Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 16, Driving on the Freeways.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 16.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Today's topic is going to be driving on the freeway.
Let's get started.
Driving in a big city like L.A. can be very difficult.
It sometimes feels like I'm doing battle just to get to the grocery store.
What is it about getting behind the wheel that brings out people's aggressive side?
The most mild-mannered driver becomes crazy when they get on the road.
In L.A., people rely on the freeway to commute to their jobs or just to get around town.
I think driving on the freeway has its good and its bad.
On the one hand, there are no stoplights and the speed limit is over 55 miles per hour, so you can get somewhere quickly.
On the other hand, there are drawbacks, too.
People like to gun their engines and cut off other cars to get ahead.
If you're driving in the passing lane, for example, you'd better be driving very fast, since most people are speeding.
With all of these speeding cars, it's not unusual to see a pileup every day of the week.
As an alternate to the freeway, I sometimes take surface streets.
Of course, surface streets have their drawbacks, too.
If you have a long commute to work or school, it can take you a long time to get there.
There are a lot of stop signs, stoplights, and crosswalks.
And people sometimes tailgate if they think you're not going fast enough.
Now that I think about it, there's sometimes even more congestion on surface streets than on the freeways.
It's tough living in LA unless you never leave your house.
Our story begins when I say that driving in a big city like LA, Los Angeles, can be very difficult.
It sometimes feels like I'm doing battle.
It seems that I'm doing battle.
To do battle B-A-T-T-L-E usually means to fight physically, or perhaps psychologically with another person.
To do battle is a phrase we would associate with the army, with a war, for example.
But here it just means I'm battling against other drivers.
Not physically, of course.
I say that it sometimes feels like I'm doing battle just to get to the grocery store, the store where I buy my food.
What is it about getting behind the wheel that brings out people's aggressive side?
To get behind the wheel, W-H-E-E-L, means to drive a car or a truck.
You could say, if you're going to drink alcohol, don't get behind the wheel, meaning don't drive.
The wheel here refers to the steering S-T-E-E-R-I-N-G wheel, which is the round thing you turn to move the car left and right.
I asked the question what is it about getting behind the wheel that brings out people's aggressive side?
What is it about is...
A common way of saying, why does this happen?
We use it when we are not really sure what the answer to the question is.
We really don't know.
What is it about getting behind the wheel that brings out or that gets people to show their aggressive side?
To be aggressive, A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E, means usually to be very forceful, to be very strong in a way that almost seems like you're trying to start a fight.
To be aggressive is to move with force, with determination, with strength.
The aggressive side of people comes out when they are driving on the freeway.
The most mild-mannered driver, I say, becomes crazy when they get on the road.
A driver, D-R-I-V-E-R, is a person who drives a car.
To be mild-mannered means to be very calm, someone who's not likely to start a fight, someone who's very peaceful.
I say that the most mild-mannered driver becomes crazy when they get on the road, when they start driving.
So people who are normally calm when they get into the car and start to drive, they seem to go crazy.
In LA, people rely on or depend on the freeway to commute to their jobs or just to get around town.
To commute C-O-M-M-U-T-E means to travel from one place to another, usually between your home and where you work.
We use the word commute when talking about going to and from work.
Some people commute in their cars.
In some cities, people commute on a subway.
It depends on where you live.
In L.A., people use the freeway to commute.
I think driving on the freeway, I say, has its good and its bad.
Its good and its bad means its good side and its bad side.
There are positive things and there are negative things about driving on the freeway.
A freeway is a road that doesn't have any stop signs or stoplights, usually where cars are driving much faster than on the other roads that are in a city.
I start with the good things.
I say, on the one hand.
That phrase, on the one hand, is used when you are going to give two sides to some story.
You're going to talk about two different things which may contradict or be opposite of each other.
On the one hand, there are no stoplights.
Stoplights are red, green and yellow lights that tell you whether you can go and continue driving or you must stop.
There are no stoplights on the freeway, and the speed limit is over 55 miles per hour.
The speed limit is the maximum or highest speed that a car can drive on a certain road.
In most American cities, the speed limit on the freeway is either 55 or 65 miles an hour.
The speed limit on the streets in the city that are not freeways is usually much less, maybe 30, 35 miles per hour.
On the other hand, I say and now I'm going to give the negative things about freeways, There are drawbacks too.
A drawback.
D-R-A-W-B-A-C-K is a negative quality, a disadvantage of something, something that is not good, that you don't want.
The drawback of driving on the freeway, or at least one of them, is that people like to gun their engines.
To gun, G-U-N, your engine, E-N-G-I-N-E, means to suddenly start driving very fast.
Your engine is the same as your motor.
It's the piece of machinery that makes your car go, causes your car to move.
To gun your engine means to suddenly go very fast in your car.
Another disadvantage of driving on the freeway is that people cut you off.
I say people cut off other cars to get ahead.
To cut someone off is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to move your car right in front of another car usually, so the other car has to slow down and you have to let that person come in front of you.
I say that if you're driving in the passing lane, you'd better be driving very fast, because The passing lane, sometimes called the fast lane, is the lane usually that's farthest to the left.
A lane is just a part of the freeway.
Freeways in Los Angeles usually have two three, sometimes four or even five lanes where cars are driving next to each other.
If you want to pass someone, that is, to go in front of someone and be traveling in front of them, you should go to the first lane on the left, the lane that is farthest to the left.
That's the passing lane or the fast lane.
On L.A. freeways, most people are speeding.
To speed S-P-E-E-D as a verb means to drive very fast, to be driving faster than what you are supposed to be driving faster than the speed limit.
I say with all of these speeding cars...
It's not unusual, it's not uncommon, to see a pileup every day of the week.
A pileup P-I-L-E-U-P is a car accident involving more than two cars, often three four, perhaps even ten cars.
I say that as an alternate to the freeway, I sometimes take surface streets.
An alternate or an alternate route would be a different way of doing something, a different choice, a different option.
In this case, the different option instead of the freeway would be to take or to drive on surface streets.
Surface, S-U-R-F-A-C-E, streets, are roads that are not like a freeway.
Roads that have stop signs and places where you have to stop or that you have to drive more slowly.
I say that surface streets have their drawbacks too.
If you have a long commute to work or school, it can take you a long time to get there.
There are lots of stop signs, which are the red signs that have the word stop on them.
Stop lights. which we've explained already, and crosswalks.
A crosswalk C-R-O-S-S-W-A-L-K.
One word is a place for people who are walking to cross a street, to go from one side of the street to another.
And in most places, if there is someone in a crosswalk, you as the driver must stop.
People sometimes tailgate, I say, if they think you're not going fast enough.
To tailgate, T-A-I-L-G-A-T-E, means to drive right behind another car. too close for safety.
That is, you're driving so close that you could easily cause an accident.
People do this here in LA when they think someone is driving too slowly, in order to get them to either drive more quickly or to move to one side so that the car behind them can go ahead.
I say now that I think about it, now that I think about the situation more seriously there's sometimes even more congestion on surface streets than on the freeways.
Congestion.
C-O-N-G-E-S-T-I-O-N is when you have a large crowd of, in this case cars, a large group of cars.
That makes you have to slow down, that causes you not to be able to move very quickly.
Congestion on the freeway would be lots of cars having to drive slowly because there are too many cars on the freeway.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a normal speed.
Driving in a big city like L.A. can be very difficult.
It sometimes feels like I'm doing battle just to get to the grocery store.
What is it about getting behind the wheel that brings out people's aggressive side?
The most mild-mannered driver becomes crazy when they get on the road.
In L.A., people rely on the freeways to commute to their jobs or to just get around town.
I think driving on the freeway has its good and its bad.
On the one hand, there are no stoplights and the speed limit is over 55 mph, so you can get somewhere quickly.
On the other hand, there are drawbacks, too.
People like to gun their engines and cut off other cars to get ahead.
If you're driving in the passing lane, for example, you'd better be driving very fast, since most people are speeding.
With all of these speeding cars, it's not unusual to see a pileup every day of the week.
As an alternate to the freeway, I sometimes take surface streets.
Of course, surface streets have their drawbacks, too.
If you have a long commute to work or school, it can take you a long time to get there.
There are a lot of stop signs, stoplights, and crosswalks.
And people sometimes tailgate if they think you're not going fast enough.
Now that I think about it, there's sometimes even more congestion on surface streets than on the freeways.
It's tough living in L.A. unless you never leave your house.
We thank our mild-mannered script writer for this wonderful script.
I speak, of course, of Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
