General Listening Quiz

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

Shop Employee: Hi. How can I help you?

Customer: Uh, I’d like to get a souvenir for my wife. Something special from this area.

Shop Employee: Okay. Well, how about this nice pearl necklace? It’s locally sourced from the nearby sea.

Customer: Uh, yeah…Let me see that. .Oh, no. NO! That’s way too expensive. I’m not gonna [going to] spend $120 for something like that.

Shop Employee: Okay. How about this nice watch?

Customer: Oh, OH! That’s way too expensive, plus she already has a watch and a phone, so she can check the time of day whenever she likes.

Shop Employee: Ok, um. What about this nice shirt? It’s made with traditional designs, local tailor. Only $30.

Customer: Well, Oh! Oh no!

Shop Employee: [Woman sighs.] Let me guess. It’s the price. Is it too expensive?

Customer: Well, it’s . . . .well, kind of.

Shop Employee: Didn’t you say this was for your wife? Shouldn’t you be getting her something nice? I mean, come on.

Customer: Hey. If you’re suggesting that I’m cheap or something, I’ll just, well, I’ll just go to another souvenir shop. They’ll probably treat me a lot better than you are.

Shop Employee: Yeah, good luck. They [What?], they all closed while you were carrying on. I mean, we closed 15  minutes ago. [Oh!]. You can pick up something at the airport if you want, but they’ll charge you an arm and a leg.

Customer: Uh, um. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, wait. How much is this candy bar? She really likes chocolate.

Shop Employee: [Are] you serious? This is a Snickers bar. It’s not even one of their special novelty flavors. You can get this literally anywhere. How about this box of nice chocolates? They’re Belgian. I mean that’s not local, but they’re nice.

Customer: No. No, no, no, no, no. Whoa. No, no, no, no.

Shop Employee: Look. Just take it. [What?] I’m done. [The] Least I can do is save your marriage.

• souvenir(noun): an item that reminds you of a particular place that you visit
  – I bought several souvenirs during my trip for family and friends.
• be sourced (verb): be found or obtained from a particular location
  – This fish is sourced from the sea near our house.
• tailor (noun): a person who makes or fits clothes for a living
  – Do you know a tailor who can make a nice business suit?
• come on (expression): an expression to express disbelief or surprise
  – Come on. Stop telling these wild stories and tell me the truth.
• pay/charge someone an arm and a leg (verb): pay a lot of money for something
  – I paid an arm and a leg for this car. It was so expensive.
– That company is going to charge me an arm and a leg to buy their products.
• carry on (verb): speak in an excited or uncontrollable way
  – My father carried on and on last night about his speeding ticket. He said it wasn’t fair..
• novelty (adjective): new and interesting
  – We bought several novelty gifts for our family while we were on vacation.
• done (adjective): show an activity has finished or has been completed
  – I’m done with this car. It doesn’t run at all.