Olivia: Joe! Can you stop that please! Can you please come here and sit down!
Magda: Hello there, Olivia. Who’s this?
Olivia: This is Joe – he’s my nephew.
Magda: Nephew?
Olivia: My sister’s son.
Magda: Oh! I see. He’s lovely! I love children...
Olivia: Yeah, they’re great until you have to look after them...
Magda: You’re looking after him?
Olivia: Yeah, just for today, fortunately. My sister can’t get a babysitter. But Joe comes to my shop quite often. He loves it there...unfortunately!
Magda: Why’s that ‘unfortunate’?
Olivia: Because he’s a pest, that’s why...
Magda: What’s a ‘pest’?
Olivia: Somebody or something which makes you angry...
Magda: No!! I don’t believe it! He’s so sweet! How old is he?
Olivia: Four, nearly five.
Fadi: Whoooaaaa! Slow down there, little man! Who’s this?
Olivia: Fadi, meet Joe.
Magda: He’s Olivia’s nephew. And a sweet little pest!
Fadi: Oh really! I didn’t know you were Aunt Olivia!
Olivia: Thank you very much Fadi. You make me feel old. Listen, have you had a chat with Harry yet?
Fadi: About work?
Olivia: Yeah.
Fadi: No, not yet, but I’m supposed to talk to him today. He said he’d be in here later.
Olivia: Listen, though, it’s not true what Harry was saying...
Fadi: About what?
Olivia: About me being upset if he can’t do the website for my shop...I don’t mind if he can’t do it! He wanted far too much money. I could never have afforded it. Now it’s ok, because he thinks he’s turning me down...I don’t have to offend him by saying ‘no’! A happy result all round!
Fadi: I see...so I don’t have to bail you out, after all?
Olivia: No!
Olivia: Joe, can you stop that please? Come over here!
Fadi: ...and here he is!
Harry: Alright mate! Alright Olivia, Magda...who’s this young man?
Olivia: My nephew, Joe.
Harry: Hello Joe!
Harry: He’s very...erm...what’s the word...energetic?
Olivia: I just call him “trouble”!
Harry: So, Fadi, you wanted to talk business?
Fadi: Yeah, finally...well, I’ve got the all clear from my uncle, so we’re on.
Harry: Great.
Fadi: But...
Harry: There’s always a “but”!
Fadi: You’re going to have to do us a favour and come down on the price, mate...
Harry: What price did I quote you?
Fadi: Two thousand five hundred.
Harry: Well, seeing as you’re a friend, I could come down to two thousand four hundred, but not less than that.
Fadi: We can offer two thousand. That’s our top limit. We don’t have a bigger budget than that.
Harry: Come on! You’re joking!
Fadi: Sorry mate. It’s two thousand, or nothing.
Harry: No way. Can’t be done. I’ve got to go now...got to go and see Johnny – he’s offered me a real job...bye all!
Fadi: Oh no, do you think he’s really upset now?
Olivia: I don’t think “upset” is the word....
Fadi: We can go a bit higher actually...I was just trying to be a tough negotiator.
Magda: A bit too tough, I think.
Olivia: You should never mix work and friendship, anyway.
Magda: And you probably shouldn’t have a business meeting in a café!
Fadi: Oh no. What a mess. I’d better go. Hang on..where’s my...where are my....I can’t find my mobile! Or my keys! Has anyone seen them?
Magda: Let’s look under the seats...they must be here somewhere...
Fadi: I can’t see anything.
Magda: No sign.
Olivia: How strange...hang on a minute, my nephew’s been terribly quiet for the last five minutes...what’s he up to...Joe!!!
Comments
The conversation is about some younsters with different encounters. Today, with the presence of Olivia's energetic nephew ,Joe, Fadi was negotiating with his friend, Harry, about the price of their business. After all,both parties broke up and Harry left quite upset. Meanwhile, Joe stole Fadi's mobile phone and keys.
The dialogue is vey useful for me to learn spoken English. Besides, the quality of voice is very good. The script is easily downloaded. I can listen to it over and over again. Thank you very much for this indeed.
Exercices are very helpful to enrich vocabulary.
I think there is an one mistake in Task on page 5. In my opinion the right answer is A
I think the same
team
Hi Lutsenko I think you might be right - I don't think that the question is very good. He offered to pay 2000 but the offer was not accepted. Afterwards, he admits that he could have paid more but was trying to be a hard negotiator so I'm not sure what the answer should be. I think we'll have to change it.
Thanks for your comment.
Jack Radford
The LearnEnglish Team
I love this page because I can hear the pronunciation and improve it. The storys are funny and very helpful.
this website is very helpful.My kdt shared me this adress.Hope that she can read this sentences which is the fisrt i write.And i know that she will smile when see them :-D
the pronounciation of stories is great .i love the stories they are awesome!
thanks!
another problem,
For all the episodes and all the tasks i did, i can't see the exercices until i click on "Read transcript" who is on the bottom of the task page (above the stars), is it normal ??
I know, i'm exposing à lot of preblems lol. i'm a freshman.
Regards
team
Hi Jack
Thanks for all the feedback. I'm using chrome on a mac on a very slow internet connection and sometimes the pages don't load for me. We are looking into it and hopefully will have the problem solved soon.
Jack Radford
The LearnEnglish Team