Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 895.
Government reactions to protests.
This is English as a Second Language podcast number 895.
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 and become a member of ESL Podcast today.
This episode is a dialogue between Tom and Marianne about people who don't like what the government is doing and try to change it.
Let's get started.
Have you seen the news?
No.
What's happening?
People in McQuillan land are rising up against the dictator and rallying against his government.
Wow, this is big.
I thought the dictator would order a media blackout and we wouldn't hear any news out of McQuillan land.
There is a media blackout, but people are using social media to tell the world what's going on.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are clashing with police and the government is having no success putting down the protests.
Has it been violent?
It's early days yet, but the government has already used tear gas and fired into the crowd.
It's hard to say how many people have been hurt.
So this may be the end of tyranny in McQuillan land.
Don't bet on it.
The dictator has ruled with an iron fist and won't hesitate to use any means necessary to stay in power.
Well, the protesters have a fighting chance and I'm betting that they'll topple the government and that ruthless tyrant.
Our dialogue begins with Tom saying to Marianne, Have you seen the news?
Marianne says, No.
What's happening?
Tom says People in McQuillan land are rising up against the dictator and rallying against his government.
To rise up against someone means to fight against someone.
Usually the government or the people who are in charge.
To rise up against the government means to try to get rid of the government, the people running the government, to fight against them, to start a revolution.
Tom says the people in McQuillan land, which is normally a nice place, are rising up against the dictator.
A dictator.
D-I-C-T-A-T-O-R is a political leader who has complete power and who doesn't listen to other people, who doesn't let people have a voice in his or her government, someone who controls everything and usually, someone who is not very nice to people who don't like him.
If I started to give the names of some dictators, I would have to be here for a couple of days perhaps, before I finish.
So we'll just describe what a dictator is, and you can think of your own examples.
Tom says the people in McQuillan land are rising up against the dictator and rallying against his government.
To rally R-A-L-L-Y means, in this case, to get together in the same place to gather, to assemble, especially if you are doing it for some sort of political reason, usually associated with protesting some action of the government.
To protest means to oppose, to be against, to say, we don't want that anymore.
Marianne says, wow, this is big, meaning this is important or this involves a lot of people.
I thought the dictator would order, would demand a media blackout.
Media, M-E-D-I-A, refers to television, newspaper, radio, nowadays the internet, Twitter.
All of these are part of media.
A media blackout is when the government decides to close the newspapers, to close the televisions, to shut down or turn off the internet connections to stop people from getting information about what's going on in their own country.
Marianne says that she thought the dictator would order this media blackout.
Tom says there is a media blackout, but people are using social media to tell the world what's going on.
I included Twitter in my description of media.
But more specifically, Twitter is part of what we would call social media.
This is the new forms of technology like Twitter or Facebook that allow people to share information with their friends and people they know on the Internet very quickly.
Tom says hundreds of thousands of protesters are clashing with police.
And the government is having no success putting down the protests.
Tom talks about hundreds of thousands of protesters.
A protester is a person who protests, a person who tries to fight against some wrong that he sees the government doing or that society is engaged in.
To clash C-L-A-S-H means to fight against someone, to oppose someone, often with physical force, with violence.
Protesters are clashing with police, Tom says, and the government is having no success putting down the protests.
They're having no success.
That is, they're not able to put down the protests.
To put down.
Here is a phrasal verb meaning to stop, especially when a government stops people who are opposed to it from protesting, from speaking.
If the government put down the protesters, they would be silencing them.
Unfortunately, at least for the dictator, the government has not been successful in putting down the protests, in stopping them.
Marianne says, has it been violent?
Has there been a lot of physical force that has hurt or perhaps even killed people?
Tom says it's too soon to know that yet.
He uses the expression, it's early days yet.
It's early days yet means it's too soon to know.
It's perhaps more common in British English than it is in American English, this expression it's early days, yet.
Tom says...
The government has already used tear gas and fired into the crowd.
Tear T-E-A-R gas is a special kind of gas that is meant to hurt your eyes and make it difficult for you to continue any physical activity.
It's what police would use with a large group of people, a large crowd of people that they were trying to get rid of, that they were trying to get to go home.
To fire into the crowd means to use a gun and shoot into a group of people.
This obviously can be rather dangerous.
Tom says, it's hard to say how many people have been hurt.
Marianne says, so this may be the end of tyranny in McQuillan land.
Tyranny.
T-Y-R-A-N-N-Y is a cruel unfair, mean government where you have a dictator or someone who is in the government or a group of people in the government who are hurting the people, who are not letting the people be free.
Tom says, don't bet on it.
Don't bet on this being the end of tyranny in McQuillan land.
To not bet on something means don't count on it.
Don't depend on it.
Tom says the dictator has ruled with an iron fist and won't hesitate to use any means necessary to stay in power.
To rule with an iron I R O N
FIST means to control or govern a population very strictly, to not let anyone do anything that you don't want them to do, especially those who don't like you, those who oppose you.
A dictator often rules with an iron fist.
The fist is just your hand that is, we use the verb clenched, it is put together like a ball.
That's your fist.
A iron fist would be a fist that of course, would be very hard and well.
It would hurt you if you got punched by an iron fist.
But the expression is to rule, to govern with an iron fist.
Tom says the dictator won't hesitate, will be very willing to To use any means necessary to stay in power.
The expression to use any means necessary means to do whatever needs to be done.
If you have to kill someone, you kill someone.
If you have to hurt someone, you hurt them.
You will use any means necessary.
The dictator will use any means necessary to stay in power, meaning to keep his power, to keep his control of the government.
Marianne says well, the protesters have a fighting chance and I'm betting that they'll topple the government and that ruthless tyrant.
To have a fighting chance means that they have a possibility of winning.
It's not impossible for them to win.
Marianne is betting that the protesters will topple the government.
To topple T-O-P-P-L-E means to overthrow, to put an end to a government or the rulers of that government.
Ruthless, R-U-T-H-L-E-S-S, describes someone who is willing to do anything.
It's connected with the expression to use any means necessary.
Someone who is ruthless will do whatever it takes to get what he or she wants.
The dialogue talks about a ruthless tyrant, T-Y-R-A-N-T.
Tyrant is related to the word tyranny, and here really just means a dictator.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Have you seen the news?
No, what's happening?
People in the Quillen land are rising up against the dictator and rallying against his government.
Wow, this is big.
I thought the dictator would order a media blackout and we wouldn't hear any news out of McQuillan land.
There is a media blackout, but people are using social media to tell the world what's going on.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are clashing with police and the government is having no success putting down the protests.
Has it been violent?
It's early days yet, but the government has already used tear gas and fired into the crowd.
It's hard to say how many people have been hurt.
So this may be the end of tyranny in McQuillan land.
Don't bet on it.
The dictator has ruled with an iron fist and won't hesitate to use any means necessary to stay in power.
Well, the protesters have a fighting chance.
And I'm betting they'll topple the government and that ruthless tyrant.
She's not a dictator.
She's not a tyrant.
She certainly is not ruthless.
I speak of our wonderful, kind Dr. Lucy Say, our scriptwriter.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
