Unit 45. Well, Anyway...

Telling a Story

Unit 45; Part A

Important for listening!
Two words you will often hear in conversation are anyway and well. Listen to the conversation below. Notice that anyway and well are often said in quite a high-pitched voice.
45.1.jpg

A: I nearly got arrested, you know, the other
    day.
B: You what ... arrested? What do you mean?
A: Well, I'm doing this project on graffiti, you
    know, at college, and ehm ... so I have
    to take lots of photos of graffiti and ...
B: Uh huh.
A: So anyway, I saw this train with some amazing
    graffiti on the side, so I went there to ehm...
    take a photo of it. The thing is, it was a bit
    far from the platform ...
B: So what happened?
A: Well, I walked along next to the lines,
    and then these two ehm .. station police came
    along and said I shouldn't be there, so ehm ...
    they took me to the office, and then they asked
    for my ID card, you know, my identity card ...
B: Mmm?
A: Well, I didn't have it. I left it at home that day.
B: Oh no!
A: Yeah, so anyway, then they didn't know what to do
    with me, so ehm ... I said, "Look. I'll leave my
    camera here and I go home to get my ID card."
    In the end, they agreed, so I did thati,
    and they ehm ... wrote my ID number, and then
    just let me go ...

In the conversation above, A uses anyway to show that sheis moving on to the next part of the story. In this context it isusually pronounced in a high voice. Notice that before the word anyway, the speaker is not moving the story on, she is just giving some background information. Anyway shows she is returning to the story.

In the conversation above, A uses well to show that she is responding to B's questions. In this context, it is usually pronounced in a high voice.

Unit 45; Part B

Important for listening! In the conversation above, notice that the listener B, is notsilent. He asks questions. He also encourages A to continue by makingnoises like uh huh and mmm. Listen again, and notice that he makesthese noises in a low-pitched voice. He does this to show that he doesnot want to speak, he wants A to continue speaking.

Exercises

1 Listen and answer the questions.

Listen and answer the questions. Listen for the word anyway, because the important information comes after it. Before it, the speaker is just giving background information.
Key.1 Her computer fell on the floor and she lost all her data.
2 He asked for a glass of water with lemon and ice.
3 She's got a place at university.
Example:
      What did the speaker see on the way home from work?    He saw an accident.
1   What happened to Katy the other day? __________________________________
2   What did the old man do in the bar? ____________________________________
3    What is the good news about Clara? ____________________________________

2 Fill the gaps with the words well or anyway.

Fill the gaps with the words well or anyway. Then listen and check.
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A: I wonder what happens if you lose your passport.
B: I lost mine once.
A: So what happened?
B: __________ (1), I was abroad, just travelling around, you know, and __________ (2), somebody stole my bag on the last day.
A: So what did you do?
B: __________ (3), I reported it to the police, which took absolutelyages - so many forms to fill in, and __________ (4), they gave me aspecial travel document and then when I arrived home ...

Follow up: Listen to the conversation again and say B's lines.

Unit 44 Unit 45 Unit 46