Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 798, Being Cautious or Thrill-Seeking.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 798.
© transcript Emily Beynon You can do that by becoming a member of ESL Podcast.
This episode is a dialogue between Paula and Robert about different kinds of personalities people who like to be careful or cautious and people who don't.
Let's get started.
Did you get an invitation to Kip and Sherry's wedding?
Yeah, I did.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the two of them getting married.
Never in my wildest dreams would I put those two together.
It boggles my mind that they're in the least compatible.
What do you mean?
Sherry is really adventurous and definitely a thrill seeker.
Maybe she's mellowed over the years.
I don't think so.
And Kip is the opposite.
He's always toed the line, and I don't think he has an adventurous bone in his body.
I've never thought of Kip as being uptight.
No, he's not uptight.
He's just very cautious.
You'd never find him looking for an adrenaline rush or even a little novelty.
You know what they say, opposites attract.
If that's true, then in their case, polar opposites attract.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the two of them getting married.
To wrap W-R-A-P.
Your head around something means to be able to understand, or to try to understand something that's very difficult, that is perhaps surprising or even strange in some way.
Robert says, Never in my wildest dreams...
Would I put those two together?
The expression never in my wildest dreams means that this event, this situation is very unlikely.
You never thought it would happen.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would...
That's true.
I never thought that would be possible.
Robert says, To boggle B-O-G-G-L-E your mind means you find something very confusing, very surprising, very difficult to understand.
It's similar to trying to wrap your head around something.
If you have difficulty wrapping your head around something, it boggles your mind.
It's so unusual.
It's so strange.
It's difficult for you to understand.
Robert says it boggles his mind that they, Kip and Sherry, are in the least compatible with.
To be compatible means to be able to work together.
Usually, we use this adjective when we are describing two people who are romantically linked or romantically connected.
We say these... two people are compatible.
That means their personalities can work with each other.
They can get along.
They would be a good couple, a good marriage, a good relationship.
In the least means even a little bit, even a small amount.
So When Robert says it boggles my mind that they are in the least compatible, he means he's surprised they're compatible at all, even in a little amount, even in a small amount.
There's a common expression, another common expression.
I'm not interested in the least, or I'm not in the least interested.
That means I'm not interested at all.
Do you want to go with me to the party?
And she says, no, I'm not interested in going with you in the least.
Not at all.
Move on.
Find somebody else.
That's That's what Robert is saying.
He's surprised that Kip and Sherry are a couple, are getting married, in fact.
Paula is confused.
She says, what do you mean?
Robert says, Sherry is really adventurous and definitely a thrill seeker.
To be adventurous means to want to have exciting new experiences, to want to do things that perhaps are a little dangerous, like driving in Los Angeles, for example.
Robert describes Sherry as a thrill seeker.
To seek, S-E-E-K, means to look for something.
To be a seeker with an er at the end would be a person who is seeking something, who is looking for something.
Well, Sherry is seeking thrills.
T-H-R-I-L-L-S.
A thrill seeker is someone who's looking for thrills.
Thrills is another word for excitement, things that are exciting to do.
Usually we use this word for people who are perhaps looking for things that are even a little dangerous, a little risky.
Paula says maybe Sherry's mellowed over the years.
Maybe she has mellowed.
M-E-L-L-O-W-E-D.
To mellow means to become calmer, perhaps less exciting, but also someone who doesn't get upset as easily, or someone who doesn't need to have all of the excitement and adventure in their life.
I definitely have mellowed over the years.
I used to drink regular Coke regularly. regular Coca-Cola.
Now I drink diet Coca-Cola.
Less exciting, more mellow, but that's me.
That's what happens when you get older, kids.
Robert says, I don't think so.
He doesn't think Sherry has mellowed over the years, in recent years.
He says, Kip is the opposite.
The opposite is something that is very different, something that would be the complete reversal of another situation open and closed, on and off.
These are all opposites.
Robert says that Kip has always towed the line and I don't think he has an adventurous bone in his body.
To tow T-O-E the line means to follow the rules exactly, to do what you are told to do, what you are expected to do.
I don't think Kip has an adventurous bone in his body.
This is a common expression.
He doesn't have a...
He doesn't have an adventurous bone in his body.
He doesn't have a thrill-seeking bone in his body.
You could put in any adjective there.
What you're saying is that this person is not like that at all, has absolutely none of those qualities, none of those characteristics.
So Robert is saying that Kip is not adventurous at all, not in the least, we might say.
Paula says, I've never thought of Kip as being uptight.
Uptight.
U-P-T-I-G-H-T.
One word is a good word to know.
It means to be tense, but also to be wanting to control everything.
It's definitely a negative way of describing someone.
If you say, oh, he's really uptight.
Usually that means he's too conservative.
He's too restricted in what he will allow himself to do.
It's almost always used as a criticism of someone.
Notice that Paula thinks that because he isn't adventurous, he must be uptight.
That's not necessarily true, but that's what Paula thinks.
Robert says, no, he's not uptight.
He's just very cautious.
He's just very careful.
He doesn't take a lot of risks.
Robert says you'd never find him looking for an adrenaline rush or even a little novelty.
Adrenaline A-D-R-E-N-A-L-I-N-E is a hormone, a special chemical in your body that gets released when something dangerous or exciting happens.
It can cause you to perhaps start having your heart beat faster.
Adrenaline is something that happens when people perhaps are faced with a dangerous situation or an exciting situation, a rush R-U-S-H.
Is any sort of exciting feeling, any sort of emotion that you would feel when you are excited, usually a positive thing.
So an adrenaline rush would be a positive feeling you would have when something very exciting happens.
Novelty, N-O-V-E-L-T-Y, here means simply something that is new, something that is interesting.
The word novel means new.
Novel can also be a book, a fiction book that you read a long story, but here it means something that's new.
Paulus says, you know what they say, opposites attract.
To attract means that something pulls something else toward it, like two parts of a magnet.
Well, opposites.
The expression opposites attract means that two people who may be very different in terms of their personality might be attracted to each other.
They may be romantically or become romantically interested in each other.
It's an old expression, the idea that sometimes people who are very different are from each other are attracted to each other.
I don't know if this is true.
I suppose you could find something different in almost every couple, every husband and wife or every romantic relationship and say oh, look see, they're opposite.
But there are things that you're always going to have different from your romantic partner.
So I'm not sure that's necessarily true, but that's the expression.
Opposites attract.
It was also a terrible song by Paula Abdul back in the 1980s, but that's another episode.
Robert says if that's true, if it's true that opposites attract, then in their case polar opposites attract.
There's another expression for something to be a polar opposite.
That means that two things are as different from each other as they possibly can be.
They're not just opposite, they're extreme opposites.
They're polar opposites.
You can think of the North Pole and the South Pole, opposites in opposite ends of the earth, or two poles of a magnet.
Well, polar opposites are extreme opposites, things that are very different.
Robert is making a little joke.
He's saying not only are Kip and Sherry opposites, they're polar opposites.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you get an invitation to Kip and Sherry's wedding?
Yeah, I did.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the two of them getting married.
Never in my wildest dreams would I put those two together.
It boggles my mind that they're in the least compatible.
What do you mean?
Sherry is really adventurous and definitely a thrill seeker.
Maybe she's mellowed over the years.
I don't think so.
And Kip is the opposite.
He's always toed the line, and I don't think he has an adventurous bone in his body.
I've never thought of Kip as being uptight.
No, he's not uptight.
He's just very cautious.
You'd never find him looking for an adrenaline rush or even a little novelty.
You know what they say.
Opposites attract.
If that's true, then in their case, polar opposites attract.
Sometimes it boggles my mind just how wonderful our scripts are here on ESL Podcast.
That's because they're written by the amazing 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.
