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Podcast number 775 Making Repairs on the Outside of a House.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 775.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is called Making Repairs on the Outside of a House.
Let's get started.
Watch out!
Are you okay?
I'm fine, but I almost tripped over that crack in the driveway.
We've got to get that fixed.
I know it's a hazard, but first things first.
We should fix those broken front steps, don't you think?
I see what you mean.
And we have to repair that part of the fence that's falling down, see?
If it leans anymore, we won't be able to open the gate.
Oh, I didn't realize the fence was falling down.
Yes, you're right.
We should take care of those things first.
And the porch light is out.
I'm not sure if we just need to replace the bulb or if it's an electrical issue.
I admit I've been putting off the repairs too.
All right.
I know what we'll be doing this weekend.
All weekend.
Maggie begins by saying to Conrad, watch out.
Watch out means be careful.
It's a phrase we use to warn someone that something bad is going to happen very soon, usually something that may hurt them physically.
Maggie says, are you okay?
Conrad says, I'm fine, but I almost tripped over that crack in the driveway.
To trip, T-R-I-P, over something means to hit your foot on something and then to fall.
In our story, our dialogue, Conrad trips over a crack that is in the driveway.
The driveway is an area where you can drive your car, when you pull your car off of the street, when you drive it off of the street next to your house or your apartment building.
The place between the street and the garage where you drive your car.
That's called the driveway.
One word.
A crack is when you have an opening in either a wall or it could be In this case, the driveway.
The driveway is made of a very hard material called concrete, typically.
And sometimes there are holes, there are lines that form in the concrete.
And this causes the driveway to have an uneven spot, a spot where suddenly it's a little higher, a little taller than what comes before it.
And if you are walking along and you don't see it, you could trip over it.
It's sort of like if there were a piece of wood lying on the ground and you didn't see it, your foot would hit it and you might fall.
Conrad says that he has to get this crack fixed.
To fix means to repair, to get it so that it is normal again.
Maggie said, A hazard H-A-Z-A-R-D is something that could cause damage or injury, something that could hurt you.
The adjective hazardous is used to describe things, liquids, chemicals, materials that can hurt you.
A hazard, as a noun, is that thing, that thing that could hurt you.
Maggie says.
The expression first things first is used to mean that you need to do the most important things first.
You have lots of things to do today, but you have to put them in a certain priority.
It's become popular in the last few decades to say prioritize, to make a verb out of priority.
Don't really love that.
Prefer myself just to say to make it a priority.
That's what Maggie says.
We need to do first things first, the most important things first.
She thinks that is to fix those broken front steps.
The front steps.
S-T-E-P-S are the stairs that go from the outside of the house to the inside of the house.
It's what allows you to go into a house if the door is higher up than the ground outside.
We call these steps when they're outside of the house.
Inside of the house, we would call them stairs.
However, that's not always the case.
Sometimes people will talk about the steps as being the individual levels.
So you could talk about the second step of the stairs.
But when someone says front steps, they're always referring to the stairs or steps that are on the outside of the house that allow you to come into the house.
Conrad says, I see what you mean.
He agrees with Maggie.
Maggie then says, and we have to repair that part of the fence that's falling down.
A fence, F-E-N-C-E, is like a wall that you have around your house.
Normally it's made of wood or metal and it keeps people from coming into your house, or it may keep animals or children from going outside of your property.
You often have a fence separating two different properties, two different houses here in the United States.
I have a fence in the back of my house and on both sides of my house separating me from the houses around me.
Well, Maggie thinks that the fence needs to be fixed because it's falling down, meaning parts of it are broken or it is going to hit the ground.
It's going to, instead of be vertical up and down, it's going to be lying down on the ground.
And then, of course, it wouldn't be a fence anymore.
That's really what Maggie means.
She says, if the fence leans anymore, we won't be able to open the gate.
To lean, L-E-A-N, can mean to rest yourself against something else.
If you are standing up and you are tired, you may lean against the wall.
Your body will touch the wall, sort of as if you were resting.
For a fence to lean, however, we mean that it is no longer perfectly vertical.
It is starting to fall down towards the ground.
Maggie says that if the fence leans any more than it is now, we won't be able to open the gate.
The gate is a door in the fence that allows you to go down, in and out of the area that the fence is protecting.
So it's a way to go through the fence.
It's a door in the fence.
Conrad says, Yes, you're right.
We should take care of those things first.
Conrad is the perfect husband, you see here.
He's agreeing to everything his wife is telling him.
Maggie says, because now she sees that Conrad is agreeing with her, and the porch light is out.
The porch is an area in front of your house.
That's part of the house, but usually is not an area that has windows.
That's not always true either.
In my house my old house where I lived in Minnesota we had a porch, but it was a porch that had windows so that you could sit outside there.
Usually a porch isn't heated in the wintertime.
It's not part of the regular house.
And that's probably the only difference that I can think of in terms of the porch that i grew up with.
Many people have outdoor porches that are just areas that are covered.
They have sort of a little roof over them in front of the house where they can sit and watch the people walk by.
I guess There's a light in the porch of Conrad and Maggie's house that is out.
When we say it's out, we mean it's broken.
In this case, the light no longer works.
Usually out is used to describe something.
A light that no longer works, no longer comes on, we would say, or turns on.
Maggie says I'm not sure if we just need to replace or put in a new bulb or if it's an electrical issue.
Bulb, B-U-L-B, is a lightbulb.
That's the thing that produces the light.
Electrical refers to electricity, which is the power that turns, in this case, the light bulb on.
If it's an electrical issue, it may be something with the wires, for example.
Those are the long, thin pieces of metal that bring power to the light bulb or to any other electrical device.
Conrad says, I didn't realize the outside of our house was in such disrepair.
Disrepair means broken, not working correctly.
He says I've been traveling too much for work, meaning I have been traveling for my job and so I haven't seen all of these problems.
Maggie says, I admit I've been putting off the repairs, too.
To put off is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to delay doing something, especially something that should be done now.
I'm going to put off that decision.
I'm not going to decide today, I'm going to do it next week.
So to put off means to delay something.
Conrad says all right, I know what we're doing this weekend, all weekend, meaning it's going to take all of our days this weekend, this Saturday and Sunday, to finish repairing all of these problems on the outside of the house.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Watch out!
Are you okay?
I'm fine, but I almost tripped over that crack in the driveway.
We've got to get that fixed.
I know it's a hazard, but first things first, we should fix those broken front steps, don't you think?
I see what you mean.
And we have to repair that part of the fence that's falling down.
See?
If it leans anymore, we won't be able to open the gate.
And the porch light is out.
I'm not sure if we just need to replace the bulb or if it's an electrical issue.
I admit I've been putting off the repairs, too.
All right, I know what we'll be doing this weekend, all weekend.
I won't put off thanking our script writer for this episode.
I'll do it right now.
Thank you, 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.
