General Listening Quiz

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

Woman: Hey. Uh, you look really unhappy. What’s going on?

Young Man: Ah, you don’t wanna [want to] know.

Woman: Okay, see ya.

Young Man: Wait, wait, wait! Why are you walking away?

Woman: Well, you said I didn’t want to know.

Young Man: No, wait. You see, my parents really don’t love me.

Woman: What do you mean? When I met them last week, they seemed really caring.

Young Man: Uh, uh, you don’t understand! You see. I want a new smartphone . . . I . . I mean, I need one, and my parents won’t buy me it!

Woman: Excuse me, but uh, don’t you already have an iPhone?

Young Man: Man, yeah, but it’s three months old, and it has a small scratch on it.

Woman: Where? Let me [Look, look!] see. Let me see. [Look, look, look!] I don’t see a scratch.

Young Man: Look, look right here! [THAT?] [Do] you see it?

Woman: It’s just a speck of dust.

Young Man: Anyway. And my other phone . . .

Woman: What? You have two phones?

Young Man: That’s beside the point.

Woman: So, so, did your parents give you a reason for not buying you a new phone?

Young Man: Not a good one. Only something about being self-reliant and not being so entitled, or something like that. And now they want me to work . . . on the neighbor’s farm to pay for it. [Good idea!] It . . .  It’s not fair.

Woman: Hey. I . . . I think I know the problem. [What?] Take a look in the mirror. You’ll see both the problem and the solution.

Young Man: Uh! You’re no help.

• walk away (verb): leave 
  – The store owner wouldn’t drop the price on the old model of iPhone, so I just walked away.
• caring (adjective): kind 
  – My sister is so caring that she let me borrow her new phone when mine broke.
• speck of dust (noun): a very, very small piece of dirt 
  – Be sure to clean off any specks of dust off your camera lens before you take pictures. Otherwise, they won’t turn out well.
• beside the point: not important or relevant 
  – I know my phone is six years old, and the camera is broken on it. That’s beside the point. It still works, so I don’t need to buy a new one.
• self-reliant (adjective): having the ability to take care of oneself, independent 
  – Joseph is very self-reliant. He never asks his parents for financial help because he wants to take care of things on his own.
• entitled (adjective): having the feeling that you deserve something, sometimes without even working for it 
  – My younger brother feels so entitled. He wants my parents to buy him a new computer, but he isn’t willing to pay for part of it. He thinks it’s their job to do everything for him.