STEP 3

Listening and Checking with transcription

In this last step, listen to the conversation again while you read the transcription. Finally, read the glossary information and notes at the bottom. This step also means good practice for your reading comprehension skills.

SHOPPER 1

Wow! This is really my lucky day.

SHOPPER 2

Yes, it's really wonderful the way ...

SHOPPER 1

... the way those two pieces matched. I hadn't hoped to be able to do that.

SHOPPER 2

And the very first place we went. I wish it was always as easy as that.

SHOPPER 1

I just can’t get over it. Sometimes I just look and look and I get so discouraged.

SHOPPER 2

Everything was just right from the very beginning.

SHOPPER 1

And that salesgirl went to so much trouble to find things. You don't see too many like that these days.

SHOPPER 2

Just so willing and eager to please.

SHOPPER 1

And she looked so young.

SHOPPER 2

Hardly old enough to be out of school.

SHOPPER 1

She said she was eighteen, though... just out of high school.

SHOPPER 2

Pretty girl, too. Looked like she should be a model rather than a salesperson.

SHOPPER 1

Well, it certainly makes shopping a pleasure when you run into someone like that. Brightens the whole day.

SHOPPER 2

Yes. Yes, she really does spread around a lot of sunshine.

SHOPPER 1

I think I'll write to the store manager and tell him how helpful she was to us.

SHOPPER 2

Good idea. People are usually so quick to complain. We really should express our appreciation sometimes.

SHOPPER 1

Uh-huh. This old world needs it.

GLOSSARY & NOTES

chatty and silly = given to frivolity or trivial conversation

has purchased = has bought

wearing apparel = garment, clothes

household: Used in the running of a house

Wow!: An interjection used to express strong feeling (as pleasure or surprise).

matched: It could refer to colors, fabric, style, shape, etc.

And the very first place we went: This is typical of the kind of elliptical sentence that occurs frequently in natural conversation. The speaker probably means something like, "And we found what we were looking for at the first very place that we went to".

I wish it was: In formal usage, the subjunctive were is still generally preferred in this construction, but in informal usage was is heard with increasing frequency.

I just can't get over it = I can hardly believe it; it's really amazing.

just = exactly. Notice that this meaning of just (with stressed pronunciation) differs from the meaning of the unstressed form in the two preceding sentences, where it is simply an intensifier.

too = very. The use of too meaning very after a negative (don't) is fairly common in casual speech, although generally unacceptable in more formal usage.

Just so willing: Notice that in this and a number of the sentences that follow the subject or subject and verb are omitted (understood). This omission is typical of certain kinds of casual speech.

run into = run across (meet casually or accidentally).

brightens = makes happier

she does spread around = she disperses, she disseminates all around her

appreciation = understanding; gratitude.

Uh-huh = Yes.

Source: English Teaching Forum - Authors: Kathleen Seley & Lewis Barnett