Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 761, Animals in a Zoo.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 761.
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, become a member, download a learning guide, and support ESL Podcast.
This episode is called Animals in a Zoo.
We're going to talk about animals in a zoo.
Let's get started.
I can't wait to see the elephants at the zoo.
I wish I could see them in their natural habitat, but a zoo is the next best thing.
I don't want to go to a place where animals are kept in captivity.
How would you like it if you were locked in a cage and gawked at all day?
The animals in zoos are lucky.
They have a nice safe place to live, away from predators and their handlers.
Make sure they never go hungry.
Zoos preserve endangered species.
If you think it's so nice living in zoos, I'd like to see you switch places with a lion or a monkey for a month and see how you like it.
Animals aren't people.
They don't have the same wants and needs.
That's what you think.
One day, the animals aren't going to take it anymore.
They'll rise up and break their shackles.
And will you be their ringleader?
No, I'll be their cheering section.
It's about time animals get some respect.
Have you seen Planet of the Apes?
I'll reserve a cage for you.
Deborah begins our dialogue by saying to Zach, I can't wait to see the elephants at the zoo.
I can't wait means she's looking forward to it.
She wants very much to see the mammals, technically.
They can typically be found in Africa, as well as in parts of Asia.
I can only think of one famous elephant that would be Dumbo from the Disney movie.
Elephants are large, huge animals.
They have long what we call trunks that come from the front of their face, like a long nose.
Although I think it has functions of both a nose and a mouth, at least some of them.
Anyway...
Deborah wants to see elephants at the zoo.
The zoo is a park where there are many animals.
The animals are usually kept in containers we would call cages.
They are put in cages, in part so they don't leave and in part to protect the people who are looking at them.
Deborah says, Your habitat, H-A-B-I-T-A-T, refers to a place where you live.
Natural habitat for an animal would be the places where you would find them out in the world, not inside of a man-made cage or zoo.
Deborah says, a zoo is the next best thing.
When we say something is the next best thing, we mean it's not the best option, the best possibility, but it's the second best.
Zach says, I don't want to go to a place where where animals are kept in captivity.
The expression in captivity C-A-P-T-I-V-I-T-Y means that you are held in a certain place and you can't leave.
If you are a prisoner, you may be said to be held in captivity.
Normally we use the expression when talking about animals, however.
Animals who are put into cages could be said to be held in captivity or kept in captivity.
Zach says, Zach doesn't like zoos.
He doesn't like the fact that the animals are put in cages.
So he asks Deborah, How would you like it if you were put in a cage?
A cage, as we mentioned, is a large box, usually with metal bars that prevent the animal inside from leaving.
He asks Deborah how she would feel if she were being gawked at all day.
To gawk...
G-A-W-K at someone is to stare at them, to look at them for a long time, but sort of in a stupid way, often with your mouth open, because it's so weird, it's so unusual.
It's considered rude or impolite to gawk at people, to look at them.
And that's what Zach is saying.
To look at someone in such a way as though they were an animal.
That would be considered rude.
Sometimes we talk about tourists who come to los angeles gawking at celebrities, that they might see famous people staring at them, looking at them, pointing at them.
That's something that people who live in los angeles usually don't do, not because they're not excited to see famous people, But because the general rule here is that you don't stop a famous person and ask them for their autograph or try to talk to them.
Typically, you just leave them alone.
You pretend like you see famous people every day and it's really not that important that you're seeing them.
Well, Zach doesn't like zoos.
He doesn't want to go gawk at animals.
Deborah says, however, that the animals in zoos are lucky.
They're fortunate.
They have a nice, safe place to live away from predators.
Predators?
P-R-E-D-A-T-O-R-S.
Here, refer to animals that hunt and eat other animals.
If an animal is in a zoo, it doesn't have to worry about being eaten by predators.
Deborah says that the animal's handlers make sure they never go hungry.
A handler H-A-N-D-L-E-R in this dialogue means a zookeeper, the person whose job it is to take care of the animals in the zoo.
Deborah says the handlers make sure that the animals never go hungry.
They always have food to eat.
Zoos, she says, preserve endangered species.
A species is a type of animal.
Endangered means that it's possible that the species, the animals of that type might not survive, that we might kill all of them.
Endangered species are animals that are in danger because if we don't protect them, there may not be any of them anymore.
This happens often when animals are hunted, are caught or shot with a gun by humans, of course.
Or if something disturbs their habitat.
If something changes the place where they're living, they may go extinct.
To go extinct, E-X-T-I-N-C-T, means that they will no longer exist, that all of them will die.
That's an endangered species, a species that is not extinct, but is in danger of becoming extinct.
Zach says if you think it's so nice living in zoos, I'd like to see you Deborah, switch places with a lion or a monkey for a month and see how you like it.
To switch places means to go in the place of someone else, to exchange your place for his place.
Zach is saying that she should switch places with a lion, which is a very large cat-like animal.
And because it's cat-like, you probably can guess I don't really like lions.
Zach mentions monkeys.
Monkeys are small, human-like animals, we could say.
They have long arms and legs and they can go and hold on to things with their hands.
They can swing, we would say, jump from tree to tree, for example.
Deborah says, animals aren't people.
They don't have the same wants and needs.
Zach says, that's what you think.
That expression, that's what you think, means I disagree with you.
You think that, but you don't know the truth.
That's what the expression is trying to communicate here.
Zach says one day the animals aren't going to take it anymore, meaning they're not going to tolerate.
They're not going to permit.
They're not going to stand being in cages.
They're going to get mad, if you will, and they're going to break out of their cages, leave them.
Zach says they'll rise up and break their shackles.
To rise up is a phrasal verb meaning to fight against the people or the organizations with authority that have been treating you badly.
When you have a revolution, the people rise up.
They get rid of the government they have now.
Shackles, S-H-A-C-K-L-E-S, are things that you put on a prisoner's feet so they won't run away.
To break your shackles means to take these off so you can escape, you can run away.
Zach is saying that the animals are going to rise up and break their shackles, meaning they're going to get their freedom from the zoo.
Deborah says, and will you be their ringleader?
She's asking Zach if he will be the person who leads these animals.
A ringleader is usually someone who is the responsible person for a revolution or a rebellion.
Zach says, no, I'll be their cheering section.
To cheer, C-H-E-E-R...
Here means to encourage, by yelling or shouting or clapping your hands, some team, usually a sports team, that you want to win a game.
But in this case, the cheering section refers to people who would support a certain activity.
They're not doing it themselves, but they are encouraging other people to do it.
And that's what Zach would do if the animals rose up and broke their shackles, as he says.
He says it's about time animals get some respect.
It's about time means now is the time.
It has been too long.
We should be giving animals now some respect.
Deborah says have you seen Planet of the Apes?
Planet of the Apes is a movie, a 1968 movie, with a famous actor named Charlton Heston.
In the movie, the animals, specifically the apes, which is a kind of animal similar to a, are ruling the planet.
The apes are now in control and the humans are the ones who are in the cages.
Deborah asks if Zach has seen this movie, because in the movie the humans don't get very good treatment.
That's why she says at the end, I'll reserve a cage for you.
To reserve means to set aside, to say, this person can use it at this time.
But Deborah is really saying that if the animals rise up, if the animals take over the world, Humans will not be treated very well and Zach will have to be in a cage, just like the animals are now.
It won't be a very happy situation, she says.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I can't wait to see the elephants at the zoo.
I wish I could see them in their natural habitat, but a zoo is the next best thing.
I don't want to go to a place where animals are kept in captivity.
How would you like it if you were locked in a cage and gawked at all day?
The animals in zoos are lucky.
They have a nice safe place to live, away from predators and their handlers.
Make sure they never go hungry.
Zoos preserve endangered species.
If you think it's so nice living in zoos, I'd like to see you switch places with a lion or a monkey for a month and see how you like it.
Animals aren't people.
They don't have the same wants and needs.
That's what you think.
One day, the animals aren't going to take it anymore.
They'll rise up and break their shackles.
And will you be their ringleader?
No, I'll be their cheering section.
It's about time animals get some respect.
Have you seen Planet of the Apes?
I'll reserve a cage for you.
I hope you're in the cheering section for our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
