Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 614, Experiencing an Earthquake.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 614.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan. in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpodcom.
Download a learning guide for this episode that will give you all of the definitions, sample sentences, additional vocabulary, comprehension questions, cultural notes and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Jamal and Keisha.
They're talking about something which is very common to many parts of the world, including Los Angeles earthquakes.
We'll go over some of the vocabulary related to that topic.
Let's get started.
Did you feel that?
Was that an earthquake?
Yes, I think so.
Turn on the news.
Reports are coming in about an earthquake that occurred at 4.35 p.m. in the downtown area.
We spoke with a seismologist at the earthquake center yesterday and learned that the earthquake had a magnitude of 32 on the Richter scale.
The epicenter was near downtown, along one of the major faults, and the seismologist warns that there will be some aftershocks.
I'm glad the earthquake wasn't a high-intensity one.
I wish they could predict more accurately when those earthquakes are going to happen.
Yeah, me too.
I've looked around the house and don't see any damage, though.
I guess our house won't be declared a disaster area.
Don't be too sure.
Considering the mess you've made in the kitchen, it could easily be called a disaster area.
In that case, will you be sending aid?
I think I'm too tired to do the dishes.
You won't be getting any aid from me.
If you're hoping for a relief effort, you'd better ask the UN.
Jamal begins by saying, Did you feel that?
Keisha says, Was that an earthquake?
An earthquake is a short period of time when the ground shakes or moves, because there is some sort of what we would call geological movement underneath the ground.
Most places that experience earthquakes often have earthquakes that are very small or minor earthquakes.
I feel an earthquake here in Los Angeles maybe once a year.
Usually it's small, maybe twice a year.
It depends on where you live exactly, but that's about average, although there are many small earthquakes that most people don't feel that are taking place all the time.
At least that's what I've read.
Keisha asks if it was an earthquake.
She wasn't sure.
Usually you can tell.
Sometimes, if you look over at, for example, a lamp and you see the string that you use to turn on the lamp is moving back and forth well, that's a sign that there was something that moved the whole house or the whole apartment.
Jamal says, I think so.
I think it was an earthquake.
Turn on the news, meaning turn on the radio or the television to see if there is a news report.
Nowadays, we would probably just turn on the computer and look on the internet.
Next, a newscaster who sounds surprisingly like Jamal gives us the news.
A newscaster is someone on the television or that you hear on the radio that reads the news to you, tells you what the news is.
The newscaster says reports information are coming in about an earthquake that occurred at 435 pm in the downtown area.
Reports are coming in means we are receiving information from different places.
The earthquake occurred.
It happened.
It took place at 435 pm in the afternoon in the downtown area.
We spoke with a seismologist at the earthquake center and learned that the earthquake had a magnitude of 32 on the Richter scale.
A seismologist, S-E-I-S-M-O-L-O-G-I-S-T, is a scientist who studies earthquakes, who studies the movements of the Earth.
Here in Southern California there are seismologists at California Institute of Technology, or what we call here Caltech.
And usually after an earthquake, there is a seismologist that is interviewed from this area, this university research center.
Here the seismologist is interviewed and says that the earthquake had a magnitude of 32 magnitude M-A-G-N-I-T-U-D-E is how big or small something is.
It's the size of something usually used in talking about things like earthquakes, or it can also be used to describe a problem.
The magnitude of the problem is huge, is large.
The magnitude of the earthquake is how powerful it is, and there's a way of measuring this, called the Richter scale.
The Richter, which is the name of the person who helped invent it, is a system for measuring the size of earthquakes.
A 3.2 is not a serious earthquake.
If it's 5 6 7, these are large and potentially very damaging earthquakes, earthquakes that could cause a lot of damage, people getting hurt, buildings falling down and so forth.
Well, this was a small earthquake, a 3.2 earthquake.
The epicenter, the newscaster continues, was near downtown.
The epicenter, E-P-I-C-E-N-T-E-R, is where the earthquake started.
It's like the center of the earthquake, the place in the ground where it started.
Earthquakes are caused, as you probably know, by the movement of what we call tectonic plates.
These are parts of the Earth that move back and forth or can move back and forth, and that creates the movement which is the earthquake.
The epicenter was downtown, near downtown.
Along one of the major faults, a fault F-A-U-L-T here means or is short for a fault line which is a crack or a long hole in the earth where the earth is moving away from each other and so it opens up.
The Earth, that's a fault.
That's the manifestation, I should say, of a fault.
That's how you can see where a fault is, but there isn't necessarily a hole in the ground right where the fault is.
There are earthquake faults, areas that would likely have an earthquake all around Southern California as well as Northern California, although we're less interested in them.
The biggest fault here is called the San Andreas fault.
Fault has some other meanings in English, very different meanings, and those can be found in the learning guide.
The newscaster continues by saying that the seismologist warns that there will be some aftershocks. aftershocks one word are small earthquakes that happen after a large earthquake so when there's a large earthquake The earth isn't done moving.
It hasn't stopped moving completely typically and there are additional earthquakes that could happen an hour, two hours, perhaps even days from the original large earthquake.
Now we're back to Keisha and Jamal.
Keisha says, which is just a way of expressing relief.
High-intensity means a strong, a powerful one.
It lasts usually a short time, but it is very powerful.
This was not a high-intensity earthquake.
Keisha says, I wish they could predict more accurately when those earthquakes are going to happen.
To predict means to say what is going to happen in the future.
Seismologists are trying to get better at predicting when earthquakes will take place, so that they can warn people in advance.
But unfortunately, the science is not yet sufficiently advanced to do that.
Jamal says yeah, me too, meaning I agree.
I wish also the seismologist could predict more accurately.
Jamal says, I've looked around the house and I don't see any damage, any harm.
Damage is what results when things are broken or destroyed.
He says, To be declared is a formal way of saying to be officially named something or to be put in a certain category.
A disaster area is an area where there has been a lot of damage.
People have been hurt.
People have died, usually because of what we would call a natural disaster.
A disaster, D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R is when there is a large event that harms or hurts many people or causes a lot of damage.
Sometimes we use disaster to describe a situation where everything went wrong.
And you say, oh, it was a disaster.
She talked about her ex-boyfriend the whole night.
Here, however, disaster is used in the more traditional way.
In the United States when there is a lot of damage due to a natural disaster, which would be an earthquake, a flood tornadoes, a hurricane, anything that is caused by the forces of nature the government will sometimes declare an area a disaster area And that makes it eligible.
That qualifies it.
That means that it can receive additional money and help from the government.
Jamal says that the house is not damaged and will not be declared a disaster area.
Keisha says, don't be too sure.
Considering the mess you've made in the kitchen, it could easily be called a disaster area.
Here we're seeing the other use of the word disaster to describe a very negative situation.
In this case, Jamal has made a mess.
He has made the kitchen dirty, and that means Keisha says, is also a disaster area.
Jamal, joking of course, says, in that case, will you be sending aid?
Aid, A-I-D, is help.
In a disaster, it's usually food or medical supplies, other things that a country needs or an area needs after a disaster drinking water, money and so forth.
To send aid then would be to send those things to the disaster area.
Jamal is joking, saying that he needs aid to clean up the kitchen.
He says I think I'm too tired to do the dishes.
Keisha says, you won't be getting any aid from me.
I'm not going to help you.
If you're hoping for a relief effort, you'd better ask the UN.
Relief, R-E-L-I-E-F, relief. is a change in a situation, in a bad situation.
Things get better.
Relief efforts are when organizations and governments try to organize aid.
They have a committee.
They have leaders that organize the money, the food, the medical supplies and other things, usually after a major disaster, and there have been unhappily many in recent years.
There is a relief effort organized by different countries, by organizations such as the Red Cross.
The UN is the United Nations which, of course, is the large international organization that tries to solve problems among nations, as well as help when there is a disaster.
Keisha, continuing the joke, says that there is going to be no relief effort and that Jamal should ask the United Nations to help him with the disaster area he created in the kitchen.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you feel that?
Was that an earthquake?
Yes, I think so.
Turn on the news.
Reports are coming in about an earthquake that occurred at 4.35 p.m. in the downtown area.
We spoke with a seismologist at the earthquake center and learned that the earthquake had a magnitude of 32 on the Richter scale.
The epicenter was near downtown, along one of the major faults, and the seismologist warns that there will be some aftershocks.
I'm glad the earthquake wasn't a high-intensity one.
I wish they could predict more accurately when those earthquakes are going to happen.
Yeah, me too.
I've looked around the house and don't see any damage, though.
I guess our house won't be declared a disaster area.
Don't be too sure.
Considering the mess you've made in the kitchen, it could easily be called a disaster area.
In that case, will you be sending aid?
I think I'm too tired to do the dishes.
You won't be getting any aid from me.
If you're hoping for a relief effort, you better ask the UN.
We hope this episode will not be declared a disaster area.
We thank Dr. Lucy Say for writing it.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again 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.
