Describe a time you heard someone you didn’t know talking on the phone in a public place
You should say:
- When and where it was;
- What the person was talking about;
- What you were doing at that time;
- And explain how you felt about it.
Sample Answer
If memory serves correctly, the most recent time I someone else’s overheard conversation was during the last national holiday when I went to Hangzhou for a trip with my friends. One day we were on a very crowded bus and a forty-something woman sitting in front of me received a call. Her speaker was really loud, so we basically heard the whole conversation.
It seemed that the caller informed the lady that she had won a prize and was trying to transfer the prize money to her. He asked about the lady’s bank account number. Apparently, the lady figured out it was a scam. Instead of hanging up the phone, she swore up and down at the scammer.
Because of her loud voice, everyone on the bus stared at her, which made her very embarrassed. So she started explaining to us that it was a phone call scam. The scammer told her that he was a staff member of a TV show and claimed that she had won because she answered ten questions correctly. The lady was sure that she didn’t win the prize. So, she suddenly realized that the caller was lying to her.
As an onlooker, I was happy that she wasn’t scammed, but I really wasn’t a fan of her loud voice in a public place. Plus, it’s not safe to talk so loud on the phone in front of so many people; you might leak important information to strangers.
Vocab Highlights
if my memory serves me (well/right/correctly): used for saying that you think you have remembered something correctly
be thirty-something/forty-something etc: used to say that someone is aged between 30 and 39, between 40 and 49 etc when you do not know exactly
scam /skæm/ (n): a clever and dishonest plan for making money
hang up: to end a phone conversation by putting down the phone receiver or pressing the ‘end call’ button
swear up and down: to state (something) very strongly and sincerely
stare at something/someone: to look directly at something/someone for long time
a fan of someone or something: If you are a fan of someone or something, especially a famous person or a sport, you like them very much and are very interested in them.