Zapp! English Listening 3.1 - Clothes and Fashion
Taught by Katie Wood — Cambridge CELTA · Cambridge DELTA · Cambridge-accredited Teacher Trainer
Recorded and taught by a team of British and North American English teachers, based in Oxford (UK) and Barcelona (Spain).
A French Connection checked shirt, bought with saved-up pocket money and worn religiously for over a year, went into a sixty-degree wash and came out two sizes smaller. The verdict, delivered flatly: "Gutted. Absolutely gutted." That is the kind of detail you get when you ask people about their favourite item of clothing rather than about fashion in the abstract. This Level 3 unit collects those answers, then puts speakers together to argue about heels, shopping and whether any of it matters.
What you'll hear in this episode
Four short answers open the unit. Tom picks a North Face fleece he was given for Christmas — cosy, light, hard-wearing — and likes zipping the neck up to his chin: "So basically it's like having a top and a scarf, all in one." Stuart chooses a blue t-shirt covered in Japanese writing he can't read, under a smiley face and the words "veggie heaven". Katie goes for pyjama bottoms, partly because "they've got an elasticated waist". Laney wears one pair of shoes every day until the soles fall off.
The longer conversation is Eve and Ben, talking at home about how much fashion actually matters to them. One of them describes being told, after a move to a new city, "you're not too fashionable today", and being steered away from sneakers towards Vans and a pair of Levi's. Both admit they shop with someone else for a second opinion. Eve talks about her sister learning to sew from their mother and making unique pieces from patterns; the conversation drifts to stitching up holey socks. Then Eve points out that the sandals being worn indoors are so broken they've been wrapped several times in packaging tape. The reply: "my fashion goes outside of the house".
Kami, Laura and Pam describe thirty or forty scarves, a brown cape that's good for cycling, and a silk dress bought in the sales for fifteen pounds that no longer fits. Finally Katie, Laura and Kami sit down together on the sofas and take apart magazine fashion, six-inch heels and twenty-year-old Doc Martens.
Quick facts
| Episode | Zapp! English Listening 3.1 – Clothes and Fashion |
| Episode number | 3.1 |
| Pack | Listening 3 |
| Level | 3 |
| Length | 18 minutes 12 seconds |
| Audio | Free to download |
| Workbook | Part of the all-in-one pack (€39) |
What you'll learn
The unit trains two things at once: listening for general understanding and listening for detail. Task 1 asks only whether anyone chooses the same item or gives the same reason — the answer is that nobody picks the same thing, but two speakers both say theirs is comfortable. Task 4 gives you true/false statements to check against a three-way conversation. The extra questions then send you back for detail: why is a silk dress a surprise at fifteen pounds, why can't Katie wear her new shoes.
There's also a genuine vocabulary lesson in the mix of Englishes. You'll hear sneakers and tennis shoes alongside trainers, pants alongside black boots, mom alongside mum — same topic, different words, in the same eighteen minutes. Worth noticing if you're used to one variety only.
And you'll hear how English speakers hedge when they don't want to commit. "I'm sort of in the middle, between being into fashion but also just being pretty relaxed about it" is a very ordinary bit of English and a very useful pattern. So is the run of adjectives Tom stacks up without pausing: cosy, warm, comfortable, light, hard-wearing.
Vocabulary from the workbook
The glossary covers the words the speakers actually use:
- zip up — close a piece of clothing using a zip (Tom's fleece neck)
- gutted (informal) — very disappointed (the shrunken shirt)
- baggy — loose, with lots of space in them, not tight
- elasticated — with elastic so they can get bigger (those pyjama bottoms)
- soles — the bottom and outside of shoes, the part that touches the ground
- sneakers — shoes you wear for exercise (American English); trainers (UK)
- sew — use a needle and thread to make or repair cloth
- buttons — a little thing on clothes that is used to close them
- cape — like a coat but with no sleeves, you wear it over your shoulders
- high heels — the part of your shoe the back of your foot goes on, they can be high or low
- wedge — a piece of something which is thin at one end and thick at the other
- pretentious — a person who tries to make other people feel they are something better / more important than they really are
What's in the workbook
The eBook takes you through four listening tasks, each with its questions set before you listen and the answers given straight afterwards, so you can check yourself as you go. Then there are eleven extra listening questions covering all four recordings, with answers at the back, plus the full transcript so you can see exactly why you got something wrong.
The vocabulary work is getting meaning from context: five sentences lifted from the conversations — including "lovely to slob about on the sofa" and "prop themselves up against the wall" — and five definitions to match to them. The glossary above rounds it off.
The workbook for this episode comes with the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which covers every episode across all levels for €39. The audio stays free either way.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Common questions
Is the audio free?
Yes. The English conversations for this episode can be downloaded free. The workbook is the paid part.
Is the conversation scripted?
The conversations are unscripted — people answering a question and talking to each other, with all the hesitation and self-correction that involves. 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 the Listening 3 pack.
Do I need the workbook to follow along?
No, you can listen on its own — the answers are read out. The workbook adds the transcript, the extra detail questions and the vocabulary exercises.
How long is it?
18 minutes 12 seconds.
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