Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 177, A Wild Driver.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 177.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Remember to visit our website at eslpodcom to get the learning guide for this podcast, which includes the entire transcript, additional activities, comprehension questions, culture notes and much more.
Today's podcast is called A Wild Driver.
Let's go.
Yasmine and I were going to a show at the Staples Center, and Yasmine was driving.
My friends warned me about her driving, but they didn't prepare me for this ride.
Whoa, slow down.
You almost rear-ended that SUV.
No, I didn't.
Take it easy.
I have everything under control.
I'm not even speeding that much.
You're the one who doesn't want to be late for the show.
Yeah, but I want to get there in one piece.
Hey, what are you doing?
I have to.
Why?
I was going the wrong way on a one-way street.
Oh, jeez.
I think you just took ten years off my life. don't be such a wuss.
Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
We're just getting started.
Today's podcast is called A Wild Driver.
A
W-I-L-D means that they are driving very dangerously.
They're a little crazy.
They're doing things with the car that they should not be doing.
That's a wild driver.
In the story, Yasmin and I are going to a show at the Staples Center.
A show, S-H-O-W, means some type of entertainment.
It could be a concert.
It could be...
Usually a concert, but it can also be, you can talk about a show as a movie.
I'm going to see the show tonight.
It could be a play.
It could be a musical.
Lots of different things could be called a show.
Well, in this case, the show is a concert at the Staples Center.
And the Staples Center is the name of the large auditorium, the large center here in Los Angeles, in downtown Los Angeles, where they have big rock concerts.
So it's a big stadium and they play basketball games in there and they have big conventions in the Staples Center.
So it's a big stadium.
It's a big auditorium.
It has a roof over it, however, so you can do things there in any kind of weather.
Well, the Staples Center is where Yasmin and I are going today.
Yasmin is driving the car and my friends warned me about her driving.
To warn W-A-R-N someone means to tell them about something that is possibly dangerous or something negative.
I'm going to warn you about walking at night by yourself in Los Angeles.
I'm telling you that that could be dangerous.
So that is to warn someone, to give them information about something that could be dangerous.
Well, even though my friends warned me, they didn't prepare me for this ride.
Ride, R-I-D-E, means in this case, this trip. going from one place to another in a car.
You can say, I'm going to take a ride.
I'm going to get in my car and drive somewhere.
A ride then means a trip.
Well, the dialogue begins by Pedro saying, whoa, slow down.
That expression, whoa, W-H-O-A, is one that we use in a couple of different ways.
You can say whoa to someone when you think they are moving too fast, they're running too fast or maybe they're even talking too fast.
It would only be something you would say to someone who is a friend.
It's an informal expression.
You wouldn't say that to your boss.
Say, whoa.
No, you wouldn't do that.
The expression is in part from a horse.
When you're riding a horse and you want the horse to stop or to slow down, you often hear people say whoa.
So, whoa means to slow down.
Sometimes it can just be an expression of surprise or of shock.
I went outside and, whoa, it was raining.
I wasn't expecting it.
It was very surprising to me.
So, whoa can be slow down or it can just be an expression of surprise.
Well, here it definitely means slow down.
Don't drive so fast.
I say to Yasmin that you almost rear-ended that SUV.
To rear-end R-E-A-R.
Hyphen E-N-D is a verb which means to hit the back of another car with your car.
To hit the back of another car with your car.
The front of your car hits the back of their car.
That is to rear-end someone.
Rear, R-E-A-R, you probably know, means the back of something, the back of a car.
It could also mean the same as, informally, it could mean the same as what you sit on.
Your butt, B-U-T-T, can be called your rear or your rear end.
But here, as a verb, it means for a car to hit another car.
Now, the car that she almost rear-ended was an SUV.
SUV stands for Sports Utility Vehicle.
And a vehicle is just any name for a car or a truck.
A sports utility vehicle is a car, a big car, that you could use to drive places where there aren't roads, where there aren't any good roads.
For example, if you were going hunting or camping or you wanted to walk in the mountains, but there weren't any roads.
Well, a sports utility vehicle is supposed to be a big car that helps you drive in places where they don't have very good roads.
Sports utility vehicles are big cars and they've become very popular in the last five years or so here in the United States.
Most people do not use them, however, to go to a place where there aren't any roads.
They just use them as their regular car.
They're big.
They cause a lot of damage for some drivers because they're more difficult to control and they use a lot of gasoline, so they're not very good for the environment.
But they're still very popular, just not with me.
Yasmin says that she didn't almost rear-end.
She says, no, I didn't.
Take it easy.
The expression take it easy, E-A-S-Y, means to relax.
It's an expression that you would only say to a friend of yours.
Because when you say take it easy, you're saying the other person is either excited or angry or getting too upset about something.
You would not want to say to your boss, take it easy.
So take it easy means to relax, to calm down.
Sometimes it can also mean to slow down.
If someone is driving very fast, you may say, take it easy.
Don't go so fast.
So to relax, to calm down, those are all meanings of to take it easy.
Yasmin says, I have everything under control.
To have something under control means that you have taken care of everything, that you know what you are doing and that you are not being unsafe.
You're not being dangerous.
I have everything under control.
You can also use that expression when you are planning a big event, a party.
And you say, I have everything under control.
It means I have all of the little details, all the little parts of the plan.
I've taken care of them.
I know what I'm doing.
Yasmin says, I'm not even speeding that much.
To speed, as a verb, S-P-E-E-D, means to go very fast in your car.
To go faster than what you can legally go.
In the United States, the speed limit...
The fastest you can go in your car on a highway or freeway is usually 65 miles an hour.
In some states it's different.
Every state has its own rules about how fast you can drive in the United States.
There isn't one national speed limit.
And to speed means to go faster than what you can legally do.
Of course, in the city, on regular streets, the speed limit is much lower, usually 30 35 miles per hour.
So Yasmin says she wasn't even speeding that much.
That expression, that much, means not very much.
And of course, that means that she was speeding a little bit.
She was going a little too fast.
Yasmin then says, you're the one who doesn't want to be late for the show.
You're the one who that expression is used when you are having an argument, a discussion with someone and you say something to them that you think they're responsible for the problem.
And they say back to you, they respond to you, that you're the one who is the problem.
You're the one who wants to do something.
Let me see if I can give you an example of that.
You say to your friend that...
You want to see the baseball game tonight.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing baseball, and you want to go to the game.
And your friend says okay well, let me call my friend and see if he can get me some tickets to the game.
And you say, no, no, no, don't call your friend.
I don't want you to do that.
And your friend would say well, you're the one who wants to go to the baseball game, meaning it was your idea.
You're the one who wanted to do it.
So that is the expression that Yasmin is using here.
You're the one who doesn't want to be late for the show.
And that's why she's driving so fast, so that they're not late for the show.
And you said, Pedro, that you didn't want to be late for the show.
So that is what Yasmin is arguing with Pedro here.
Pedro replies, he responds by saying, yeah, but I want to get there in one piece.
In one piece, P-I-E-C-E, piece.
In one piece means that you don't want to get in an accident.
You don't want to get injured.
It's an expression we use when someone is being unsafe, someone is doing something dangerous, especially driving too fast.
You say, I want to get there in one piece.
It means I don't want my body to be in several different pieces.
A piece is a part of something.
So in one piece would be you want your whole body to be there.
You don't want to get into an accident.
Pedro then says, hey, what are you doing?
You're not going to make an illegal U-turn across four lanes of traffic, are you?
A U-turn, which is spelled with the letter U-T-U-R-N, is when you turn your car in the opposite direction.
So if you're going north and now you want to go south, you can make a U-turn.
And of course, it looks like the letter U when you turn your car around, and that's why it's called a U-turn.
A lane L-A-N-E of traffic is on a road, especially on a freeway.
You have different places for cars to drive.
Usually you have four lanes or three lanes, so that you have cars driving right next to each other going in the same direction.
So that is what's called a lane of traffic or a lane on the freeway.
Freeways usually have here in California three four, sometimes six or seven lanes on the streets.
In the city most streets have just two lanes, one going in each direction.
So Pedro is asking Yasmin if she's going to make a U-turn across four lanes of traffic.
It means that she is in the far right lane And she's going to make a U-turn cutting across these four different lanes.
Well, Yasmin says, I have to make a U-turn.
And Pedro asks why.
And she says, well, I was going the wrong way on a one-way street.
A one-way, O-N-E hyphen W-A-Y, street is... is a street where the cars can only go in one direction.
And to go the wrong way.
On a one-way street means that everyone else is going north and you are going south, or everyone is going east and you try to go west.
Well, of course, you'll cause an accident that way because all the cars are going against you.
So that would be a going the wrong way on a one-way street.
Pedro then says, oh, geez, oh, geez.
Geez, G-E-E-Z is an expression of could be an expression of surprise, usually an expression of disappointment when you're upset with something.
Pedro says, oh, geez.
To take time off someone's life is kind of a joking expression.
It means you've scared me.
You've scared me a lot.
You've scared me so much that I feel that my life is now shorter.
So to take years off your life is when you are very afraid.
Something happens that makes you very scared.
Yasmin says back to Pedro, don't be such a wuss.
A wuss.
W-U-S-S is definitely an informal expression that you would only want to use with a good friend of yours.
A wuss is somebody who is weak, someone who is perhaps even a coward sometimes.
A coward, C-O-W-A-R-D.
Someone who doesn't have any courage is a coward.
So a wuss is a coward.
A wuss is someone who is weak.
It's really an insulting term, especially one that you would say to a man.
But here, of course, they're good friends, so she's kind of joking with him.
Don't be such a wuss.
She says buckle up and enjoy the ride.
To buckle, B-U-C-K-L-E, up, means to put on your seatbelt in your car.
A buckle, you may know, is what you use to keep your belt around your pants on.
In the front you have a buckle that connects the two parts of the belt together, so it makes a circle.
Well, to buckle up means to take the seatbelt and put it into what we would call the buckle, and that keeps the seatbelt on your body so that it can protect you.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
Yasmine and I were going to a show at the Staples Center, and Yasmine was driving.
My friends warned me about her driving, but they didn't prepare me for this ride.
Whoa, slow down.
You almost rear-ended that SUV.
No, I didn't.
Take it easy.
I have everything under control.
I'm not even speeding that much.
You're the one who doesn't want to be late for the show.
Yeah, but I want to get there in one piece.
Hey, what are you doing?
You're not going to make an illegal U-turn across four lanes of traffic, are you?
I have to.
Why?
I was going the wrong way on a one-way street.
Oh, jeez.
I think you just took ten years off my life.
Don't be such a wuss.
Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
We're just getting started.
The script for today's podcast was written by our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
If you have a question or a suggestion for ESL Podcast, you can email us.
Our email address is eslpod.com.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time. 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.
