✍️ DICTATION UBI 3 · Real English
Today we’ll work with a real situation. You will hear everyday English with small differences between countries.
📖 Step 1 · Mini dictionary
These words will help you understand the dictation:
- toilet (UK): a room or place where you go to the bathroom 🚻
- restroom (US): a public bathroom 🚻
- biscuit (UK): a small, sweet, dry snack 🍪
- cookie (US): a sweet baked snack, usually round 🍪
- lift (UK): a machine that takes people up and down in a building🛗
- elevator (US): a machine that moves people between floors🛗
- chips (UK): long, thin pieces of fried potato 🍟
- fries (US): thin pieces of fried potato 🍟
- confused: not understanding something clearly 😵
- waiter: a person who serves food in a restaurant 👨🍳
- strangely: in a way that is unusual or surprising 🤔
- you mean...: used to clarify what someone is saying 💬
- ordered: asked for food or drink in a restaurant 🍽️
- walk around: to move from place to place on foot 🚶
- the top of a tall building: the highest part of a high building 🏙️
👂 Step 2 · First listen
Listen to the text once. Don’t write yet.
✍️ Step 3 · Dictation
Now listen again and write the text.
👂 Step 4 · Listen again
Listen one more time and check your answers.
✔️ Step 5 · Correction
📄 See full dictation text
Last year I visited a friend who lives in New York. On my first day, I got a bit confused. I asked where the toilet was, and people looked at me strangely. Then someone said, “Oh, you mean the restroom.” Later, I went to a café and ordered a coffee with a biscuit. The waiter smiled and said, “You mean a cookie, right?” I laughed and said yes. In the afternoon, we walked around the city and took the elevator to the top of a tall building. I told my friend that in my country we usually say “lift”, and she found that funny. At night, we had dinner and I asked for chips, but I got something different from what I expected. They were actually fries! It was a bit confusing at the beginning, but after a few days I started to understand everything. English is not the same everywhere, and that’s what makes it interesting.
