Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 411, Eating Junk Food.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 411.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
New Sample Sentences Using the Vocabulary Additional explanations of words we use on this episode that are not explained on the audio file.
Cultural notes, comprehension questions and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is called Eating Junk Food.
It's a dialogue between Frank and Katie about eating food that isn't necessarily very good for your health but tastes good.
Let's get started.
Hand me that bag of potato chips.
Here, you mean you're still hungry after two burgers and french fries?
Yeah, I am.
I'm a growing boy.
Where's the popcorn?
I can't believe we're eating all of this junk food.
I'm supposed to be watching what I eat.
Forget about it.
Who can watch a football game without stuffing their faces?
It's an American tradition.
Some kids were selling them door to door, and I thought it was my duty to buy some.
It was your duty to buy ten candy bars?
What can I say?
I'm a softie.
I'm getting another soda.
Do you want one?
No, thanks.
But while you're up, can you hand me the phone?
Sure.
Why?
I'm ordering a pizza.
We begin with Frank saying to Katie, hand me that bag of potato chips.
To hand someone something means to give something to someone, to pass something to someone.
Hand me is a command form.
It's a little informal.
If you were being more polite, you would say, please give me, or could you please hand me.
If you're sitting at a dinner table, you may say, hand me the salt to your husband or child.
The word hand has many meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations of that term.
Frank says, hand me that bag of potato chips.
Potato chips is an example of junk food, food that is not healthy.
Junk is another word for trash, something you would throw away.
Junk food describes food that is bad for you, often cheap food.
Potato chips are made from very thin slices of a potato that are fried in oil.
You put them in hot oil, and you get potato chips.
You put salt on them.
In British English, potato chips are called crisps, and chips mean something different in British English.
But in American English, potato chips is the term we use for this particular kind of junk food.
Katie says here.
That's what you might say to someone when you are giving something to someone who is right next to you or in front of you.
Here, meaning here it is.
Then she says, A burger is a hamburger.
It's a sandwich made by cooking ground beef from a cow and putting it in between two pieces of bread, usually adding mustard ketchup, perhaps lettuce and tomatoes onions, other things.
McDonald's is the largest restaurant that makes hamburgers, that sells hamburgers.
They are famous for their hamburgers.
French fries are a snack that is made by frying long pieces of potato in oil and then adding salt.
Once again, you can usually buy french fries at a place that sells hamburgers.
So Katie is wondering how Frank can still be hungry after eating so much food.
Frank says, yeah, I am.
Yes, I am still hungry.
Then he jokes, I'm a growing boy.
When we say someone is a growing boy or a growing girl, we mean that they need a lot of energy.
They need a lot of food.
So he's giving this as an excuse.
Then he says, where's the popcorn?
Popcorn is is a snack, something you would eat at, for example, the movie theater, where you take small pieces of corn, dry corn, and you put them overheat until they open, until they burst open or explode, and you end up with these little white pieces of corn that you can then put butter and salt on.
Katie then says To watch what you eat is an expression that means to try to eat better foods, usually so you can lose weight if you have too much weight, or become healthier.
I need to watch what I eat, that's for sure.
Frank says forget about it, meaning don't worry about it.
Who can watch a football game without stuffing their faces?
So Frank and Katie are watching an American football game, which usually takes place on Sunday afternoon.
And it is a common tradition to watch the game on television at home and eat junk food and have snacks while you are watching it.
To stuff...
Your face means to eat a lot of something very quickly.
It's an informal expression.
To stuff, S-T-U-F-F, your face.
Frank says it's an American tradition.
It's something that all Americans do on a regular basis.
Stuff their faces during a football game.
Katie then asks Frank, where did you get those candy bars?
A candy bar is a small, usually rectangular, long and narrow food that has nuts chocolate, perhaps something else on it or in it.
There are many famous kinds of candy bars.
They're very popular with children.
You can buy them in most stores.
They are made with a lot of sugar, typically.
Frank says, So where did he buy the candy bars?
Well...
Normally you would buy them in a store, but there are many youth groups and schools that try to raise money, meaning they try to get money for their school or their organization by selling things.
And they go to your house, they knock on your door, and they try to sell you these things.
This is very common.
It happens to me in my house maybe two or three times a week.
To go door to door means to go from house to house or from business to business, knocking on each door, asking to speak to the person so you can sell them something.
Frank says he thought it was his duty to buy some.
Your duty is something that you are supposed to do.
You must do.
You need to do.
We talk about voting in a democracy being your civic duty.
Civic meaning, in this case, what you owe the rest of society, what you owe your country.
So a duty is something you are supposed to do.
Of course, Frank is joking here.
He doesn't have a duty to buy candy, but he says he does probably because he was trying to help this school or organization.
Katie says, it was your duty to buy 10 candy bars?
Frank says, what can I say?
This expression is used when you don't have a good answer for what the person is asking you.
Well, what can I say?
I have no excuse.
He says I'm a softy.
S-O-F-T-Y.
A softy is someone who has difficulty saying no.
Someone who does whatever people ask him or her to do.
Katie says I'm getting another soda.
Do you want one?
Soda, sometimes called soda pop, or in Minnesota and in some of the Midwestern states it's just called pop.
It all refers to a sweet drink that usually has small bubbles in it.
We say it's carbonated.
Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, these are all examples of sodas. or as we say back in Minnesota, pop.
Frank says, no thanks.
He does not want another soda.
But while you're up meaning since you are already standing up and going into the kitchen while you're up, can you hand me the phone?
Katie says, sure, why?
Frank says, I'm ordering a pizza.
Pizza is a very typically Italian food made with a large, in the United States usually round piece of bread that you put tomato sauce cheese, perhaps different kinds of meat on top of, and then you bake it in an oven.
Pizza is a very popular type of snack food, especially when you are watching a game, a sporting event, like a football game.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hand me that bag of potato chips.
Here.
You mean you're still hungry after two burgers and french fries?
Yeah, I am.
I'm a growing boy.
Where's the popcorn?
I can't believe we're eating all of this junk food.
I'm supposed to be watching what I eat.
Forget about it.
Who can watch a football game without stuffing their faces?
It's an American tradition.
Where did you get those candy bars?
Some kids were selling them door to door, and I thought it was my duty to buy some.
It was your duty to buy ten candy bars?
What can I say?
I'm a softie.
I'm getting another soda.
Do you want one?
No, thanks.
But while you're up, can you hand me the phone?
Sure.
Why?
I'm ordering a pizza.
It's my duty to tell you that the script for this episode was written by Dr Lucy Say, a real softie.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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.
