Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 469, Rearranging Living Room Furniture.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 469.
© transcript Emily Beynon.
Our learning guides contain all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, comprehension questions, cultural notes and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Amy and Jacob about their living room furniture, and The living room is the large room where people normally sit on a couch and watch television, talk to each other.
They are going to talk about the furniture, the things that they have inside their living room, that they use and sit on.
They're going to talk about different types of living room furniture, so it will be a good vocabulary episode.
Let's get started.
I think rearranging the furniture will make the living room look more spacious, don't you?
Sure.
Sure.
Can you help me move this couch against this wall?
Okay, but are you sure you want it over there?
Because it's really heavy and a pain to move.
I'm sure.
Let's move the love seat across from it.
Now, can you move the recliner into the corner?
Sure.
Uh, here?
Um, a little to the left.
Perfect.
Are you sure?
Absolutely.
Okay, the end tables go on each side of the couch and the coffee table goes between the couch and the loveseat.
Where do you want the ottoman and where do the lamps go?
Put the ottoman next to the love seat.
The table lamps go on the end tables, and the floor lamp should go next to the recliner.
There's no room for the rocking chair.
Hmm.
I guess the rocking chair can go into the guest room.
What about the credenza?
You mean you want to put everything back to where it was?
Yep, we're back to square one.
Amy begins our dialogue by saying...
I think rearranging the furniture means to change the position of objects in a particular area, to move things from one place to another.
You can rearrange the things on your desk.
You can put your computer on the left side, your pens on the right side.
You can move them around.
You can rearrange them.
Amy wants to rearrange the furniture in the living room.
Furniture refers to things like chairs, couches, tables, and so forth.
They are in the living room, the main or large room in the house.
Amy wants it to look more spacious.
More spacious means with a lot more space, or simply larger in this case.
So she thinks that by rearranging the furniture you can make the living room look larger than it is.
Jacob says, oh, sure.
He's not too excited, as most husbands probably wouldn't be.
Amy says, can you help me move this couch against this wall?
The couch is another word for the sofa.
It's a large piece of furniture that three or more people can sit on.
Usually it's in a straight line.
It's a long rectangle.
It's very common in American living rooms to have a big couch where several people can sit together.
Amy is asking Jacob to help move this couch against the wall, meaning close to that wall.
Jacob says, okay, but are you sure you want it over there?
Because it's really heavy and a pain to move, meaning it's very difficult to move.
It's very heavy.
It weighs a lot.
Amy says, I'm sure.
Let's move the love seat across from it.
A love seat, one word, is another word for a small sofa, usually with room for just two people.
It's called a love seat because there are just two people, so if it's a little small, let's hope that you like the person next to you.
Amy wants to move the love seat across from the couch, in front of, on the other side of the couch.
Amy says, now, can you move the recliner into the corner?
A recliner, R-E-C-L-I-N-E-R, is a piece of furniture you sit on.
It's basically a large chair that, But normally it is possible to move the chair so that it lies flat or closer to like a bed.
So you can sit up like a regular chair, but then you can usually move it so that the back of the chair leans back even farther.
So you are almost lying down.
Well, Jacob says, here?
And Amy says, a little to the left, meaning move it a little bit to the left.
Jacob asks, are you sure?
Amy says, absolutely, meaning yes, I'm definitely sure.
Then she says, okay, the end tables go on each side of the couch.
An end table is a small table in a living room.
Usually they are placed on both ends of a couch or a love seat.
They're places where people can put their glasses or cups if they are drinking something, for example.
Amy says that she wants the end tables to go on each side, on both sides of the couch, and the coffee table to go between the couch and the love seat.
A coffee table is a larger table.
It's short, meaning it's low to the ground.
It's not a tall table, but it's long, and you will often see a coffee table in front of a large couch in an American living room.
It's a place like an end table where you can put your coffee cup or magazines.
Some people like to buy big books with colorful photographs that they put on their coffee table.
These are even called coffee table books, the kind of books that have beautiful pictures that people can look at.
Actually, nobody ever looks at them.
They're just there to look nice.
Jacob then says, where do you want the ottoman and where do the lamps go?
An ottoman, O-T-T-O-M-A-N says, is a piece of furniture that looks like a small table, but there is a cushion on top of it.
It's made of some sort of soft fabric or leather and it's used not as a table but to put your feet on.
If you are sitting on the couch or the loveseat, it's a place where you can put your feet up so that your legs are horizontal.
Amy says, put the ottoman next to the loveseat.
The table lamps go on the end tables, and the floor lamp should go next to the recliner.
A table lamp is a lamp, something with a light bulb in it that you put on, of course, a table like an end table.
A floor lamp is taller.
It sits on the floor and can be put just about anywhere.
Amy wants the floor lamp to go next to the recliner.
Jacob says there's no room for the rocking chair.
A rocking chair is a special chair that has curved pieces of wood or metal that allow you to go back and forth, back and forth.
A young mother with her baby might use a rocking chair to go back and forth to have that gentle movement, to help the baby calm down or even to fall asleep.
I don't know.
Rocking chairs have been associated also with older people, grandma and grandpa sitting in a rocking chair.
So it's a chair, but it doesn't have four legs that sit on the ground.
Instead, it has these semi-circular pieces of wood or metal pieces usually wood that go back and forth and allow you to move the chair back and forth as you sit on it.
Amy says that she guesses the rocking chair can go into the guest room.
A guest room in a house is an extra bedroom where people who are visiting can stay, can sleep.
Not every house is big enough to have a guest room.
If you have a big house and you don't have very many people living at your house, you may have more than one guest room.
I don't have any guest rooms, just so you know.
Jacob says, what about the credenza?
A credenza is a large, short piece of wooden furniture.
It doesn't have any legs, but there are doors and shelves in it.
It's used to put books or dishes or other items.
So it's like a short cabinet where you store things, where you can keep things.
Amy then says, you're right.
This new configuration won't work.
Configuration describes the way that something is arranged or ordered, the way things work together.
Amy is saying this new arrangement of the furniture, this rearrangement, isn't going to work.
The configuration won't work.
It's not good.
It's not a good way of arranging things.
Jacob then says, you mean you want to put everything back to where it was?
He's asking if Amy wants him to move all the furniture where it was before they started rearranging.
And Amy says, yup, meaning yes.
We're back to square one.
The expression to be back to square one means to return to a point or a situation where you began.
You haven't made any progress.
You didn't get any benefit from all the work you did.
So if you are, for example, working on a project and everything is on your laptop computer, and then you lose your laptop computer,
You don't have any of those files saved anywhere else.
You're back to square one.
You have to start at the beginning again.
You have to start over.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I think rearranging the furniture will make the living room look more spacious, don't you?
Uh, sure.
Can you help me move this couch against this wall?
Okay, but are you sure you want it over there?
Because it's really heavy and a pain to move.
I'm sure.
Let's move the love seat across from it.
Now, can you move the recliner into the corner?
Uh, here?
A little to the left.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Are you sure?
Absolutely.
Okay, the end tables go on each side of the couch and the coffee table goes between the couch and the love seat.
Where do you want the ottoman, and where do the lamps go?
Put the ottoman next to the love seat, the table lamps go on the end tables and the floor lamps should go next to the recliner.
There's no room for the rocking chair.
Hmm, I guess a rocking chair can go into the guest room.
What about the credenza?
You're right.
This new configuration won't work.
You mean you want to put everything back to where it was?
Yep.
We're back to square one.
Our wonderful scripts are written by Dr. Lucy Say.
I never need to rearrange anything that she has written.
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.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
