Joy English · Level C2 · Traveljoy-english.com
A detour through the hills
Name:Date:
Follow banter with hedges, concessions and irony.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/a-detour-through-the-hills
Words to know
- turning
- A place where a road branches off.
- snaking
- Following a line with many curves, like a snake.
- familiar
- Known because you have seen it before.
- view
- What you can see from a place.
Answer key
- I am fairly sure we took the wrong turning back at the petrol station, because nothing here looks remotely familiar.“Remotely” adds emphasis to a negative: not at all. “Turning” is a noun here.
- Nonsense, the map clearly shows the road snaking through the hills before dropping down to the coast.“Nonsense” is a flat, confident interruption. “Snaking” means following a long, curving line.
- Unless I am mistaken, that map is older than both of us, and half these lanes have since been closed.“Unless I am mistaken” is a polite way to correct someone. “Since” here means from then until now.
- Well, if we are lost, we may as well be lost somewhere with a view.“May as well” means there is no better choice. Linking: “may-as-well” runs together.
- Easy for you to say, since you are not the one who promised we would arrive before dark.The start of the sentence drops “It is”. Stress falls on “you” and “promised”.