Advanced English Conversations - Robert Allans, Ahmet Mustafaoglu, Metin Emir 2019

Set (72) - Kill them with your kindness

Dialogue

Harry: Hey Donald! You aren’t really with it today! What’s wrong?

Donald: Oh! Those loud neighbors! They’re giving me sleepless nights.

They’re renovating their kitchen and making a great racket!

Harry: Why don’t you talk to them and ask them to keep it down?

Donald: Well, I did but I’m going nowhere. We seem to have reached a standoff.

Harry: Why don’t you change your tune and kill them with your kindness?

Donald: How do you mean?

Harry: Consider treating them to a meal or bring some gifts for their kids.

Vocabulary

With it: alert; responsive.

Racket: (noun) an unpleasant loud continuous noise

Keep it down: to be quitter.

Go/get nowhere: make no progress.

Standoff: a situation in which agreement in an argument does not seem possible.

Change one’s tune: express a very different opinion or behave in a very different way.

Kill someone with kindness: to be enormously kind to someone.

Exercise;

Fill in the gaps with the correct phrases;

with it

racket

keep it down

get/go nowhere

standoff

change one’s tune

kill someone with kindness

a. He'd soon .......... if he thought she'd lost interest.

b. The downward move came as fears eased that the hostage .......... could spiral out of control.

c. Might it not be more effective to exercise some discretion by ignoring them, or perhaps trying to ..........?

d. If you start worrying about people's feelings, you ..........

e. Excuse me boys - I won’t join you! I'm just not .......... today.

f. If Miss Field and her neighbours cannot bear the .........., they should consider moving out to the silent suburbs.

g. ........... before the neighbors call the police!