Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 201, Making a Bet.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 201.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com for the complete learning guide to this podcast.
Today's podcast is called Making a Bet.
Let's get started.
Hey, the back of the line is over there.
I was here.
I just stepped out of line for a minute to get some cash.
Yeah, right.
I don't remember you being in line ahead of me.
Come on.
Let's do this.
We'll flip for it.
If it's heads, I win and I get to get back into line.
If it's tails, you win and I'll go to the back of the line.
All right, I'll take those odds.
You're on.
Here goes.
Oh, it's heads.
I win.
I guess it's your lucky day.
I guess so.
How about going double or nothing?
What are the stakes?
If it's tails and you win...
I go to the back of the line and I have to buy you a drink when we get inside.
If it's heads and I win, I get back in line, in front of you, and you buy me a drink.
So, no matter what happens, I have to have a drink with you.
That's the idea.
What do you say?
Okay, you talked me into it.
Let's see if your luck will hold up.
I've got a good feeling it will.
Making a Bet.
To make a bet B-E-T means that you are saying to someone that you have a certain prediction about what will happen in the future.
And if what you think, your prediction, happens, then you win the bet.
And if what you predict doesn't happen, you lose the bet.
Usually a bet is with money.
You say to someone, I'll bet you $10 that it rains tomorrow.
You are saying that if it rains tomorrow, the other person has to give you $10.
And if it doesn't rain, you have to give him $10.
In the dialogue we have two people, Susanna and Ivan, who are waiting outside of what is probably a popular bar or pub or dance club.
And Susanna says to Ivan, Hey, the back of the line is over there.
What happened is that Ivan was coming into the line and where they were waiting to get in to the club or bar.
To go to the back of the line means to go to the end of the line.
So if someone says the back of the line is over there, they're saying you have to go to the end of the line.
You cannot come here. close to the front of the line where Susanna is standing.
Ivan says, I was here.
I just stepped out of line for a minute to get some cash.
Ivan is saying that he was standing in line and to stand, S-T-A-N-D, in line means to wait in line.
He was standing in line and then he stepped out of line.
To step, S-T-E-P, out of line means to leave the line, to go somewhere away from the line.
The line, of course, are the people, the line of people who are waiting to get in.
Susanna says that, yeah, right, when Ivan tells her that he had just stepped out of line.
The expression yeah right, with that intonation, with that pronunciation, means that she does not believe him.
It's an informal way of saying, I don't believe you.
I don't think that's true.
Yeah, right, Susanna says.
I don't remember you being in line ahead of me.
To be ahead of someone, A-H-E-A-D, one word, means to be in front of them.
So to be ahead of a person in a line means that you are closer to the front of the line than they are.
Ivan says, come on, let's do this.
Come on means ahead.
He suggests to Susanna that they make a bet.
He says, To flip F-L-I-P for something means to flip a coin.
And you take a coin such as a quarter or a dime or a nickel, which are American coins made out of metal, and you put it on your hand and with your thumb you throw the coin up in the air and it goes around and around and around and then it comes down.
Well, when he says to flip for it, it means let's flip a coin to decide.
If it's heads, he says, I win and I get back into line.
If it's tails, you win and I'll go to the back of the line.
A coin has two sides.
One side, which has the picture usually of a president or famous person.
In England, it would be a picture of the queen.
That's the heads because it shows the head of a person.
The other side is called the tail of the coin.
Or we usually use the plural tails.
So when someone says if it's heads, meaning if the side that has the head on it is the side that lands up, then you win.
If it's tails, if the back of the coin is the one that you can see when it stops and you catch it with your hand, then that means in this story that Susanna wins.
So heads I win, tails you win.
Well, Susanna says, all right.
She agrees to this.
She says, I'll take those odds.
You're on.
To take those odds, O-D-D-S, means that I accept what you are saying.
The odds are the chances that you can win something.
For example, if you are flipping a coin, the odds are 50-50.
50% chance that you will get heads or 50% chance you will get tails.
So she's saying I will take those odds means I will accept your bet.
Another way of saying I accept is to say you're on.
Your, Y-O-U apostrophe R-E, which is short for you are, you are on, you're on, means I agree.
Well, Ivan flips the coin and its heads, which means that he wins.
Notice that the expression is its heads.
That means that the head side of the coin was the one that was on top.
Susanna says, I guess it's your lucky day.
Your lucky day.
To be lucky L-U-C-K-Y means to have good fortune, to have things that go your way.
We might say that are good things that are happening to you.
So it's his lucky day.
Ivan says, I guess so.
How about going double or nothing?
Double or nothing is an expression we use in betting when someone loses a bet or wins a bet.
And the person says, well, let's now bet twice the amount, two times the amount of the first bet.
So let's say you are betting someone $5 and you win the bet twice.
If he says I'll bet you double or nothing, or let's go double or nothing, that means that you flip the coin again.
In this case,
And if you win, he owes you $10.
And if he wins, you owe him nothing.
Susanna says, what are the stakes?
The stakes S-T-A-K-E-S plural are the things that you will win the money or the whatever it is that you will win if you win, or what you have to give the other person if you lose.
Usually the stakes are money.
We have an expression, high stakes.
When we say the stakes are high, we mean that they are very expensive or there is a lot that you have to give if you lose.
The opposite would be low stakes.
Ivan tells Susanna that the stakes are that if it's tails and Susanna wins, he has to go to the back of the line and and he has to buy her a drink when they get inside.
Notice there are two things he has to do.
In the original bet, he was just going to go to the back of the line.
But since it's double or nothing, he has to do something more.
What he'll have to do is go to the back of the line and buy her a drink.
If it's heads and Ivan wins...
He gets to go back into line in front of Susanna, and Susanna has to buy him a drink.
Susanna says, so no matter what happens, I have to have a drink with you.
The expression, no matter, M-A-T-T-E-R, what happens, means in both circumstances, in both situations, or in any situation.
It doesn't matter if she wins or loses.
There's no difference.
She still has to have a drink with Ivan.
Of course, Ivan is hitting on Susanna.
To hit H-I-T on someone means that you are romantically interested in them and you try to get to know them and you try to perhaps get their telephone number or get them to go and have a drink or have coffee with you.
This is something that you would do, of course, only if you were single.
If you're married, you shouldn't be hitting on anyone, I don't think.
Ivan then says, that's the idea.
So he answers Susanna's question about having to have a drink with her by saying yes, that's my intention.
That is what I want to do.
That's the idea.
That's what I was planning.
He then says to Susanna, what do you say?
Meaning, do you agree to this bet?
Do you agree to having a drink with me?
And here, of course, is the most important part of the dialogue, when Susanna says no, you're a loser.
Get away from me.
No, actually, Susanna doesn't say that.
A loser.
L-O-S-E-R is a slang term meaning someone who is not very attractive or someone who does things wrong all the time, someone who's not a person that you would want to date or be in a romantic relationship.
But our story has a happy ending.
Because Susanna says, you talked me into it.
To talk someone into something means that you convince them.
You get them to agree with you.
And Susanna says that you, Ivan, have talked me into it.
You have convinced me.
Then she says, let's see if your luck will hold up.
The expression to have your luck hold, H-O-L-D, up, two words, means that it will continue.
To hold up here means to continue.
So she's saying, let's see if you continue to be lucky since you bet the first time and you won.
And Ivan says very confidently, as you would expect, I've got a good feeling it will.
Means I think that my luck will continue.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
Hey, the back of the line is over there.
I was here.
I just stepped out of line for a minute to get some cash.
Yeah, right.
I don't remember you being in line ahead of me.
Come on.
Let's do this.
We'll flip for it.
If it's heads, I win, and I get to get back into line.
If it's tails, you win, and I'll go to the back of the line.
All right.
I'll take those odds.
You're on.
Here goes.
Oh, it's heads.
I win.
I guess it's your lucky day.
I guess so.
How about going double or nothing?
What are the stakes?
If it's tails and you win, I go to the back of the line and I have to buy you a drink when we get inside.
If it's heads and I win, I get back in line in front of you and you buy me a drink.
So, no matter what happens, I have to have a drink with you.
That's the idea.
What do you say?
Okay, you talk me into it.
Let's see if your luck will hold up.
I've got a good feeling it will.
The script for today's podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Say, our lucky script writer.
Remember, you can email us at eslpod.com if you have questions or comments about this podcast.
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.
