Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 738, Talking to a Mechanic.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 738.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpodcom.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Talking to a Mechanic.
A mechanic is a person who fixes cars, automobiles.
Let's get started.
Hi, I'm the mechanic.
What can I do for you?
My car is making a very weird noise.
It sounds like this.
Glug, glug, glug.
Hmm, that doesn't sound good.
Where is it coming from?
I'm not sure.
When I'm in the car, it sounds like it's coming from the engine.
But when I get out of the car, it sounds like it's coming from directly under the trunk.
Maybe the muffler?
That's not a noise a muffler would make.
Let me take a look.
Can you start the car and pop the hood?
Sure.
Well, I don't hear the sound right now, but your battery needs replacing, you have a coolant leak, your carburetor needs adjusting and your spark plugs are shot.
I need to look under the car.
Okay, go ahead.
Your brake pads need replacing, and your tires need balancing.
But are any of those problems causing that horrible noise?
I don't know.
I don't hear the noise right now, so it's hard to tell.
But that's all work you need to have done on this car anyway for it to run right.
It's only a matter of time before your car stops working if you don't take care of those problems.
I come in with one problem and you find ten others.
I guess you should go ahead.
What else can I do?
Um, buy a bus pass?
Our episode begins with the mechanic, the person who fixes cars asking, or rather saying I am the mechanic.
What can I do for you?
How can I help you?
Amy says, my car is making a very weird noise, a very strange noise.
It sounds like this.
The mechanic says, hmm, that doesn't sound good.
Where is it coming from?
Where is the sound coming from?
Amy says, The engine is the motor.
It's the part of the car, usually in front, that makes the car go.
It gives it power.
Amy says but when I get out of the car the noise sounds like it's coming from directly under the trunk.
Maybe the muffler?
The trunk.
T-R-U-N-K is the back part of the car, the part that usually you store things in.
You put things in to keep while you are driving.
Amy says that the sound sounds like it's coming from under or underneath the trunk.
Maybe she's guessing the muffler.
A muffler.
M?
U F F L E?
R is a part of the car that that muffles or covers lessens the noise from the car.
The mechanic says, that's not a noise a muffler would make.
So the sound that Amy made didn't sound like a sound a muffler would make, according to the mechanic.
He says, let me take a look.
Can you start the car, can you turn the car on, and pop the hood?
The hood, H-O-O-D, here means the cover of the front of the car.
We talked about the trunk of the car in the back.
The front of the car has a metal cover over it, and we call that the hood.
To pop the hood means to open the hood.
In many cars, there's a little button that you either push or pull that unlocks the hood.
You push it in or you pull it out.
That's where we get the verb to pop, to unleash, to unlock in one quick action.
So the mechanic opens the hood after Amy pops the hood and, although the dialogue doesn't indicate he clearly had to take some time to look at the engine and the parts underneath the hood.
He comes back and says, well, I don't hear the sound right now, but your battery needs replacing.
Your battery is a source of stored electrical power that is used to help start the car, as well as for other parts of your car that require electricity.
The mechanic also tells Amy that she has a coolant leak.
Coolant.
C-O-O-L-A-N-T is a liquid that you put into the car's motor, technically into the radiator of the car.
That helps keep the engine cool, so it doesn't get too hot.
A radiator is something that gives off or radiates heat, in this case to try to get rid of the heat.
You can also have a radiator in your house.
It's not the same as a car radiator, but it has the same function of giving off heat to help warm up your house.
Some old houses still have radiators.
The house that I grew up in had metal radiators all along and through the house.
But anyway, we're talking about cars, not my old house.
The mechanic thinks that Amy has a coolant leak.
A leak.
L-E-A-K.
Here means the slow movement of liquid coming out of some container or some hose, usually through a small hole that you don't want to be there.
The mechanic also says that Amy's carburetor needs adjusting.
A carburetor, C-A-R-B-U-R-E-T-O-R, is the part of the car engine that mixes the gasoline with air so that it can be used in the engine.
The mechanic also says that Amy's spark plugs are shot.
The spark, S-P-A-R-K, plugs, are the parts of the car that create a spark.
It's almost like a small, quick fire to make the gasoline burn and to help run the engine.
When we say something is shot, S-H-O-T, that can have a couple of different meanings.
Here, it means completely ruined, no longer able to work or function properly.
That's one meaning of shot.
There are other meanings that can be found in our learning guide.
Our learning guide, also in this episode, talks about other meanings of the word trunk, which we talked about earlier.
So the mechanic finds all these problems here.
Then he says, I need to look under or underneath the car.
Amy says, OK, go ahead.
And again we assume that the mechanic has taken some time, even though it isn't indicated in our dialogue.
Either that or he's the most intelligent mechanic in the world.
The mechanic says, Your brake pads need replacing and your tires need balancing.
Your brakes are the parts of the car that slow the car down or stop the car.
A brake pad is a part of the brakes that pushes against part of the wheel in order to slow it or stop it.
And typically, after so many miles, you need to replace or get new brake pads.
And that's what the mechanic is saying Amy needs to do.
She also needs to have her tires balanced.
Cars typically have four wheels, and around the wheel there is something made of rubber that's called a tire T-I-R-E.
When you put new tires on, sometimes they have to be balanced so that they're all basically the same in terms of how they're adjusted.
Amy says but are any of those problems causing that horrible noise, that bad noise that she came in and asked the mechanic about at the beginning of our dialogue?
The mechanic says, I don't know.
I don't hear the noise right now so it's hard to tell.
When we say something is hard to tell we mean it's difficult to know.
It's difficult to determine or figure out.
But that's all work, all of those repairs you need to have done on this car anyway for it to run right, for it to operate correctly.
It's only a matter of time, he says, before your car stops working if you don't take care of those problems.
It's only a matter of time means that something will definitely happen in the future, eventually.
You don't know when exactly, but you know, if things continue as they are now, this thing will eventually happen.
It's only a matter of time that all of us are going to die.
It will happen to every one of us.
We don't know when, someday, hopefully not too soon for most of us.
Amy then says, I come in, meaning I come here, with one problem, the noise, and you find ten others.
I guess you should go ahead, meaning I guess you should go ahead and do the repairs, and What else can I do?
That's something that many of us feel when we go into a mechanic.
We don't know what the problem is.
They tell us they know what the problem is and they fix it, but we're never really sure exactly, in most cases, what the problem was.
We have to trust the mechanic to a certain extent.
Amy asks, what else can I do?
What other choice do I have but to get these repairs made?
The mechanic says, buy a bus pass.
A bus pass is usually a little card or piece of paper that allows you to get on and off of the public buses.
You usually pay a certain amount for a week or a month or 10 days, or sometimes you pay for the number of rides that you take.
You can get on the bus 10 times, for example.
All of these are examples of bus passes.
You can have a pass to a lot of things.
In many cases, it means a ticket to something.
And that's really what a bus pass is.
It's a ticket to get on and off.
Well, to get on the bus.
They don't usually ask for a ticket to get off the bus.
Although that might be a good way of making some more money.
I'm not sure.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hi, I'm the mechanic.
What can I do for you?
My car is making a very weird noise.
It sounds like this.
Glug, glug, glug.
Hmm, that doesn't sound good.
Where is it coming from?
I'm not sure.
When I'm in the car, it sounds like it's coming from the engine.
But when I get out of the car, it sounds like it's coming from directly under the trunk.
Maybe the muffler?
That's not a noise a muffler would make.
Let me take a look.
Can you start the car and pop the hood?
Sure.
Well, I don't hear the sound right now, but your battery needs replacing, you have a coolant leak, your carburetor needs adjusting and your spark plugs are shot.
I need to look under the car.
Okay, go ahead.
Your brake pads need replacing and your tires need balancing.
But are any of those problems causing that horrible noise?
I don't know.
I don't hear the noise right now, so it's hard to tell.
But that's all work you need to have done on this car anyway for it to run right.
It's only a matter of time before your car stops working if you don't take care of those problems.
I come in with one problem and you find ten others.
I guess you should go ahead.
What else can I do?
Buy a bus pass?
It's hard to tell what our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, looks like by going to our website.
But trust me, she really does exist.
And she's the best podcast scriptwriter in the world.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and 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.
