General Listening Quiz

Listen to the recording on vacations and read along with the conversation. Review the key vocabulary and the sample sentences.

Woman: Hey, Hey. Why don’t we do something fun next week? We have time off. We never do anything fun.

Man: Well . . . I don’t know. What do you have in mind?

Woman: Well, I was thinking like . . . . Okay, so . . .

Man: Like the library? The library is . . . What?

Woman: The library’s boring. We could do that anytime. Listen. How about on Monday we go down to the lake and go swimming at the lake?

Man: I don’t know. I think it’s gonna [going to] be hot that day, and I might get a sunburn.  You know [ Come on! ] how tender . . . tender my skin is.

Woman: Wimp! We can do . . . Okay. So Monday, we’ll go down to the lake. Tuesday, we’re gonna go mountain biking. Um, it’s supposed to be cloudy so your tender skin shouldn’t get burned.

Man: Well, that sounds great . . . but I’d probably crash like I did the last time and break my arm or something.

Woman: You didn’t break your arm last time. You won’t break it this time. Come on. We’ll go . . . So Monday, we’ll go to the lake; Tuesday, we’re going to go mountain biking. [ Okay. ]

Um, Wednesday, I was thinking we could go fishing. Remember the last time we went? I caught like 10 huge fish . . .

Man: Yeah. I remember. And the only thing I caught was an old boot. And you won’t ever, EVER let me forget that one. So, if we do anything, I’d like to enjoy it.

Woman: Well, okay then. Um, what do you suggest?

Man: Well, alright. Well, we could stay home and uh, you know . . . pop some popcorn and play like Scrabble or another board game. Yeah, something like that . . . . What?

Woman: You know, I like board games, but we can do that anytime. Why don’t we go . . . listen . . . Friday or Saturday. We’ll do all those things we talked about and then Friday or Saturday, we’ll go on a picnic to the mountains. You won’t break your arm, you won’t get a sunburn. It’ll be really pleasant. Let’s do that, okay?

Man: Well . . . . .

Woman: Come on. Let’s do it. It’ll be fun.

Man: Okay. We’ll give it a try.

Woman: Good.

• time off (noun): vacation time away from work 
  – I don’t have much time off to travel during the summer break.
• to have something in mind (verb): to think about or plan to so something 
  – Do you have a plan in mind for the weekend
  I don’t have particular food in mind for the party. I think anything is probably fine for most people.
• tender (adjective): delicate; also, very loving 
  – It is a very tender time for the family because of their father’s passing.
• wimp (adjective): a person who does not have courage or is afraid (negative meaning) 
  – Don’t be such a wimp. You need to try new foods. You can’t avoid them when you travel overseas.
• pleasant (adjective): nice or comfortable 
  – The walk along the beach was very pleasant. We enjoyed the cool breeze and the sound of the waves.