Do you like hot weather, or do you prefer a cooler climate? Two people are trying to decide how to beat the heat—you can learn useful English words and phrases to talk about the weather and summer activities. Find out more in this free English listening lesson from Oxford Online English. This is an intermediate lesson.
Listen to the dialogue at normal speed here:
or listen to a slower version here:
Man: It’s too hot! I’m sick of this weather1. When’s it going to end?
Woman: What are you talking about? It’s nice! What—do you want it to be cold and grey again?
Man: There must be a middle ground2…
Woman: You just like complaining, I think. Why don’t we go to the beach for the day? We can sunbathe, swim a little if the water’s not too cold…
Man: Absolutely not! I can’t stand3 lying in the sun when it’s this hot. I get sweaty and then sand sticks to me. I don’t get how that’s supposed to be fun4.
Woman: So what are you going to do? Sit inside all day? It’s beautiful outside!
Man: Let’s go somewhere where it’s cool inside. Like, how about ice skating? We could go ice skating.
Woman: No way! I’m not wasting a nice day like this. If you want to mope around5, go ahead, but I’m going out.
Man: Where are you going?
Woman: None of your business! You don’t want to come, so why should I tell you?
Man: Whatever. Suit yourself6.
Woman: Enjoy sitting at home in the dark.
Man: Yeah, yeah7. See you later.
The vocabulary in these notes will give you many of the answers for the exercises below. You may prefer to try those exercises first, then come back to this section if you need to.
1. If you are sick of something it means that a situation which you dislike has continued for too long and you want it to change or stop.
2. A middle ground means a position between two extremes. For example, in this conversation, the man is talking about weather which is not too hot or too cold.
3. If you can’t stand something it means you really dislike it.
4. …that’s supposed to be fun—the man is saying: “I don’t understand why people enjoy that.”
5. If you mope around, you complain a lot and don’t enjoy yourself. It suggests that the man is choosing to be unhappy, and that he should cheer up and do something fun.
6. Suit yourself = do what you want. The tone is dismissive and not very polite.
7. Saying yeah (or yes) more than once shows an impatient or dismissive attitude. Again, it isn’t very polite.
Too Hot – exercise 1
Listening skill: listening for specific words
There are many words in the dialogue related to hot weather and activities for a sunny day.
Look at a list of ten words referring to this topic. Five are used in the dialogue and five are not. (Be careful: in some cases, very similar words are used – but which five appear exactly as they are shown here?)
Too Hot – exercise 2
Comprehension: identifying speakers’ opinions
In this dialogue, both speakers make their opinions clear a number of times. However, there are also examples where one speaker accuses the other of thinking something, when – in fact – they don’t. This happens quite a lot in arguments!
Listen to the full dialogue again and decide which speaker has the opinions stated.
Too Hot – exercise 3
Vocabulary: expressing frustration
The man says “I can’t stand lying in the sun when it’s this hot”. This is just one example of language from the dialogue that shows irritation. Both the man and the woman also get frustrated with each other’s point of view.
Listen to the dialogue and concentrate on how both speakers react to each other. Then, write one word in each gap to find five expressions that show frustration with what someone has said.
Too Hot – exercise 4
Grammar: rhetorical questions
A rhetorical question is where a sentence is formed as a question (e.g. the auxiliary verb ‘do’ or a ‘wh-‘ question word is used), but the speaker does not expect an answer. This happens a lot in arguments. It’s also a polite way to make suggestions or give an opinion.
Listen to five questions from the dialogue and decide if each one is a rhetorical question or the speaker genuinely wants to hear an answer.
