Zapp! English Colloquial 3.27 - Wonders of the World

"Where are we?" Katie asks at the start of this one. "We're on a beach," Tom answers, and then adds the detail that explains the tone of the whole conversation: "Very hot, under a sun umbrella." From there the two of them work through ten colloquial expressions for places that make you gasp \, and the ones that quietly disappoint. There's a sharp intake of breath, a guess involving testicles, and a small argument about what Leonardo DiCaprio actually shouts in Titanic.

What you'll hear in this episode

Katie sets up each expression by describing the feeling and letting Tom guess. His first try is "It blew my mind" \, which Katie accepts but refines: mind-blowing fits things you can't quite understand, like the mystery of how the Pyramids were built. Then she inhales sharply and waits. Tom: "Gasping?" A moment later he lands on it took my breath away.

The funniest guess comes when Katie says she wants a very informal way to say something is the best. Tom, without hesitation: "Is this to do with testicles?" It is. The dog's bollocks arrives, followed by its polite cousin, the bee's knees.

The negative half is just as concrete. Katie imagines a traveller standing at the Pyramids thinking "it's OK, but you know there's a McDonald's next to the Sphinx" \ a letdown, and not all it's cracked up to be. Tom's blunt addition to that picture is one of the more memorable lines in the episode.

In the second conversation they move to second to none, out of this world, on top of the world, on cloud nine and over the moon. One of the speakers uses a new apartment in Barcelona as an example of a view that's second to none, then immediately admits: "In my dreams!" Katie corrects the Titanic reference too \ "I think he says I'm king of the world."

Quick facts

What you'll learn

The most useful thing here isn't the list of idioms ";, it's how they differ from each other. Katie doesn't accept "It blew my mind" as a straight substitute for breathtaking: she explains that we tend to use it for things we can't understand, while took my breath away belongs to the physical gasp. Later she pins down over the moon as something you say about the result of something you'd been waiting for, and Tom agrees, adding "something that you've been waiting for or working towards, often."

You'll also hear register in action. The workbook grades every expression from 1 to 3, and the dog's bollocks is the only 3 in the list ", with the warning: "Don't use this with your mother-in-law!!!" Second to none is introduced explicitly as "still a kind of spoken phrase but not so informal" ", which is exactly the distinction learners need if they're going to use slang at work.

Because the guessing format means Tom sometimes gets it wrong ", "To be on fire? No…" ", you hear the corrections happen naturally, which is far more memorable than a list. The two Meaning and Pronunciation drills then feed you a single word ", cloud, top, moon, out, second ", and ask you to complete the phrase and repeat it after the beep.

Vocabulary from the workbook

• to take your breath away (1) ", to make you feel amazed. Tom's answer to Katie's sharp inhale.
• a let down (1) ", not as good as you thought it would be. The Pyramids-with-a-McDonald's example.
• not all it's cracked up to be (1) ", not as good as people say it is.
• the dog's bollocks (3) ", the best, perfect, ideal (slang ", strong).
• the bee's knees (1) ", the best. Katie supplies this one when Tom asks for "the other one, that's like that".
• mind blowing (1) ", really exciting, amazing or shocking.
• to be on top of the world (1) ", to feel very happy, because everything is going very well.
• to be on cloud nine (1) ", to be very, very happy.
• to be over the moon (1) ", to be very pleased and happy about something.
• second to none (1) ", the best.
• out of this world (1) ", amazing and incredible.

What's in the workbook

The workbook for 3.27 contains the full transcript of both beach conversations, so you can see exactly where Tom hesitates and how Katie steers him. There's a short introduction reminding you that these expressions are informal, the scripted Meaning and Pronunciation sections written out with their example sentences (The Grand Canyon was just mind-blowing, Diving at the Great Barrier Reef was the dog's bollocks), and the glossary above with its 1",3 informality ratings.

Then two exercises. Practice Exercise 1 gives you scrambled words to rearrange into sentences ", landscape / out / was / world / The / this / of. Practice Exercise 2 is error correction, and the mistakes are the real ones learners make: That place was dog bollocks, The sunset took my breath, out of the moon. Full answers follow, with the corrections marked.

The audio is free. The workbook comes with the all-in-one pack, which bundles the workbooks for every episode across all the levels for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the conversation scripted?

No. Katie and Tom's conversations are unscripted ", the guessing, the pauses and the Titanic disagreement are all real. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Can I really use "the dog's bollocks"?

Only with people you know well. The workbook rates it 3 out of 3 for informality and warns you off using it with your mother-in-law. The bee's knees means the same thing and is rated 1.

What level is this episode?

Level 3, from the Colloquial 3 pack. You'll get most out of it if you already follow natural conversation and want the idiomatic layer on top.

Is the audio free?

Yes. All the English conversations are free to download. The workbook with the transcript, glossary and exercises is part of the paid pack.

How long is it?

15 minutes 35 seconds, split into two conversations with a pronunciation drill after each.

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