Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 754, Being in a Flood.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 754.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, download the learning guide, and improve your English faster than ever.
This episode is called Being in a Flood.
A flood is when there is too much water.
The river has too much water and it goes beyond the river.
Let's get started.
Well, that was a rude awakening at two o'clock in the morning.
At least we got out of our room before it flooded.
It serves us right for planning a vacation here during the rainy season.
Our luggage is probably soaked.
Oh, no.
I'd forgotten about our clothes.
If the water doesn't recede soon, everything will have mold and mildew on it.
The sump pumps are working as we speak.
Hopefully, we can retrieve our stuff soon.
Maybe I should go downstairs and try to salvage what I can before things get washed away.
What?
You could drown in all that water.
Forget it.
Drown in three feet of water?
Don't be silly.
I've seen you swim.
Come on, let's just wait until we get the go-ahead.
I still think I should try.
Enough said.
Sharice begins by saying, well, that was a rude awakening at two o'clock in the morning.
To be awakened means to be woken up.
So an awakening is when you are sleeping and then you wake up.
A rude awakening is would be an awakening that was very sudden because of a loud noise, perhaps.
Cherise says that she received a rude awakening at 2 o'clock in the morning, 2 a.m.
Don says, at least we got out of our room before it flooded.
To flood F-L-O-O-D as a verb, is when a building or an area is suddenly covered with water when it isn't supposed to be.
So if a river, for example, has too much water, it may flood the areas around the river, and To be flooded is to be in the condition of having too much water.
Don says, The expression to serve someone right means to get what you deserve.
Because of your own actions, you should have expected something bad to happen.
So someone is talking on a cell phone while driving a car and suddenly they aren't paying attention and they hit another car.
We might say, well, that serves them right.
They should have known, but because of their own actions, something bad happened to them, not to mention the other car.
Well, Don and Cherise planned a vacation somewhere during the rainy season, the time of year when it rains a lot which, of course, will be different in different places.
Los Angeles has something of a rainy season in the winter and early spring.
Not very much, however.
Don says that our luggage, our baggage, the things we use to put our clothes in.
He says our luggage is probably soaked.
To be soaked, S-O-A-K-E-D, is to be very wet.
We might also use the term drenched, D-R-E-N-C-H-E-D.
It's completely full of water.
If you walk out into the rain... and you have your clothing on, you will probably get soaked.
Your clothes will all be very wet.
That's what Don is talking about.
He says our luggage is probably soaked.
Cherise says, oh no, I'd forgotten about our clothes, our clothing.
If the water doesn't recede soon...
Everything will have mold and mildew on it.
To recede, R-E-C-E-D-E, means for something to go back, to move backwards.
If the water receded...
The water will go back to where it belongs.
So if a river floods and then the water recedes, the water goes away from the places where it shouldn't have been back into the river.
You can talk about someone's hairline receding, especially a man.
Your hairline is where you still have hair on your head, the line, if you will, that separates the hair from the skin, the part of your head that doesn't have hair.
If you have a receding hairline, that means you're losing your hair.
You have less and less of it every year.
Though they say men with receding hairlines are more intelligent than other men, I'm not really sure.
Cherise is worried that the clothes will have mold and mildew on them.
Mold, M-O-L-D, are actually very small plants that grow on objects that are a little bit wet.
We would say damp, D-A-M-P.
Often food or some objects.
They are green and black, typically in color.
Sometimes mold will have a certain unpleasant smell.
Mold, especially on things in your house, is almost always a bad thing.
Mildew, M-I-L-D-E-W, are also very small plants, like mold.
Usually they are either white or green.
They're very similar to mold.
Normally we associate mildew with clothing.
So if clothing gets wet and then it stays that way for a long time, it's in a closet or some other place that's damp, that's slightly wet, it may become mildewed and you can't really wear it anymore.
It has a certain smell to it that you don't want to have on your body.
Don says that the sump pumps are working as we speak.
A sump P-U-M-P is a special machine that is used to remove water, for example, from the bottom of a building or a house, from the basement, the floor below the ground.
If you get a lot of water in your house, you may need one of these sump pumps to get rid of the water.
Don says the sump pumps are working as we speak.
The expression as we speak means right now at this very moment.
Don says, hopefully, we hope, we can retrieve our stuff soon.
To retrieve, R-E-T-R-I-E-V-E, means to go somewhere and get something and bring it back.
Cherise says Maybe I should go downstairs and try to salvage what I can before things get washed away.
To salvage S-A-L-V-A-G-E means to save what can be saved from a group of things that otherwise are being destroyed or will be destroyed soon because of rain or floods or whatever.
I'm going to try to salvage.
I'm going to try to take what I can save and get rid of the rest.
Charisse wants to salvage their luggage before things get washed away.
Washed away would mean taken away by the water, the water that is part of the flood in this case.
Don says, what?
You could drown in all of that water.
To drown, D-R-O-W-N, means to die while you are underwater.
The water fills up your lungs, you cannot breathe, and so you die.
That is to drown.
Don says, forget it.
Cherise says, drown in three feet of water?
Don't be silly.
She's saying that the water is only three feet high, and therefore she won't drown.
So she's telling Don that he is wrong.
She says don't be silly.
Don says I've seen you swim.
Come on, let's just wait until we get the go-ahead.
The go-ahead is a way of saying approval.
When someone in authority says yes, you can do that.
Don is waiting for the authorities to say it's okay for them to go back downstairs and look at their stuff.
Try to salvage their stuff.
But Cherise wants to go.
She says, I still think I should try.
Don says, I have one word for you.
Snakes.
A snake, S-N-A-K-E, is a long animal that doesn't have any legs.
It moves around on the ground.
It can sometimes bite you, and it has sometimes poison that can kill you.
Don uses an expression we sometimes use in English for emphasis, to get someone's attention.
We say, I have one word for you, and that one word will explain everything.
In this case, the word is snakes.
Obviously, Charisse is scared or frightened of snakes.
She responds by saying, enough said.
The phrase enough said shows that you have heard what the person has said and you agree or understand it completely.
So the other person doesn't have to say any more.
I get it.
I understand.
There are snakes downstairs.
Why?
I'm not really sure.
But there are snakes downstairs, and I don't like snakes.
Therefore, I am not going downstairs.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Well, that was a rude awakening at 2 o'clock in the morning.
At least we got out of our room before it flooded.
It serves us right for planning a vacation here during the rainy season.
Our luggage is probably soaked.
Oh no, I'd forgotten about our clothes.
If the water doesn't recede soon, everything will have mold and mildew on it.
The sump pumps are working as we speak.
Hopefully, we can retrieve our stuff soon.
Maybe I should go downstairs and try to salvage what I can before things get washed away.
What?
You could drown in all that water.
Forget it.
Drown in three feet of water?
Don't be silly.
I've seen you swim.
Come on, let's just wait until we get the go ahead.
I still think I should try.
I have one word for you.
Snakes.
Enough said.
Our script writer is writing wonderful scripts as we speak.
That's the hard-working Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
