Listening! 
Cartoon man (Andy Avatar) waving - How to make a phone call in EnglishHi, it’s Andy here. Now, we’re going to do a bit of listening practice. Good luck!

7 excuses for lost mobile phones!

Listening 1
You’re going to listen to seven stories about people losing their mobile phones. Listen once without pausing or stopping the audio. Which story is the funniest or most ridiculous?

Listening 2
Now, listen again and answer these questions. This time, you can pause the audio whenever you want.
Who…

  1. …flushed his mum’s phone down the toilet?
  2. …had her phone stolen by a seagull?
  3. …dropped his phone from a tree?
  4. …had his phone stolen by a monkey?
  5. …lost his phone inside a cow?
  6. …lost her phone on a cruise ship?

Listening 3
Now listen again while you read the script at the same time. This is great for your listening skills. If you find any words you aren’t sure of, look them up in a dictionary.

Audio script
Seven excuses for lost mobile phones!
Have you ever lost your mobile phone? The website mobileinsurance.com has published some of the most unusual claims for lost phones. Here are a few of them.

• A young man broke his phone after he dropped it from a tree. At the time, he was trying to film a Blur concert in Hyde Park. He’d climbed up there for a better view.

• A 33-year-old woman lost her mobile phone after her three-year-old son flushed it down the toilet.

• A farmer lost his phone inside a cow. He was using the torch on the phone to help him deliver a calf.

• A young woman dropped her mobile phone overboard during a cruise. She was with her boyfriend at the time, re-enacting the famous “I’m the king of the world” scene from the film Titanic.

• A middle-aged man lost his iPhone 4S after it fell down a toilet bowl. Unfortunately, he only realised that it had fallen out after he flushed the toilet.

• A young woman lost her mobile phone to a seagull. She was walking along the beach when one of the birds swooped down and snatched it out of her hand.

• A middle-aged father had his mobile phone stolen by a monkey. He was with his family at a nature reserve when some monkeys got into their car and one of them ran off with the phone. The man offered to give a description of the monkey that took it.

Very good! Now do the quiz to check your answers to exercise 2!

Cartoon man (Andy Avatar) with graduation hat

Quiz / Lesson 2 Listening 2