Honesty and Lying: English Listening Practice, Level 3

A black and white striped blouse with see-through black lace sleeves, a huge bow on the front and enormous gold buttons. It was a kind gift, offered by a colleague, and one of our speakers admits it "just sent me into a huge rage". That story comes near the end of this episode, but it sums up the whole thing: honesty is easy in theory and awkward the moment somebody hands you something you hate.

What you'll hear in this episode

We set up three situations that test how honest you really are, and then asked our speakers what they would do.

First, Katie reads them out to Emma: an expensive birthday present from your partner that you can't stand, a friend who's late for work while an angry boss asks you where they are, and a shop assistant who gives you too much change. Emma admits the clothing situation has actually happened to her, so what starts as a hypothetical turns into a real story about an item that mysteriously came back in the next size up. There's a nice complication in the second question too, since as they mention, the two of them used to work together, with one of them as the other's boss.

Then Tom and Mark take on two of the same questions. Mark distinguishes sharply between his local shop, where the owner sometimes undercharges him, and a supermarket: "if they gave me twenty quid too much I'd tell them, but I wouldn't tell a supermarket." Tom says he'd probably wear an awful gift — "unless it was like a pink frilly dress" — which leads to a shirt covered in bright cocktail pictures that once won "the worst shirt in the world competition", and Tom's verdict: "Only on a silly shirt day."

The last section widens out. Tom argues that English speakers "lie through being polite", Katie offers "How are you? I'm fine" as evidence, and Mark suggests that's exactly why English people talk about the weather.

Quick facts

Episode	Zapp! English Listening 3.24 – Honesty and lying
Episode number	3.24
Pack	Listening 3
Level	3
Duration	21 minutes 57 seconds
Speakers heard	Katie, Emma, Tom and Mark
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack

What you'll learn

The tasks here train listening for gist. In Tasks 2 and 3 you don't hear the question at all — you hear the answer and work out which situation is being discussed, then decide whether anyone would actually tell the truth. That's a genuinely useful skill: joining a conversation halfway through and reconstructing the topic from what people say around it.

The language is rich in hypotheticals, and you'll hear how much hedging real speakers put around them: I think I'd be honest about it, I wonder if I'd think, I reckon I'd probably end up just telling them. Notice how rarely anyone commits to a plain answer.

There's also a small lesson in how English speakers talk about lying without using the word. Katie asks how you even define a lie, and the three of them supply alternatives in quick succession: "A mistruth", "An untruth", "Bending the truth", "Omitting the whole truth". Emma's judgement — "it's never as black and white as that" — plus her phrase "in as tactful a way as possible", shows the vocabulary British speakers reach for when they want to avoid confrontation. If you've ever wondered why a polite English answer feels evasive, this conversation explains it from the inside.

Vocabulary from the workbook

The glossary picks up expressions as they occur in the conversations:

dropped them in it — cause problems for someone by telling another person that this person did something wrong. Emma uses this about the late-colleague question.
popped out — leave somewhere for a short amount of time. What a boss assumes, rather than the worst.
tempted — made to want to do something you shouldn't. Tom, on the extra change.
rage — strong anger. The reaction to the blouse.
sleeves — part of clothes that covers your arms.
see-through — clear, transparent.
bow — material that has been tied in the same way you tie the laces on your shoes.

What's in the workbook

The workbook takes you through four listening tasks with answers after each one. Task 1 is a comparison task: as you listen to Emma, you simply decide whether you'd do the same or something different — there's no right answer. Tasks 2 and 3 ask you to identify which of the three situations is being discussed and whether anyone would tell the truth. Task 4 gives you two comprehension questions on the final part of the conversation, including why English people talk about the weather.

The Extra Materials add six detailed listening questions, one for each recording — what Emma claimed was wrong with the present, why Tom might keep the money, what's special about that Fiji shirt — with answers and a full transcript to check against. Then there's a vocabulary matching exercise on seven expressions taken straight from the speech, including skint, in a million years and giving the full picture, followed by the glossary above.

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

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations are unscripted — Katie, Emma, Tom and Mark are working out their answers as they speak, complete with sighs and false starts. 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. The speech is fast and full of interruptions, so it suits learners who can already follow a conversation and want to cope with overlapping, unpolished English.

Do I need the workbook to use the audio?

No. The audio is free and includes the tasks and answers. The workbook adds the transcript, extra questions and vocabulary work.

How long is it?

21 minutes 57 seconds, in four parts, so you can stop after any task.

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