Zapp! English Listening 2.10: Describing Things in English

One speaker owns almost nothing on purpose. After a friend lost everything she had collected in a fire, Ronny decided "I never wanted to own anything that I couldn’t bear to part with" — and then admits to one exception: a clay Buddha head she has kept for fifty years. Another speaker's favourite possession is a purple pencil case with white spots and a pink zip. That gap between the profound and the completely ordinary is what makes this episode good listening practice.

What you'll hear in this episode

Three short listening tasks, all unscripted. In the first, three people name a favourite thing. One of the speakers describes a dirt bike and weekends riding through mountains, past waterfalls and villages, for "a real sense of freedom". Ronny describes the Buddha head — heavy, made of clay, probably Japanese, judging by the shape of the face. Jesse is more sheepish: "it’s a bit silly but...I really like my pencil case", and you can hear her laughing at herself.

The second task is a conversation between Katie and Nicholas about childhood possessions. Nicholas still has a stuffed hippopotamus puppet called Hippy, now boxed up: "he’s in storage and he’s er...probably very scared, right now inside of a box". Katie's was a stuffed dog named William — after a brother who hadn't been born yet — "orange...with sort of green leaves all over it" and "really floppy". William has gone missing; Percy the Penguin survives. Asked what she values now, Katie says "some women love, shoes and clothes, for me it’s backpacks", then lists the things she checks: the size of the zip, the material, whether it's comfortable.

The third task asks what people would like to own. Hannah wants her own windsurfing board, then works out aloud that she'd need a sail and everything else too. Tom describes a Volkswagen California campervan, down to the fridge and the stereo. Katie wants a campervan as well — she had one once, but not a VW.

Quick facts

Episode	Zapp! English Listening 2.10 - Describing Things
Pack	Listening 2
Level	2
Duration	11 minutes 51 seconds
Voices	Seven
Accents	A variety of British and American
Audio	Free
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack

What you'll learn

The listening tasks are built around selective listening: you aren't asked to catch every word, but to notice which specific details a speaker gives. Task 1 asks whether the speakers mention colour, material, where they got the object, or how much it cost — and the answer for cost is no, which trains you to notice what isn't said as well as what is.

You'll also hear how English speakers actually build a description. Notice how often the adjectives arrive in a chain rather than a neat list: "purple", "white spots", "pink zip"; "a very cuddly happy looking hippopotamus". Notice Katie's comparison for size — "about as long as maybe, your finger to your elbow" — a very ordinary way of describing measurements without numbers.

There's plenty of real hesitation to get used to: false starts, "erm", self-correction, and the pattern of a speaker thinking out loud, as when Hannah reasons her way from wanting a board to realising the whole set-up "would end up being very very expensive". Following that kind of unfinished, self-interrupting speech is a different skill from following a textbook dialogue, and it's the one you need for real conversations.

Vocabulary from the workbook

couldn't bear (phrase) – could not stand, it would be too difficult, it would be too awful. Ronny uses it about possessions she would hate to lose.
part with (phrase) – not have any more, let go. Same sentence as above.
stuffed (adjective) – filled with something. Nicholas's hippopotamus and Katie's dog are both stuffed animals.
cherish (verb) – love and care for because it is important to you. Nicholas cherishes Hippy, and now perhaps only his passport.
floppy (adjective) – loose and soft, not hard, hanging down. How Katie describes the orange dog.

What's in the workbook

The workbook takes you through the three listening tasks with the question set out before you listen and the answers given afterwards, so you can check yourself rather than guess. Then come the extra listening questions — how long Ronny has had the Buddha head, which country it came from, how many animals get mentioned in the second conversation, how many pieces of windsurfing equipment Hannah names, whether Tom wants the same colour campervan as his friend Ben's orange one. Answers are at the back.

There's a guessing-from-context exercise on three lines from the transcript — "former", "puppet" and "adolescents" — where you decide the word class first and then match each to a definition. A glossary covers the five expressions above, and the full transcript is there so you can go back and see exactly why you missed something.

The workbook for this episode is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, €39 for every episode's workbook.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio scripted?

The English conversations are completely unscripted — that's why you hear people trailing off and laughing at themselves. The teaching sections that set up each task and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Is the audio free?

Yes. The audio is free to download. The workbook is the paid part, inside the all-in-one pack.

What level is this episode?

Level 2 in the Zapp! English Listening series.

Do I need the workbook to follow along?

No, but the tasks work better with it. The extra questions, the vocabulary exercise and the transcript are all in the workbook, and the transcript is the fastest way to see what your ear missed.

How long does it take?

The audio runs 11 minutes 51 seconds. With the extra materials, expect closer to half an hour.

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