Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 513, Snooping and Eavesdropping.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 513.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
That contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, comprehension questions, cultural notes and, would you believe it, a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is called Snooping and Eavesdropping.
These are different ways of gathering or collecting information secretly, sometimes illegally.
We'll listen to a conversation between Enrique and Stella, who are trying to get information about Stella's boyfriend.
Let's get started.
I don't know how you talked me into coming with you to Dan's apartment to rifle through his papers.
This snooping is stupid.
If you have suspicions you should just talk to him.
Confront him without any evidence?
That would be the height of stupidity.
Instead, we'll hold up in this closet until he leaves.
I thought you said he wouldn't be home until six o'clock.
That's what I thought.
Just sit tight.
I think he just came home to pick something up.
He'll be gone in a minute.
I don't like confined spaces.
If we don't make a break for it soon, I'm going to suffocate.
Stop your kvetching.
Now that we're here, maybe we can do better than looking through his papers.
We can eavesdrop on his conversations.
Have you lost your mind?
Do you know what he would do to us if he found us here?
No guts, no glory.
Enrique and Stella are inside of Dan's apartment.
In fact they're inside one of the closets of Dan's apartment, the small space you use usually to put clothing or other things.
Dan has come home unexpectedly while Enrique and Stella were there trying to find information about him.
Enrique says...
To talk someone into something is to get another person to agree to do something that they don't really want to do.
And usually we use this expression when you discover later that it was a mistake, that you should have said no.
The verb to talk has several different meanings.
Take a look at the learning guide for this episode for some more explanations.
Enrique says that he doesn't know how Stella talked him into coming with her to Dan's apartment.
To rifle through his papers.
To rifle through something means to look through something quickly, usually to steal it, usually for reasons that are not good.
Someone who's looking for something, who wants to steal something, may rifle through your desk, the papers on your desk, in order to find that something.
Enrique says this snooping is stupid.
To snoop, S-N-O-O-P means to spy, to look at things that you shouldn't be looking at or that don't belong to you, usually things that contain some sort of secret information.
Enrique says if you have suspicions, you should just talk to him.
A suspicion is a thought or a feeling that something is wrong.
You don't have any proof.
You don't have any evidence.
But you have a suspicion.
You think that something might be wrong.
Stella says, confront him without any evidence.
To confront someone means to talk to someone or deal with something that is difficult or unpleasant.
Usually to talk to another person about a very difficult topic.
Stella says, asking Enrique, confront him without any evidence?
That would be the height of stupidity.
Stupidity is a noun for things that are stupid or foolish.
The expression the height of stupidity means this would be extremely stupid, very stupid.
We use this expression sometimes the height of stupidity, followed by some noun, usually when we're expressing something negative.
That has happened, something very bad.
For example.
That is the height of arrogance to tell the President of the United States that he should cut his hair.
It's the height of arrogance.
It's the very extreme example, the highest example of that particular quality.
Enrique says, instead of confronting Dan directly...
We're holed up in this closet until he leaves.
To be holed up somewhere means to be trapped in a small space and you can't get out.
You're stuck.
You can't leave.
If you go skiing and suddenly there's a lot of snow and you can't leave your hotel, you could be holed up in your hotel.
Sometimes we use this expression when someone voluntarily goes somewhere that they don't want to leave to be separated from other people.
But here Enrique is using it to mean that they are in a small space, a closet, and they can't leave.
They can't leave because they're in Dan's apartment and Dan doesn't know that they are there.
Stella tells Enrique to sit tight.
To sit tight means to be patient and don't move.
Don't go anywhere else.
I think Dan just came home to pick up something.
Or to pick something up.
It means the same.
He'll be gone.
He'll leave in a minute.
Enrique says, I don't like confined spaces.
Confined means you don't have a lot of room.
You can't move easily.
Confined has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some more explanations.
Enrique says that he doesn't like confined spaces, confined places.
If we don't make a break for it soon, he says, I'm going to suffocate.
To make a break, for it means to escape, to leave a place where you are trapped or that you're not supposed to leave.
A prisoner may try to make a break for it, meaning try to escape from the prison.
Enrique says, if they don't make a break for it soon, if they don't leave escape out of this closet, he's going to suffocate.
To suffocate means to die because you can't breathe.
Someone may be preventing you from breathing by covering your mouth, or maybe there just isn't enough oxygen in the air.
That could also cause you to suffocate, to die because you can't breathe.
Stella says to Enrique, stop your kvetching.
To kvetch is an informal expression meaning to complain loudly and repeatedly.
Someone who's always complaining, oh, it's so hot in here.
Oh, why can't we... get a better air conditioner, etc., etc.
This is someone who likes to kvetch.
The word kvetch is a Yiddish word, a language spoken by primarily Jewish immigrants to the United States.
There are several Yiddish words that have become part of the general English language, at least American English.
Stella says to Enrique, stop your kvetching.
Now that we're here, maybe we can do better than looking through his papers.
We can eavesdrop on his conversations.
To eavesdrop means to listen to something that you're not supposed to hear, to secretly listen to someone else's conversation.
If someone is in a restaurant sitting next to you in the next table and you're not supposed to be listening to their conversation, but you are, that would be to eavesdrop.
Often people eavesdrop in order to get information, to get secret information.
Enrique says, To lose your mind means to go crazy, to do something very strange or even illogical.
He says, Do you know what he would do to us if he found us here?
Do you know what he would do to us?
Do you know what sort of punishment he would give us?
Perhaps.
Stella, however, says, To have guts means to have courage.
It's an informal expression.
No guts, no glory means that if you don't have courage, if you're not willing to do something that's difficult, you'll never be able to win.
In order to get things that you want, things that are difficult to obtain, you have to have guts.
And if you don't, you will never get those things.
Glory here refers to either being famous, but more generally getting something desirable that you want.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I don't know how you talked me into coming with you to Dan's apartment to rifle through his papers.
This snooping is stupid.
If you have suspicions, you should just talk to him.
Confine him without any evidence?
That would be the height of stupidity.
Instead, we're holed up in this closet until he leaves.
I thought you said he wouldn't be home until 6 o'clock.
That's what I thought.
Just sit tight.
I think he just came home to pick something up.
He'll be gone in a minute.
I don't like confined spaces.
If we don't make a break for it soon, I'm going to suffocate.
Stop your kvetching.
Now that we're here, maybe we can do better than looking through his papers.
We can eavesdrop on his conversations.
Have you lost your mind?
Do you know what he would do to us if he found us here?
No guts, no glory.
The script for this episode was written by someone who never kvatches, 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.
