Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 381, Watching the TV News.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 381.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
You can go there to download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
The learning guide has all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, comprehension checks, culture notes and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is called Watching the TV News.
We're going to listen to two people on the television giving us the news.
It will give us a chance to talk about some of the special vocabulary you may hear when listening or watching the news.
Let's get started.
Good evening.
I'm Gary Singh, and this is the evening news.
Tonight we'll have a special report from our field reporter, Monique Sanders, on the latest developments in the Eddie Litton court case.
And in our feature segment we'll go to Arizona to interview the world's fattest dog, weighing 210 pounds.
We'll also have this week's weather and the latest on sports.
But first, our top story. reporting live from downtown Los Angeles, is Tanisha Gray.
Tanisha?
Thanks, Gary.
About three hours ago, the police cordoned off a half-mile area around City Hall after the suspect ran into one of the City Hall offices and took two women as hostages.
After a nearly two-hour standoff, the suspect surrendered.
Neither of the two women was hurt, and the suspect is now in police custody.
Back to you, Gary, in the studio.
Thanks for that report, Tanisha.
We'll have more for you as this story develops.
The first person who speaks is the anchor of the television news show.
An anchor is a person who gives the news on television, the person who usually is sitting behind a desk and reads the news to the people watching.
We call that a news anchor.
Anchor has a couple of different meanings in English.
To find out more, take a look at our learning guide for today's episode.
The anchor begins by saying, I've always wanted to be a news anchor myself.
The anchor says, we'll have a special report from our field reporter.
A special report is a term you often hear on TV news or radio news.
It usually means a detailed or more detailed explanation of some situation.
This is going to be a special report from the field reporter, Monique Sanders.
A field reporter is a person, a television reporter, who travels to different locations to prepare news stories.
So when you watch the news, you'll see, for example, a reporter standing outside of a government building.
That's a field reporter.
They're not back at the television studio where the anchor is.
They're out, we would say, in the field, in different locations in the city.
The field reporter is going to report on the latest developments.
Again, this is a common expression in the news.
It means the most recent information about a news story, the newest information.
This is going to be a special report about the Eddie Litton court case.
We're not sure what that is.
And in our feature segment, the anchor continues.
We'll go to Arizona to interview the world's fattest dog, weighing 210 pounds.
A feature segment is a news story usually that looks at one person, one group, or one issue.
It's not necessarily the most current or recent news.
It's about something or someone that is very interesting that people would be interested in.
The feature segment here is about the world's fattest dog.
It's very common in local TV newscasts, for example, new shows just for Los Angeles or just for New York, to have at the end of their show, which is usually a half hour long in the evenings, some sort of feature segment, some sort of less serious story.
And certainly the world's fattest dog is not a very serious story.
Notice that the anchor says they're going to interview the dog, which of course would be a little unusual.
He also says, we'll also have this week's weather and the latest on sports, the latest information.
He then says, but first, our top story.
Your top story is the first story of the news program.
It's the most important story.
Our top story tonight.
A man suspected of murdering his business partner led the police on a high-speed chase through downtown this afternoon.
So there is a man who the police believe murdered or killed his business associate, the person he works with.
This person led the police on a high-speed chase.
When we say he led the police, we mean the police were following him, the police were chasing him.
He was trying to escape, to get away from the police, so he got in a car and started driving very fast.
A chase is when one person or one animal tries to catch another one who is trying to run away.
So the police are on a chase.
It's a high-speed chase because the person they are chasing is going very fast in their car.
Many times the news media will have their own helicopters and they will follow these high-speed chases and they will be on the news.
This is very common in Los Angeles, probably because we have a lot of freeways here.
You see high-speed chases all the time, at least once a month on the news.
The police always catch the person, or almost always catch the person, because there are helicopters and many different police officers that are trying to catch them.
So this is something that we're used to in Los Angeles, seen on our local news.
It's not that common in other parts of the country.
The anchor then says, reporting live from downtown Los Angeles is Tanisha Gray.
Reporting live means the reporter is going to give the news at the same time as we are watching her or him.
It's not a taped segment.
It's not something they recorded two hours ago and now are going to show you.
It's something that's happening right now.
That's what we mean on television when we say it's live.
It's something that you can see going on right now.
Tanisha says, The police cordoned off a half-mile area around City Hall.
To cordon C-O-R-D-O-N off.
Something is a two-word verb meaning to prevent people from entering a specific area.
Usually this is something the police do if there has been a crime.
They don't want anyone going near the where the crime took place, what we would call the crime scene.
This is an area the police have cordoned off because the suspect, the person they think committed a crime, ran into one of the city hall offices and took two women as hostages.
City Hall is the name we give for the government buildings for the city, the main government buildings.
City Hall here in Los Angeles is very famous because it has appeared on many different television shows, especially police shows.
The suspect ran into one of the City Hall offices and took two women as hostages.
Hostage is a person who is held by someone else against their will.
Usually the person is asking for something.
You take a hostage and you ask for money, for example.
Or perhaps there's some political purpose for you taking a hostage.
You may also hear the expression to hold someone hostage.
It's the same idea.
Tanisha says, after a nearly two-hour standoff, the suspect surrendered.
A standoff occurs when two sides are unwilling to change, unwilling to compromise.
A standoff is when you have some negotiation, but neither side wants to change their position.
That's what happened for two hours, and finally the suspect surrendered, meaning he gave up.
He said, okay, you can arrest me.
Tanisha says that neither of the two women was hurt, and the suspect is now in police custody.
To be in someone's custody, C-U-S-T-O-D-Y, means that you are being kept or held by that person.
In this case, the suspect is being held by the police.
They take the person and they bring them to a police station and they keep them there in custody what we would call cell.
A cell is what you find in a prison that keeps the prisoners inside a little room.
That room is usually called a cell, C-E-L-L.
Then Tanisha ends her report by saying, back to you, Gary, in the studio.
This is a common way for news reporters, field reporters, to to give the broadcast back to the anchor, back to you.
Gary is in the studio, which is the room or building where the anchor sits.
It's usually at the headquarters of the television or radio station.
It's where the program is filmed or recorded.
Now let's listen to the newscast again at a normal speed.
Good evening.
I'm Gary Singh, and this is the Evening News.
Tonight we'll have a special report from our field reporter, Monique Sanders, on the latest developments in the Eddie Litton court case.
And in our feature segment we'll go to Arizona to interview the world's fattest dog, weighing 210 pounds.
We'll also have this week's weather and the latest on sports.
But first, our top story.
A man suspected of murdering his business partner led the police on a high-speed chase through downtown this afternoon.
Reporting live from downtown Los Angeles is Tanisha Gray.
Tanisha?
Thanks, Gary.
About three hours ago, the police cordoned off a half-mile area around City Hall after the suspect ran into one of the City Hall offices and took two women as hostages.
After a nearly two-hour standoff, the suspect surrendered.
Neither of the two women was hurt, and the suspect is now in police custody.
Back to you, Gary, in the studio.
Thanks for that report, Tanisha.
We'll have more for you as this story develops.
The script for this episode was written by someone not in the studio for ESL Podcast, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us 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.
