English Listening 3.14: Health, Fitness and Marathons

Katie's first question in this episode is four words long: "Stuart, are you fit?" The reply is a question back — "Good looking, or healthy?" — because in British slang, fit doesn't only mean healthy. That small misunderstanding sets up the whole recording. We asked a series of people the same simple question and got answers ranging from marathon training plans to a man who says he generally doesn't move from the sofa.

What you'll hear in this episode

The first set of English conversations is very short: Katie puts the same question to Stuart, Jon, Tom and Niall, and your task is to work out who does the most exercise and who does the least. Stuart mentions a knee problem and cycling around the city, and says yoga is "whipping me back into shape, at least I hope". Jon is honest about it — he can't be bothered after I've been to work. Tom answers "Yes. Extremely fit", which earns a dry "Get you" from Katie before he immediately backtracks. Niall says "I don't think I've ever been fit in me life", then describes walking the dog for up to an hour a day and adds, "But it doesn't make any difference."

Then it gets longer. Amanda talks about moving away from sweating my guts out at the gym towards yoga, and finishes with a neat distinction: "I don't like the word fit. I am healthy, yes."

The centrepiece is a longer interview with Emma, whom Katie introduces as "a real Mrs Fit". Emma talks about the Edinburgh marathon, running the Yorkshire Three Peaks, and a first marathon time of "three hours fifty-eight minutes". Katie compares the post-marathon change of heart to a friend describing childbirth, and admits that "it makes me tired just thinking about it". Mark closes the episode with the most philosophical answer of all.

Quick facts

Episode	3.14
Title	Health and Fitness
Pack	Listening 3
Level	3
Duration	15 minutes 58 seconds
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack (€39)

What you'll learn

The most useful thing here is the double meaning of "fit". The workbook flags it before you listen: alongside the healthy-and-exercising sense, British slang uses fit to mean good looking. You hear two speakers react to that ambiguity — Stuart asks Katie to clarify, and Amanda laughs and says she's thinking of "the London term for fit". Once you notice it, you'll hear it everywhere in British speech.

You'll also practise listening for comparison. Task 1 doesn't ask you what each person says; it asks you to rank four speakers by how much exercise they do, which means holding several answers in your head at once and weighing vague statements like "quite a few kilometres a day" against precise ones.

Emma's interview trains you on numbers in fast speech — miles, weeks, hours and minutes, all delivered naturally: three hours fifty-eight against four hours fifteen, fourteen and a half miles last weekend, sixteen this weekend. The true/false task hinges on a detail that's easy to mishear: whether the Edinburgh marathon has already happened.

There's also plenty of hedging and self-correction to notice. "Reasonably so, reasonably so yeah", "I wouldn't say that I do, but I suppose if you look at the evidence…" — this is how native speakers avoid sounding boastful, and it's a skill worth copying.

Vocabulary from the workbook

The glossary covers the words most likely to slow you down:

concerted (adjective) — strong, trying hard, and effort (noun) — an attempt to do something, a try; both from Amanda's "without making such a concerted effort"
hectic (adjective) — busy, with lots of things happening; how Amanda describes her old gym routine
aesthetics (noun) — beauty; what Amanda says she has moved away from
tick (verb) — using a pen in a positive way, as a teacher would if homework is correct; Emma on ticking a first marathon off the list
upset (adjective) — sad and / or angry about something; Emma on her Windermere time
extend (verb) — push towards doing something more difficult, develop
wrist (noun) — between your hand and the start of your arm
wheezing (present participle) — breathing with difficulty and in a noisy way; all three from the final interview with Mark

What's in the workbook

The workbook takes you through four listening tasks with answers after each one: ranking the four short interviews, two questions on Amanda, a true/false pair on Emma, and a single question on Mark. Every task has the full transcript, so when an answer surprises you, you can go back and see exactly which words you missed.

The Extra Materials add a second round of detail questions — what Stuart has injured, whether Jon smokes, which of Emma's runs were hilly, which classes she goes to — plus a guess-from-context vocabulary exercise on six spoken expressions taken straight from the conversations: whip someone into shape, chubby, sweating my guts out, can't be bothered, strict and build up. Answers are at the back, along with the glossary above.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which includes the workbooks for every episode we've made, across all levels, for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Frequently asked questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations are completely unscripted — that's why you get false starts, laughter and people changing their minds mid-sentence. The teaching sections that set up each task and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What does "fit" actually mean in British English?

Both things. It means healthy and exercising a lot, but in British slang it also means good looking. The workbook explains this before the first task, and you'll hear two speakers play with the ambiguity.

Do I need the workbook to use the audio?

No. The audio is free and the tasks and answers are spoken aloud. The workbook gives you the transcript, the extra questions and the vocabulary exercises.

How hard is this episode?

It's Level 3. Emma's interview is the longest stretch of natural, fast speech, with plenty of numbers and place names.

What's the best way to work through it?

Listen once for the task only, then again with the transcript. Katie's own reactions — "Oh God, Spinning is hell" — are a good model for natural spoken responses.

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