Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 564, Working in a Laboratory.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 564.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
This episode is called WORKING IN A LABORATORY.
It's a dialogue between Tony and Gail using vocabulary you would find in a scientific laboratory.
Let's get started.
I was working in the lab as usual when my colleague brought his three-year-old son into work.
Hi, Gail.
This is my son, Philippe.
There was a problem with his daycare today, so he'll be spending the day here with me.
I'll teach him all about doing research.
I'm not sure this is a good place for a toddler.
Should he be playing with a microscope like that?
Oh, he'll be fine.
I'll just keep the beakers and test tubes out of his reach and he'll be all right.
Whoa, he almost tipped over that tray of petri dishes.
I'm using those for the experiment I'm running and there are some pretty dangerous chemicals in them.
Good thing you saw him before he could do any real damage.
I think he just wants to help right?
You just want to collect some data for Gail right?
Don't look now but he's emptying those solutions into the pockets of your lab coat.
Oh you silly goose.
You're just trying to make work more fun and interesting for us, aren't you?
The title of this dialogue is Working in a Laboratory.
The word is spelled L-A-B-O-R-A-T-O-R-Y.
Most people pronounce it laboratory as if there were no O in the middle.
You will hear some people say laboratory.
There is also a different pronunciation that you can definitely hear the O in laboratory, but that's not a very common one, at least in American English.
Thank you for having me.
And chemistry classes in an American high school are usually held.
They usually take place in a laboratory or at least a room that has things you would find in a laboratory to do experiments with.
This story begins with the woman Gail, saying that she was working in the lab, and Lab is just a short form for laboratory.
As usual, when my colleague brought his three-year-old son into work.
Your colleague is your co-worker, a person with whom you work usually at the same business or organization, but not always.
Toni, her colleague, says, Hi Gail, this is my son, Philippe.
There was a problem with his daycare today, so he'll be spending the day here with me.
Daycare D-A-Y-C-A-R-E one word is a type of business that takes care of young children for parents who need to work.
They have to put their children somewhere.
This is more common when the woman especially has to work.
The mother, but it could be for either the mother or the father.
If there are two parents in the family and they are both working, the children who are too young to go to school under six years old, for example would need to be placed typically in some sort of daycare.
Literally, care is During the time they are working.
Poor Tony had a problem with his daycare, and so he decided, instead of staying home with his son, he brought him in to work.
Tony says he's going to teach his son all about doing research.
Research is the process of learning new information.
In a laboratory, it would involve doing experiments, typically.
Gail says, I'm not sure this is a good place for a toddler.
Normally, laboratories have dangerous chemicals or dangerous things for young children.
So Gail says, I'm not sure, meaning I think, this is a good place for a toddler.
Notice, although she says, I'm not sure, that's just a polite way of saying, this is my opinion.
A toddler... is a one-, two-, or three-year-old child, usually a child who is learning to walk.
We call them a toddler, T-O-D-D-L-E-R.
Gail says, should he be playing with the microscope like that?
A microscope is a device used to see things that are very, very small, that you can't normally see just with your eyes.
It's often used in biological research, but also other types of research.
Tony says, oh, he'll be fine.
He doesn't think it's a problem that his young son is playing with this microscope.
He says, I'll just keep the beakers and test tubes out of his reach and he'll be alright.
A beaker, B-E-A-K-E-R, is a glass cup. that has small markings in it for measuring.
It's used especially in chemistry when you are pouring or putting liquids into something smaller.
The beaker has the liquid material inside of it.
A test tube, two words, is a small glass container.
It is round like a tube.
Usually it is rounded at one end, so it's open at one end and it's closed at the other, and you pour things into it chemicals, for example when you are doing your experiments.
When I was in high school, our chemistry teacher was called Beaker by the students.
Well, we didn't say that to her.
We said it to each other, sort of as a joke.
Tony says that he's going to keep the beakers and test tubes out of his son's reach.
Reach here would be the area around you that you can touch by putting out your hand.
Out of reach means that it is too far away from you.
So if I'm sitting at one end of a table and the newspaper is four feet away, It is out of reach.
I cannot reach it.
I cannot touch it.
Of course, I could just get up and walk over and get it, but I'm too lazy.
Tony says that he'll be all right.
He'll be okay, his son.
Gail says, whoa.
He almost tipped over that tray of petri dishes.
Woe, spelled W-H-O-A, is an expression that we use when something is falling or something is about to go wrong or something is surprising.
Gail says that Philippe, the young toddler, almost tipped over something.
To tip over something or to tip something over is a phrasal verb.
That means to knock something over, to hit something, usually accidentally, and make it fall over.
For example, I hit the glass of milk accidentally.
I tipped it over and all the milk came out of it.
Actually, that used to happen to me all the time when I was a child.
My mother was very careful about giving me too much milk because I would always tip over the glass.
By mistake, of course.
On farms in Minnesota where there are animals.
The high school students like to tip over cows that are sleeping.
Completely different idea.
Gale says that Philippe almost tipped over a tray, a group of, in this case, Petri dishes.
A Petri dish is a small, very short round glass or plastic dish that has a top on it that scientists use for certain kinds of research.
Gale says that I'm using those, those Petri dishes, for an experiment I'm running, I'm doing.
And there are some pretty dangerous chemicals in them.
An experiment is a scientific test of something to see whether you are right about your ideas.
Gail is running, conducting or doing an experiment, and there are some dangerous chemicals involved.
A chemical is a liquid or a gas used in chemistry for some experimental reason or for some other reason.
Chemicals are used in many different things.
Tony says good thing you saw him before he could do any real damage, meaning it is fortunate, it is lucky you saw him and stopped him from doing any damage, any harm.
I think he just wants to help, right?
He then talks to his son and says, you just want to collect some data for Gail, right?
To collect means to gather, to get something, some information or some physical thing together in one place.
Collect has a couple of different meanings in English, as does the word tip that we talked about earlier.
Take a look at the learning guide for both of these words and some additional explanations of them.
Gail is collecting data, D-A-T-A, which is information, facts, information.
Technically, the word data is plural.
The singular is datum, but most people use data nowadays for both singular and plural.
Gail says, Don't look now, but he's emptying those solutions into the pockets of your lab coat.
Don't look now means...
You should look.
Don't look now means there is something surprising that is going on, that is happening.
In this case, the young Philippe is emptying solutions into the pockets of his father's lab coat.
To empty means to remove the contents of something so there is nothing left inside.
When you come home from your trip, you empty your luggage.
You empty your suitcase.
You take everything out of it.
A solution is a chemical term.
Usually it's a liquid that is a mixture of two different other liquids.
A lab coat is a special piece of clothing, usually white, that is worn by scientists who are working in a laboratory like the one in our dialogue.
Tony says, oh you silly goose, again talking to his young son.
The expression silly goose is something you would say to a young child who has done something funny that has made you laugh.
A goose is, you probably know, a kind of animal.
It's a bird.
But silly goose is a term we use with children to say they've done something funny, not something dangerous.
Tony obviously doesn't understand how dangerous it is for his son in the laboratory.
He says, you're just trying to make work more fun and interesting for us, aren't you?
He thinks that Philippe is funny.
Gail thinks the young Philippe is dangerous or at least should not be in the laboratory.
This is what happens sometimes when you take your children to work.
Now let's listen to the dialogue at a normal speed.
Hi Gail, this is my son, Philippe.
There was a problem with his daycare today, so he'll be spending the day here with me.
I'll teach him all about doing research.
I'm not sure this is a good place for a toddler.
Should he be playing with a microscope like that?
Oh, he'll be fine.
I'll just keep the beakers and test tubes out of his reach and he'll be all right.
Whoa, he almost tipped over that tray of Petri dishes.
I'm using those for the experiment I'm running, and there's some pretty dangerous chemicals in them.
Good thing you saw him before he could do any real damage.
I think he just wants to help, right?
You just want to collect some data for Gail, right?
Don't look now, but he's emptying those solutions into the pockets of your lab coat.
Oh, you silly goose.
You're just trying to make work more fun and interesting for us, aren't you?
The script for this episode was written by my wonderful colleague, 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 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
