French language Q&A Forum

It seems the speaker is saying "l'impact de gigantesque."  I understand that a "de" here would be incorrect, but that is what I hear.  I presume this is because she is actually emphasizing the end of the word as in "l'impACT gigantesque."  Nevertheless, the emphasis on the end of the word seems over done.  

Later, it sounds as if she is saying "cette décision était facile."  I understand, too, that this would be incorrect grammatically, but nevertheless it is almost impossible for me to here clearly "ait été."  

Perhaps the lesson here is that one should not go by what one thinks one hears, but figure out what would be grammatically correct.  I guess that is probably what we do when listening to English.  We "sort of" listen but actually are just following the flow of the idea being transmitted and fill in the precise details only as needed.  

In the 5th segment of the dialogue, the text reads:

 "- Je voudrais une boule à la vanille, une boule au chocolat et une boule à la fraise s'il vous plaît."

But the audio says:

" - Je voudrais une boule à la vanille, et(?) une boule au chocolat et une boule à la fraise s'il vous plaît." I'm not sure if that word is actually "et" as it almost sounds like "y a", as though somebody is saying "il y a" too fast.

This is in both the lesson and the end-of-lesson full text.

I would like to particularly congratulate the person who gave us this piece.  Not only was it enlightening for me, but it was also a perfect B2 listening exercise. Thank you.  Now to my question.  I understand the admonition about the use of present tense to relate a historical story.  How does the use of the future perfect in the first paragraph relate to this?  Were there other choices for this tense?

Après avoir dû oublier l’habitude anglaise d’utiliser des majuscules pour les nationalités - ce qui est parfois un vrai lutte ! - il semble pervers de les trouver soudainement nécessaires dans cet exercice ! Est-ce qu'il y a une règle pour utiliser les majuscules quand la nationalité fait partie d'un nom d'équipe ?