Practice Listening English Exercises for B1 – Vacations

1) (top row) W, J

(bottom row) J, W, X (snorkel)

2) (top row) K, R

   (bottom row) X (the beach), R, K

Audioscripts inb below

1 Wei  wonderful, terrific

2 Julia relaxing, interesting

3 Katie exciting, fantastic

4 Ryan boring, relaxing

Audioscripts

1) Wei and Julia

Julia :   Wei! Good to see you. So, how was your vacation?

Wei :   Oh, it was wonderful.

Julia :   What did you do?

Wei :   Well, let’s see. I walked around this beautiful garden.

Julia :   Really? I didn’t know you liked gardening.

Wei :   Oh, I don’t like doing gardening. It’s too much work. But I love to look at beautiful flowers.

Julia :   Mmm-hmm. So what else did you do, Wei?

Wei :   Well, I went to some great restaurants. I ate seafood every night.

Julia :   Really?

Wei :   Yeah. Crab, lobster. Great food. Not too expensive either. It was just a terrific trip. So, how was your vacation, Julia?

Julia :   Well, I didn’t go anywhere special.

Wei :   You just rested?

Julia :   Yeah. It was nice to be home and have a lot of time for things like reading. I did a lot of that. I probably read, I don’t know, four or five books. And I visited a couple of museums. So it was relaxing, but also very interesting.

Wei :   Sounds nice.

2) Katie and Ryan.

Ryan :   Did you have a good vacation, Katie?

Katie :   Yeah! It was exciting – probably most exciting vacation ever!

Ryan :   Wow! What did you do?

Katie :   I took a nature adventure tour. For the first part, we went hiking. It was so much fun! We hike all the way up to these beautiful waterfalls. I took lots of pictures.

Ryan :   Sounds great. So, what else did you do on the tour?

Katie :   Well, the best part was at the end of the trip. We went skydiving! Can you believe it? I jumped out of an airplane.

Ryan :   Wow!

Katie :   Yeah, it was just a fantastic vacation. But anyway, that’s enough about vacation. How did you spend your break, Ryan?

Ryan :   Oh, I drove to visit relatives.

Katie :   Uh-huh. Did you have good time?

Ryan :   Well, it was pretty boring, actually. It rained every day so we had to stay inside. We just stayed home and watched TV a lot.

Katie :   Oh, that’s too bad.

Ryan :   No, that’s OK. It really was very relaxing, even though it was a little boring.

(top row) 4, 5

(middle row) X, 1

(bottom row) 3, 2

Audioscripts inb below

1) one day   2) sleep

3) Trafalgar Square

4) bus   5) sixteen

Audioscripts

1)

Man :   Hey, how was your trip to England?

Sara :   Well, it was certainly a trip I’ll remember, unfortunately.

Man :   Unfortunately? Why unfortunately?

Sara :   Well, if something could go wrong, it did.

Man :   Like what?

Sara :   Oh, it was awful. It started in New York. First, our plane arrived late coming into New York, so we missed the plane – our connecting flight to London! We had to stay at a hotel and catch the plane the next day.

Man :   Boy, bad start.

2)

Sara :   We finally got on the plane the next day and made it to England. We were planning to stay at a youth hostel in London, but when we arrived, the youth hostel was full. There were no more beds. We had to take a bus to another one on the other side of London.

Man :   Oh no, that must have been horrible.

Sara :   It was.

3)

Man :   So, what else happened?

Sara :   Well, the next morning, we got up early and walked to Buckingham Palace. Then we went to see Trafalgar Square.

Man :   Yeah. I hear that’s terrific.

Sara :   I wouldn’t know. It was completely closed! They were filming a movie, and you couldn’t get anywhere near the square.

Man :   That’s too bad.

4)

Man :   Well, what next?

Sara :   Since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to see Stonehenge, the very large stones set in a circle. They had special meaning for people thousands of years ago.

Man :   Hmm. Interesting.

Sara :   We took a bus tour to get there. We left really early in the morning and guess what!

Man :   What!

Sara :   It rained all day. It was terrible. We couldn’t take any pictures at all.

Man :   Stop! I can’t hear any more! You poor thing!

5)

Sara :   Oh, that’s not all. After the trip to Stonehenge, we were feeling pretty down, so we decided to go shopping at Harrod’s, the famous department store. I found these beautiful sweaters, but there were no price tags, so I asked the price. I thought the clerk said sixteen pounds each, so I decided to buy three. But when she gave me the total, I saw that they were sixty pounds each, not sixteen!

Man :   Well, I guess that’s the last trip you’ll take to England.

1) b   2) c   3) a   4) c   5) b

Audioscripts

Man :   So, how was your vacation? You went to Paris, didn’t you?

Woman :   Yeah, with parents. We just got back on Saturday. It was wonderful!

Man :   What sights did you visit?

Woman :   Well, we saw all the most famous places, the Eiffel Tower, ___ Notre Dame Cathedral__ They were so interesting.

Man :   Did you take any tours?

Woman :   Just one – a boat tour on the Seine River.

Man :   Wow! That sounds fantastic.

Woman :   Yeah. It was a great way to see the city.

Man :   Did you go to any of the famous art museum?

Woman :   Yeah. parents love art, so they spent hours in the museums. But for me, it was pretty boring. I’m just not very interested in paintings.

Man :   So, what else did you do?

Woman :   Well, I guess favorite thing to do was just to sit in cafés and watch the people. It was really relaxing, and French coffee is terrific.

Man :   It sounds like a great vacation to me.

Woman :   Oh, it was. But it’s good to be home.

Audioscripts

1)

Think of a good vacation you had or a good trip you took. Remember a vacation or a trip that you enjoyed. Where did you go? Write the name of the place.

2)

What did you do on that vacation? Write the name of one activity that you enjoyed.

3)

What was that vacation like? Was it relaxing? Was it exciting? Write one or two words to describe your good vacation.

4)

Now think of a bad vacation you had or a bad trip you took. Remember a vacation or a trip you didn’t enjoy. Where did you go? Write the name of the place.

5)

What was the bad vacation like? Was the vacation boring? Was it awful? Write one or two words to describe your bad vacation.

1) went to the beach, watched TV

2) ate at restaurants, listened to music

3) visited a famous place, went hiking

4) went to museums, took a tour, went shopping

5) went skiing, just rested, read

Audioscripts inb below

1) b   2) c   3) a   4) c   5) b

Audioscripts

1)

Man :   How was your vacation, Natalie?

Natalie :   Oh, it was terrible!

Man :   What happened?

Natalie :   I got a really bad sunburn at the beach.

Man :   Oh, no! That’s awful.

Natalie :   Then it rained for the rest of the time, so we just watched TV all week.

Man :   You didn’t do any sightseeing?

Natalie :   No. There was really nothing to see there – except the beach!

2)

Woman :   So, you’re back from Paris! What did you think of the Louvre museum?

Man :   Actually, I didn’t go to the Louvre.

Woman :   Oh. Well, how about the other famous places? The Eiffel Tower ___ Notre Dame ___

Man :   Those kinds of places don’t interest me.

Woman :   You must have thought Paris was pretty boring, then!

Man :   Boring? No way! I went to a different restaurant and a different club every night. The food was wonderful. And I heard some terrific music – jazz, hip-hop ___ . I went out every night and got back to the hotel when the sun was coming up. It was the best vacation I’ve ever had!

3)

Man :   Hi, Pam. How was your vacation?

Pam :   It was terrific.

Man :   Where did you go? Anyplace famous?

Pam :   Yes, we went to the Grand Canyon!

Man :   Oh, did you go with a tour group?

Pam :   No, we just explored on our own. We went hiking every day. It was great to spend time with mom and dad.

4)

Matt :   I just got back from vacation. I’m exhausted!

Woman :   Why? What did you do?

Matt :   friend and I went to Vancouver. We visited some wonderful museums and took a sightseeing tour around the city.

Woman :   So, you’re tired from visiting all those places?

Matt :   No, I’m tired because I hardly slept at all. Our hotel room was on the first floor, so it was really noisy. But I’m still glad I went. There were some fantastic shops. Here. This is for you.

5) [phone rings]

Julie :   Hello?

Tim :   Hi, Julie. It’s Tim. I heard you got back yesterday. Did you have a good vacation?

Julie :   Well, yes and no.

Tim :   You went hiking, right?

Julie :   No, actually, we went skiing.

Tim :   That sounds like fun!

Julie :   It was. But on the second day, I fell and hurt leg.

Tim :   Oh, no!

Julie :   Oh, it wasn’t too bad. I just rested at the hotel. I read a few books, listened to music – that kind of thing. At least it was relaxing.