Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 495, Describing Winds and Storms.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 495.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
© transcript Emily Beynon Thank you.
Thank you, describing weather that has a lot of wind or where there are storms, where there is rain and clouds, that sort of thing.
It will use a lot of vocabulary related to the weather.
Let's get started.
It's just our luck that as soon as we arrive here for our island vacation, there's a hurricane warning.
It's uncanny, isn't it?
On last year's vacation, we crossed paths with a tornado, and now this.
Yeah, that tornado was something.
I had experienced windstorms before, with really strong gusts of wind, but it was nothing like that tornado.
Do you remember the way all of the windows, doors, and even walls rattled?
The tornado blew down power lines and uprooted trees.
That was terrifying.
Do you think we'll have another experience like that this time?
I really hope not.
We came for ocean breezes, but if the hurricane makes landfall, we'll have gale winds of up to 50 miles per hour.
And we're trapped here.
What should we do?
With our luck, what's the likelihood of that happening?
Ali begins by saying it's just our luck that as soon as we arrive here for our island vacation, there's a hurricane warning.
The expression it's just our luck or it's just my luck is a phrase we use when you are complaining about having bad luck, using it to introduce an example of how bad your luck is.
For example, it's just my luck that when I got to the grocery store, there were no more bananas.
I wanted to buy some bananas, but they didn't have any.
Ali says that it's just their luck that as soon as they arrive for their island vacation, there's a hurricane warning.
An island is land surrounded on all sides by water.
An island vacation is where you would go for a relaxing, warm vacation.
Hawaii, for example, or the Caribbean.
If you are living in the United States, those are two popular places to go on an island vacation.
Unfortunately, on this island, there is a hurricane warning.
A hurricane is a large storm that forms over the ocean.
It begins over the ocean, and it has very strong and dangerous winds.
Here in the United States a few years ago, we experienced Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed a large part of the city of New Orleans.
In the state of Louisiana, in the south central part of the US, Hurricanes are given names.
They used to always be names of women, but a few years ago they changed so that sometimes it's a woman's name, sometimes it's a man's name.
They alternate.
They change.
First a man, then a woman, then a man, then a woman.
Not sure if there's been a Hurricane Jeff.
I think that would be good to have.
Marielle says, it's uncanny, isn't it?
Something that is uncanny is something that is very difficult to explain or understand.
Something that is very unusual or not common.
It's uncanny that I always meet my friend at a local cafe, even though we weren't planning on seeing each other.
We run into each other, we would say.
We meet each other unexpectedly.
I can't explain it.
It's uncanny.
Mariella says, on last year's vacation, we crossed paths with a tornado and now this.
To cross paths with something or someone means to meet that thing or that person, to be in the same place, at the same time with that person.
Ali and Mariella cross paths with a tornado.
A tornado is a dangerous storm that forms over land and has very strong and dangerous winds that blow in a circle.
Tornadoes are storms that start over the land.
Hurricanes are storms that start over the sea, over the ocean.
Here in the United States, in the central, the mid-central and the mid-western part, tornadoes are quite common.
When I grew up in Minnesota, we would often see tornadoes and there would be tornado warnings.
They would tell people to go down into their basements to protect themselves because these strong storms were coming through, these tornadoes.
Ali says yeah, that tornado was something, meaning that was really amazing in a good way or a bad way.
Ali says I had experienced windstorms before, with really strong gusts of wind, but nothing like that tornado.
A windstorm is a storm with very strong wind, though not as serious or as strong as a tornado.
When you have a windstorm, you have very strong gusts of wind.
A gust, G-U-S-T, is a sudden, strong movement of air.
It could be very quiet, and then suddenly you get this strong wind.
That's a gust of wind.
Ali has experienced really strong gusts of wind, but nothing like the tornado.
He says do you remember the way all of the windows, doors and even walls rattled?
To rattle means to make noise when something is being blown by the wind or something is moving against another object.
When we have earthquakes here in Southern California we had one just a few weeks ago if it's very strong, the cups on the table will rattle.
They'll make a noise because the table is moving and the cup is on top of it, or the dish or whatever happens to be there.
Ali says the tornado blew down power lines and uprooted trees.
To blow down means that a strong wind makes something fall over.
The tornado blew down the trees, meaning the trees fell down because the wind was so strong.
The word blow has several different meanings in English attached to different prepositions.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations of that phrasal expression, that phrasal verb.
These winds also uprooted trees.
To uproot a tree or a plant means that it takes it out of the ground so that the bottom of the plant, that is below the ground, what we call the roots can be seen.
A very powerful storm could lift the tree out of the ground.
That's how strong it is.
That's uprooting the tree.
Mariella says, Ali says, But if the hurricane makes landfall, we'll have gale winds of up to 50 miles per hour.
A breeze is a very soft, gentle wind, something that's very nice.
It's a soft breeze.
It's a soft wind.
Breeze has a couple of different meanings in English however, so once again, take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
The hurricane, however, will not just have light breezes.
But if it makes landfall, they'll have gale force or gale winds.
When we say a hurricane makes landfall, we mean that the storm which remember, begins over the ocean, over the sea, comes onto the land.
It arrives at the land.
A gale... is a very strong wind associated with hurricanes.
Mariella says we're trapped here.
What should we do?
Meaning we can't get out.
Ali says we'll just buckle down and wait it out.
With any luck, the hurricane will miss the island altogether.
To buckle down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to stay in one place, usually while you're waiting for something else to happen.
To wait something out means to wait for something to finish or to end, especially something like a storm or bad weather or simply a bad situation.
I'm going to wait it out until our boss resigns and we get a new boss.
Ali says that with any luck, if they are lucky, the hurricane will miss the island altogether, meaning completely totally entirely, altogether.
Mariella says with our luck.
What's the likelihood of that happening, meaning we have such bad luck with our luck?
What's the likelihood, what's the chance, the probability that that will happen?
Not very likely, since Ali and Mariela seem to have very bad luck.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
It's just our luck that as soon as we arrive here for our island vacation, there's a hurricane warning.
It's uncanny, isn't it?
On last year's vacation, we crossed paths with a tornado and now this.
Yeah, that tornado was something.
I had experienced windstorms before, with really strong gusts of wind, but it was nothing like that tornado.
Do you remember the way all of the windows, doors, and even walls rattled?
The tornado blew down power lines and uprooted trees.
That was terrifying.
Do you think we'll have another experience like that this time?
I really hope not.
We came for ocean breezes, but if the hurricane makes landfall, we'll have gale winds of up to 50 mph.
And we're trapped here.
What should we do?
We'll just buckle down and wait it out.
With any luck, the hurricane will miss the island altogether.
With our luck, what's the likelihood of that happening?
The likelihood of us having an excellent script is always high when it is by our script writer for this episode, 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.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
