| 1 |
what don't you like about yourself? i can be very self-centred. |
| 2 |
what was your most embarrassing moment? |
| 3 |
what or who is the greatest love of your life? |
| 4 |
where would you most like to be right now? |
| 5 |
have you ever said 'I love you' and not meant it? |
| 6 |
what/which word or phrase do you most overuse? |
| 7 |
when were you happiest? |
| 8 |
what do you owe your parents? |
| 9 |
what's your wallpaper? |
| 10 |
what keeps you awake at night? |
| 11 |
what single thing would improve the quality of your life? |
| 12 |
how do you relax? |
| 13 |
what does love feel like? as if sb's painted the world a different colour? |
| 14 |
who would you most like to say sorry to? |
| 15 |
what brings you to london? |
| 16 |
how long are you going to be in london for? |
| 17 |
can you tell us they're true or lie? |
| 18 |
don't you like london? |
| 19 |
can you tell us if there's any truth in that? |
| 20 |
should i tell her how i feel? |
| 21 |
how long have you known your best friend? |
| 22 |
could you tell me when the next train leaves? |
| 23 |
what are you thinking about? |
| 24 |
what do you like doing at the weekend? |
| 25 |
what kind of music does jane like listening to? |
| 26 |
do you know what time the film finishes? |
| 27 |
how many students came to class yesterday? |
| 28 |
do you remember where the restaurant is? |
| 29 |
who does the housework in your family? |
| 30 |
could you tell me what the time is? |
| 31 |
can you remember where the last olympics were held? |
| 32 |
do you know there is a good pizza restaurant near hear? |
| 33 |
do you have any idea how many players there are in a baseball team? |
| 34 |
would you mind telling me how old you're? |
| 35 |
could you tell me where you bought your bag? |
| 36 |
can you remember what year the london olympics were? |
| 37 |
do you know how long this class lasts? |
| 38 |
do you have any idea when brazil last won the world cup? |
| 39 |
would you mind telling me you have any allergies? |
| 40 |
do you have a big family? |
| 41 |
what don't you like about the place where you live? |
| 42 |
what sports or games are you good at? |
| 43 |
do you think you have a healthy diet? |
| 44 |
what makes you feel happy? |
| 45 |
do you have a big family? yes, actually, i'm one of seven. |
| 46 |
i've got five sisters and a brother. Wow! that's a huge family. |
| 47 |
what don't you like about the place where you live? well, for one thing. i don't like my neighbours very much. |
| 48 |
why not? what's wrong with them? |
| 49 |
what sports or games are you good at? well, i'm not really very sporty, but i'm quite good at chess. mee too! we could have a game one day. |
| 50 |
do you think you have a healthy diet? yes, very. in fact, i'm a vegan. so i only eat fruit and vegetables, and grains, and no meat or fish. How interesting? how long have you been a vegan? |
| 51 |
what makes you feel happy? lots of things, er, like, buying new shous. oh really? i can't think of anything worse. |
| 52 |
what would you do if you were the one survivor in a plane crash? |
| 53 |
who do you think would win in a fight between spider-man and batman? |
| 54 |
what did you have for breakfast? |
| 55 |
describe the colour yellow to sb who's blind. |
| 56 |
how many people flew out of chicago last year? |
| 57 |
what am i thinking right now? |
| 58 |
who is your hero and why? |
| 59 |
tell me sth about your childhood. |
| 60 |
have you ever had an interview for a job or a place on a course? |
| 61 |
what kinds of questions did they ask you? |
| 62 |
did you get the job or place? |
| 63 |
what strange question were they asked? |
| 64 |
have you ever been asked a strange question in an interview? |
| 65 |
yes, it was my interview for a place at Sarah Lawrence University in New York where i'm studying now. |
| 66 |
what was the question? |
| 67 |
the question was, 'if you could have dinner with three people from the past, who would you choose and why?' |
| 68 |
and what did you answer? |
| 69 |
it was one of the first questions i was asked, and i said, 'i can't answer this right now. |
| 70 |
can i answer at the end? |
| 71 |
because i couldn't think of anyone. |
| 72 |
so they said ok, and then they asked me the question again later, and i said sth ridiculous like john lennon, um, picasso, and..er.. i can't even remember who the third person was. |
| 73 |
it was another sort of artist or musician i think. |
| 74 |
do you think it was a good question? |
| 75 |
yes, because it made me think - i mean, it wasn't sth i was expecting at all, and all the other one were more yes or no, direct questions, so this one made me think a bit more. |
| 76 |
and you got the place? yes, i did. |
| 77 |
that was many years ago, it was one of my job interviews, in london, actually, after i moved to london from germany. |
| 78 |
it was for a financial department, and the manager who interviewed me. |
| 79 |
i can't remember, but i believe he, he must have been german - he asked me, 'do you have a boyfriend?' and 'are you planning to get pregnant?' |
| 80 |
that's illegal now, isn't it? |
| 81 |
yes, i know, i believe that was illegal then. |
| 82 |
and what did you answer? |
| 83 |
i said no, i didn't have a boyfriend, and i had no plans to get pregnant any time soon, but at that point, it was pretty clear to me that i didn't want to work for that company. |
| 84 |
yes, i was being interviewed for a job with an advertising agency and the interviewer kept checking information on my cv and then asking me about it, and he saw that i'd studied phylosophy at university. |
| 85 |
and he said, 'oh, i see that you studied phylosophy at university. do you still practise phylosophy?' |
| 86 |
i said the first thing that came into my head - i said, 'well, i still think a lot'. |
| 87 |
was the interviewer impressed? |
| 88 |
well, he obviously liked the answer, because i got the job. |
| 89 |
there's one i can think of, which was when i was being interviewed for a job with a company in switzerland. |
| 90 |
what was it? |
| 91 |
well, the interviewer asked me, 'what animal would you like to be reincarnated as?' |
| 92 |
weird question.| totally. |
| 93 |
what did you say? |
| 94 |
so i said a cat because it was the first thing i thought of and because cats have a good life - well, at least in britain they do. |
| 95 |
and then the interviewer immediately looked embarrassed and said that he'd been told to ask me that question to see how i'd react, but that he thought it was a stupid question. |
| 96 |
what happened in the end? |
| 97 |
i didn't get the job, so maybe the interviewer wasn't very fond of cats. |
| 98 |
which one aspect of your personality would you change if you could and why? |
| 99 |
if you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would you choose? |
| 100 |
if you were an animal, which animal would you be? |
| 101 |
what kinds of things make you angry? |
| 102 |
if you had to spend the rest of your life on a desert island (with plenty of food and water), what two things would you want to have with you? |
| 103 |
which tv or film character would you most like to be? |
| 104 |
what's the best (or worst) decision you've ever made? |
| 105 |
if i came to your house for dinner, what would you cook for me? |
| 106 |
which three adjectives describe you best? |
| 107 |
if you were a car, what type of car would you be? |
| 108 |
how do you normally treat animals? |
| 109 |
who do you admire most, and why? |
| 110 |
if you could be a superhero, what would your superpowers be? |
| 111 |
tell me about sth in your life that you're really proud of. |
| 112 |
if hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see play the lead role as you? |
| 113 |
if you could have six months with no obligations or financial limitations, what would you do with the time? |
| 114 |
do you know what they have in common? |
| 115 |
do you know anything about them? |
| 116 |
do you think we'll ever know what happened? |
| 117 |
on the fourth of december eighteen seventy-two, a ship called the mary celeste was found floating in the atlantic. |
| 118 |
there was no one on board. |
| 119 |
the ship wasn't damaged, and everything was in order, although the lifeboat was missing. |
| 120 |
none of the crew or passengers were ever seen again. |
| 121 |
on the fourth of march nineteen eighteen, a huge ship called the uss cyclops left barbados with three hundred people on board, and sailed into what we now call the bermuda triangle. |
| 122 |
then it disappeared without a trace. |
| 123 |
no distress call was made, and no bad weather was reported in the region. |
| 124 |
a huge search for the cyclops was launched - boats and planes scoured - but nothing of the enormous ship was ever seen again. |
| 125 |
on july second, nineteen thirty-seven, amelia earhart, the famous american aviator, took off with her navigator from new guinea, in a small plane, on the last stage of their around-the-world flight. |
| 126 |
it was the last time they were seen alive. |
| 127 |
four million dollars was spent on the search, but no trace of amelia or the navigator was ever found. |
| 128 |
do you know we will ever know what happened? |
| 129 |
what was the mystery and who discovered it? |
| 130 |
what was strange about the rain jackets? |
| 131 |
what theories did people come up with? |
| 132 |
which of the theories do you think could be true? |
| 133 |
which do you think are impossible? |
| 134 |
the mystery of the flannan islands lighthouse keepers is one of the greatest puzzles in history, a case that has baffled real and amateur detectives for more than a century. |
| 135 |
the flannan islands are seven uninhabited rocks that rise out of the sea. |
| 136 |
they form part of the Outer Hebrides, a chain of remote islands off the west coast of scotland. |
| 137 |
for centuries, they were a danger for ships, so in 1899, a 75-foot lighthouse was built on the largest of the islands, and three lighthouse keepers were employed. |
| 138 |
on 26th december 1900, a steamship sailed to the island carrying three new lighthouse keepers, to relieve the men who had spent three months alone in the atlantic. |
| 139 |
but when they arrived at the lighthouse, they made an extraordinary discovery - there was nobody there. |
| 140 |
the lighthouse door was unlocked, and inside, everything was tidy, but one of the chairs was knocked over. |
| 141 |
one rain jacket was hanging on its hook, but the other two had disappeared. |
| 142 |
the clocks had stopped. |
| 143 |
the last entry in the log book was 9 a.m. on 15th december. |
| 144 |
but of the three keepers, ducat, marshall, and macarthur, there wasn't a trace. |
| 145 |
when the news of the keepers' disappearance reached the mainland, there was a huge amount of media speculation. |
| 146 |
some suggested that the men had argued about a woman, and that one had murdered the other two before throwing himself into the sea. |
| 147 |
others wondered whether perhaps they had been kidnapped by german agents who were planning an invasion of britain, using submarines. |
| 148 |
some thought they might have been carried away by a sea serpent, or a giant sea bird, or even by a boat full of ghosts. |
| 149 |
an edinburgh policeman, robert muirhead, was sent to the island to solve the mystery. |
| 150 |
what was muirhead's theory? |
| 151 |
what did people think of it at the time? |
| 152 |
what is the modern explanation? |
| 153 |
an edinburgh policeman, robert muirhead, was sent to the island to solve the mystery. |
| 154 |
muirhead was a hard-working, practical investigator, an not at all superstitious. |
| 155 |
among other clues, he found equipment lying all over the island, and also a huge rock, much too heavy for any men to carry, lying on the steps leading up to the lighthouse. |
| 156 |
in the end, the only explanation he could think of was that the men had been carried off by an enormous wave. |
| 157 |
muirhead's explanation was immediately rejected. |
| 158 |
but more than one hundred years later, in nineteen ninety-five, the ship queen elizabeth 2 was hit by a one-houndred-foot wave which, according to her captain, 'came out of the darkness' and 'looked like the white cliffs of dover'. |
| 159 |
then a paper published in a scientific journal recently proved that the 'monster wave', which for centuries had been considered a sailors' myth, is a mathematical reality: many smaller waves can suddenly combine in mid-ocean and create a huge wave of devastating force. |
| 160 |
most marine scientists now agree that it is a naturally occurring - though rare-event. |
| 161 |
so finally, the only explanation that fits the facts is that the three lighthouse men had rushed out to attend to some emergency and had then been swept away by an enormous wave. |
| 162 |
inspector muirhead, it now appears, was almost certainly right. |
| 163 |
he solved the case back in nineteen oh one, but he had to wait another century for the proof. |
| 164 |
however, science still cannot answer all the questions surrounding the flannan islands mystery. |
| 165 |
why did one man leave his rain jacket behind? |
| 166 |
why were the bodies of the men never found? |
| 167 |
maybe these are things we'll never know. |
| 168 |
have you seen or heard sth that can't be explained, e.g. a ghost or a ufo. |
| 169 |
have you had a strange coincidence, e.g. meeting someone in an unexpected place. |
| 170 |
have you visited a fortune-teller, psychic or faith healer. |
| 171 |
a: i heard a weird noise in the middle of the night b: did you? what kind of noise? |
| 172 |
a: you don't believe in ghosts, do you? b: no, i don't |
| 173 |
a: i've never been to a fortune-teller b: neither have i c: i have. it was really interesting |
| 174 |
a: i don't believe you really saw a UFO b: i did see one! it couldn't have been anything else. |
| 175 |
a: i dreamt that i saw a ghost last night b: did you? so did i. how spooky. |
| 176 |
a: i don't believe in fortune-telling. b: don't you. i do. |
| 177 |
a: you don't like horror films, do you? b: i do like them. it's just that sometimes they're too scary. |
| 178 |
i'm not very good at singing. |
| 179 |
i'm going to go out tonight. |
| 180 |
i love jazz. |
| 181 |
i don't like metal. |
| 182 |
i've never read 'quiet don' |
| 183 |
i'd love to live in a village. |
| 184 |
i was very naive as a child. |
| 185 |
i didn't go shopping yesterday evening. |
| 186 |
a: i'm not very good at cooking b: aren't you? neither am i. |
| 187 |
a: i'm going to watch the football tonight. b: are you? i'm not. i'm going to study. |
| 188 |
your favourite colour is blue, isn't it? |
| 189 |
you were born in ekaterinburgh, weren't you?. |
| 190 |
you really like summer, don't you? |
| 191 |
you studied english last weekend, didn't you? |
| 192 |
you haven't been to mozambique, have you? |
| 193 |
you would like to be able to understand everything in english, wouldn't you? |
| 194 |
you can't skydive very well, can you? |
| 195 |
you're very good at cooking, aren't you? |
| 196 |
count your correct guesses. |
| 197 |
who was the better psychic? |
| 198 |
you were born in september, weren't you? |
| 199 |
you don't like metal, do you? |
| 200 |
you're going to go clubbing tonight, aren't you? |
| 201 |
you've seen 'operation y', haven't you? |
| 202 |
you favourite season is summer, isn't it? |
| 203 |
you didn't like milk when you were a child, did you? |
| 204 |
you can play the guitar, can't you? |
| 205 |
you wouldn't like to live in domestic, would you? |
| 206 |
i'm going to describe a situation and ask you some questions. |
| 207 |
answer quickly without thinking about it too much - the first thing that comes into your head. |
| 208 |
imagine that you're walking through a beautiful forest. |
| 209 |
the sun is out; there's a light breeze. |
| 210 |
it's a really beautiful day. |
| 211 |
you're walking with one other person. |
| 212 |
question one: who are you walking with? |
| 213 |
as you walk through the forest, you come across an animal. |
| 214 |
question two: what kind of animal is it? |
| 215 |
a big animal or a small one? |
| 216 |
how do you interact with the animal? |
| 217 |
now you're walking deeper into the forest, and you come to a clearing, where there are no trees. |
| 218 |
there's a house in the middle of the clearing. |
| 219 |
question three: how bid is the house? |
| 220 |
does it have a fence around it or not? |
| 221 |
you walk up to the door of the house and it's open. |
| 222 |
you go in, and you see a table. |
| 223 |
question four: what is there on the table? |
| 224 |
are there any people sitting round it? |
| 225 |
you finish looking around the house and you leave out ot the back door. |
| 226 |
there's a huge garden behind the house. |
| 227 |
you go into the garden, and in the middle you find a cup. |
| 228 |
question five: what is the cup made of? |
| 229 |
is it a ceramic cup? metal? plastic? paper? |
| 230 |
as you walk to the end of the garden, you come to some water. |
| 231 |
you must cross this water in order to get home. |
| 232 |
question six: what kind of water is it? a lake? a river? a small pond? |
| 233 |
how do you cross it? |
| 234 |
how wet do you get? |
| 235 |
what you have just done is a psychological test which analyses how you interact with other people. |
| 236 |
now i'm going to tell you what your answers mean. |
| 237 |
the person you were walking with is an important person in your life. |
| 238 |
the animal represents problems in your life. |
| 239 |
the bigger the animal, the more problems you have. |
| 240 |
how you interact with the animal represents how you deal with your problems. |
| 241 |
if you were aggressive or decisive, that means you confront your problems, try to solve them. |
| 242 |
if the interaction was peaceful, then you're a more passive person and often wait for problems to go away. |
| 243 |
the house represents your ambitions. |
| 244 |
the bigger the house, the more ambitious you are. |
| 245 |
if there was no fence around the house, it means you're very open-minded, and welcome new ideas. |
| 246 |
if it had a fence, then you're more convinced that you're right, and tent to surround yourself by people who agree with you. |
| 247 |
the table represents how you're feeling at the moment. |
| 248 |
if there was food or there was flowers on the table, and people sitting round it, this suggests that you're feeling happy in your relationships. |
| 249 |
no food, flowers, or people suggests that sb in your family, or a friend, is making you unhappy. |
| 250 |
the cup represents how strong your relationship is with the person you're walking with, and how long the raltionship will last. |
| 251 |
the harder and more resistent the material of the cup is, the stronger your relationship is. |
| 252 |
the water represents your friends. |
| 253 |
if you saw a large river or lake, you have a big social circle and like to be surrounded by people. |
| 254 |
if you got very wet when you crossed it, your friends are very important for you. |
| 255 |
if you hardly got wet at all, it means that you depend less on your friends and are more self-sufficient. |
| 256 |
do you believe in this kind of personality test? |
| 257 |
do you believe that you can learn anything about sb's personality by..?: |
| 258 |
^ analysing their handwriting (graphology); |
| 259 |
^ looking at their hands (palmistry); |
| 260 |
^ analysing the position of the sun, moon, and planets at the exact time of their birth (astrology); |
| 261 |
^ online personality quizzes, e.g. buzzfeed. |
| 262 |
if you study a lot, you learn a lot ~ the more you study, the more you learn. |
| 263 |
if i drink a lot of coffee, i sleep badly ~ the more coffee i drink, the worse i sleep. |
| 264 |
if you have a lot of time, you do things slowly ~ the more time you have, the slower you do things. |
| 265 |
if you're fit, you feel good. |
| 266 |
the fitter you're, the better you feel. |
| 267 |
the more money i have, the better my life is. |
| 268 |
the earlier i get up, the less chance i'm late at work. |
| 269 |
the faster english people speak, the worse i understand them. |
| 270 |
the less i eat, the quicker i lose weight. |
| 271 |
the harder i work, the more successful i become. |
| 272 |
the more i exercise, the less i'm confident. |
| 273 |
if there was no fence around the house, it means you're very open-minded, and welcome new ideas. |
| 274 |
if you hardly got wet at all, it means that you depend less on your friends and are more self-sufficient. |
| 275 |
which words have the main stress? |
| 276 |
which do you think are positive and negative characteristics? |
| 277 |
are there any which you think can be either? |
| 278 |
could you tell me how much this book costs? |
| 279 |
i can't remember where i parked my car this morning. |
| 280 |
did you enjoy your trip to paris last weekend? |
| 281 |
what kind of work does your sister do? |
| 282 |
do you know what time the swimming pool opens on saturdays? |
| 283 |
who has eaten/ate the last biscuit? |
| 284 |
why didn't/doesn't your sister like the present you gave her? |
| 285 |
do you have to play your music so loud? i can't concentrate. |
| 286 |
every week the british newspaper 'the gardian' chooses people who have been in the news recently, and publishing a short interview with them called Q&A. |
| 287 |
florence welch is the lead singer of the band florence and the machine. |
| 288 |
she was born in london in 1986. |
| 289 |
in 2010, her first album, lungs, won best album award at the brits. |
| 290 |
she has headlined at the glastonbury festival, and the band's fourth album, high as hope, reached number two in the us and uk charts. |
| 291 |
what's your most treasured possession? my notebooks with all my lyrics. |
| 292 |
what did you want to be when you were growing up? a zoologist or a secretary. |
| 293 |
what don't you like about yourself? i can be very self-centred. |
| 294 |
what was your most embarrassing moment? it was about five years ago, and i'm still not ready to talk about it. |
| 295 |
it was sth involving dating. |
| 296 |
what or who is the greatest love of your life? i think that hasn't happened yet. |
| 297 |
what would your superpower be? to be able to fall asleep exactly when i need to, for exactly the right amount of time. |
| 298 |
where would you most like to be right now? i'm always away, so it would be quite nice to be at home in london. |
| 299 |
have you ever said 'i love you' and not meant it? no. i always felt it at that moment. |
| 300 |
what/which word or phrase do you most overuse? what's the wi-fi password. |
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