Advanced English LISTENING Quiz: Can you understand?

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Are you ready to test your listening skills?

Let's get started.

Today, I'm gonna test your listening skills.

Do you wanna understand fast native speakers in movies, in TV shows and in regular daily

conversations, yes.

There are countless reductions, and linking in spoken English, so the best way to study

this is to study real conversations, and that's what we're gonna do.

You're gonna hear five short conversations.

And for each conversation, you're gonna see three words.

What I want you to do is, I want you to listen carefully for which word is used in that conversation.

These conversations are all the 30 Day English Listening Challenge, pack three, that will

come out on December 20th, 2018, so make sure that you have downloaded my free e-book to

get some email updates about that.

We'll talk more about that next week.

Are you ready for the first conversation?

I want you to listen carefully for the world, all right, although or almost.

Which word do you hear in the conversation?

Let's listen.

Dan: I have my own phone.

We don't share these things.

Although, for a time we did share a smartphone.

I have my own phone.

We don't share these things.

Although, for a time we did share a smartphone.

Vanessa: Which word did you hear, although, all right, almost?

I hope that you heard the word although.

Dan used the word although to contrast to something that he previously said.

He said that we have our own phones.

We don't share a phone.

But, in the past, we did a share a phone.

So he said, "Although, in the past we shared a phone."

He's showing that he's contrasting between something that's happening now and something

that used to happen before.

So, let's listen again to that quick conversation.

We're gonna listen to the key sentence, and I want you to listen for the word although.

Dan: I have my own phone.

We don't share these things.

Although, for a time we did share a smartphone.

I have my own phone.

We don't share these things.

Although, for a time we did share a smartphone.

Vanessa: Did you hear that keyword, although?

I hope so.

Let's move on to the second conversation and I want you to listen for three key words,

interested, eager or involved.

Which one do you hear?

Let's listen.

Faith: I was just really shy and timid, and it was hard for my mom because she wanted

to get me involved in things.

I was just really shy and timid, and it was hard for my mom because she wanted to get

me involved in things.

Vanessa: Which word did you hear, interested, eager or involved?

I hope you heard the word involved.

In this conversation, Faith said this keyword, involved, pretty quickly.

She explains that when she was younger she was really shy, but her mom wanted to encourage

her to participate events or, we could say, to get involved.

It means to participate in events.

I also used another word, optimum, that I talked about in a recent vocabulary quiz here

on my YouTube channel.

You can watch it up here, if you'd like to learn more about that word.

Let's listen to the key sentence again, and I want you to listen for the word involved.

Faith: I was just really shy and timid, and it was hard for my mom because she wanted

to get me involved in things.

I was just really shy and timid, and it was hard for my mom because she wanted to get

me involved in things.

Vanessa: Did you hear that word?

I hope so.

Let's move on to conversation number three.

You're gonna be listening for one of these three words, challenge, change or child.

Which one is in the conversation?

Let's listen.

Brad: Well, I think visiting family is a wonderful thing, and part of what makes it so wonderful

is getting to see them change and grow every time you see them.

Well, I think visiting family is a wonderful thing, and part of what makes it so wonderful

is getting to see them change and grow every time you see them.

Vanessa: Which word did you hear, challenge, change or child?

I hope you heard the word change.

In this conversation, Brad said that he loves to visit family occasionally.

Occasionally means, maybe three times a year, not every day, because he enjoys seeing how

things are different each time when he sees his family.

Things have changed each time when he sees his family.

Let's listen to that clip one more time.

I want you to hear that keyword change, so we'll listen to that sentence.

Brad: Well, I think visiting family is a wonderful thing, and part of what makes it so wonderful

is getting to see them change and grow every time you see them.

Well, I think visiting family is a wonderful thing, and part of what makes it so wonderful

is getting to see them change and grow every time you see them.

Vanessa: Did you hear the word change?

I hope so.

Let's go on to the fourth conversation.

We're gonna be listening for one of these three words, teen, two or ten.

These are number related words, so listen carefully.

So how did you start this?

Let's start at the very beginning.

How did you get into massage therapy?

Sarah: I became a massage therapist about 10 years ago.

Vanessa: So how did you start this?

Let's start at the very beginning.

How did you get into massage therapy?

Sarah: I became a massage therapist about 10 years ago.

Vanessa: Which word did you hear?

I hope you heard that Sarah has been a massage therapist, some who gives massages, for how

many years?

10 years.

I hope you heard the word ten.

Listening for numbers is essential in conversation.

So if you'd like to practice pronouncing some of the most difficult numbers, you can watch

this lesson which is How to Pronounce the Top 33 Most Difficult Words.

Let's listen to that key sentence again and see if you can hear the word ten.

So how did you start this?

Let's start at the very beginning.

How did you get into massage therapy?

Sarah: I became a massage therapist about 10 years ago.

Vanessa: So how did you start this?

Let's start at the very beginning.

How did you get into massage therapy?

Sarah: I became a massage therapist about 10 years ago.

Vanessa: Did you hear the word ten?

I hope so.

Let's move on to the fifth and final listening quiz question, which I think is the most tricky

so listen carefully for the word especially, specifically or special.

Let's listen.

Anna: My mom co-owned a horse for a little while.

A lot of people go in on one together so that you don't have to pay all of the expenses,

especially with any vet calls that might happen.

My mom co-owned a horse for a little while.

A lot of people go in on one together so that you don't have to pay all of the expenses,

especially with any vet calls that might happen.

Vanessa: Which word did you hear?

Did you hear the word especially?

This is technically the correct word.

But in this conversation Anna uses a common spoken reduction for the word especially.

She cuts off the E at the beginning and she says 'specially, 'specially.

This is pretty common.

It might be a little bit tricky to hear the first time around.

We'll listen to it again in just a moment so that you can hear it.

Listen for 'specially.

In this conversation, Anna mentions that it's expensive to own a horse, so sometimes multiple

people will buy one horse and they'll share the expenses.

Let's listen to this key sentence again, and listen for the word especially that has been

reduced to 'specially.

Anna: My mom co-owned a horse for a little while.

A lot of people go in on one together so that you don't have to pay all of the expenses,

especially with any vet calls that might happen.

My mom co-owned a horse for a little while.

A lot of people go in on one together so that you don't have to pay all of the expenses,

especially with any vet calls that might happen.

Vanessa: Did you hear the word especially or 'specially?

I hope so.

Let me know in the comments, what was your score?

Did you get all five of these right, or maybe you got none of them right.

Feel free to repeat this lesson as much as you need.

If this listening quiz was a good challenge for you, then I'm sure that the 30 Day English

Listening Challenge will help to boost your listening skills and help you to understand

native English speakers.

What if you could understand all five of these conversations 100%, no problem?

That'd be amazing, right?

Join me on December 20th, 2018 for the 30 Day English Listening Challenge, pack three.

Thanks so much for learning English with me and I'll see you again next Friday for a new

lesson here on my YouTube channel.

It's gonna be a special live listening lesson, so make sure that you subscribe, click the

bell so that you get a notification when we have the live lesson.

Thanks so much.

I'll see you the next time, bye.

The next step is to download my free e-book, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much, bye.