Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 770, Joining a Tour.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 770.
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.
Become a member, support this podcast, and download a learning guide for each episode.
This episode is called Joining a Tour.
We're going to be taking a trip, a vacation, and we're going to be going with a group of other people.
Let's get started.
What are you looking at?
Tours for our vacation.
I was thinking that it'd be hard for us to get around on our own, so I think joining a tour is a good idea.
Really?
I thought we'd make our way around leisurely to see the sights.
I don't like the fast pace of tours.
I'd rather have the time to take in each site, not rush through it just to say I've been there.
Tours come in all shapes and sizes.
I'm sure we can find one that isn't too fast-paced or strenuous for you.
And I don't want to eat all my meals with the tour group.
I want some time to explore on our own.
Alright, I'm looking at a tour that has the perfect itinerary.
It's also gotten rave reviews.
It includes a tour guide, all admission fees accommodations, ground transportation and most of the meals, and there are several free mornings and afternoons built in so we can explore on our own.
I don't know.
The alternative is for you to plan each stop of our trip.
A tour is sounding better and better.
Daryl begins by saying to Alice, What are you looking at?
Alice says, A tour.
T-O-U-R, is an organized journey to see a city or a place.
Usually it's with a group of people and there is someone who is leading the tour called the tour guide.
Alice is looking for tours for her and Daryl's vacation.
She says I was thinking that it'd be hard for us to get around on our own, meaning it would be difficult for us to go to this place, wherever they're going, by themselves.
So I think joining a tour is a good idea signing up, paying and becoming a member of this group that will travel together.
Daryl says, really?
I thought we'd make our way around leisurely to see the sights.
To make our way around means to go by yourself, not with another group, to find out the interesting things, to look at things by yourself.
You don't have anyone helping you.
Leisurely.
L-E-I-S-U-R-E-L-Y is an adverb meaning slowly, in a very calm and relaxed, enjoyable way.
The sites, S-I-T-E-S, are places that you go to visit.
It could be a famous building.
It could be a beautiful park.
It might be a museum.
Anything that you would go as a tourist, as someone visiting another place, to see, that would be called a site.
Daryl says he doesn't like the fast pace of tours.
The pace, P-A-C-E, is the speed, how fast or how slow something goes.
I can talk at a fast pace or I can talk at a slow pace.
I can walk at a fast pace or walk at a slow pace.
Darrell says I'd rather have the time to take in each sight, not rush through it just to say I've been there.
To take in means to look at, to experience, to appreciate something.
If you come to Los Angeles, I would tell you to go and drive up along the ocean and take in the beautiful views, the beautiful scenery, the things that you can see, the ocean and so forth.
Well, Daryl says he wants time to take in each site, each place they visit, not rush through it just to say he's been there.
To rush through something is to do something very quickly, usually without enough time to do it well.
He doesn't want to go from one place to another place just to say that he was at those places.
He wants to actually stop and enjoy them.
Alice says tours come in all shapes and sizes.
The expression to come in all shapes and sizes means that there is a wide variety of options, a lot of different types, a lot of different ways that tours can be organized.
They're not all the same.
Alice says I'm sure we can find one that isn't, that is not too fast-paced or strenuous for you.
When we say something is strenuous...
S-T-R-E-N-U-O-U-S.
We mean it's difficult.
It requires a lot of perhaps physical work or mental concentration.
It's a lot of work.
Usually it's used when we talk about physical work, like lifting heavy boxes, for example.
Alice thinks she can find a tour that isn't too strenuous for Daryl.
Daryl says, and I don't want to eat all my meals with the tour group.
Your meals are your breakfast, your lunch, and your dinner.
It's often the case that on a tour, you go to a restaurant and everyone eats together.
Daryl doesn't want to do that.
He says, I want some time to explore on our own.
To explore means to go to someplace you've never been before, to try to learn new things.
To discover new things.
Daryl says he wants to explore.
Alice says, all right, I'm looking at a tour that has the perfect itinerary.
Itinerary is a planned schedule for a trip.
It shows exactly what you are going to be doing.
First you get up at 8 o'clock, then you eat breakfast, your bus leaves at 11 o'clock, you arrive at the museum at 1 o'clock, and so on.
That's an itinerary.
Alice says this tour... has gotten or has received rave reviews.
Rave reviews are when people say that something is very wonderful, it's excellent.
You may, for example, be thinking of going to a restaurant.
So you go online and you look at the reviews, what other people say about that restaurant.
If they are saying they're wonderful, then we say they are rave, R-A-V-E, reviews.
Rave has a couple of different meanings in English, however.
Take a look at our learning guide for some of those.
Alice says that this tour she found includes a tour guide.
Remember, that's the person who is the leader of the tour.
All admission fees, accommodations, ground transportation and most of our meals.
An admission fee is the amount of money that you pay to get into a museum or to get into some famous historical site.
The word fee, F-E-E, is price.
Admission is to get into something, to enter into something or to become part of something.
Accommodations is another word for the place where you are going to sleep at night.
We sometimes call this lodging, L-O-D-G-I-N-G.
Lodging and accommodations mean the same thing.
It's your hotel or whatever place you are staying at and sleeping at.
Ground transportation refers to how you get from one place to another by car bus train subway, anything that travels on the ground.
It does not include air travel.
We're not talking about airplanes, but we're talking about all the other ways that you can travel without leaving the ground.
Alice says there are several free mornings, meaning mornings that you don't have anything planned, that you can do what you want, and afternoons.
These free mornings and afternoons are built in. so they can explore on their own.
When we say something is built in, we mean it's included as part of the plan, as part of the itinerary.
We are planning that on the second day in the afternoon, we won't have any activities.
You can do whatever you want.
That's why Alice says they are built in.
They are part of the plan.
Daryl is not sure.
He says, I don't know.
Alice says, the alternative is for you to plan each stop of our trip.
The alternative means the other option or another way we can do this.
She says the alternative is for Daryl to plan each stop each day, each thing you do each day for their trip.
Daryl says a tour is sounding better and better.
Now that he has the option of doing everything himself or taking a tour, now he's more interested in taking the tour.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal pace.
What are you looking at?
I was thinking that it'd be hard for us to get around on our own, so I think joining a tour is a good idea.
Really?
I thought we'd make our way around leisurely to see the sights.
I don't like the fast pace of tours.
I'd rather have the time to take in each site, not rush through it just to say I've been there.
Tours come in all shapes and sizes.
I'm sure we can find one that isn't too fast-paced or strenuous for you.
And I don't want to eat all my meals with the tour group.
I want some time to explore on our own.
All right.
I'm looking at a tour that has the perfect itinerary.
It's also gotten rave reviews.
It includes a tour guide, all admission fees accommodations, ground transportation and most of the meals.
And there are several free mornings and afternoons built in so we can explore on our own.
I don't know.
The alternative is for you to plan each stop of our trip.
The tour is sounding better and better.
Our dialogues and stories come in all shapes and sizes.
We hope you don't rush through them.
We think they're pretty good because they're written by our wonderful script writer, 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.
