Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 577, Magic and Illusions.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 577.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the beautiful city of Los Angeles in the state of California.
Go to our website today at eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Patricia and Sergio about magic, about people doing tricks that make you think that they have special powers.
Let's get started.
This is the best magic show I've ever seen.
Have you ever seen so many amazing magic tricks in your life?
They're blowing my mind.
They're all just illusions.
It's nothing but smoke and mirrors.
I don't know how you can say that.
We've seen some really impressive sleight-of-hand tricks, and that escape artist seemed to do the impossible.
Couldn't you see that it was just misdirection?
While you weren't looking, the magician left through the trap door.
Maybe that's how that trick was done, but how do you explain the mind reader?
How did he know what I was thinking if he couldn't really read my mind?
I'm sure any supernatural powers these magicians and entertainers claim to have have been debunked by somebody.
Maybe he used the power of suggestion.
Who knows?
And maybe you're the most gullible person who ever lived.
Patricia says to Sergio this is the best magic show I've ever seen.
A magic show is a type of entertainment where there is a performer what we call a magician who appears to do things that are impossible.
Patricia says, have you ever seen so many amazing magic tricks in your life?
A magic trick is something that this magician does that appears impossible.
For example, perhaps there's a woman in a box and they separate the box and you think that the woman has been cut into two pieces.
But of course, she hasn't, or has she?
Patricia says these magic tricks are blowing her mind.
To blow one's mind means to make someone feel very surprised or excited or impressed.
I heard her play the violin last night at the concert and it blew my mind.
She was amazing.
Sergio says they're all just illusions.
An illusion is something that appears different than how it actually is.
You think you're seeing one thing, but really you're seeing something else.
Sergio says it's nothing but smoke and mirrors.
It's nothing but means all that it is is smoke and mirrors.
The expression smoke and mirrors, M-I-R-R-O-R-S.
It's also sometimes blue smoke and mirrors, or just smoke and mirrors.
They both mean the same, which is that you are distracting people from to focus their attention on something else or somewhere else, so they think that what is going on is magic, but it's just an illusion.
Smoke and mirrors or blue smoke and mirrors is a distraction.
Patricia says, I don't know how you can say that.
We've seen some really impressive sleight-of-hand tricks, and that escape artist seemed to do the impossible.
A sleight S-L-E-I-G-H-T of hand trick is when your hands move very quickly and and you can't really see what's going on.
Magicians often have sleight-of-hand tricks.
More generally, the expression is sometimes used simply to mean an illusion, a trick, something that isn't really true, but it looks true.
An escape artist is a magician, a performer. who is able to get out of very difficult situations.
For example, the great American magician Houdini, who is probably the most famous magician in US history, was known to be a great escape artist.
You could put him in a box and put him into the ocean, and somehow he would get out of the box.
Of course, these things were always planned, but they made it look like it was the impossible being done.
Sergio says couldn't you see that it was just misdirection?
Misdirection is distracting someone, making him or her focus on something else, and So while they're looking over there, you're doing something over here.
Then they look back and it looks like you did something amazing or impossible, but in fact you were just doing it, so they couldn't see it.
That's misdirection, to direct someone to the wrong place.
Sergio says, while you weren't looking...
The magician left through the trap, T-R-A-P, door.
A trap door is actually in the floor, but you can't see it.
You don't know it's there.
Usually it is underneath like a piece of carpet or a rug.
And when you're not looking, someone can go down through the trap door and it looks as though they simply escaped.
But you couldn't see how they did it.
That's a trap door.
Patricia says, maybe that's how that trick was done.
But how do you explain the mind reader trick?
Your mind is what you think with.
A reader is someone who can tell, in this case, what's in your mind.
So a mind reader would be someone who can say, I know what you're thinking.
Another word for a mind reader would be a psychic reader.
A psychic is a person who says that he or she has the power to know what other people are thinking, or even to know what will happen in the future.
The expression mind reader is sometimes used in a discussion or an argument, especially between, for example, a husband and a wife.
The wife will say, why didn't you go to the store and buy me some flowers?
And the husband will say, well, I didn't think you liked flowers.
I'm not a mind reader.
I can't tell what you are thinking.
I can't see your thoughts.
And then the man sleeps in the living room that night.
That's usually what happens.
Patricia says, how did he know what I was thinking if he couldn't really read my mind?
Patricia thinks that this mind reader, this magician, was actually reading her mind, actually knew what she was thinking.
Sergio says, I'm sure any supernatural powers these magicians and entertainers claim to have have been debunked by somebody.
Supernatural is something that is beyond the natural, beyond the normal, above what normal human beings can do.
Or Supernatural power would be the ability to do something that would otherwise be impossible.
Sergio says, To debunk, D-E-B-U-N-K, means to prove that something is not true.
To prove that something did not happen the way you thought it happened.
Sergio is saying that these supernatural powers that these magicians say they have are not really supernatural powers, that someone has shown how they do their tricks.
Sergio says maybe he used the power of suggestion.
The power of suggestion is when you give someone an idea, a thought a, and make them think that it was their idea to begin with.
So they believe it.
Patricia says, and maybe you're just jaded.
To be jaded.
J-A-D-E-D means that you have experienced something too much, so that you're no longer
It's definitely a negative expression, a negative way of describing someone, to say that they're jaded.
Sergio says, To be gullible.
G-U-L-L-I-B-L-E means to believe everything that other people say and do.
It's, again, a negative adjective.
It means that you are easily fooled, that you believe other people when you should not.
Sergio then is insulting Patricia by calling her gullible.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
This is the best magic show I've ever seen.
Have you ever seen so many amazing magic tricks in your life?
They're blowing my mind.
They're all just illusions.
It's nothing but smoke and mirrors.
I don't know how you can say that.
We've seen some really impressive sleight of hand tricks, and that escape artist seemed to do the impossible.
Couldn't you see that it was just misdirection?
While you weren't looking, the magician left through the trap door.
Maybe that's how the trick was done, but how do you explain the mind reader?
How did he know what I was thinking if he couldn't really read my mind?
I'm sure any supernatural powers these magicians and entertainers claim to have have been debunked by somebody.
Maybe he used the power of suggestion.
Who knows?
And maybe you're just jaded.
And maybe you're the most gullible person who ever lived.
It wasn't just an illusion.
Today's script really was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
