Advanced Listening Practice

Dan

Dan's a real gossip. It's not something you'd expect, looking at him. He loves his sports and there he'll be chatting away about last night's game, all of it going right over my head of course, then he'll just slip in something about "Liz in Human Resources". I guess that's why I listen to whatever he says so attentively. He must think I'm crazy about sports. Or him! My word, I never thought about that! I think he sees himself as an informal news service within the office. He's never malicious or nasty, he just passes on information. One girl told him something, knowing that it would be around the office by lunchtime -- we should be paying him really!

Melissa

Melissa is like the favorite aunt to everybody in the office. There's about a dozen of us and she's been here the longest. She has such a wise head on her shoulders. She won't tell you she disapproves of something you've done, but she'll gently suggest alternative courses of action and, you know, later on, at home perhaps, you'll realize that what she said was absolutely what you should have done. I think she's godmother to about four of the girls' kids. And every birthday, she's there with something that isn't necessarily showy or expensive, but has had a world of thought put into it.

Clara

Clara is the office squirrel. Every office I've worked in has had one. She has a little cache of nuts in a drawer, or chocolate peanuts or raisins -- it seems to be something different each week. A few weeks back, it was dried banana slices -- I could smell them from five desks away. Her hand's in that drawer more often than it's on the keyboard. No, that's unfair, she's a good worker and you know what -- there isn't an ounce of fat on that girl -- I don't know where she puts it all! Maybe she doesn't eat anything at home or spends most of her free time on the treadmill in the gym.

Christopher

Christopher is a funny one. He's a terrific worker, probably works harder than anyone else. We work on telephone support and you never know when the next call is coming in. What he's doing is, between calls, he's writing a play, it sounds incredible, doesn't it? He's been at it for months. He might only get a minute to write before the next angry customer's on the phone, so this play is inching forward so slowly, line by line. I can't wait till it's finished. I have no idea when that may be -- he probably doesn't either. It's such a stressful job we have with random strangers yelling at us for little or no reason, it must be such a release for him to be able to write. Maybe he pours all his anger into it!