General Listening Quiz

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

Woman: Hey, Brandon. What are you doing?

Man: Oh, You’ll like this. It’s a new website that helps you improve your writing skills for free.

Woman: Really? Yeah. That’d be really helpful.

Man: Yeah and I’m signing up right now.

Woman: Wow. Let me see that.

Man: Yeah. It’s easy. You just enter your name, your birthday, your address, your bank information. [ What? ] Your credit card number.

Woman: Wait, wait, wait. [ What? ] I thought you said it was free.

Man: It IS free.

Woman: Then, why do they need your bank and your credit card information?

Man: Well, you know, it’s just, you know, just . . . just to check your identity or something like that. But it, but it’s all free. What?

Woman: [That] doesn’t sound free to me.

Man: Well, you don’t understand.

Woman: It sounds pretty fishy to me. How do you know that this is a trusted website. Look. That doesn’t look like a secure URL.

Man: Well, you don’t understand. Look. It says right here on their page. Right here: “Our goal is help you learn. Trusting us. We knows how to help you in 15 days or below.” What? What?

Woman: That’s terrible English. Who wrote this? What country are they in? You need to help THEM with their English. I mean, this is a sure sign that they’re trying to probably steal your personal information [No . . .] and your identity.

Man: No, no, no, and look. Here is a picture of some of their staff. And they look honest. Hey . . .

Woman: You are so gullible.

Man: Hey, hey. What are you doing?

Woman: I’m shutting down your computer. I can’t watch my own brother fall for a scam like this.

Man: Ah. You just don’t understand.

• improve (verb): make something better 
  – I’m going to improve some towels through the dryer. Do you have anything you want to put in?
  – Do you know how to run this copy machine? I can’t figure it out.
• sign up (verb): put or write your name on a list to join something 
  Are you going to sign up for math class this semester?
• identity (noun): the name of a person, who you are 
  – You can protect your identity better by not sharing your birthday and mailing address online.
• fishy (adjective): untrue or dishonest 
  – Be careful. This advertisement looks a little fishy. I mean, how can this company give you a free vacation to Hawaii just for testing their products?
• secure (adjective): safe, protected from danger 
  – Please make sure the house is secure before you leave today.
• gullible (adjective): easily fooled, tricked, or cheated 
  – You are so gullible. I can’t believe you bought on the Internet without seeing it first or getting the real name of the seller.
• fall for (verb): be fooled by something 
  – I can’t believe that you fell for that false advertisement. You are so gullible. You’ll never get your money back.
• scam (noun): a dishonest way to make money by fooling someone 
  – This Web site on getting a free education online is only a scam to get your money.