Lesson 17 of 41 in the Test Ninjas TOEFL course: Listen to a Conversation, Listening. In conversation, people often say things that don’t mean their words: You’re telling me, It’s a long shot, or Great. right after bad news.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated October 1, 2026
Lesson at a glance
Detail
This lesson
Module
Listen to a Conversation (Listening)
English focus
Common conversational idioms and reactions: strong agreement, trying without a guarantee, holding back, making the best of it, sarcasm and understatement
Task skill
Implied meaning and inference: reading idioms and reactions from context, and combining details from different turns
Time
About 55 minutes
Access
Included in the TOEFL plan
What this lesson teaches
In conversation, people often say things that don’t mean their words: You’re telling me, It’s a long shot, or Great. right after bad news.
This lesson teaches the high-frequency idioms and short reactions people use to agree, rate their chances, judge time and plans, accept a reason, hold back and make the best of bad news, plus sarcasm and understatement.
Then it shows you how to answer “What does the man mean…?”, “What does she imply…?” and “What can be inferred…?” questions in Listen to a Conversation, where the answer often joins two details from different turns.
By the end of the lesson, you can
Understand and use about fifteen high-frequency conversational idioms: strong agreement (You can say that again, You’re telling me, I’ll say), trying without a guarantee (a long shot, It can’t hurt to ask, I can’t promise anything) and everyday judgments (tops, cut it close, up in the air, a heads-up, Beats me, frown on).
Recognize what short reactions do: accept a reason, hold back, make the best of it, and mean more than the words (understatement) or the opposite of them (sarcasm).
Answer “What does the man mean or imply…?” from the lines around the phrase, and “What can be inferred…?” by joining two details from different turns, while rejecting details that belong to another person, place or option.
What’s inside
Around the 3 teaching cycles below, the lesson opens with a quick check and closes with applied practice, a Check and a debrief. How every course lesson is built.
Teaching cycles in lesson 17
Cycle
Focus
What it teaches
Drills
Cycle 1
English
Idioms that don't mean their words
7
Cycle 2
English
Reactions: agreeing, holding back and making the best of it
6
Cycle 3
Task skill
Implied meaning and inference in conversations
7
Word bank
The 10 words and phrases this lesson teaches. They come from the real course questions you practice on in the Apply step, so you meet each one again in context.
minimum noun / adjective
the smallest amount possible or allowed
The course needs a minimum of eight students, or it won’t run this term.
Goes with:
the minimum / a minimum of / minimum wage
Word family:
maximum (opposite); minimal (adj); minimize (verb)
instructions noun (plural)
information that tells you how to do something
Read the instructions before you set up the new printer.