Listening Exercises

Listen to the conversation again by pressing the Play Audio button and read along with the conversation. Review the Key Vocabulary and the sample sentences.

Man: Hey. Hey. Wait. What are you doing? Police Officer: What does it look like I'm doing? I'm having your car towed away for illegal parking. Man: Officer. You can't do that. That's not fair. Police Officer: What do you mean it's not fair? You parked your car in a no-parking area. Man: What? What do you mean? Police Officer: Look, sir. There's a sign right there that says, "Tow away zone. No parking between the hours of 7 a.m. - 6 p.m." Man: What sign? Oh, that one? Those tree branches are covering it. Police Officer: Take that complaint up with the city. I'm just here to uphold the law. Anyway, you can clearly see it once you get out of your car. Man: But, but . . . my car was only here for five minutes. I just had to run into this building to . . . to drop off some clothing at the homeless shelter. Just trying to help people in need. Police Officer: Sir. The homeless shelter is six blocks down the road. Anyway, here's your ticket, and the address where you can pick up your car is found on the back. Man: What? One hundred and fifty dollars? That's, that's outrageous. Complete ludicrous. Police Officer: Sorry sir. Man: And you mean you're going to tow the car away? I'm standing right here. Look. How about two tickets for a lecture on the history of the English language tomorrow night at the library? Anything. Police Officer: Sir. It's illegal to bribe an officer. Man: Wait, or here. Some coupons for a free burger at that restaurant across the street. Buy one and get the second one half price. Police Officer: Sorry, sir. Have a good day.

Key Vocabulary [Top]

• tow (away) (verb): remove a vehicle
  - Several cars were towed away after the terrible accident.

• zone (noun; also verb): an area set aside for a specific purpose from other surrounding areas
  - You can't park here because it is a construction zone, and workers need to keep the sides of the road clear of vehicles.

• uphold (verb): defend (a law or policy)
  - The police need to uphold these laws to preserve the peace.

• shelter (noun): a building designed to provide a place to live
  - Unfortunately, my friend had no place to live, so his car served as shelter for about a month.

• ludicrous (adjective): unreasonable or without good sense
  - The fine for parking illegally was so ludicrous that my roommate decided to fight it in court.

Vocabulary Activities [Top]

Now, do these exercises to review the vocabulary. Then, return back to the Post-Listening Exercise to use the vocabulary in real conversations. [Why do these?]

• Mixed-Up Sentence
• Sentence and Vocabulary Matching