Something's broken: equipment and repair requests
Trouble talk has its own verbs: jammed, stuck, flickering, leaking, won't turn on. Catch the symptom verb and the location (second floor, staff kitchen), then listen for the fix — who is coming, and when. That trio answers most Part 3 questions.
Read the sentences below, then practice the whole lesson with audio.
- 1The printer on the second floor is jammed again this morning.
- 2Did you try turning it off and back on first?
- 3Yes, but the paper is stuck somewhere deep inside.
- 4I will put in a repair request with the service desk.
- 5The air conditioning in the meeting room is not working properly.
- 6It blows warm air even when we set it to eighteen degrees.
- 7A technician can come out on Thursday morning at the earliest.
- 8Can they come before nine, so it does not disturb the meeting?
- 9The elevator is making a strange noise between the third and fourth floors.
- 10Please use the stairs until the inspection is finished this afternoon.
- 11The light in the hallway keeps flickering every few seconds.
- 12Maintenance replaced the bulb, but the problem is the wiring.
- 13Someone reported a leak under the sink in the staff kitchen.
- 14We shut off the water and called a plumber right away.
- 15Everything should be fixed before people arrive on Monday morning.
FAQ
- How does this dictation practice work?
- Play a sentence, type exactly what you hear, then press check — Dictation Trainer shows word-level feedback: which words you misheard, misspelled, confused for a homophone, or missed.
- Do I need an account, and is it free?
- You can read the sentences here without signing up. To practice with audio and save progress, create a free account — practice runs on Echoes you earn for free, starting with 100.
- What level is this lesson?
- This lesson is graded B1 on the CEFR scale and has 15 sentences. Dictation Trainer lessons currently run from A1 to B2, with more lessons on the way.