Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 858, Donating an Organ.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 858.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles California, and improve your English as fast as possible by downloading a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Christine and Saul about donating a part of your body to someone else.
Let's get started.
What is this sticker on your driver's license?
This sticker?
It indicates that I've signed up for the organ donation program.
If anything bad happens to me, I want my organs to go to recipients who need them.
You mean you want somebody else to have your heart liver Eyes, kidneys or anything else that can be transplanted into someone else?
Don't you want to donate your organs?
Me?
Me?
No way.
I'll never consent to doctors cutting up my body after I die.
Those organs are a part of me.
But you won't need them when you're dead and there are long waiting lists at eye banks and organ registries.
Your organ donation might be the difference between life and death for somebody, you know.
That might be true, but I can't imagine somebody else walking around with my brain.
Hmm, come to think of it, me neither.
Our dialogue begins with Christine asking Saul, what is this sticker on your driver's license?
A sticker.
S-T-I-C-K-E-R is a small piece of paper, usually with a word or a picture on it, that you put on something and it sticks to it.
The verb to stick means to adhere, to stay on something so that it won't come off.
A sticker is used, for example, on the back of your car.
You can put what we would call a bumper sticker on the back of your car.
Basically, it's a piece of paper with a little bit of glue or some sort of substance on the back that will allow it to be placed on another object.
Saul has a sticker on his driver's license.
A driver's license is usually a small plastic card with your name and your picture on it.
That shows that you have permission to drive in a.
It indicates that I've signed up for the organ donation program.
Saul says the sticker indicates, meaning it shows.
It makes something clear.
It makes something understood.
It indicates that I've signed up, that is, I've become a member of, The organ donation program.
An organ.
O-R-G-A-N is a part of your body, like your lungs, your kidney, your heart, your pancreas.
All of these would be organs in your body.
They're parts of your body.
Donation means a gift, to give something to someone.
The verb is to donate, D-O-N-A-T-E.
Organ donation, then, is when you give a part of your body to another person.
You can do this while you are living.
For example, you can donate a kidney to someone because...
Most people are born with two kidneys, and so you can give one to someone else.
It might be something that happens after you die.
You may donate part of your body to someone else who is living because, after all, if you're dead, you don't need your organs anymore probably.
Saul says that...
If anything bad happens to me, that is, if he gets injured or killed, I want my organs to go to recipients who need them.
A recipient, R-E-C-I-P-I-E-N-T, is someone who receives something.
Someone who is given something is a recipient.
We might talk about someone being a recipient of an award.
He was a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
He was a recipient of an Oscar award.
You can also be a recipient, in this case, of an organ.
Christine says, you mean you want somebody else to have your heart, liver.
She starts naming some of the organs.
Your heart liver, probably know, is the organ in your chest that pumps or moves blood throughout the body.
Your liver l-i-v-e-r is something near your stomach that filters blood as it goes through your body.
And Saul says eyes, kidneys and anything else that can be transplanted into someone else.
Your kidney, as I mentioned earlier, is something that you actually have two of.
You have two kidneys.
And it also is involved in filtering your blood.
I'm not a doctor, not a real doctor, so I don't have a good explanation for what all the organs do, but you studied biology, right?
You know what organs are.
Saul wants his organs to be transplanted into someone else.
To transplant means to move something from one place to another.
We talk about organ transplants.
The verb is to transplant.
You can also talk about transplanting plants, trees, people.
Those things can all be transplanted, moved from one place to another.
Saul then asks Christine, don't you want to donate your organs?
Christine says, me?
No way.
Absolutely not, she says.
I'll never consent to doctors cutting up my body after I die.
To consent, C-O-N-S-E-N-T, means to agree to do something.
Someone says I will not consent to that, meaning I will not agree to that.
I will not say yes to that.
Christine says she'll never consent to doctors cutting up her body after she dies.
To cut up means to cut into, to open up your skin and take things from the inside of your body.
Christine says, those organs are part of me.
Saul says, but you won't need them when you're dead.
And there are long waiting lists at eye banks and organ registries.
A waiting list is a long list of people who want something, and but there isn't enough of that something, so they have to wait for it.
You can have a waiting list for all sorts of things.
At our colleges and universities.
Sometimes there aren't enough spaces in the classroom, and so some courses have waiting lists.
You have to wait and hope that there will be room in the class for you.
Many people need organs, and so there are waiting lists for organ transplants.
One kind of place where people put their name down we might say where they join a waiting list is an iBank.
An iBank, B-A-N-K, is a place that stores organs what are called corneas, parts of an eye, that are taken from the bodies of people who have died, and they use these to help people who are living see better.
An organ registry is an official list of people waiting for organs.
A registry is any sort of official list or record.
We also use this term when we are talking about legal matters.
We might talk about an official registry with the government, an official list of people.
Saul says your organ donation might be the difference between life and death for somebody.
The phrase the difference between life and death here means that something is so important it could decide whether someone lives or dies.
It is something that is very important.
Here we're talking about a case where someone could actually die if they did not get an organ.
However, the expression is also used in cases where we're trying to say something is extremely or very important.
A related expression is a matter, M-A-T-T-E-R, of life and death. which means the same thing.
However, I should point out that the original expression, back before the 19th century anyway, was a matter of life or death, which makes more sense.
Either you live or you die.
You can't live and die.
It can't be life and death.
It Most people use the expression life and death.
You will still hear the original expression, but they both mean the same thing.
Christine says that might be true.
It might be true that it's a matter of life and or death.
But I can't imagine somebody else walking around with my brain.
Your brain is the organ in your head.
Most people have a brain.
I know some people who I don't think have brains, but most people have brains.
My neighbor, Saul says, come to think of it, me neither.
So Christine is worried that they might transplant her brain into someone else.
And of course, as of 2012, we don't transplant people's brains.
But Saul agrees with Christine.
He doesn't think Christine is very smart.
And so he says, hmm, come to think of it, me neither.
The expression come to think of it means, is used to mean, that you've thought about something and you now have a different opinion or a new understanding about something.
Me neither is a slightly ungrammatical way of saying neither do I.
In common conversation however, people don't say neither.
Typically, neither do I.
They'll say something like me.
Neither, even though me is not a subject pronoun.
It should be I, but we say it anyway.
Saul is saying, I don't think anyone would want your brain either, Christine, because you're stupid.
That's really what Saul is saying, isn't he?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What is this sticker on your driver's license?
This sticker?
It indicates that I've signed up for the organ donation program.
If anything bad happens to me, I want my organs to go to recipients who need them.
You mean you want somebody else to have your heart liver eyes, kidneys and anything else that can be transplanted into someone else?
Don't you want to donate your organs?
Me?
No way.
I'll never consent to doctors cutting up my body after I die.
Those organs are part of me.
But you won't need them when you're dead and there are long waiting lists at eye banks and organ registries.
Your organ donation might be the difference between life and death for somebody you know.
That might be true, but I can't imagine somebody else walking around with my brain.
Hmm.
Come to think of it, me neither.
I would be much, much smarter if I had our scriptwriter's brain.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful 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 Podcasts.
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.
