Zapp! English Listening 3.27 - Wonders of the World
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).
Tom sets a trap in the first thirty seconds: name the Seven Wonders of the World, and no looking. Chris manages the Great Wall and the pyramids, then stalls — and it turns out there are fourteen to remember, seven ancient and seven modern. "No wouldn't have been able to pronounce that one either," he says when the Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus comes up. Three more conversations follow, all about the places people would still like to see, and one guest asking for two plane tickets instead of one.
What you'll hear in this episode
Four conversations, each a little harder than the last. In the first, Tom reads out the original seven wonders and then the modern list voted on in 2007 — Chichen Itza, Christ the Redeemer, Petra, the Taj Mahal. Chris admits, "I guess I need to do some exploring," and one of the speakers wonders whether he might have been taken to some of these places before the age of ten but simply can't remember: "I'll have to ask my mum."
In the second, Tricia talks about China — the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors, and Guilin with its "funny little limestone hillocks". When Tom asks what she'd choose to do "before you, pop your clogs", she stops the conversation to comment on the phrase itself. Tom isn't sure he'd enjoy China; Tricia gets more interested by the minute.
The third and fourth recordings are group conversations with Katie, Tom, Kami, Laura and Pam. Greece, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Turkey come up, along with the cost of park permits and eco lodges. Then Katie asks everyone the big question: one free ticket, anywhere. Laura wants New York or Tokyo, "possibly the closest you can get to... going to, err, another planet". Pam describes a friend's honeymoon chalet on stilts with lions outside the door, which Tom immediately makes darker. "Just want to go for a little walk," says Katie.
Quick facts
| Episode | Zapp! English Listening 3.27 – Wonders of the World |
| Pack | Listening 3 |
| Level | 3 |
| Duration | 18 minutes 13 seconds |
| Speakers heard | Tom, Chris, Tricia, Katie, Kami, Laura, Pam |
| Workbook | Included in the all-in-one pack |
What you'll learn
This unit trains two different kinds of listening in the same session. Task 1 is a memory-and-recognition exercise: you listen for a long list of proper nouns, several of them unfamiliar, and check them against what you guessed. Tasks 3 and 4 are gist tasks with a counting question — how many countries are mentioned, and do any two speakers want the same place? — which forces you to hold information across several minutes of overlapping talk.
Along the way you'll hear how wishes and hypotheticals actually sound in speech: "I'd like to go to Petra", "I would so love to go back", "if money wasn't, a problem". Notice how often speakers restart a sentence mid-way — "I don't think...I don't know how much I'd enjoy China" — and how the meaning survives the false start.
There's also a small lesson in register. Tom uses an idiom for dying; Tricia hears it, laughs, and labels it "a very, euphemistic way of putting it" before answering. That's a native speaker commenting on her own language in real time, which is exactly the kind of moment a scripted recording can't give you. You'll also hear a place name spelled out loud — "Xian, X-I-A-N" — a useful habit to copy when you're not sure a listener has caught a name.
Vocabulary from the workbook
The glossary covers words that come up naturally in the conversations:
- statue (noun) – an image of a human or animal usually big and made of stone (the statue of Zeus, and Christ the Redeemer in Task 1)
- mausoleum (noun) – a large building where a dead person is buried (the one Chris can't pronounce)
- lighthouse (noun) – a building near the sea that has a big light and tells ships they are near rocks (Alexandria, which Tom finds "quite romantic")
- warriors (noun) – fighters in an army, usually used in books / older stories (the Terracotta Warriors)
- euphemistic (adjective) – a word/phrase to avoid saying something rude/offensive (Tricia's verdict on "pop your clogs")
- permits (noun) – a piece of paper that says something is allowed, legal (Costa Rica's national parks)
- peninsula (noun) – a long thin piece of a country that sticks out into the sea (mentioned twice, in Costa Rica and Turkey)
- stilts (noun) – long pieces of wood or metal that you stand on, hold and walk on to make yourself very tall (Pam's story about the lions)
What's in the workbook
The 18-page-style unit gives you all four listening tasks with pre-listening questions, full transcripts of every conversation, and answer keys that tell you exactly what to count: fourteen wonders, four countries in Task 3, and three places wanted by two people each in Task 4.
The Extra Materials section adds detail questions for each recording — is Christ the Redeemer an old or new wonder? did Tom go to an eco lodge? which adjectives describe Turkey, and what do they describe? — with answers and transcript references so you can see why you were wrong. There's also a matching exercise on five spoken expressions taken straight from the audio, including pop your clogs, island hopping, take advantage of and make the most of it, plus the vocabulary glossary above.
This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack: every episode, every transcript and every exercise for €39.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Is the audio free?
Yes. Every Zapp! English conversation can be downloaded free from the site. The workbook that goes with this unit comes with the paid pack.
Is this episode scripted?
The conversations are unscripted — real people, real hesitations, real interruptions. The teaching sections that set up each task and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.
How hard is it?
It's a Level 3 unit, and the last two recordings have five voices talking over each other about places you may not know. Read the task question first, listen twice, then use the transcript.
Do I need to know the Seven Wonders already?
No. Task 1 works better if you don't — guess first, then count how many you got from Tom's two lists.
What can I do with this after listening?
Answer Katie's final question yourself: one ticket, anywhere, money no problem. Try to use "I'd love to", "I've heard" and "I'd like to go back" the way the speakers do.
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