Pre-Intermediate Listening Practice

This is such a chaotic office, I don't know how anyone gets any work done! The worst part is the large table in the centre of the room: there's so many things on it. I can see files and books and letters. If you want to find something in this office, it will take you so long! There is a TV in the office but nobody is watching it, it is probably a distraction. I think the problem with this office is that it's so small. The company that works here needs a larger building. You can't work where there is such confusion and mess. I love the computer though - three big screens makes it so easy to work and see different things. You can use the internet on one screen, e-mail on the second one and maybe do work on the third. I would really like a computer with three screens. There is a strange lizard on the wall - maybe it's a frog?

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This looks like a very elegant office. I imagine it could be the office of a bank manager or a company president, it would be a perfect office for such a person. There's a large desk made of expensive wood and it's very organized, there isn't so much stuff on it. It makes everything easy to find because you don't waste such a lot of time looking for letters or documents. Perhaps this is the office at eight o'clock in the morning before the person arrives. Maybe if you take a photo at five o'clock in the afternoon, it's very different. Something I don't like is the floor, it looks like there's a big cream carpet on the floor. They get so dirty so quickly, they are very difficult to clean. One last thing - there's very good light in this room, which is important if you are reading or writing a lot. There are two big lamps on the desk.

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I think this photo was taken a long time ago, possibly in the 1960s or 1970s. I know it was taken so long ago because of the clothes the people are wearing and also because the office looks so old-fashioned. Everything in the office is so simple, there's no modern technology, no computers or fax machines or photocopiers or anything. Such offices don't really exist now, do they? The office where I work is very different, it's more like a home and less like a workplace. Actually, I think I can see one phone in this office: it's black and looks like the old phones without buttons. It would be in a museum today! There are photos of ships on the wall, perhaps this is a company that owns big ships and the floor is so shiny! If you walk on that floor with new shoes, you can fall over. It would be like walking on ice. I don't like the office, it's such a boring place.