General Listening Quiz

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

Dean: Hey, man. What’s up?

Tod: Ah, first of all, I put a buck in the vending machine for a seventy-five-cent candy bar, and the thing got stuck here in the machine. Then, I pressed [Ah, man] the change button, and nothing happened. [Wow!] Nothing came out. The dumb thing still owes me a quarter.

Dean: Well, did you talk to the man at the snack bar to see if he could refund your money?

Tod: Yeah, I tried that, but he said he didn’t own the machine, and I had to call the phone number on the machine.

Dean: What a bummer.

Tod: Hey, I have an idea. [What?] Why don’t we rock the machine back and forth until the candy bar falls?

Dean: Nothing doing. I don’t want to be responsible for breaking the thing, and besides, someone might call the cops.

Tod: Ah, don’t worry. I’ve done it before.

Tod: Oh well. Hey, hey, tough luck. Hey, here, take my candy bar. [You mean?] Yeah, the machine and I hit it off earlier today.

• buck (noun): informal for dollar 
  – Could I borrow a buck to buy a drink from the snack bar?
• vending machine (noun): a machine from which you can buy items like candy or drinks 
  – In some places, you can find a vending machine on almost every street corner.
• get stuck (verb): unable to move 
  – I got stuck in traffic on the way home from work.
• refund (verb; also a noun): give someone their money back 
  – That store will refund your money if there is a problem with the item you buy.
• bummer (noun): a disappointing situation 
  – It was a real bummer that you lost your last buck in that vending machine.
• rock (verb): move back and forth 
  – I sometimes rock the baby when he can’t sleep.
• nothing doing (noun): no way, used when refusing something 
  – Are you asking me to loan you more money? Nothing doing!
• tough luck (noun): an expression of sympathy about a problem 
  – Did she really break your date? Tough luck.
• hit it off (verb): like someone as soon as you meet 
  – The man at the store and I hit it off the first time I entered, and now he always gives me discounts on certain purchases.