General Listening Quiz

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

Woman: Hey, James. James? What’s wrong? You don’t look well at all. What’s going on? What’s up?

Man: Oh, I think I just have a bad cold. That’s all.

Woman: Oh, you don’t look like you have a bad cold. You, your look terrible. [ What? ] Your skin . . . oh my gosh. Look. It looks a little purple.

Man: What? What are you talking about?

Woman: Oh, no, James! Oh, no. Let me look. Oh, look right here, right here. Here it is. It talks about it . . . I saw this on the Internet. It says right here [What?] what you’ve got. Yeah. It says if you have purple skin [ Purple?] You’ve got purple skin. Look in the mirror. It says it is a sign of a rare disease called the Burafa virus.

Man: Bura . . . Burafa virus? I’ve never heard of that. Come on. 

Woman: Well, you’re just . . . you just aren’t well-read like I am. Look. Just have a look.

Man: What? Oh. What is this website?

Woman: Come on. Look. The owner is a well-known psychic named Dr. Simon.

Man: A psy . . . a psychic? What in the world makes this psychic a medical expert anyway?

Woman: Well, um . . . I don’t know, but he says on his blog that he loves working with animals.

Man: Animals? What about humans? Forget it. I mean . . . [ Cough, cough. ]

Woman: Oh no! [ What? ] Wait, wait, wait. Let me look. Let me look. Oh, no. [ What? ] He said something about that cough.

Man: Ah. It’s just a simple cough!

Woman: No, it’s not. It’s another symptom for the Burafa virus. You cough twice, not once or three times. You coughed twice, and that’s a clear sign of the disease.

Man: That’s nonsense.

Woman: You . . . you have the Burafa virus. It says so right here.

Man: So, what else does the website say?

Woman: Oh, no. [ What? ] Oh, no. Oh, James. [ What? ] It says that once the cough sets in, the person only has . . . . only . . . only, only a week to live.

Man: I’ve had enough. You’re spending too much time online.

• rare (adjective): not common 
  This disease is very rare in this country.
• come on: used in speech to show surprise or disbelief 
  – Hey, come on. Don’t damage your health by living such a poor lifestyle.
• psychic (noun): a person who has special abilities to predict the future 
  – I’m not a psychic. I can’t tell if you’re going to recover in two days or not.
• expert (noun): a person who has special knowledge about a subject 
  – The doctor is an expert on these types of diseases.
• symptom (noun): a change in the body that shows a sign of a disease 
  – What are the symptoms of this type of illness?
• nonsense (noun): an idea that is crazy, foolish, or completely untrue 
  – Your reason for getting sick is complete nonsense. No one ever gets sick because they eat too many vegetables.
• set in (verb): begin to be present of something that is usually unpleasant 
  – Maria’s illness really set in after she didn’t go to the doctor for treatment.