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1 Listening 3.32 Zapp! English podcasts by Inglés.fm

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English Listening / Level 3 Unit 32 – Numbers and Amounts

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Introduction In this unit you’re going to practise listening for specific information on the topic of numbers and amounts.

Listening Task 1 To begin with, you’re going to hear Tom and I playing a guessing game.

• Try to guess my number before Tom does.

KATIE: We’re going to play a little game now, related to numbers and amounts.

TOM: OK.

KATIE: I’m going to...give you a number, and you have to try and work out what that number means to me, why that number is significant. So it could be...it could be an amount of something like time or, it could be the size of something or, a position. It could be anything.

TOM: OK. Let’s go.

KATIE: OK so, my number is seventy-five.

TOM: Erm...I was going to say were you born in nineteen seventy-five? But I know that’s wrong.

KATIE: Unfortunately not, because that would make me a bit younger than I actually am. (laughter)

TOM: Is it the age...of a grandparent?

KATIE: No.

TOM: Is it the year, nineteen seventy-five that your brother was born?

KATIE: Actually it might be, but that’s not what I was thinking about. I’ll give you a clue, it’s not err...it’s not about years, or age.

TOM: OK. Is it, the amount of pairs of shoes you have in your house?

KATIE: Most definitely not. I’ve got about...I’m terrible, I buy a pair of shoes, and I wear them until they fall to bits and then I buy another pair of shoes, I’m definitely not your...your big shoe collection woman.

TOM: OK. Is it the number of ice creams you’re going to eat in two thousand and twelve?

KATIE: No, the number of ice creams I’m going to eat will be far greater than seventy-five. (laughter) Working on an average of three a day. No. It’s not that.



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TOM: Erm...golly, it’s very difficult this one.

KATIE: Well...

TOM: Give me another clue.

KATIE: I’ll give you another clue. It’s a number that I’m not very happy with. And it could well relate to the number of ice creams that I’m going to eat.

TOM: Ahh. It’s the number of kilograms that you weigh.

KATIE: Yeah, I can’t believe I’m admitting on...on a recording device that I weigh seventy-five kilograms.

TOM: Nor can I.

KATIE: Diet. Diet. OK that’s my embarrassing number.

Listening Task 1 – Answers

So did you get the number before Tom? It was my weight.

Listening Task 2 The game continues.

• This time try to guess Tom’s number.

KATIE: OK. Your go. Or my go to guess.

TOM: OK, my secret number is sixty-four.

KATIE: (singing) Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?

TOM: Yes...no it’s not The Beatles.

KATIE: Ahh no, ahh. Sixty-four, is it related to time?

TOM: No.



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KATIE: OK, so it can’t be a year or an age of somebody, no?

TOM: No.

KATIE: Sixty-four...is it a size of something?

TOM: No.

KATIE: Is it the number of a house somewhere?

TOM: No.

KATIE: Oh good grief I’ve no idea. Err...give me a clue.

TOM: It’s something to do with...exercise.

KATIE: Is it how many lengths you can do in the swimming pool?

TOM: No, I can do more than that...

KATIE: Ooooh!

TOM: ...it’s how many lengths I swim every day.

KATIE: He’s not seventy-five kilo...kilograms listeners, as I’m sure you can tell from this conversation.

TOM: No, I’m more.

KATIE: Are you?

TOM: Yep. Anyway that’s another story...

KATIE: Well yes.

TOM: ...I’m not admitting that publicly.

KATIE: Sixty-four...

TOM: Sixty-four lengths, of the swimming pool...

KATIE: Yeah...it is or it isn’t?

TOM: ...it’s one mile. Yeah, it’s right.

KATIE: Oh so that is the number.

TOM: It’s right.

KATIE: Ahh.



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TOM: It’s one mile.

KATIE: So you, you regularly swim sixty-four lengths of the swimming pool.

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: You clever clogs!


Did you beat me? Tom’s number was the amount of lengths he swims every day.

Listening Task 3 Now you’re going to listen to an earlier conversation we had about numbers and amounts.

• As you listen see if you know the answers to the questions and see how many Tom gets right.

KATIE: Thomas, we’re going to talk about numbers. Are you good with numbers?

TOM: Erm, it depends in what way. I like to think I’m OK.

KATIE: Well, we’re going to test your general knowledge actually...around numbers.

TOM: OK.

KATIE: So I’m going to ask you a series of questions, which you have probably no hope of answering. (laughter)

TOM: They’ll be guesses.

KATIE: Yeah, exactly...so...erm...New Year’s resolutions, right?

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: When people make New Year’s resolutions. What percentage of people do you think actually stick to them?



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TOM: Well, depends for how long. I think, the first month, a lot but, you know, if we’re talking about permanent re...resolutions like, giving up things, and so on I think it’s very small, probably...five to ten percent.

KATIE: You’re not far off actually, you’re quite close. Erm...according to some information that I found on the internet (laughter) erm, around about twelve percent of people in two thousand and seven, stuck to their...

TOM: Twelve percent.

KATIE: Yeah. Twelve percent in two thousand and seven stuck to their New Year’s resolutions for the whole year.

TOM: OK.

KATIE: And, the most commonly kept resolution, although I don’t know how you would measure this, was to try and be happier.

TOM: What?

KATIE: Yes. (laughter)

TOM: To try and be happier...well yes...everyone’s always trying to be happier aren’t they?

KATIE: Yeah.

KATIE: So it’s quite easy to keep that one.

KATIE: To try I suppose, maybe not to succeed.

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: OK. Moving on to television.

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: TV sets. Right? Err, in American homes...

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: ...the number of TV sets in homes, increased by what percentage...between nineteen forty-seven and nineteen fifty-two?

TOM: The number of TV sets in American homes...erm...I think there was a giant buying spree1

KATIE: Well you’re right that it’s a huge amount, but it’s...significantly bigger then eighty-seven percent. Higher! Higher! Try again.

at that point, so probably by a huge amount...like, eighty-seven percent.



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TOM: Five hundred percent.

KATIE: Ten thousand percent!

TOM: What?! That’s insane, so...yeah so they just went...

KATIE: So it must have been the explosion between the TV being this new thing, and then almost every home having one I guess.

TOM: Yeah, it just became a must-have item. Yeah, wow, that’s a huge amount.

KATIE: OK. Moving on. Animals, now I know you’re very interested in animals and natural history.

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: So you might actually know this. What is the fastest animal on the planet?

TOM: Well, I think that would depend on whether you included birds of prey2

KATIE: Ah-ha...

that were dive-bombing...

TOM: ..because they reach terminal velocity, which is something like a hundred and twenty-five miles an hour or a hundred and twenty-seven miles an hour, but...

KATIE: Can you...I’m sorry, can you explain...I’ve never understood terminal velocity, what does it mean?

TOM: It’s the fastest that a...an object can fall. It...e...and it’s slightly varies based on the sss...shape, and things like that.

KATIE: And how heavy it is and stuff?

TOM: No, because...yeah...I’m not sure whether weight actually...yeah I think the terminal velocity of an object is the fastest it can fall through our atmosphere, you know, and it reaches this point where it won’t go any faster...

KATIE: It won’t go any faster, OK. That makes sense.

TOM: ...I think you know, often it’s somewhere around a hundred and twenty...hundred and thirty miles an hour, before friction3

KATIE: Hmm.

in the atmosphere slows, a falling object.

TOM: But err...fastest animal on the planet is a...is a cheetah isn’t it?

KATIE: Well actually you, in what you were saying before, you’re completely right, because if you count birds of prey, err, the peregrine falcon, bird of prey, can apparently dive4 at speeds from ninety-nine to a hundred and seventy-three miles an hour.



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TOM: Well that’s...incredible.

KATIE: Hmm. So that’s like...as fast as a race car isn’t it, really?

TOM: Yeah. I mean it’s...it’s faster than you would fall if you were falling, and so it must propel5

KATIE: (laughter) OK, you’re doing quite well so far.

itself even faster, it must have the right aerodynamics to fall...I don’t know, super fast.

TOM: Thank you.


So did you get any questions right? How many did Tom get right? Well he was close to the answer on all the questions, but he only got one exactly right. He knew that the fastest animal on the planet is a bird of prey.

Listening Task 4 Here is the last part of the same conversation. Before you listen think about these two questions;

• Which country in the world spends the greatest percentage of its money on the military?

• Which country do you think spends more on the military - Spain or the UK?

Now listen and see if you were right.

KATIE: Now then. Err...next question...GDP, Gross Domestic Product6

TOM: Yeah.

...

KATIE: Yeah. Err what percentage of Gross Domestic Product do...we’re talking about the percentage that country’s spend...on the military. So...which countries do you think spend a lot...or a...you know, a high percentage, or the greater percentage on the military, in the world?

TOM: So it’s percentage not total costs.

KATIE: Yeah. Percentage of their...of their Gross Domestic Product.

TOM: I’ve actually researched this recently for some reason...

KATIE: Yes...



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TOM: ...but I can’t remember now. But I think, erm...I mean it’s got to be some of the big...four countries, and the big err, military spending countries...there’s got to be Russia, China and the US err, near the top. Erm, and I think...France, and the UK are quite high in that list as well.

KATIE: Well this is very interesting, and this time, I did actually get my facts from a reputable7

TOM: Fact Book.

source on the internet. These err facts are from the CIA, err...

KATIE: ...World Fact Book, yeah. So you said, Russia?

TOM: Yeah, Russia, China and...The US, plus England and France.

KATIE: Well, I haven’t got the facts on all of those, but...who do you think...who do you think spends the highest percentage? Make one guess.

TOM: China?

KATIE: No, Oman.

TOM: Oh really?

KATIE: At least the...I mean these are the most up to date statistics...

TOM: Wow.

KATIE: ...so this is from two thousand and five. Oman spent eleven point four zero percent...of its, GDP on military, on the military.

TOM: Wow.

KATIE: And that was the...top statistic. So you thought USA was quite high up?

TOM: Yeah, I mean I...the...it’s the biggest spender on military, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the, highest percentage, of GDP.

KATIE: I think that’s the...the difficulty, because...if you do it as a percentage then err the USA is twenty-third.

TOM: Oh really?

KATIE: Spending four point zero...I can’t read my own writing now, it’s four point zero zero, or four point zero six. But about four percent.

TOM: Only four percent.

KATIE: Yeah, which is surprisingly low, but then I suppose their GDP would be huge.

TOM: Well err, does that include what they spend on wars as well?



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KATIE: And also again, it could...this could be very different because this statistic is also from 2005, it’s the most up to date one, which is a bit strange, don’t you think?

TOM: Yeah.

KATIE: The CIA surely would know what’s been spent since two thousand and five.

TOM: It’s probably top secret, and yeah, they...yeah they probably publish it...five, ten years later for security reasons perhaps, I don’t know.

KATIE: OK, em...one from Latin America. Where do you think Colombia comes? Are they big spenders, when it comes to military?

TOM: What year’s this from? Because it depends on the war on drugs.

KATIE: This is also two thousand and five.

TOM: Hmm, well since two thousand and five I would say Colombia’s probably the biggest spender in Latin America. A...wh...it...Latin America including Central America...as well, all of Latin America, so Mexico’s included or South America?

KATIE: This is just Colombia, I’m asking you about.

TOM: Erm, yeah well, I think they’re probably...in terms of, sorry total quantity or percentage of GDP?

KATIE: Percentages of their GDP.

TOM: I think they’re probably...erm I think they probably come...I think Venezuela probably more actually, but I don’t know, but maybe at one or two. I would say. First or second.

KATIE: They...

TOM: In terms of percentage and probably

KATIE: In the world?

TOM: ...fiftee...no. Probably...ten percent.

KATIE: Well, they are thirty thir...or in two thousand and five, they were recorded as thirty-third, and, they spent three point four percent, of their GDP on the military.

TOM: Mmm, I think that’s changed a lot, I think America since two thousand and five has been putting a lot of money into the Colombian military actually, and it’s probably mm...very, very different statistics now...

KATIE: OK.

TOM: ...but that’s interesting.



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KATIE: Right we’ve got two left. The UK, and Spain. Now the statistic from Spain is for two thousand and five, the on for the UK is more up to date, two thousand and ten, but who do you think spends more?

TOM: Spends more or a higher percentage?

KATIE: Well, same thing. Percentage.

TOM: Erm...probably the UK.

KATIE: Correct. Any guess?

TOM: What was the States again?

KATIE: Err the States was four percent.

TOM: I think it’ll be similar, something like...four, five percent.

KATIE: Two point seven

TOM: Oh really?

KATIE: In two thousand and ten.

TOM: Oh there’s been lots of cuts...

KATIE: Yeah.

TOM: ...recently.

KATIE: OK.

TOM: Well that’s good. So the money’s going on the people instead of weapons8

KATIE: Hopefully. Erm, and that was, they were fifty-third in the world...So what about Spain?

.

TOM: Maybe...one point nine.

KATIE: Ooh! Very close. They erm, in two thousand and five it was one point two percent...

TOM: OK.

KATIE: ...making them a hundred and sixteenth in the world.

TOM: Wow. It’s quite low.

KATIE: It’s good that isn’t it?

TOM: It’s quite a low percentage, for Spain.

KATIE: Yeah. I think it says...quite a lot about a country, how much they spend on their, military.



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TOM: Yeah but I think if you look at the total expenditure...it’s...paints, a different picture. Erm, because the quantities that the US spends for example, are astronomical.

KATIE: Mmm.

TOM: Erm, and actually I remember the UK being quite high up on that chart as well, it’s in the top four or five, you know they were the five that I mentioned, France, Russia, err US, erm, and the UK and China, I think are all very much near the top, of that list. So yeah, you know if you’re spending hundreds of trillions of dollars a year on err, on military it’s still a huge expenditure.

KATIE: Yeah. OK well you’re doing very well so far.

TOM: Thank you.

KATIE: Last question. Err, which is bigger? I think you should know the answer to this...

TOM: OK.

KATIE: I wouldn’t. Which is bigger, Mexico or Peru, in terms of square kilometres?

TOM: I should know this, well they...I would say they’re very similar actually. Which is why it’s a difficult question.

KATIE: Yeah, well I didn’t want to give anything too easy, because I knew you would know the answer otherwise.

TOM: I...ooh I think, possibly that, M...Mexico...is bigger.

KATIE: You’re right. Mexico is the fourteenth biggest country in the world, in terms of square kilometres...

TOM: Wow.

KATIE: With, one million, nine hundred and sixty-four thousand, three hundred and seventy-five square kilometres. And...

TOM: That’s quite big.

KATIE: Yeah, it is. And Peru, is the twentieth...biggest country in the world, in terms of area, with one million, two hundred and eighty-five thousand, two hundred and sixteen square kilometres.

TOM: I didn’t imagine that Peru, that either Peru or Mexico were some of the biggest countries in the world so...that’s a surprise. Definitely. I did travel the length of Peru, and it did take quite a long time, so...

KATIE: (laughter) Well I have to say, you’ve done a lot better than I would have done on those.

TOM: Thank you.



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Which country in the world spends the greatest percentage of its money on the military? It was Oman, at least in 2005 it was.

Which country do you think spends more on the military – Spain or the UK? It was the UK.

Summary Well done! That was some great listening practice.



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Extra Materials

Listening

If you want to practise your listening skills even more, here are some extra questions for you. The answers are at the end of this document. If you get any wrong, you can look at the transcript to check why.

Listening 1

What was the other possible importance of 75 in Katie’s life?

Listening 2

Is Tom the same weight as Katie?

Listening 3

How many guesses does Tom make about the television question?

Which animals are mentioned in the conversation?

Listening 4

Which year is most of the information from?

Who spends a bigger percentage on the military – the USA or Colombia?

Vocabulary – Getting the meaning from context

When you listen to natural speech, there are lots of spoken expressions you can learn. Here we’ve taken some of the most interesting ones from the conversations. Complete the following exercises, which will help you learn and remember these words and expressions.

Look at the words of phrases in bold form the recording and choose the best definition, a), b) or c).

1. I’ll give you a clue...

a) the answer

b) information to help solve a problem

c) an opinion



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2. Clever clogs!

a) someone who has all the right equipment for a job

b) someone who is very fit and healthy

c) someone who is annoying because they are right or good at something

3. What percentage of people do you think actually stick to them?

a) change, not keep

b) remember

c) not change, continue to keep a promise or decision

4. resolutions like, giving up things

a) doing more of something

b) doing less of something

c) stopping doing something

5. these are the most up to date statistics...

a) recent

b) accurate

c) accepted



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Extra Materials - Answers

Listening

Listening 1

What was the other possible importance of 75 in Katie’s life? She thinks it might be the year her brother was born.

Listening 2

Is Tom the same weight as Katie? No. He weighs more, which Katie is surprised about.

Listening 3

How many guesses does Tom make about the television question? Two.

Which animals are mentioned in the conversation? Birds of prey (including peregrine falcons) and cheetahs.

Listening 4

Which year is most of the information from? 2005

Who spends a bigger percentage on the military – the USA or Colombia? The USA.

Vocabulary

1. b 2. c 3. c 4. c 5. a



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Vocabulary Glossary 1 spree (noun) - juerga

2 birds of prey (noun) - aves de rapiña

3 friction (noun) - fricción

4 dive (verb) - descender

5 propel (verb) - propulsar

6 GDP - Gross Domestic Product (noun) - PIB - product interno bruto

7 reputable (adjective) - acreditado

8 weapons (noun) - armas

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