Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 371, A Scandal.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 371.
Transcription by CastingWords.
You can also take a look at our ESL podcast store, which has additional courses in business and daily English.
We think you'll enjoy.
This episode is a dialogue between Caridad and Nate.
It's called A Scandal.
A scandal is when someone does something wrong and everyone is very angry, very upset about it.
Usually it's something that happens to a very public person, like a president or a governor.
This is a scandal about the president of a university.
Let's listen.
Look at this.
The president of McQuillan University is stepping down.
He submitted his resignation this morning after an undergraduate student made allegations that they had an affair and that she's pregnant with his baby.
That's terrible.
Maybe they were in love.
He's married and has four kids.
And when she first went public about the affair, he denied it and said that she had made up the whole story.
Would someone in love try to cover up something like this?
Who knows?
The president of a major university is a person with a lot to lose.
I'm not making excuses for him, but maybe he lost his head.
Of course he had a lot to lose.
Anyone who is in the public eye like he is shouldn't be playing with fire.
He's an embarrassment to his family and to his university.
I still think there could be extenuating circumstances.
All you know you've learned from one newspaper article.
That much is true, but I know one thing.
Whatever happens to him, it serves him right.
Our dialogue begins when Caridad, or Caridad in Spanish, says to Nate, look at this.
The president of McQuillan University is stepping down.
To step down is a phrasal verb meaning to quit something, usually a very important job, to resign from an important position.
The president is stepping down.
He's leaving.
He's resigning.
He submitted his resignation this morning after an undergraduate student made allegations.
Your resignation is your formal letter saying that you are leaving a particular job.
The word resignation has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations of that.
Well, the reason that the president is stepping down is that an undergraduate student?
Well, this is getting interesting.
Who is studying to get a bachelor's degree at the university.
An allegation is a statement that someone else has done something wrong or illegal.
It might be true.
It might not be true.
We don't know.
The woman here is making an allegation that she and the president had an affair.
A short secret, usually sexual relationship, often between one person who is married and another person who might be married, might not.
The affair resulted in a pregnancy.
The woman is pregnant.
To be pregnant is when a woman has a child that is beginning to develop inside of her, to grow inside of her.
We sometimes say the woman is carrying a baby.
She's pregnant.
She's going to have a baby.
Nate says that's terrible.
Maybe they were in love.
Maybe the president and this young student were in love.
Ah, love.
Karidad says, in love?
He's married and has four kids.
She's not very happy with Nate's explanation.
She says, he's married and has four children.
And when the student first went public about their affair, he denied it.
To go public means to tell something that would normally be very private or secret to many other people.
This is what has happened.
The woman has told everyone else.
He denied the affair.
To deny means to say it wasn't true, that didn't happen.
He also said that the woman made up the whole story.
To make something up means to create or invent a story that isn't true.
In this case, it would be to tell a lie to say this is something that happened that didn't actually happen.
That's to make up something.
If someone says to you, oh, you just made that up, they mean you invented that.
That's not actually true.
That's false.
Not a nice thing to say, unless, of course, it's true.
Karidad says, would someone in love try to cover up something like this?
To cover up is another phrasal verb meaning to hide the truth to prevent others from trying to find out the truth.
This happens often with government officials when they do something wrong.
And what they did wrong may not be illegal.
But because they're embarrassed and they don't want other people to know, they try to cover it up.
They try to prevent other people from learning about it.
And this is often what gets them into real trouble, because they lie to the police or they lie to some other person and it's the lie that gets them in trouble.
It's the lie that is often illegal or against the law.
So if you do something wrong, don't try to cover it up.
I never do.
If I did, my wife would discover the truth anyway.
Caridad is saying that the president and this student are not in love because if they were, he would not try to cover it up.
Nate says, who knows?
He's not sure.
The president of a major or important university is a person with a lot to lose.
If you say someone has a lot to lose, you mean they have many things that they could lose if something bad happens.
Their job, for example.
He goes on to say, I'm not making excuses for him, but maybe he lost his head.
To lose your head means not to have very good judgment, not to make a good decision because of some emotion such as love or anger.
You do something that you would not normally do.
This is to lose your head.
Women have this effect on many men.
Caridad says, of course he has a lot to lose.
Anyone who is in the public eye like he is shouldn't be playing with fire.
To be in the public eye means that everyone is watching you, that you are a popular or famous person.
I am not in the public eye, except, of course, on ESL podcast when I'm in the public ear, I guess.
We don't say that.
We only use the expression public eye.
We would never say the public ear.
I just made that up.
Karidad says that he should not be playing with fire.
To play with fire means to be involved in a dangerous situation, to do something that could hurt you, just like playing with fire could burn you, could hurt you.
The president, Karidad says, is an embarrassment to his family and to his university.
Embarrassment means to feel shame to, to feel uncomfortable because of something negative that you have done or someone else has done to you.
The president is an embarrassment to his family, meaning his family is embarrassed by him.
They feel shame because of him.
Nate says, I still think...
There could be extenuating circumstances.
I still think, meaning I don't agree with you.
I think it is still possible that there could be extenuating circumstances.
The circumstance is the situation.
Extenuating means.
There are reasons, excuses that could explain it.
That would make the person less guilty, less liable for doing something wrong.
So extenuating circumstances are reasons why someone has done something wrong that make it seem less serious.
Nate says, all you know, you've learned from one newspaper article.
Caridad says, that much is true, but I know one thing.
Whatever happens to the president of McQuillan University, it serves him right.
The expression to serve someone right means the person deserves the punishment.
It's a phrase we use when you think another person should be punished, something bad should happen to them because of what they did.
Of course there's no such thing as McQuillan University and there's no president of McQuillan University.
Just wanted to remind you of that.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look at this.
The president of McQuillan University is stepping down.
He submitted his resignation this morning after an undergraduate student made allegations that they had an affair and that she's pregnant with his baby.
That's terrible.
Maybe they were in love.
In love?
He's married and has four kids.
And when she first went public about their affair, he denied it and said that she had made up the whole story.
Would someone in love try to cover up something like this?
Who knows?
The president of a major university is a person with a lot to lose.
I'm not making excuses for him, but maybe he lost his head.
Of course he had a lot to lose.
Anyone who is in the public eye like he is shouldn't be playing with fire.
He's an embarrassment to his family and to his university.
I still think there could be extenuating circumstances.
All you know you've learned from one newspaper article.
That much is true, but I know one thing.
Whatever happens to him, it serves him right.
The script for this episode was written by someone who is never an embarrassment, Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2008.
