Joining a gym

Joining a gym

Listen to the conversation about joining a gym to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Receptionist: Hello, welcome to Shake it Off Fitness. How can I help you?

Customer: Yes, thanks. I've been meaning to come in and find some information about here for some time. I was wondering if you could help me?

Receptionist: Sure, of course. What would you like to know?

Customer: I saw on the sign outside that you have the best budget membership in the city. Is that right?

Receptionist: You've got that right, yes. If you find a better rate, then we'll match it. Also, we don't have any sign-up fees or cancellation fees.

Customer: Sorry, what was that last bit?

Receptionist: Cancellation fees. Some gyms charge you money if you leave before a minimum number of months or something like that. We don't do that.

Customer: That's useful to know. Ummm, what times do you have?

Receptionist: We open at 5 a.m. and close at midnight.

Customer: Not 24 hours then, I see.

Receptionist: No. Almost, though! We tried doing the 24-hour thing, but there really weren't a lot of people who wanted to do exercise at 2 in the morning.

Customer: Makes sense. Another question: do you have trainers? Like, will you do a personalised evaluation of me?

Receptionist: Sure we do. As we say on our brochure, we can show you what to do, how to do it and why you're doing it. Have you worked with a personal trainer before?

Customer: Err, no. No, I haven't. No.

Receptionist: So, it's very easy. For your first visits we'll assign you one of our expert personal trainers. He or she will design an exercise plan that's just right for you and show you exactly what to do. We even include nutrition advice in the plan.

Customer: Let me get this straight. All of this is included in the price?

Receptionist: Yes, it is. If you want to continue with your trainer after the first few classes, we can talk about that. It does cost extra though. OK?

Customer: Yeah. Sounds ... great.

Receptionist: Do you have any other questions?

Customer: Hmmm, yeah. Um, OK. Why should I choose here instead of any of the other gyms in the city?

Receptionist: What, you mean apart from our competitive rates and personalised attention?

Customer: Yeah, I guess.

Receptionist: Listen, here's a free day pass. Why don't you drop by and see for yourself? That way you can talk to other members, see the facilities and our staff.

Customer: OK, I'll do that. Thanks very much!

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 4.4 (30 votes)

Submitted by Yerlan on Fri, 31/01/2020 - 08:44

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Hello, Dear teacher Could you explain, please? What does drop by mean? and is it nessesary to say "does" in the sentences above "it does extra cost though." and In the sentences "Almost, though" how can i understand "though" does it mean "but"? Thank you. Rakhmet. In Kazakh Rakhmet means thank you very much.

Hello again Yerlan

'drop by' means 'visit'. 'does' is not grammatically necessary in the sentence you ask about, but it does add emphasis. Yes, 'though' means 'but' here -- she means they aren't open 24 hours, but nearly 24 hours.

Rakhmet for the Kazakh lesson!

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Magedelabd on Wed, 11/12/2019 - 15:18

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In a gym I look for the cleanness , the equipment condition , the space , a good trainer and a good price as well.

Submitted by nikisyazwani on Wed, 02/10/2019 - 18:34

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I have completed the task, 'Joining the Gym'. The level I chose was Upper Intermediate B2.
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Submitted by kamicounciler on Sat, 28/09/2019 - 20:20

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for me,the most important thing about a gym is probably the amount of people working there, in compare to the whole space the gym has.the less crowded the gym is, the better i can work out.also it will be great if they have trainers to help for the beginning sessions and to design a personal programme.

Submitted by Kyaw Kyaw Min Hlaing on Mon, 20/05/2019 - 20:45

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Hello EthanMe, If you want to download, just right click on the audio and then choose save as audio. Best,
Hello EthanMe, I'm afraid the audio files are not available for download. We have apps which enable users to listen and watch material 'on the go', however: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/apps/learnenglish-audio-and-video ~ Peter The LearnEnglish Team