Intermediate Listening Practice

1. Animals getting into trash cans.

Robert: Put it further in this evening. Off the sidewalk. And nearer the house. Then they won't feel so confident about climbing up.
Susan: I can't see how that will help. Mrs. Growley and her son have theirs more or less on the veranda and they still get in. We need to put the lid on every night.
Robert: We do!
Susan: No, I mean with something on top. Go and find a heavy rock or something. We can't have this mess every morning.
Robert: Good idea, I'll go and do it now.

2. Trying to switch language on DVD.

Mary: I still can't understand a word.
Charles: Hmm, I don't see which button I'm supposed to push.
Mary: Oh, that did something! Now there are subtitles. Great!
Charles: Are you sure there's English on this?
Mary: Yes, it's Spanish but it'll be on there too. Go back to the start.
Charles: Yes, that's the best idea.
Mary: Look, down in the bottom right corner, you can change it there.
Charles: Great...switch off the light and don't step on my popcorn when you come back.

3. Preparing for a solar eclipse.

Ray: It's supposed to be 70% covered but it looks perfectly normal. Are you sure we'll be able to see it in this area?
Samantha: It isn't time yet. You have no patience. They said it would be 12 minutes after 3. We still have another 10 minutes or so.
Ray: Is it true the birds are gonna stop singing?
Samantha: I'll believe it when I see it, or rather, hear it. I'm going to go and get the paper to see it with.
Ray: That's what you've been doing all morning.
Samantha: Yeah, well, they said you could go blind looking at it so this is the safest way.

4. Witness to a traffic accident.

Police Officer: Do you think the weather was a cause, Miss, er, Tandy?
Miss Tandy: I don't think so, it wasn't raining at the time. That started soon afterwards. He wasn't looking. That was the main problem.
Police Officer: Who wasn't looking?
Miss Tandy: The guy on the bike. You know they go so fast, they think that they can do anything they want. He looked left, he was there right in front of me. But he didn't look right and that where that poor woman came from.
Police Officer: She wasn't being dangerous, you don't think.
Miss Tandy: Oh no!! She only hit the pole because she was trying to avoid him. It was all him, you know!

5. Talking about exam at school.

Anthony: Did you do all the questions?
Cathy: I didn't have time to do the last one. I know I'm going to fail.
Anthony: I didn't even understand the first one, you know, the compulsory one. I wrote about three paragraphs and left it.
Cathy: I was OK on that one, but in Section Two, you had to choose three, there were only two I could do.
Anthony: But you studied so much.
Cathy: Well, I think I studied the wrong things, didn't I? My parents are going to be furious.
Anthony: I'll have to spend the whole summer studying to take it again.