Zapp! English Vocabulary & Pronunciation Audio 3.17 - Chance & Probability

Asked whether certainty really exists, Jon doesn't hesitate: "If it rains and you are outside in the street, you will get wet." Katie's reply is one word — "Like death" — and both of them laugh. That's the tone of this unit. We take fifteen words and phrases for talking about chance and probability, drill the pronunciation, then let two speakers loose on questions about gambling, risk, fate and lottery numbers to hear the same language used for real.

What you'll hear in this episode

The unit is built in two halves, each with the same shape: questions first, then meaning and pronunciation work, then unscripted answers.

In the first half, Katie asks Jon whether gambling should be banned. He says he doesn't think so, but that it needs to be regulated, and admits his own gambling goes no further than the lottery. Asked whether he'd ever bet on a race, he explains that the culture around horse and dog racing in England is "a little bit…lairy" — and then, usefully for a learner, glosses his own slang as "boisterous". On missed chances he starts with "Many", immediately contradicts himself, and works round to the idea that "it's hard to say I missed out on that" when you like where you are now. He also draws a neat line between things that are genuinely certain and "a dead cert" for a bet.

The second half brings in Kim, who is cheerfully hopeless at the games question — "Oh dear I'm not very good with games" — before remembering snakes and ladders and Monopoly. Katie admits she was always "trying to er…roll the dice and get a six". On the lottery, Kim knows the maths says one, two, three, four, five, six is as good as anything, but sticks with the human problem: if you skip a week and your numbers come up, "you'd never, get over it would you?"

Quick facts

What you'll learn

Fifteen items of vocabulary, taught the Zapp! way: you hear each one used in a question first, so you meet it in context before anyone defines it. Then we check the meaning and work on the sound.

The pronunciation work is specific rather than general. We point out that in to take a chance the a reduces to /ə/, so the phrase runs together instead of arriving in three separate pieces. We flag the second syllable of certainty as /tən/, the weak /stə/ opening of statistics, and the /j/ sound that carries over from by into the next word in by accident — a small piece of connected speech that explains why a common phrase can be hard to catch at speed.

The listening is the other half of the job. Jon speaks in long, self-correcting sentences full of hesitation, restarts and asides, which is exactly what real opinion-giving sounds like. Learning to follow a speaker who says "Many" and then spends a minute arguing with himself is a genuine skill, and hearing a native speaker define his own slang mid-sentence is a good model for what to do when you're stuck.

The vocabulary

• gambling /ɡæmblIŋ/ (noun) — trying to win money through chance. Katie's opening question is whether it should be banned.
• to take a risk /teIkərIsk/ (phrase) — to do something where something could go wrong and you could lose something and be in a worse situation, or you could be in a better situation.
• to bet / a bet (verb, noun) — to risk money, to gamble on a game of chance. Used in the question about betting on a race.
• a certainty /sɜːtənti/ (noun) — something that is sure to happen. The word behind the exchange about rain and death.
• potential /pətenʃəl/ (adjective) — possible. From the question about whether being rich is an opportunity or a problem.
• an opportunity /ɒpərtjuːnəti/ (noun) — a chance to do something, a positive possibility.
• likelihood /laIklihʊd/ (noun) — the chance of something happening.
• fate /feIt/ (noun) — what some people believe is what has already been decided will happen to you in life.
• random /rændəm/ (adjective) — happening in no order, not chosen for any special reason, by chance.
• on purpose /pɜːpəs/ (phrase) — deliberately, with planning.

In the workbook

The workbook for this unit carries the full vocabulary glossary — every term with its phonemic transcription, part of speech and definition, including likely / unlikely, to take turns, statistics, dice and by accident.

After that there are three practice tasks. Practice 1 is a matching exercise: sentence halves to join, such as "I once bet on a horse," and "Statistics show that you are more…". Practice 2 is our favourite kind of puzzle — six sentences with the bold words in the wrong places, so "It's my opportunity, pass the dice" has to become "It's my turn, pass the dice". Practice 3 is pronunciation: nine words to sort under four stress patterns, which separates gambling and random from potential and statistics, and likelihood and certainty from opportunity. Full answers are included.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack at €39, which covers every episode across the courses.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio free?

Yes. The English conversations and the teaching audio are free to download. The workbook is the paid part.

Are the conversations scripted?

No. Jon's and Kim's answers are unscripted, which is why they hesitate, restart and change their minds. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What level is this episode?

Level 3, from Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3. It suits learners who can already follow a conversation but want more precise vocabulary and better control of stress and connected speech.

Can I use it without the workbook?

Yes — the audio teaches and drills every word on its own. The workbook adds the glossary, the three practice tasks and the answers.

How should I use the pronunciation sections?

Repeat after every beep, out loud. Then try the stress-pattern task in the workbook and check yourself against the audio.

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