Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,289.
Problems with drinking water.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,289.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
This episode is a dialogue between Yulia and Jack about...
Drinking water and the water you shouldn't drink.
Let's get started.
Wait, don't drink that.
Why not?
I'm really thirsty.
That's a standing pool of water.
There could be all kinds of microorganisms living in there.
Fine, but somebody should have brought more water for this long walk.
I know it's my fault.
Hey, there's a cabin.
Maybe there's somebody there who can give us some water.
Do you see a well?
No, no well.
And I don't see an outdoor faucet either.
In fact...
I don't see any signs of life inside.
But hey, the door is unlocked.
Are you sure we should just walk in?
I'm not dying of thirst just because you're afraid to go in.
Oh, no.
Nothing comes out of the tap.
Let's see if there are any water tanks or rain barrels out back.
I'm not drinking rain water or runoff from the roof.
Suit yourself, but here's a tub of water.
Wait, you don't know if that's potable.
It could be untreated water with sewage or worse.
You can wait for some nice filtered water, but I'm not picky.
I just need to quench my thirst.
You should at least boil it first.
Oh my God, I just saw something swimming in it.
I'm sure it's willing to share.
Julia says to Jack, Wait, don't drink that.
Jack says, why not?
I'm really thirsty.
To be thirsty T-H-I-R-S-T-Y means to really want to drink something such as water or some other beverage, something else that one normally drinks.
Yulia says, that's a standing pool of water.
A standing pool.
P-O-O-L of water is a small pool area or a small body.
We would call it of water that is not moving.
Usually we're talking about something that is only perhaps three or at most four feet around, that doesn't have a lot of water in it.
It could be larger than that, I suppose.
Another word we might use here for a very small amount of water that you see on the an area and you see water on the ground where there's a small depression or hole in the ground.
We would call that a puddle.
Because there isn't any water moving in or out of it.
We might refer to it as a standing pool of water.
Yulia says there could be all kinds of microorganisms living in there.
A microorganism.
M-I-C-R-O-O-R-G-A-N-I-S-M is a very small form of life that cannot be seen by your eyes, unless you use what's called a microscope, a special device that allows you to see things that are very, very small.
Jack says fine, meaning okay, but somebody should have brought more water for this long walk.
We now understand what's going on here.
Jack and Julia have gone for some sort of walk, probably away from the city, and they don't have enough water.
Jack is thirsty and is looking for something to drink.
Julia says, I know it's my fault.
Meaning, I am the one who is responsible for not bringing enough water.
Then she says, hey, there's a cabin.
C-A-B-I-N.
A cabin is a small house that you would find out away from the city, perhaps next to a lake or up in the mountains or out where there isn't anyone else around.
A cabin is often a place where people go on vacation nowadays to get away from the city.
Maybe there's somebody there who can give us some water, Yulia says.
Do you see a well?
A well, W-E-L-L, is a very deep hole in the ground that is created in order to find water.
The word well, of course, is also an adverb in English, but as a noun it refers to a deep hole from which you get water.
Jack says no, no well, meaning no, there is not a well here.
He continues, I don't see an outdoor faucet either.
Outdoor, O-U-T-D-O-O-R, means outside of a house or a building.
The opposite of outdoor is, of course, indoor, I-N-D-O-O-R.
A faucet, F-A-U-C-E-T, Is the metal device that you get water from usually in a sink?
In fact, Jack says I don't see any signs of life inside, meaning he doesn't think there is anyone inside of the cabin.
But hey, the door is unlocked.
Unlocked. meaning whoever owns this cabin has not locked the door.
Yulia says, are you sure we should just walk in?
Are you sure we should go into this cabin?
Because, after all, it isn't their cabin.
Jack responds, I'm not dying of thirst just because you're afraid to go in.
He means I'm not going to die here in the middle of nowhere just because the owner of the cabin isn't there.
He's going to go in, even though it doesn't belong to him, to see if he can find some water.
Then he says, oh no, nothing comes out of the tap, T-A-P.
The tap is another word for the faucet.
It's where you get water from in a sink.
Normally you can turn a tap on, and when you do, the water comes out of the tap.
But when Jack turns the tap on, nothing comes out, meaning there is no water there.
Then he says, let's see if there are any water tanks or rain barrels out back.
A water tank, T-A-N-K, is a large container that is used to put water in.
Sometimes if you live away from the city you may have your water in a big tank.
My parents used to have a small cabin up in the northern part of Minnesota near a lake and we had a water tank where the water was kept so that we could have water to drink and cook and so forth.
A rain barrel, B-A-R-R-E-L, is a large container that collects the water from a rainfall.
If you live away from the city and you need water, you might have a rain barrel that collects rain as it comes down.
It stores the water in the barrel so you can use it later, often to do things such as give water to plants and so forth.
Yulia says, Jack proposes they look for a rain barrel or a water tank in the back of the cabin.
But Yulia says, no, I'm not going to drink rainwater.
That is, the water that comes from the sky as rain.
She is also not going to drink any runoff.
R-U-N-O-F-F.
Runoff is water that usually has gone over some surface such as the roof of a house.
If you have rain on your house, The water probably goes somewhere.
It doesn't stay on the top of your house.
Well, we would call that water runoff, because it has come from some other surface or gone over some other surface.
It has drained, we would say, away from your roof.
You could also have runoff from a street or a road.
Runoff is usually water coming from a rainstorm, but not always.
It could be from some other machine or source of liquid.
Jack says, suit yourself, but here's a tub of water.
Suit, S-U-I-T, yourself, means that's fine, you can make your own decisions for you.
But I'm going to do something different.
He says here's a tub, T-U-B, of water.
A tub is normally something we use to bathe in.
You can get yourself clean with soap and water in a bathtub.
The word tub can refer to any large container used for either bathing, that is, getting your body clean, or washing, such as washing your clothes.
Julia says wait, you don't know if that's meaning the water in the tub, if that's potable P-O-T-A-B-L-E.
Potable means something you can drink, something that is safe to drink.
Not all water, of course, is safe to drink for humans.
Yulia says that that water could be untreated water with sewage or worse.
Untreated means that it isn't clean.
It hasn't been prepared for humans to drink.
Sewage, S-E-W-A-G-E, is what we call wastewater.
It's any sort of water or liquid that has something dirty in it, including things that come out of your body, if you know what I mean.
Jack says, you can wait for some nice filtered water, but I'm not picky.
Filtered, F-I-L-T-E-R-E-D, water, is water that has been cleaned.
We would say it is water that has been purified.
You've gotten rid of all the bad things that might make you sick in the water.
Jack says he's not picky.
P-I-C-K-Y.
To be picky means to be very selective about what you eat or drink or what you will accept.
Oh, I don't want any of that.
I don't want any of that.
I don't want any of that.
I only want this.
That's being picky when you only want certain things or are only happy with certain things.
Jack says, I just need to quench my thirst.
To quench, Q-U-E-N-C-H, your thirst, T-H-I-R-S-T, says, means to drink something so that you are no longer thirsty.
You no longer have a strong desire to drink.
Yulia says you should at least boil it first.
Yulia is telling Jack he should boil, B-O-I-L, the water.
To boil water or any other liquid means to bring it to a temperature that causes little bubbles, little bits of air to come out of the liquid, to bring it, that is, to what we would call a gaseous state.
In Fahrenheit, 212 degrees is the temperature at which water will boil, although that depends exactly on how high up in the air you are.
Here in Los Angeles, we're basically at sea level, so 212 degrees Fahrenheit is about right.
That would be 100 degrees Celsius for the rest of the world.
Yulia thinks that Jack should boil the water.
Then she says That is.
She saw some little animal, perhaps a little fish even, swimming in the water.
Jack isn't concerned.
He says I'm sure it's willing to share meaning.
I'm sure this little animal will let me have some water as well.
He's obviously not concerned about getting sick from what appears to be unclean water.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wait!
Don't drink that.
Why not?
I'm really thirsty.
That's a standing pool of water.
There could be all kinds of microorganisms living in there.
Fine, but somebody should have brought more water for this long walk.
I know.
It's my fault.
Hey, there's a cabin.
Maybe there's somebody there who can give us some water.
Do you see a well?
No, no well, and I don't see an outdoor faucet either.
In fact, I don't see any signs of life inside.
But hey, the door is unlocked.
Are you sure we should just walk in?
I'm not dying of thirst just because you're afraid to go in.
Oh no, nothing comes out of the tap.
Let's see if there are any water tanks or rain barrels out back.
I'm not drinking rainwater or runoff from the roof.
Suit yourself, but here's a tub of water.
Wait, you don't know if that's potable.
It could be untreated water with sewage or worse.
You can wait for some nice filtered water, but I'm not picky.
I just need to quench my thirst.
You should at least boil it first.
Oh my God, I just saw something swimming in it.
I'm sure it's willing to share.
If you have a thirst for English, you can quench it by listening to the dialogues written by our scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
