Practice English Listening B1+ Exercises – Shall we go out or stay in?

1   a sporting event (during)

2   a concert (after)

3   a play (before)

1

Hi. Yeah, not bad… Yeah, it’s half-time… One–all. Yeah, there’s a really good crowd. The stadium’s packed… No, no trouble. The Liverpool fans are making a bit of a noise, but nothing major… OK, I’ll call you when it’s over. With a bit of luck, we’ll be in the semi-final in an hour’s time.

2

A   So, tell me all about it!

B   It was absolutely brilliant. We were in the second row, just near the stage, and when he was singing – I swear – a few times he looked right at me!

A   Did he sing Baby Baby?

B   Of course! All the best songs. It was just an amazing performance.

A   Were Sandy and Annette there?

B   Yeah, we met for a drink in the interval.

A   Gosh, you’re so lucky you got tickets!

3

A   OK, I’m looking for tickets now…There’s a matinee at three o’clock and then it’s on again in the evening at eight.

B   Let’s go at eight if we can get seats.

A   Well, there aren’t any in the stalls, but there are two upstairs in the circle, in the second row.

B   OK. Go for it. It’s a small theatre anyway, so we should have a good view wherever we sit.

A   OK. Right, we’ve got them. We can pick them up at the box office.

A

1   (The men’s quarter final) tennis matches at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London

2   A play (The Woman in Black) in Oxford

3   A (Leonard Cohen) concert in (the velodrome) in Valencia

1   Andy

A few years ago, I went to Wimbledon, the tennis championships which take place in June in south-west London. And it’s quite difficult to get tickets, but I was very lucky and got two tickets for the men’s quarter-final matches on Centre Court, which are usually fantastically exciting, with lots of big names. The tickets were very expensive, but I was really pleased because they were right in the front row.

2   Cathy

Once, when my daughter was about fourteen, our local theatre, the Playhouse in Oxford, put on a play called The Woman in Black. It’s a classic ghost story, full of suspense and quite scary – it’s been made into a film starring Daniel Radcliffe, you know, who played Harry Potter. Anyway, I decided to take my daughter, and I got quite good seats in the stalls, so she could see well.

3   Clive

I’d been a fan of Leonard Cohen since I was a teenager, but I’d never, ever heard him sing live. But then, in – I think – about two thousand and nine, I read that he was going to do a world tour and that he was coming to Valencia in Spain, where I lived. I was really excited, and I thought, ‘Even though he’s in his mid-seventies, I’m finally going to get to hear him!’ The concert was in September in the velodrome in Valencia, so in the open air.

B

1   It rained, so the matches were cancelled.

2   Some schoolchildren spoilt the atmosphere by screaming.

3   Leonard Cohen collapsed during the fourth song and was taken to hospital.

1   Andy

And on the day, my partner and I, we got up and drove to Wimbledon – it took about two hours. And as we were driving, it started to rain – the weather forecast was for showers, and at that time, there was no roof on Centre Court, and the players couldn’t play if it was raining. But we got there, parked the car, and went in and found our seats and sat under our umbrella. Play was supposed to start at two o’clock, and at half past one the rain stopped. Then at two o’clock, the players came on and the atmosphere was brilliant. And then at two fifteen…the rain started again! The match was stopped and the court was covered over, and that was all the tennis we saw all day. We just sat there for four hours, hoping to see some more, but in the end, we just went home, very cold and very disappointed. It was a very expensive fifteen minutes.

2   Cathy

When we got there, we found our seats and sat down. The theatre wasn’t full, but then just before the play was going to start, the rows of seats in front of us suddenly filled up with a group of about thirty teenagers. They were obviously a school group, and they were a bit noisy, but I thought they’d settle down when the play started. So the curtain went up and the audience went very quiet, and there was spooky music, and the tension started to grow. But then, every time anything happened onstage, the teenage girls in front of us screamed, even though nothing was really happening yet, so then we couldn’t hear what the actors were saying for a few minutes until they quietened down again. In fact, they carried on doing this all the way through the first half, and it totally ruined the atmosphere for absolutely everyone. Their teachers obviously said something to them during the interval, or maybe someone had complained, but they weren’t much better during the second half. It basically ruined the whole evening.

3   Clive

I went with a group of friends, and when he came on stage and started singing, I was amazed at how great his voice still was. We were having a wonderful evening, but then when he was on his fourth song, one of his old classics called Bird on the Wire, he suddenly collapsed on the stage! The other musicians all rushed up to help him and carried him off. We waited there, hoping that he was OK and that the concert would continue, but after almost an hour, there was no announcement – nothing – and we thought maybe he’d died. Finally, someone came on and said that he’d been taken to hospital and so the concert wouldn’t continue. We went home terribly disappointed. I’d waited all my life to hear him sing live, and we just got three and a half songs. Luckily, he recovered, and went on with his tour, but he never came back to Valencia, and then he died in twenty sixteen, so I never got to hear him live again.

A&B