

Ginger	Nabeel

Views #1042 | Intermediate (B1)

Nabeel's Place

Nabeel talks about his apartment and his neighbors.

Script
Vocab
Quiz

Ginger: So, what about you? You're still in the same place right?

Nabeel: Yeah, I'm still there.

Ginger: Good. How's it going?

Nabeel: Oh, it's great. I'm actually quite satisfied with it now.

Ginger: Oh, good because I though you wanted to move at one point.

Nabeel: Yeah, I thought about it for awhile but then I decided to stay there. There's a lot of good points there. It's a quite neighborhood. It's not too far from the train, so I can get to work easily. For awhile I thought it might be a little too expensive, just slightly above my budget, but I've gotten used to it, and my cats love it. They're really comfortable there, so I think I'm going to stay.

Ginger: Oh, great. I love your cats. Do they have a lot of room to roam around?

Nabeel: They have enough room. Of course, they're better off in the house. I was living there last year but they've adapted pretty well, so there's a roof there. I can take them up and roam around. There's plenty of places for them to hide.

Ginger: Now, what about your neighbors. Are you still living near Matt and Laura.

Nabeel: Matt and Laura.

Ginger: Right, right.

Nabeel: Actually, it's really funny. They'd been there for about four months, and last weekend they invited some people over, about five or six of their colleagues. They had a little party. They played poker, had lots of booze around, but unfortunately, the neighbors complained to the landlord, and the landlords were just really angry.

Ginger: Oh, no.

Nabeel: And sent them this really harsh e-mail and said they wanted them out by the end of the week, so yeah, Matt and Laura have been kicked out of the building.

Ginger: You are kidding.

Nabeel: No.

Ginger: Wow, and just five people over.

Nabeel: Yeah, it was like five or six people and apparently it was loud enough. I think it is because the neighborhood is kind of family-oriented, so people are used to people having parties.

Ginger: Mm, right. Maybe the voices carry a lot.

Nabeel: Yeah, there's a lot of echo in the building actually for some reason.

Ginger: Well, that's too bad for them. Where did they move?

Nabeel: They just moved down the street to another apartment building. It's smaller so I don't think they're happy about it. Oh, well.

Ginger: Well, tell them I said 'Hey' when you see them.

Nabeel: I will.

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

room to roam

Do they have room to roam around?

In this context, "room" means space and "roam" means to wander or walk casually and aimlessly.

When I go to a new city, I like to roam around for the first few days just to get the feel of the place.
The Louvre is a huge museum, there's room to roam around for days.

better off

They're better off in the house.

"Better off" means a superior situation or condition to the present.

It's going to rain tonight, the visitors will be better off in the house than outside in the tent.
Your health will be better off if you choose the fruit salad rather than the chocolate cake.

harsh e-mail

They sent them this harsh e-mail.

"Harsh" means hard or critical and "e-mail" is short for electronic mail, meaning it is a message sent via a
computer.

The response to Janet's job application was a harsh email saying only "do not apply again".
Yesterday I got a virus in my computer from a message sent by a friend, so I sent a harsh email telling them to be more careful.

kicked out

They have been kicked out.

To be "kicked out" of somewhere means to be expelled or thrown out of a place.

Jack was so drunk on Saturday night he was kicked out of the pub for bad behavior.
When I was five I was kicked out of ballet class because I was too dreamy and kept bumping into the other girls.

voices carry

Maybe the voices carry a lot.

When "voices carry" it means they can be heard from a distance, the sound is carried further than expected.

The couple's voices carried across the lake and everyone heard Tom ask Melanie to marry him.
The concert hall has very good acoustics and the singer's voice carried clearly to the back of the room.