwhile, we have time for one more, and this one’s a
to all of you learning a foreign language to pay close
to your grammar. Here’s Ela.
ELA: So, I was having a
with a Scottish woman who I met at the college, and at the time my English wasn’t as good as it is now. We were sitting
getting to know each other, and at one point the conversation went a bit
. So I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve been talking too much. Are you
? Shall we leave?’ A very simple
, I know, but as I said at the time my English wasn’t great, and I didn’t even
my mistake. She said OK, asked the waiter for the
, and when we said goodbye I noticed she looked a bit
. After that we didn’t meet again. I didn’t realise what I had said until much
, during an English lesson about adjective
. I still feel really bad when I
that.
HOST: Well, maybe she was boring. We’ll never
out! We’d love to hear more of your experiences though, so write in the
or send me an audio message with your story of how a misunderstanding affected one of your
. Thanks for listening and we’ll be back with more next time!
