Zapp! English Listening 3.28 - Holidays (Vacations)
Taught by Tom Wilkinson — Cambridge CELTA
Recorded and taught by a team of British and North American English teachers, based in Oxford (UK) and Barcelona (Spain).
A wet grey beach in the south west of England, covered in little coils of sand left by burrowing animals, and a small boy "screaming at the top of my voice thinking there were squiggly worms everywhere". That's Alec's first memory of a family holiday — and his family took him back the next year. Much of this unit was recorded on the beach, so you'll hear the sounds of a real holiday behind the conversation, including Tom arriving with drinks: "Talking of holidays, here's a beer."
What you'll hear in this episode
Four speakers — Katie, Tom, Alec and Amanda — talk their way through childhood holidays, the holidays they can't stand, and what an ideal one looks like now.
In the first conversation, Alec's worm-covered beach leads Katie to a very British picture: "Everybody sat on the beach freezing to death" with a towel laid out just in case the sun appears. Then Tom describes camping trips on the west coast of France, an old car packed "totally to the roof", the smell of pine forests, and rain that somehow didn't spoil it.
Katie remembers annual trips to Scarborough — egg sandwiches, bucket and spade, donkey rides — and going back years later to find the town far smaller than she remembered and "the donkeys are still there looking very tired". The group then turns on the seaside amusements: the coin-pusher machines nobody wins on, which one of the speakers declares are "rigged", and which Tom calls "A horrible way of cheating young children." One of the speakers describes the claw machine that was never designed to pick up stuffed animals. The pocket-money gambling joke escalates to second mortgages and Alec's verdict: "Slippery slope."
The third conversation is Tom on package holidays — "Yes I hate package holidays" — with karaoke at eight, fancy dress at nine and disco at ten, and the buffet you have to eat your way through to get your money's worth. The last one covers backpacking versus lying still, a borrowed villa in Thailand, and cruises: "for me it's like a floating prison", against Katie's honest counter-argument about unlimited food.
Quick facts
| Episode | 3.28 |
| Pack | Zapp! English Listening 3 |
| Level | 3 |
| Duration | 17 minutes 07 seconds |
| Topic | Holidays (US: vacations) |
| Speakers | Katie, Tom, Alec and Amanda |
| Recording | Largely recorded on the beach |
| Audio | Free to download |
| Workbook | Included in the paid pack |
What you'll learn
This is four-way conversation practice, which is a different skill from following a two-person interview. People finish each other's sentences here: Katie says "that's like a typical British..." and Amanda supplies "Holiday." Later, Katie lists "Overworked", Amanda repeats "Overworked", Tom adds "Same donkeys" and Amanda closes with "Exploited." You'll practise tracking who agrees with whom when nobody speaks in full sentences.
You'll also work on following a narrative told in real time, with all the self-correction that involves. When Katie asks whether Tom has actually been on a package holiday, he laughs, says "N...I don't know if I have", then "No I have", then explains he'd only been nearby — and the workbook's true/false section makes you notice exactly that distinction. The same trap appears with the Thailand villa: listen carefully to who paid.
There's plenty of natural evaluative language to pick up too: spot for notice, a big bash for a hit, get your money's worth, and the sarcasm in Amanda's "Always traditional." The four listening tasks each have a focus question, so you listen with a purpose rather than trying to catch every word.
Vocabulary from the workbook
- squiggly (adjective) – a pattern with lots of curves, as in Alec's "squiggly worms"
- worms (noun) – little pink animals that live in the earth
- burrowing (present participle) – digging tunnels into the earth
- fondly (adverb) – in a very caring way; Tom remembers the camping trips fondly
- bucket (noun) – a container you can carry water or sand in, with a handle, used to make sand castles
- spade (noun) – something with a handle you use to dig
- donkeys (noun) – like a horse but smaller, makes an 'ee-ore' noise
- slot machines (noun) – machines you put coins into to play a game and try to win money
- rigged (adjective) – to get the result you want by doing something dishonest
- cheating (present participle) – not playing fair
- mortgage (noun) – a loan for buying a house
- slippery slope (noun) – an easy way to fall down or get yourself into a worse situation
What's in the workbook
The workbook takes the episode apart task by task. There are four listening tasks, each with a focus question before you listen and the answer given afterwards — including a three-way multiple choice on why Tom dislikes package holidays (too many people, too much organisation, or too much noise) and another on his real attitude to cruises.
The Extra Materials section adds true/false questions for each of the four conversations, and these are the ones that catch people out: did Katie go camping in Scarborough as a child, and who paid for the accommodation in Thailand? Answers and short explanations are at the back, so you can see why you were wrong rather than just that you were.
After that comes a vocabulary-from-context exercise on five expressions taken straight from the recording — spot, a big bash, get your money's worth, sunbathing and floating prison — plus the twelve-word glossary above and the full transcript, so you can check anything you couldn't catch.
The audio is free. The workbook for this episode comes with the all-in-one pack at €39, which covers every episode we've made.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Is the English in this episode scripted?
The conversations are completely unscripted — that's why people interrupt, backtrack and talk over each other. 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 our Listening 3 pack. If you can follow four people at conversational speed, you're in the right place.
Do I need the workbook to use the audio?
No. The audio works on its own and is free. The workbook adds the questions, answers, vocabulary exercises and transcript.
How long is the recording?
17 minutes and 7 seconds, split into four conversations, so it works well in short sessions.
Will I hear more than one accent?
Yes — four speakers take part, and one of them talks about growing up in Ontario, near the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay.
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