In this short dialogue we will listen to a couple discussing the time. Pay attention to different phrases they use to tell time!

Transcript: 
NATASHA: What time is it? We’re going to be late!
TONY: It’s a quarter after seven. We’re on time. Don’t panic.
NATASHA: But I thought we had to be at the restaurant by 7:30 for the surprise party. We’ll never make it there with all this evening traffic.
TONY: Sure we will. Rush hour is almost over. Anyway, the party starts at 8:00. But I do need help with directions. Can you call the restaurant and ask them where we park our car?

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

What Time Is It?

How long do you want a movie to last? When do you start looking at your watch and wonder when you can leave the darkness of the cinema?

Or maybe it doesn't matter because you watch everything on streaming services, and you can pause anytime you like.

But according to a survey from the US, the perfect movie length is 92 minutes — about the same as a soccer match.

A polling company called Talker Research asked 2,000 people how long movies should be.

Only about 2% said they thought movies should be longer than two and a half hours, while just 15% want to watch a movie that's more than two hours long.

Movies like Dodgeball, Kung Fu Panda and Toy Story 2 are all about 92 minutes long.

But data suggests that the most popular movies are getting longer and longer.

A website called What to Watch found that the average length of the most successful movies has increased from 110 minutes in 1981 to 141 minutes in 2022.

The Guardian reports that nine out of the top 10 most successful films of all time are longer than two hours. Three of them are longer than three hours.

However, some say it's not the length of the film that's important, but how good it is.

There are really long films that feel much shorter because they're so interesting, and there are shorter movies that you wish would just end fast!

Survey Reveals the Perfect Movie Length

"Not all heroes wear capes."

This is a phrase that's often used online to talk about normal people who do amazing things.

They don't need a cape — like Superman — to do something amazing.

But here's a hero who not only didn't wear a cape — he didn't have a name either.

Or at least, he kept his name a secret.

This is the story of a Filipino man in Japan who saved a young boy from the sea in Fukuoka city.

A 6-year-old boy was at Hakozaki pier with his family when he fell about 2 meters down into the water below. His family didn't notice at first that he had fallen, but the Filipino man did.

He was fishing nearby, and jumped into the sea to keep the boy safe while they waited to be helped out of the water.

The 6-year-old was not wearing a life jacket, and the coast guard said if the man had not jumped in, the boy could have been in trouble.

The Filipino man, who is 26 and lives in Fukuoka, gave his details to the coast guard afterward. But when the family asked for his name and his contact information, he declined and went home.

Some reports said he replied that he was not worth identifying.

SoraNews24 said the man replied in Japanese: "I'm not important enough for people to need to be concerned about my name."

The website said this is a phrase that is more likely to be used in action movies or manga, perhaps by a hero who has just saved the day.

The Filipino man was not hurt, while the boy was taken to hospital.

Man Saves Boy from Sea, Keeps Name Secret

Swedish furniture company IKEA has opened a new store.

There's nothing strange about that. But wait a minute — the new store is inside a video game. And it's paying real people to work there!

IKEA advertised for 10 positions in a virtual store it has opened in Roblox — and got more than 178,000 applications!

Roblox is a popular online gaming platform that lets users play games and create their own.

IKEA has created The Co-Worker Game on the platform. And it needed some employees.

At the start of June, IKEA began looking for people aged 18 and over in the UK and Ireland to work as paid members of staff at the in-game store.

It said staff would help customers, and would be able to get promoted and move departments, just like in real life.

The company said it wanted to show that it does things a little differently.

Wes Davis from technology website The Verge called it a "weird" but "harmless" idea.

He said he'd never heard of other companies paying people to work in a game, but added that US company Walmart has already created a game on Roblox.

IKEA said its employees would be paid a little over $16.50 per hour during their work-from-home shifts, which is about the same as the company's other workers get paid in the UK.

The store opened on June 24. It's not clear how long the workers will be employed for, although the company said the positions would be on a "limited contract."

It also said anyone who didn't get a job could still experience the virtual store and win in-game prizes.