Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 691, Dangerous Freeway Driving.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 691.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development.
Transcription by CastingWords How do you get a learning guide?
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This episode is called Dangerous Freeway or Highway Driving.
Let's get started.
You would think that driving several hours each way would get old really fast.
But I have ways of making an interminable drive seem much more exciting.
I like to drive fast on the freeways.
I usually pass all of the slower cars by staying in the passing lane.
When there's a slow moving car in the passing lane though, I tailgate it until the driver moves over to another lane.
If the driver doesn't move over, I weave back and forth from one lane to another until I get around it.
What can I say?
I just don't like anyone to keep me from the open road.
Sometimes I encounter another driver who likes to drive fast and And we have a drag race.
I know how to bird dog the other car until I see a way to speed up and overtake it.
That's why I almost always win.
As you can see, I know how to spice up a boring drive.
I hope to see you soon on the road.
Our story begins with the person telling the story, not me.
I don't do a lot of driving in my job.
But the person in our story does a lot of driving.
He says, Each way is another way of saying in both directions, going somewhere and coming back.
When you leave your house, go to your work, then leave your work at the end of the day and return to your house.
We would call that a round trip.
Well, this is both ways of the round trip, each way.
To get old here means to become boring, uninteresting.
We might say monotonous.
There are other meanings of that expression, get old.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
So he says, But I have ways of making an interminable drive seem much more exciting.
Interminable.
I-N-T-E-R-M-I-N-A-B-L-E means very long, almost without an end.
In fact, it does mean without an end, but more generally it means uninteresting, boring, very long.
That's the idea here.
The narrator here the person telling the story says that he has ways of making an interminable drive seem, or appear much more exciting.
How does he make it more exciting?
Well, he tells us.
He says he likes to drive fast on the freeways.
The freeway is the same as the highway.
In some parts of the U.S., they call it an expressway.
These are roads that are built that you can drive fast on.
Often, you don't even have to stop, especially if it's what we call an interstate freeway.
Those usually have no stops in them.
You get on and off. but you don't have stop signs or stoplights.
He says he likes to drive fast on the freeways.
I usually pass all of the slower cars by staying in the passing lane.
To pass P-A-S-S here means to drive your car around another car so that you can be in front of them or ahead of them.
Pass has many meanings in English.
Take a look once again at the learning guide for some more explanation.
So he likes to pass all of the slower cars, the cars moving more slowly.
How does he pass them?
He stays in the passing lane.
Lanes are the areas on the freeway where you have a line of cars driving.
If it's a two-lane freeway, there are cars in one direction and cars in the other direction.
Only one section of the road for each way.
Of course, in most cases Big cities.
In fact, in all of the United States you will find four-lane freeways with two lanes going each way, six-lane freeways, eight-lane freeways, ten-lane freeways and so forth.
Here in Southern California some of our freeways probably have total 12 or 14 lanes going, at least at their widest section.
However, there are only usually three or four lanes going in a single direction.
In the United States, the passing lane, the fastest lane is the lane that is farthest to the left.
The left lane is the lane where faster cars travel.
It's sometimes called the passing lane, because that's how you get around the slower moving cars in front of you.
Here in Los Angeles, I'm not sure about other cities, we also number the lanes.
The leftmost lane, the passing lane, is the number one lane.
Sometimes, when there are accidents, they will announce on the news that there is an accident blocking the number 4 lane.
That would be the lane 4 over from the left, and so forth.
Continuing on.
Then the narrator says that when there's a slow-moving car in the passing lane, in other words a car that is not going fast in the so-called fast lane or passing lane, he tailgates the car until the driver moves over to another lane.
To tailgate here means to follow another car too closely. meaning it's dangerous.
It's used sometimes by drivers to indicate to the driver in front of them that they need them or want them to move over.
Tailgating a car can be very dangerous as well as illegal.
There's another meaning of tailgate which, And that is to have a party, have a celebration where you eat and especially where you drink before a sporting event.
You drive your car to the parking lot and then you have a little party outside of the stadium before you go in.
That's called tailgating.
The reason is that when you have a big station wagon, a long car, the back door is called the tailgate door or simply the tailgate.
And that's where the expression, I think, comes from.
We used to tailgate at baseball games and soccer games when I was a boy many years ago.
The narrator says if the driver doesn't move over, doesn't move to the number two lane next to the number one or fast lane.
He weaves back and forth from one lane to another.
To weave, W-E-A-V-E, here means to change lanes many different times in order to go faster.
So there's a slow car in front of you, you move over to the next lane, and then there's another slow car, you move back to that original lane, and so forth.
In California, where we have many lanes going in each direction, it's a little easier for you to do.
People do it all the time.
Weave back and forth.
But of course, it can also be dangerous if you are weaving or moving at a high speed.
The narrator says what can I say?
That expression, an informal one, means that you are saying that what you do is not good, is bad or is inappropriate, perhaps even dangerous, but that you are not going to change the way you act.
You might say, what can I say?
I know smoking is bad for me, but I'm going to continue to smoke.
That's not a personal example.
I don't smoke.
But someone who does could say that.
So he says, what can I say?
I just don't like anyone to keep me from the open road.
To keep someone from someone else or something means to prevent that person from having or doing something.
Not allow them to have or do something.
The narrator doesn't like anyone keeping him from the open road.
The open road is the idea that you can drive fast down the freeway and there are very few other cars around you.
Here he's referring to slow-moving cars, if you remember.
He's trying to get around them so he can move fast.
Some people like the feeling of driving fast.
He says, sometimes I encounter, that is, I meet another driver who likes to drive fast and we have a drag race.
A drag, D-R-A-G, race, is an informal competition to see which car can go fast enough.
If you've watched a movie about the 1950s and 60s in the United States, you may have seen a drag race where two high school boys will be in their cars and they will race to see who is the fastest.
That's a drag race.
More commonly perhaps, two usually young male drivers will be next to each other at a stoplight and they will race each other to the next stoplight or to wherever they're going.
The narrator says To bird dog.
Two words means to observe, to watch, to monitor something very carefully.
He bird dogs or watches the other car until he sees a way, sees a manner in which he can speed up.
To speed up means to go faster, to accelerate, we could also say.
He speeds up and he overtakes others.
To overtake someone means to go faster than them so that you are in front of them.
You were behind them before, but now you go in front of them because you are moving faster.
That's why he says he almost always wins these drag races, because he's able to speed up and overtake the other car.
Finally, he says, as you can see, I know how to spice up a boring drive.
To spice up is a two-word phrasal verb, meaning here to make something more exciting, to make something more interesting.
Spice is what you add to food that gives it a different taste or perhaps, for certain kinds of food, makes it hotter hotter in taste, not necessarily temperature.
So he spices up his boring drive.
He ends by saying, I hope to see you soon on the road.
On the road means in your car while you are traveling.
Of course, most of us hope that we don't see this kind of dangerous driver on the road or anywhere else.
That's what happens when you get older.
You realize just how dangerous you were when you were younger.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.
I do a lot of driving in my job.
You would think that driving several hours each way would get old really fast.
But I have ways of making an internal drive seem much more exciting.
I like to drive fast on the freeways.
I usually pass all of the slower cars by staying in the passing lane.
When there's a slow-moving car in the passing lane though, I tailgate it until the driver moves over to another lane.
If the driver doesn't move over, I weave back and forth from one lane to another until I get around it.
What can I say?
I just don't like anyone to keep me from the open road.
Sometimes I encounter another driver who likes to drive fast, and we have a drag race.
I know how to bird dog the other car until I see a way to speed up and overtake it.
That's why I almost always win.
As you can see, I know how to spice up a boring drive.
I hope to see you soon on the road.
Our scripts never get old.
Even after writing hundreds and hundreds, our scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say, spices them up and keeps them interesting.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Not very interesting, but I thank you for listening and hope that you'll listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
