seven
stories
7.1
tune in / listen
carefully
T Well,
a few years ago, I was with my girlfriend, Janet, and erm, we were having a
picnic in a field, and while we were having our picnic, we suddenly heard this
dubba-dubba-dubba-dubba in the sky – a helicopter! And I love helicopters, I’ve
always loved helicopters, and I heard it getting closer and closer, and I
decided to wave. The helicopter started to
circle the field, and it got lower and lower and finally, the helicopter landed
right in front of us.
The noise and the wind were tremendous.
Janet stood next to me, not sure what was happening. Then, the pilot ran over
and said to my girlfriend, ‘Hello, Janet, my name’s Ian, come in the
helicopter, please!’ (Wow!) Well, she didn’t want to go, she didn’t know what
was happening, (not surprising!) but we got in. In fact, er, I’d organized this
before, erm, I’d organized it about two weeks before, and Janet didn’t know.
So anyway, we were up in the
helicopter, we flew over the sea, and I said to Janet, ‘Please, marry me.’ Erm,
I had to shout, it was so noisy.
L Wow!
T And
she looked at me and she said, ‘yes.’ And the pilot turned round and gave us
two glasses and a bottle of champagne!
L Ahh!
T And
we drank this flying all the way back home. Anyway, we landed, we got out of
the helicopter, and in the end, we sat in the field and finished our picnic –
it was, it was like a dream.
L Oh,
what a lovely story.
T It
was an amazing day!
7.2
listening challenge
L And
what did Janet say afterwards?
T She
was so surprised and shocked, she didn’t, she didn’t speak for quite a long
time, erm, and then we, we sat in the field, and as far as I remember, she
cried.
L Ahhh.
T So,
and so did I when I got the bill!
L Oh,
really? Can I ask how much it cost?
T I
don’t remember, it was, er a lot of money, er, a lot of money.
L But
was it easy to set up, to organize?
T It
was very easy, erm, probably it took three phone calls and I sent the pilot a
map of where the field was. And that was it. He did the rest.
L And
erm, did Janet actually marry you in the end?
T She
married me, yes. We got married, erm, five years ago.
L Ahhh.
T Yeah.
7.3
T You
know, we had a really nice evening on Saturday.
L Yeah?
T First
of all, we went for a meal, after that we went to a musical, which was great.
L Oh,
right!
T And
then we met some friends for a few drinks. It was really good.
7.4
A Hi!
How are you?
B Oh,
I’m having a very nice time.
A How
was the trip?
B Oh,
I had a terrible time.
A What
are you doing tomorrow?
B I’m
going to a music festival.
A Oh,
wow! Have a great time!
7.5
T We
had an amazing day on Sunday.
J Oh,
yeah?
T Yeah,
you remember it was a warm day, really hot?
J Yeah,
yeah, I do.
T So
we decided to go for a picnic, and there’s a lake not far from us, so we went
there, and we were having a lovely time by the water, (hmm) you know, having
nice food, it was all nice and peaceful, and then this family came along.
Really noisy! (uh) The father had his radio on at full volume, their dog was
barking all the time, girl was shouting and running after the dog …
J So
annoying.
T Yeah,
anyway, Penny got fed up, (hmm) so we decided to leave and went back to the
car. Anyway, we got to the car, and there were two young men standing by my
car.
J Right.
T One
of them got a brick and smashed the window of my car.
J You’re
joking!
T No!
I couldn’t believe it. (uh) Anyway, I, I shouted and ran after them.
Fortunately they didn’t steal anything.
J Oh,
that’s good.
T Anyway,
one of them fell over, so I managed to catch him.
J Right.
T And
Penny rang the police, and they came a few minutes later and arrested him.
J Oh,
fantastic!
T Yeah,
and they got the other guy on Monday. (Huh!)