Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 866, Using Renewable Energy.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 866.
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 to download a learning guide for this episode.
You can do that by becoming a member of ESL Podcasts.
This episode is a dialogue between Carl and Jody about using energy wisely, using energy that is renewable.
Let's get started.
Oh, what's that smell?
I'm working on my latest invention.
I'm turning our old food into an energy source for our car and our house.
Why?
There are already lots of types of renewable energy that power cars and homes, and none of them smell like this.
Well, I think I'm on to a better alternative.
Imagine being able to recycle your unwanted food into fuel.
That's the wave of the future.
You mean you think that it would be more efficient than wind power and solar energy?
There are geothermal and hydroelectric power plants that already provide energy for lots of homes and businesses.
But I'm using food that would otherwise be wasted.
I hate to break it to you, but if you want to convert food into fuel…
There are already different types of biofuels that work pretty well.
You mean somebody has already beaten me to the punch?
Yes, and I bet they found a way to do it without this stench.
Carl begins by saying, oh, what's that smell?
What is that smell?
Jody says, I'm working on my latest invention.
An invention, I-N-V-E-N-T-I-O-N, is something that you create that no one else has made before. something you make that solves some problem or does something that no one else has been able to do before.
We might talk about the invention of the television or the invention of the internet.
Jodi is working on an invention, her latest, meaning her most recent invention.
She says Jodi is turning their old food into something meaning she's changing it.
To turn something into something else is to transform it, to change it.
She's taking their old food and making it into an energy source.
An energy source is a way of getting or obtaining energy needed to run some machine or to power some technology.
Jody is trying to create an energy source for their car and their house.
Carl says, why?
There are already lots of types of renewable energy that power cars and homes, and none of them smell like this.
The word renewable R-E-N-E-W-A-B-L-E is something you can use again or something that will not run out.
Renewable energy is energy that comes from some natural resource that will never run out or would take a very long time to use up, like the energy of the sun, for example, or water energy or wind energy.
These might all be called renewable energy sources.
Carl says there are lots of renewable energy sources and none of them smell like this, meaning none of them smell like Jody's invention of using old food.
Jody responds, well, I think I'm onto a better alternative.
To be onto something means I've discovered, I've found.
An alternative would be something you can use instead of or in place of something else.
A bicycle is an alternative to your car, if you are traveling short distances, that is.
It's an alternative to your car, perhaps, not my car.
I still want to drive my car.
I'm not against using a bicycle, of course, every couple of years.
Jody says, I'm on to a better... alternative.
Imagine being able to recycle your unwanted food into fuel.
To recycle R-E-C-Y-C-L-E means to take something that has been used already for a purpose and to use it again, often by cutting it up or breaking it up in some way and then reusing, using again the material from that object, from that thing.
Jodi is saying that she can recycle unwanted fuel and turn it into fuel.
Fuel, F-U-E-L, here really means the same as energy.
Often, we think of fuel as something that is burned in order to produce energy, but it could be used more generally to mean an energy source.
Jody says that's the wave of the future.
That expression, the wave W-A-V-E of the future, means something that will become very popular or something that will be normal in the future.
Not right now, but someday soon.
We use the word wave today, just like an ocean wave, which is water that moves up and travels across a certain distance, or seems to travel.
The water is pushed, of course.
We use that idea of a wave in talking about how things will go into the future.
They will be moving into the future in this direction.
We might say the wave of the future is using mobile devices telephones and tablets iPads, that sort of thing instead of computers sitting on your desk.
That might be a wave of the future.
Carl says, you mean you think that it would be more efficient than wind power and solar energy?
Efficient means it does something in a smaller amount of time, or that uses less money or fewer resources.
Wind energy or wind power, as it's called here, is the power or energy created by wind.
The wind, usually using some large piece of metal that moves around in a circle.
We would call that a windmill W-I-N-D-M-I-L-L.
Solar energy is using energy from the sun, either to heat up water or to create electricity.
In some parts of the United States where there is a lot of sun throughout the year, people have solar panels large pieces of material on their roofs, in order to collect solar energy.
Carl goes on to mention a couple of other types of renewable energy sources that He says there are geothermal and hydroelectric power plants that already provide energy for lots of homes and businesses.
Geothermal G-E-O-T-H-E-R-M-A-L refers to energy that you get from under the earth, from inside the ground, from a very hot area inside the ground.
You are using that energy underground.
Hydroelectric refers to water that goes through a small area called a dam and the pressure or power of the water turns engines, turns these large pieces of metal, these wheels, which help create electricity, combining them with the use of magnetic force typically, I believe.
Jody says but I'm using food that would otherwise be wasted, meaning I'm using food that people are just going to throw away or destroy.
Carl says.
I hate to break it to you, but if you want to convert food into fuel or There are already different types of biofuels that work pretty well
So Carl is basically saying, you're kind of an idiot, Jody.
We've already done these things.
The expression I hate to break it to you means you might say to someone you're telling them news.
They don't want to hear bad news.
Carl says.
I hate to break it to you, but if you want to convert or change food into fuel or energy, there are already different types of biofuels that work pretty well.
A biofuel, B-I-O-F-U-E-L, is a fuel that is made from plants and animals.
It's a kind of fuel that you can burn, typically, to create energy.
Jody says, you mean somebody has already beaten me to the punch?
To beat someone to the punch P-U-N-C-H means to do something before another person has the opportunity to do it.
So you and your sister are thinking about buying your mother something.
A new set of dishes, something for her kitchen.
You talk about it and then your sister goes out and she buys the dishes for your mother and gives them to her.
And you find out after talking to your mother that your sister gave her the dishes that you were going to give to her.
So you might say to your sister, oh, you beat me to the punch.
You did it before I had an opportunity to do so.
And now you're mad at your sister because you don't know what to get your mother, because you know your mother is sometimes difficult to buy for.
And so when you have a good idea and your sister takes it or your sister does it before you, you're not very happy with your sister anymore.
I'm just speaking hypothetically.
This didn't actually happen to me, of course.
So Jody says, you mean someone or somebody has already beaten me to the punch?
Carl says yes, and I bet they found a way to do it.
Without this stench, stench, S-T-E-N-C-H, is a very bad smell, a very unpleasant smell.
Carl is saying that he thinks they have been able to do what Jody is trying to do without all of the bad smell.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Ugh, what's that smell?
I'm working on my latest invention.
I'm turning our old food into an energy source for our car and our house.
Why?
There are already lots of types of renewable energy that power cars and homes, and none of them smell like this.
Well, I think I'm on to a better alternative.
Imagine being able to recycle your unwanted food into fuel.
That's the wave of the future.
You mean you think it would be more efficient than wind power and solar energy?
There are geothermal and hydroelectric power plants that already provide energy for lots of homes and businesses.
But I'm using food that would otherwise be wasted.
I hate to break it to you, but if you want to convert food into fuel, there are already different types of biofuels that work pretty well.
You mean somebody has already beaten me to the punch?
Yes, and I bet they found a way to do it without this stench.
Her scripts are the most important energy source that powers this podcast.
I speak, of course, of the one, the only, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
