The Overlapping Invitation: Deciding What the Speaker Actually Committed To
You are listening to a recorded conversation between two colleagues, Ирина and Павел, for a QCAA-style listening task. The audio is played twice. Ирина says: «В субботу мы с семьёй едем на дачу, но к семи вернёмся. Если хочешь, заходи около восьми - только позвони заранее, а то мы можем задержаться.» Later Павел replies: «Хорошо, тогда я позвоню в половине восьмого, но, честно говоря, не уверен, что успею.» A question asks: 'Does Павел accept the invitation?' The distractor options are (A) He accepts and will arrive at eight; (B) He refuses because he is busy; (C) He agrees to call but is unsure he can come. You must choose one option and justify it using the exact wording, noting that the modal «может» and the hedge «не уверен» change the force of the commitment.
1. Which option is correct, and what linguistic evidence in the transcript supports it over the two distractors?
Read the worked answer
Correct option: (C).
Evidence chain:
- Павел says «тогда я позвоню в половине восьмого» - this is a clear commitment to the phone call, not to attending. Option (A) claims he will arrive at eight; the transcript never has him confirm arrival, only the call.
- He adds «но, честно говоря, не уверен, что успею» - the hedge «не уверен» (not sure) plus «успею» (will have time) signals uncertainty about coming at all. This rules out (A), which treats attendance as settled.
- Option (B) overstates: «не уверен» is not a refusal. He has not said «не смогу» or «не приду». A refusal would require a negated modal of ability or a direct decline.
Why this is not recall: the decision depends on distinguishing a commissive about calling from a commissive about attending, and on reading the epistemic hedge correctly. The distractor (A) is tempting because the time 'half past seven' is close to 'eight', but the verb governs a different action.
2. Ирина's condition «только позвони заранее, а то мы можем задержаться» - explain what it presupposes and how a listener should represent it in notes.
Read the worked answer
The clause does two things:
- Presupposition of possible delay: «можем задержаться» presents lateness as a real possibility, so the eight o'clock time is a target, not a guarantee. A good note should mark the time as approximate:
~8 pm (may be later). - Condition on the invitation: «только позвони заранее» makes the call a precondition for the visit to work smoothly. It is not a polite extra; it is the mechanism by which the plan survives the delay.
Note-taking implication: record two linked facts - (a) call before coming, (b) arrival time flexible. A candidate who writes only '8 pm' has lost the modality and will misjudge Павел's 'half past seven' call as slightly early rather than as compliance with the instruction.