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Joy English · Level B1 · Short storiesjoy-english.com

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

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Understand “would” for past habits and informal speech.

Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.

Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/the-celebrated-jumping-frog-of-calaveras-county

Words to know

frown
To look angry or unhappy.
risk
The chance that something bad will happen.
bet
To risk money on what will happen.

Answer key

  1. He never smiled, he never frowned.Two short sentences are joined by a comma. To frown is to look unhappy or angry.
  2. And he was lucky, uncommon lucky.“Uncommon lucky” is informal speech for “very lucky”.
  3. If there was a cat-fight, he would take the risk.“Would take the risk” describes a past habit. A hyphen or a space is accepted in “cat-fight”.
  4. He would try to make money on anything.“Would try” is another past habit.
  5. But as soon as there was money, he was a different dog.“As soon as” means immediately when.

Joy English · free English practice · https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/the-celebrated-jumping-frog-of-calaveras-county