Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 629, Being Hungry and Full.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 629.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from From the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
You probably know that.
But did you know you can download a learning guide for this episode?
An 8 to 10 page guide that will help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is a dialogue between Steve and Brandy about being hungry.
Let's eat.
I mean, let's get started.
I'm finally home and I'm hungry.
What's for dinner?
I'm making a new dish.
I think you're really going to like it.
Oh, good.
Bring it on.
Well, I miscalculated the cooking time a little and it's going to take longer than I originally planned.
I know you're famished.
Here's a snack for you to munch on while you wait.
I skipped lunch and had to work late.
I know, but I also know you're dying for something really good.
I promise that it'll be worth the wait.
Okay, but I could eat a horse right now.
Bring me something else to snack on.
Don't be too greedy and eat too much.
I don't want you to spoil your appetite.
I know that what I'm cooking is something you've been craving for a long time and you want to save your appetite for it.
Alright, I'll wait.
How much longer will it be?
Oh, maybe an hour or a little longer.
Another hour?
I'll be dead and buried by then.
Steve begins by saying I'm finally home and I'm hungry.
I want to eat what's for dinner.
Brandy says I'm making a new dish.
I think you're really going to like it.
Dish here means a type of food, food that is part of what you are eating for your dinner or lunch or any meal.
Dish has a couple of meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some additional explanations.
Steve says, oh good, bring it on.
This phrase, bring it on, is used to show that you are very interested in something.
You're very anxious, excited about something happening.
You want it to happen right away.
Sometimes it's used in a competition when somebody says, I'm going to beat you at basketball.
And you say, bring it on, meaning, okay, I accept your challenge.
I think I can beat you.
That's the general idea.
Brandy says well, I miscalculated the cooking time a little and it's going to take longer than I originally planned.
To miscalculate is the opposite of to calculate in some ways.
It means to make a mistake in your calculations, to make a mistake in your math, in adding or subtracting or, in this case, really in estimating the amount of time it will take for the food to cook.
So miscalculate means Not actually the opposite, but really means to calculate poorly, to do a bad job at calculating.
Brandy did a bad job of calculating the cooking time, the amount of time needed for the food to cook.
So it's going to take longer than she had planned.
She says, I know you're famished.
To be famished means to be extremely hungry, to be very, very hungry.
We sometimes use this word to talk about a situation where a country or an area doesn't have enough food for the people to survive.
We would call that a famine situation.
F-A-M-I-N-E.
To be famished although it appears to be a related word usually just means in normal conversation to be extremely hungry, to be very very, very hungry.
Brandy says that she knows Steve is famished.
She says here's a snack for you to munch on while you wait.
A snack, S-N-A-C-K, is a small amount of food that you eat in between your meals.
Usually it's something sweet, something good to eat.
In this case, Brandy gives Steve a snack to munch on.
To munch, M-U-N-C-H, on something, means to eat food sometimes very noisily, very loudly...
And typically it's used when we are talking about snacks.
So you invite some friends over to watch a movie at your house and you get some popcorn and maybe some pretzels, other kinds of snacks, and people watch the movie while munching on the snacks.
You're eating these snacks slowly, but it's not a formal meal.
Steve says I'm half starved.
This is the same as famished.
I am extremely hungry.
He says I skipped lunch and had to work late.
To skip S-K-I-P means not to do something you would normally do.
I'm going to skip my exercise this morning because I got up late.
I normally exercise in the morning, but because I was late, I'm going to skip it today.
Skip has several meanings in English, all of which well, some of which can be found in the learning guide.
Brandy says I know, I know that you are half-starved, but I also know you're dying for something really good.
When somebody says I'm dying D-Y-I-N-G for something, they mean they want something.
They desire something a lot, with a very strong emotion.
I'm dying for some pizza.
I really want pizza.
So you want something very badly.
You could be dying for a new car or dying for a new dress.
Steve is dying for something really good to eat.
Brandy says, I promise that the meal, the food, will be worth the wait.
When someone says something is worth the wait, W-A-I-T.
They mean it's so good that it is something you'll want to wait perhaps a long time for.
You don't really want to wait, but it's so good that you will wait, and you will be happy when you are able, in this case, to eat the food.
But many things could be worth the wait a movie, a book that you have been waiting for to be published, and so forth.
Steve says, okay, but I could eat a horse right now.
This is an informal expression.
I could eat a horse to show that you are very hungry and could eat a lot of food.
A horse, of course, is an animal that you ride on.
It's a large animal.
I think that's the idea.
Most people don't eat horses, actually, here in the United States.
I've never had horse meat.
I hear it tastes like chicken.
Brandy says, don't be too greedy and eat too much.
Steve has asked to have something else to snack on, to eat as a snack.
But Brandy says, don't be too greedy, G-R-E-E-D-Y.
To be greedy means to want too much of something, to want more than what you actually need.
That's to be greedy.
Brandy says, I don't want you to spoil your appetite.
To spoil S-P-O-I-L your appetite means.
It means to eat a lot of things before the main meal so that when the main meal comes, you're not hungry anymore.
If you have some snacks and some fruit and you eat some things at say, 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Well, when you go to dinner at 6 or 7 o'clock, you may not be hungry.
You've spoiled your appetite.
Appetite is the desire to eat food.
To spoil means to ruin, to make something go bad.
Brandy says, I know that what I'm cooking is something you've been craving for for a long time.
To crave C-R-A-V-E means to want something very much, to want something very badly, especially food.
We talked about I'm dying for something.
To crave means the same thing but is usually used when talking about food.
I crave a piece of pumpkin pie.
Brandy says you'll want to save your appetite for what she's cooking.
To save your appetite means you're not going to eat something now so that later you have what we would call a big appetite.
You have a strong desire to want to eat a lot of food later.
It's in some ways the opposite of spoiling your appetite.
You're saving your appetite.
You're not eating so that you will be hungrier in the future.
Steve says, all right, I'll wait.
How much longer will it be?
How much longer will it take until the food is ready?
Brandy says, oh, maybe another hour or a little longer.
Steve says, another hour?
He's not very happy.
He says, I'll be dead and buried by then.
This expression to be dead and buried is used to emphasize that something will take too long, so long that I will have died by the time it is completed.
Of course, Steve won't actually be dead and buried.
It's just an informal way of saying a very long time.
To bury here means to put the body in the ground.
Of course Steve should be thankful that he has such a good wife that will spend all that time and make sure that he has a good dinner.
Instead of complaining, he should be thanking her.
Am I right, ladies?
Huh?
Thank you.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm finally home and I'm hungry.
What's for dinner?
I'm making a new dish.
I think you're really going to like it.
Oh, good.
Bring it on.
Well, I miscalculated the cooking time a little and it's going to take longer than I originally planned.
I know you're famished.
Here's a snack for you to munch on while you wait.
I'm half starved.
I skipped lunch and had to work late.
I know, but I also know you're dying for something really good.
I promise that'll be worth the wait.
Okay, but I could eat a horse right now.
Bring me something else to snack on.
Don't be too greedy and eat too much.
I don't want you to spoil your appetite.
I know that what I'm cooking is something you've been craving for a long time and you want to save your appetite for it.
All right, I'll wait.
How much longer will it be?
Oh, maybe another hour or a little longer.
Another hour?
I'll be dead and buried by then.
Our scripts are always worth the wait.
That's because they're written by our very own 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.
