Episode 01: Fingers crossed

Episode 01: Fingers crossed

The old friends are gathering around in Tony's café to share some good news. But the café might be closing down soon!

Do the Preparation task first. Then listen to the audio. Next go to each Task and do the activity. If you need help, you can read the Transcript at any time.

Preparation

Before you listen

Do the vocabulary activity below before you listen.

Exercise

Transcript

Audio script

Olivia:  Hey! Good to see you again!

Sarah/Magda:  Hey!  You too!

Harry:  Hello Sarah, hi Magda....

Sarah:  How are you Olivia?  Harry!  Great to see you too...

Olivia:  Fine, fine thanks, all well.  Tony!?  Could we have some coffees over here please?

Tony:  Ok, ok...hold on...I’m rushed off my feet here...

Harry:  He’s always so miserable, so grumpy that guy....

Olivia:  He’s not really, it’s just his way...

Harry:  I’ll believe you then...his coffee’s always good!

Olivia:  So, how are you two getting on?

Magda:  Fine.  It’s great, we’ve got this really nice flat...  

Sarah:  We moved into Harry’s old place...

Olivia:  Yeah, I remember. How’s it going?  No problems?  Still friends?  It’s not always easy sharing a flat...

Sarah/Magda:  No, no problems...

Sarah: …except she leaves the top off the toothpaste tube…

Magda:  ...and she spends too much time watching soap operas on tv!

Sarah:  No, really, we’re getting along fine.

Magda:  The only problem is the rent...

Sarah:  It’s really expensive.  

Magda:  I still need to find that proper job, and that depends on me getting the right degree results...

Olivia:  Yeah, I remember you telling me.  When will you find out?

Magda:  Next week.

Olivia:  Fingers crossed, then!

Magda:  Fingers what?

Olivia:  Crossed.  It’s what we say when we hope for something good to happen.

Magda:  Oh, ok...fingers crossed!

Olivia: Has anybody heard from Johnny?  Sarah?

Sarah:  Just because we’re both Chinese doesn’t mean we keep in touch all the time, you know!  There are a lot of people in China!  (laughs)

Olivia:  Of course...sorry...I just thought...

Sarah:  He was more of a friend of yours, wasn’t he Harry?

Harry: Yeah, we’re good mates.  I hear from him all the time.

Sarah:  How’s he doing?

Harry:  He’s still in Chongqing with his new job.  He says it’s really interesting, really exciting, but he misses us – and he wants to come back to London!

Magda:  Fingers crossed!

Sarah:  And how about you Harry? What are you up to?  Are you still job hunting?

Harry:  Yeah, that’s right.  I’m still looking for a new job.  

Magda:  Any luck?

Harry:  I haven’t found anything yet, but I’ve got a few possibilities.  I really liked not working at first, I really enjoyed the free time, but now – well, I need the money, and also – well, I just get bored if I haven’t got something to do all the time.

Magda:  Where’s Fadi, Olivia?  I haven’t seen him for ages.  

Olivia:  Why ask me?

Magda:  I thought you’d know...y’know, you’re like, good friends, aren’t you?

Olivia:  Yes, that’s exactly what we are.  Good friends.  Nothing more.

Magda:  I wasn’t suggesting anything! (laughs)

Olivia:  I hope not!  Anyway, he’s away at the moment, gone to visit his family.  He’ll be back next week.

Tony:  Here you are...four coffees...

All:  Thanks Tony!

Olivia:  Cheer up Tony.

Harry:  Yeah...it can only get worse...!

Tony:  It might get worse!  This café might be closing down soon, so then you’ll all have to find somewhere else to go.

All:  Oh no....

Olivia: What’s this all about, Tony?

Tony:  A big property company - they’re building new luxury flats, just behind here.  They want to get rid of these old buildings.

Magda:  “Get rid of”?

Tony:  Yeah...knock them down.  Demolish them.

All:  Oh no, that’s terrible.

Tony:  It is terrible!  I’ve worked here for ages.  I mean, they’re offering me compensation, but I want to stay here.

Olivia:  Oh no...I’ve just realised...perhaps that means my shop’s affected too...

Tony:  It might be.  Your shop’s only next door...

Olivia:  They can’t knock my shop down!  We must do something...

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

Average: 4.1 (65 votes)
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Submitted by Alwaleed Alsfwani on Wed, 03/08/2022 - 10:02

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Hello Dear
thank you for your big effort to help in learning English,
Could you help me with more elaborate in
answer of question BCSW: S2E01: Task 2
why the correct answer is correct please because I can see in some are both is correct ? so please help

Hi Alwaleed Alsfwani,

Thanks to you for visiting our site and learning with us :)

In this task, only one answer is correct in each question. After some verbs (e.g. need, want), we need to put "to" (e.g. "I want to stay here" is correct, and "I want stay here" is not correct). But don't use "to" after modal verbs (e.g. might, can, must, should).

I hope that helps.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by zolikha on Fri, 04/03/2022 - 10:26

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hi there, **I’ll believe you then** meaning is = you're right?
and
**she leaves the top off the toothpaste tube** meaning is = she leave toothpaste tube before completely done(finish)?

thanks

Hello zolikha,

When Harry says 'I'll believe you then', it means 'OK, I'll believe what you said' -- he means that he trusts that Olivia knows Tony better than he does. In other words, although Harry's impression of Tony is that Tony is grumpy, he says he will believe what Olivia says -- that Tony's not truly a grumpy person and just responds that way.

When Sarah says that Magda 'leaves the top off the toothpaste tube', she means that Magda doesn't put the top (or 'cover' or 'lid') of the toothpaste back on the tube after she puts the toothpaste on her toothbrush. Nowadays, many toothpaste tubs have a top that can be opened or closed without removing it, but at the time this was written, you had to remove the top of a tube of toothpaste completely in order to use it. This meant that you also had to put the top back on when you were done, though there are some people (like Magda) who don't always do that!

Hope that helps you make sense of it.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by dariowins on Sun, 26/07/2020 - 12:48

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I moved to Madrid, Spain from Dominican Republic in 2011, at the begining I felt homesick but in 2015 I move my daughter here to live with and after that I feel better. It isn't easy to be far from family but for a better future we can do everything. Every year I visited my parents in my home-country and I always keep in touch by video-call and social media.

Submitted by Stephane on Wed, 22/04/2020 - 08:29

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"We moved into Harry’s old place..." Are you sure? Isn't the Johnny's old place?

Hello Stephane

Yes, I think you're right. That must be mistake from when this was recorded. Unfortunately, we can't change this now, but very well spotted!

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

 

Submitted by PhuongHoang on Mon, 06/04/2020 - 15:41

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Hi there! There was a sentence what I don't get. It is " he was more of a friend of yours, wasn't he Harry ". Does it mean " Johny is Harry's close friend " ? Thanks a lot !