Steps to Ease a Family Communication Deadlock
- CEFR level:
- B1
- Sentences:
- 12
- Duration:
- 1 min
- Speakers:
- Emma & Tom
"Steps to Ease a Family Communication Deadlock" is a B1-level English conversation about advice between friends, 12 lines long (about 1 minute) between Emma & Tom. Read the full script below with the translation next to each line, then try speaking one of the roles out loud.
Dialogue script
Each entry shows the English sentence first, with the translation on the line below it. To practise speaking, cover the translation and repeat after the audio.
- Line 1Emma 0:00
My friend and her mother keep arguing about career choices.
- Line 2Tom 0:04
Is the conflict about income stability or social expectations?
- Line 3Emma 0:08
Both, plus old comments that neither side has forgotten.
- Line 4Tom 0:13
Then facts alone won't help unless emotions are acknowledged first.
- Line 5Emma 0:17
She thought one long message would solve everything overnight.
- Line 6Tom 0:21
That might overwhelm her mother and trigger another shutdown.
- Line 7Emma 0:24
I advised short talks: listen first, then one clear request.
- Line 8Tom 0:30
Another tool is writing shared concerns on paper during discussion.
- Line 9Emma 0:34
They agreed to meet Sunday with a thirty-minute time limit.
- Line 10Tom 0:37
Nice, who will pause the talk if voices rise?
- Line 11Emma 0:41
Her older brother will moderate and summarize agreed points.
- Line 12Tom 0:45
Great, that structure can turn conflict into steady progress.
Native audio, line-by-line recording and pronunciation scoring for this dialogue are in the EngTalk app.
Key vocabulary
Content words from this dialogue, ranked by the CEFR level at which they appear across the whole 500-dialogue library. Function words and proper nouns are excluded.
- arguing /ˈɑrɡjuɪŋ/ verb
exchanging or expressing divergent opinions; having a verbal dispute
- career /kəˈrɪr/ noun
a job or profession that someone does for a long period
- income /ˈɪnˌkʌm/ noun
money earned from work or investments
- facts /ˈfækts/ plural noun
things known to be true
- alone /əˈloʊn/ adjective
having no one else present; on one's own
- solve /sɑlv/ verb
to find an answer to a problem
- overnight /ˌoʊvərˈnaɪt/ adverb; adjective
during the night; happening very quickly
- writing /ˈraɪtɪŋ/ noun
the activity or skill of composing text
- voices /ˈvɔɪsɪz/ noun
plural of voice
- moderate /ˈmɑdərət/ (adjective); /ˈmɑdəˌreɪt/ (verb) adjective; verb
not extreme; to guide or control
- summarize /ˈsʌməˌraɪz/ verb
to state the main points briefly
- structure /ˈstrʌktʃər/ noun
the way parts are arranged