Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 395, Watching the Olympic Games.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 395.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles California, home of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games.
Visit our website at eslpodcom to download a learning guide for this episode that contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, cultural notes, additional definitions and a complete transcript of this episode.
We're going to talk today about some vocabulary related to the Olympic Games, in particular, the Summer Olympics, since this episode is being released in the summer of 2008, when the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing, China.
Let's get started.
Am I too late for the opening ceremony?
No, it's just starting.
The runner is just coming into Olympic Village with the torch.
Oh, this is so exciting.
I love the Summer Olympics.
Track and field, gymnastics, swimming.
I can't wait.
Oh, here come the athletes from each country with their flag bearer in front.
Look at all those gold, silver, and bronze medalists.
Isn't it funny that that country only has one competitor?
No way!
Can you imagine the accolades you'd get as the only athlete from your country that's of Olympic caliber?
I'd trade places with her any day.
Yeah, but those are just the qualifying heats.
The real races don't start for three days.
What's that?
My flag.
I'm cheering on the US team.
From the living room?
Sure.
Why not?
It can't hurt, can it?
The dialogue between Mary Lou and Jesse begins by Mary Lou asking Am I too late for the opening ceremony?
The opening ceremony is the special event that begins the Olympics.
It could also be a term we use to describe the beginning of a conference or sports competition, a large sports competition where they have music and dancing and other entertainment.
That is what the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is like.
It's a big celebration and It usually takes place in a large stadium or arena with thousands and thousands of people there.
And the athletes from each country come in to the stadium and walk around the stadium.
Jesse says, no, it's just starting.
The runner is just coming into Olympic Village with the torch.
The Olympic Village is a group of buildings usually close to the main sites of the Olympics in the city where the athletes stay.
I'm not sure if the Torch Runner actually goes into the Olympic Village, but the Olympic Village is the place where the athletes sleep.
It has places for them.
The torch, T-O-R-C-H, is a long stick that has fire at one end.
Torch has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
But it is traditional for the opening ceremony to begin with a runner from the country where the games are being held.
The host country will come in and run around the stadium with the official Olympic torch.
Mary Lou says, Oh, this is so exciting.
I love the Summer Olympics.
The international sports competition, you probably know, held every four years.
Track and field, gymnastics, swimming, I can't wait.
Track and field are sports such as running, throwing, jumping.
It's a general term we give to all of those competitions.
Gymnastics refers to those sports that involve things like the uneven bars, the parallel bars...
There are many different parts of the gymnastics competition.
Perhaps one of the most famous gymnasts which is what we call someone who participates in gymnastics was the Romanian Nadia Komenic.
That was many years ago.
Jesse says, oh, here come the athletes from each country.
The people who play a sport are called athletes.
The athletes have their flag bearer in front.
The flag bearer, B-E-A-R-E-R, is the person in the opening ceremonies that carries his or her country's flag, usually as part of a parade.
So there are flag bearers in the opening ceremony.
There are gold, silver, and bronze medalists.
Now, since this is the opening ceremony, of course we don't have any gold, silver and bronze medalists yet for the Games.
There could be some there from previous Olympic Games.
A medalist is someone who wins a medal.
And in every sport, there are three medals.
The first place is the gold medal, the second place is the silver medal and the third place is the bronze medal.
So at the end of the games, each country will, we hope, have some medalists, some gold, some silver and some bronze.
Mary Lou says, isn't it funny that that country has only one competitor?
Sometimes there are smaller countries that don't have very many athletes in the Olympic Games.
They may have just one or two.
Other large countries will have dozens of athletes.
A competitor is a person who is participating in a sports competition.
In this case, it's the same as an athlete.
Jesse says, no way.
Can you imagine the accolades you'd get as the only athlete from your country that's of Olympic caliber?
Accolades is amazing. praise, good things that people say about you, honors and awards.
It's a more formal term.
Jesse is saying wow, if you were the only person from your country participating in the Olympics, you would get a lot of honors, a lot of praise.
He says that you have to be of Olympic caliber.
Caliber, C-A-L-I-B-E-R, refers to the quality of something, how good something is.
Harvard and Yale are high-caliber universities, very high quality.
So to be an Olympic athlete means you have to have a high caliber.
In this case, Jesse says Olympic caliber, meaning very high, very good.
He says, I'd trade places with her any day.
To trade places with someone means to exchange roles with another person, to live someone else's life, to do what someone else is doing.
Trade places is also used to mean, for example, if I'm sitting in this chair and you're sitting in another chair, I sit in your chair and you sit in my chair.
We trade places to move to someone else's place and they move to your place.
Here he's talking about having that role, being able to be that person.
Mary Lou says, this schedule says that the track and field events begin tomorrow.
An event is an individual competition within a larger sports competition.
So in the Olympic Games they have individual events that are all part of the Olympic Games, the larger competition.
Jesse says, yeah, but those are just the qualifying heats.
The real races don't start for three days.
Because there are so many countries that want to participate in each sport, they have what are called qualifying heats.
These are competitions to decide who is good enough to go to the next level.
And only those that are winning or do very well in the qualifying heats will go on to the final competition, where they decide the gold, silver and bronze medalists.
That's what Jesse means by the real races, the ones where someone is given a medal.
Jesse then asks, what's that?
Mary Lou says, my flag, I'm cheering on the U.S. team.
To cheer on someone is a phrasal verb meaning to support a team or a person, hoping that he or she or they will win something.
This verb has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Jesse is surprised.
He says...
From the living room, meaning she is sitting in her living room watching the opening ceremonies on television and she has her flag, her country's flag, the US flag.
She's cheering them on from her living room.
Mary Lou says, why not?
It can't hurt, can it?
The expression, it can't hurt, means that it may not do any good, but it won't do any harm.
There's no reason not to do it.
For example, if you ask me, is it going to help me to drink some beer or wine while I'm listening to ESL podcast?
Will that help my English?
And I say, well, it can't hurt.
It may not help, but it won't hurt you either, unless you drink too much wine and beer.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Am I too late for the opening ceremony?
No, it's just starting.
The runner is just coming into Olympic Village with the torch.
Oh, this is so exciting.
I love the Summer Olympics.
Track and field, gymnastics, swimming.
I can't wait.
Oh, here come the athletes from each country with their flag bearer in front.
Look at all those gold, silver, and bronze medalists.
Isn't it funny that that country only has one competitor?
No way.
Can you imagine the accolades you'd get as the only athlete from your country that's of Olympic caliber?
I'd trade places with her any day.
This schedule says that the track and field events begin tomorrow.
Yeah, but those are just the qualifying heats.
The real races don't start for three days.
What's that?
My flag.
I'm cheering on the U.S. team.
From the living room?
Sure, why not?
It can't hurt, can it?
The script for this episode was written by 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.
