Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 419, Planting a Garden.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 419.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in.
Go there and download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Planting a Garden.
It's going to be a conversation between Joni and Giuseppe talking about planting things in your backyard, in back of your house, in the ground, so that they will grow.
Let's get started.
Smell that, smell what, smell that fresh air.
Aren't you glad i got you to help me plant this garden?
We're going to have so much fun today.
Uh-huh, i'm glad to help, but i don't exactly have a green thumb, That's okay.
As long as you can tell a shovel from a lawnmower, you'll be fine.
Let's start by moving these pots next to the bushes.
Okay.
Your wish is my command.
Oh, this bag of fertilizer is so heavy.
Let me get that.
Thanks.
I didn't know we had so many large bags of seeds, too.
Do you want me to help you with those?
Thanks a lot.
I'll also need someone to help me hoe the soil.
I guess I could do that.
And how am I going to pull all of these weeds?
Honestly, I think we need reinforcements.
Good idea.
You start working and I'll go see if I can round up more help.
I start working while she leaves?
Hmm, I think she just pulled a fast one on me.
Our dialogue begins with Joni saying to Giuseppe, smell that.
Smell, meaning take your nose and try to smell it.
Giuseppe says, smell what?
Joni says, smell that fresh air.
The fresh air is air outside that smells good.
It smells clean.
Joanie says, aren't you glad I got you to help me plant this garden?
We're going to have so much fun today.
To plant here means to put seeds in the ground so that the plants will grow.
A garden is usually a small piece of land that is used to grow plants, usually flowers or vegetables, perhaps fruit.
Joanie says that she thinks they're going to have so much or a lot of fun today.
Giuseppe says, uh-huh.
That expression, uh-huh, means you don't really agree with the person.
You're saying yes, but you don't mean yes.
Or you mean yes, but you aren't very enthusiastic about it.
Giuseppe says, I'm glad to help, but I don't exactly have a green thumb.
The expression to have a green thumb means that you can make things grow well.
You can make plants and flowers, things in the ground.
You can make them grow.
You are good at that sort of thing.
Joni says that's okay.
As long as you can tell a shovel from a lawnmower, you'll be fine.
To tell something from something else means to distinguish or to differentiate something from something else.
It means to see or understand the difference between two things.
If you're looking at a bird, you may say, I can't tell a male bird from a female bird.
Hopefully you won't have that problem with humans.
I can't distinguish one from the other.
So Joni says, as long as you can tell a shovel from a lawnmower, you'll be fine.
A shovel, S-H-O-V-E-L, is a tool for working in a garden, for example.
You have one long wooden piece that you hold on to, and then usually a flat piece of metal that you push into the ground in order, for example, to make a hole.
A lawnmower is a machine, usually that has an engine powered by gasoline, that's used to cut the lawn, to cut the grass.
So Joni is saying as long as you know the difference between a shovel and a lawnmower, you'll be fine.
She says, let's start by moving these pots next to the bushes.
A pot is a round container that holds dirt and usually has one or more plants that are planted in this dirt.
So it's a container for growing plants.
Pot has a couple of different meanings that are not explained in our learning guide, so don't look there for any further explanations.
Joni wants to put the pots next to the bushes.
These are not the people who may have lived in the White House.
The bushes are... large, short plants that have many branches and leaves.
Giuseppe says, okay, your wish is my command.
This is an old expression.
Your wish, what you want, That's the meaning of this expression.
Your wish is my command.
It might be something that a servant would say to a king or a queen.
So there's a little bit of comedy, a little bit of a joke when someone says this.
Joanie then says, oh, this bag of fertilizer is so heavy.
Fertilizer is something that you put on the ground to make the dirt, the soil better, so that you can grow your plants better and more quickly.
Usually, fertilizer is made from either chemicals or animal waste.
That's why fertilizer often has a very bad smell to it.
Giuseppe says, let me get that.
Let me lift that up.
Joni says, thanks.
I didn't know we had so many large bags of seeds, too.
A seed is a small, hard piece of the plant that you put into the ground to make a new plant grow.
Giuseppe says, do you want me to help you with those?
Joni says, thanks a lot, meaning yes, thank you.
She says, I also need someone to help me hoe this soil.
To hoe H-O-E means to use a special tool that has a long wooden piece that you hold on to and a piece of metal that is used to scrape.
So it's kind of like a shovel, but smaller.
Joni wants Giuseppe to help her hoe the soil.
The soil is the dirt, the earth where you plant these seeds.
Giuseppe says, I guess I could do that.
Joni says, and how am I going to pull all of those weeds?
To pull here means to remove.
Weeds are plants that you don't want.
They're things that you don't want to grow but are growing next to the plants that you do want.
So these are called weeds.
Weed, like the word pot, can also refer to marijuana, which is another kind of plant that you smoke, or at least that's what I have been told.
Giuseppe says, honestly, I think we need reinforcements.
Reinforcements is something or someone that helps with a project and makes it stronger or makes something stronger.
In this case, it means more people.
I think we need more people to help us.
Joni says, good idea.
You start working and I'll go see if I can round up more help.
To round up something in this sentence means to find or bring something or someone.
I'm going to go round up some of my friends.
I'm going to go out and find them and bring them back is a phrasal verb that has a couple of different meanings in English.
This time, you can go to the learning guide to find some additional explanations.
Well, Joanie then leaves, and Giuseppe says, I start working while she leaves?
Hmm, I think she just pulled a fast one on me.
To pull a fast one on someone means to trick someone, to make someone do something that he normally wouldn't want to do, or to make someone believe something that isn't true.
That's to pull a fast one.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Smell that, smell what.
Smell that fresh air?
Aren't you glad i got you to help me plant this garden?
We're going to have so much fun today.
Uh-huh, i'm glad to help, but i don't exactly have a green thumb.
That's okay.
As long as you can tell a shovel from a lawnmower, you'll be fine.
Let's start by moving these pots next to the bushes.
Okay, your wish is my command.
Oh, this bag of fertilizer is so heavy.
Let me get that.
Thanks.
I didn't know we had so many large bags of seeds, too.
Do you want me to help you with those?
Thanks a lot.
I'll also need someone to help me hoe the soil.
I guess I could do that.
And how am I going to pull all of these weeds?
Honestly, I think we need reinforcements.
Good idea.
You start working and I'll go see if I can round up more help.
I start working while she leaves?
Hmm, I think she just pulled a fast one on me.
The script was written by someone who would never pull a fast one on you, 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.
