Practice English Listening B1+ Exercises – Go to checkout

A

Speaker 1

You can do your shopping in your pyjamas…

If something isn’t right, it can be a problem sending it back or getting it changed.

Speaker 2

Online shops are open 24/7.

Clothes and shoes often don’t fit…

Speaker 3

You don’t have to carry heavy bags any more.

Things are often bigger or smaller than you wanted because you didn’t read the detailed description.

Speaker 4

You can buy things from shops that aren’t near you.

It’s easy to send presents to people.

You can’t feel things or see exactly what they look like.

Speaker 5

You don’t have to push your way through crowds of people.

Your shopping is always delivered when you’re out.

B

Speaker 5 likes knowing exactly when things he has bought are going to arrive.

Speaker 3 once bought a huge quantity of something by mistake.

Speaker 2 has one particular item she often has to return.

Speaker 4 enjoys looking on shopping websites.

Speaker 1 thinks it’s easier to deal with problems in real shops.

1   Carol

I do a lot of shopping online. I love how convenient it is you know, I can be in my pyjamas and do the food shopping for the week, or clothes shopping. But one thing I hate about it, though, is how difficult it is to sort out any problems – because, you know, if you buy something in a shop, you go back to the shop and you sort it out, but if you’ve bought something online, returning it can be a pain, especially getting something replaced or changed if it’s broken – it’s just a huge nightmare.

2   Alex

I love online shopping. I guess because it’s so convenient, because I can do it at any time of day or night, and I can do it from home. I don’t particularly like going shopping, so that’s a real bonus for me. But I hate having to send things back, particularly shoes. They never seem to fit when I buy them online.

3   David

I do quite a lot of shopping online. Mainly food – I usually do my supermarket shopping online. What I like best is that I don’t have to take the shopping home. I live at the top of a hill, and I used to have to walk up the hill with a whole load of shopping bags. It was a real pain. The only thing I really don’t like is that online, it’s easy not to notice what size the packets are, so you can end up with a huge packet of things when you only want a tiny amount. For example, I ordered a box of tea bags and I wanted a small box of forty bags, but I didn’t read the description properly and I ended up with a huge box with four hundred and sixty tea bags!

4   Anna

I do a lot of online browsing, looking for things I might buy. Not really for clothes, more shopping for, kind of, cooking things, or things on Amazon, presents for friends – that sort of thing. I love the fact that you have access to all kinds of shops, and access to brands that you can’t necessarily find in shops that are near where you live. But I don’t like not being able to feel things or know exactly what the colours are – they’re often different from what you see online.

5   Chris

I do a lot of shopping online because I’m not very keen on going to places where there are crowds of people and it’s really busy. It’s great being able to avoid the big department stores and shopping streets especially at weekends, where you can hardly walk on the pavement because there are so many people there.

The only thing I hate is people delivering things when I’m not in. Some companies are really good and give you a one-hour delivery window, but with others, they say they’ll deliver between eight in the morning and seven in the evening, so you stay in all day – but then just when you need to go out for an hour, that’s when they come. That’s so annoying.