Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 903.
Listening to a traffic report.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 903.
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 a story about listening to the traffic report a report about how the traffic is on the freeways and roads in your city.
Let's get started.
Every afternoon before I leave work, I listened to the traffic report to see if I should take my usual route home or make a detour.
So today, like every day, I turned on my radio.
It's a tough commute today if you're traveling on I-35 north.
There's a major slowdown due to an overturned big rig that's blocking the number two lane.
Oh, no.
That meant that I had to take the 40W instead.
If you're traveling on the 40W, you'll find a lot of congestion.
It's down to one lane because of a pileup.
Emergency vehicles are responding.
Wow, that meant I might have to take surface streets all the way home.
And if you're thinking of taking Broadway Boulevard west from downtown, think again.
There is a stalled vehicle blocking the right lane and construction all the way to Main Street.
Well, I was in a no-win situation.
Do I want to spend two hours in gridlock or two more hours at work?
Our story begins when I say that every afternoon, before I leave work, before I leave my job, I listen to the traffic report.
The traffic report is information about how fast cars are moving on different streets and freeways.
Usually, people listen to the traffic report on the radio in their car.
They turn on the radio and there are certain radio stations that frequently give you a traffic report.
Here in Los Angeles, because traffic is always so bad, because we have so many cars around, There are a couple of stations that give traffic reports every 5 to 10 minutes throughout the entire day.
So within 5 or 10 minutes of getting in your car, you can hear what the road conditions are, that is, how much traffic there is on the road.
I said that I listened to the traffic report every to see if I should take my usual route home, my usual way of going from my office to my home, or make a detour.
A detour D-E-T-O-U-R is when you go a different way than you would normally go, either because there are problems on the road there's a lot of traffic, for example or because the road is closed due to construction, because they're fixing it or building it.
You can't drive on it, so you have to take a detour.
You have to take another road that will get you to the same place, although usually it will take longer.
I say that Today, like every day, I turned on my radio.
Next, we hear the voice of the person who is giving the traffic report.
I've always wanted to be the person on the radio giving the traffic report.
Maybe someday I will be able to get that job.
It's kind of an interesting job here in Los Angeles because the traffic report Reporters the people who tell you how the traffic is doing often are in helicopters and they're flying around the city looking down at the freeways and the streets to see how the traffic is doing, whether it is crowded or not.
So it's kind of an exciting job, at least here in Los Angeles.
The traffic reporter says it's a tough or difficult commute today if you're traveling on I-35 North.
Your commute C-O-M-M-U-T-E is the trip between your home and your office and your office in your home.
That time traveling, that act of traveling, typically in a car, is what we call your commute.
It's a tough commute.
The announcer, the reporter, says if you're traveling, if you are going on I-35 North.
The I stands for interstate.
In the United States we have the most important, the largest highways and freeways as part of something called the interstate highway system.
I-35 North would be a freeway that I just happen to know runs through in the middle of the United States, through my home state of Minnesota.
I-35 North would be the people who were traveling north on that road.
The traffic announcer says there's a major or a very serious, important slowdown.
A slowdown one word, is a situation where the cars are slowing down but they're not stopped completely.
They're still moving, but they're going more slowly than they normally would.
I say there's a major slowdown due to or because of an overturned big rig.
To overturn something is to flip it over, to make the bottom be facing the top and the top facing the bottom.
Overturned, when used in describing a car or a vehicle, means the car or the truck has turned over and now it is upside down.
A big rig, R-I-G, is a large truck.
It's an informal word we use to describe a very large truck that would, for example, carry things from one city to another.
It's a very long truck.
If the big rig overturned that would be very serious because of course it's a very big truck, and if it probably would cause problems for people trying to drive on the road.
In fact, this big rig is blocking the number two lane.
To block, B-L-O-C-K, means not allow someone access, not allow someone to go through a certain area.
If the truck is blocking traffic, it's preventing other cars from driving through that area.
The truck is blocking the number two lane.
A lane, L-A-N-E, is blocked.
The area on a freeway or a road where the car drives.
Some freeways, most freeways, have more than one lane going in each direction.
So you can have two cars traveling side by side next to each other going in the same direction.
In Los Angeles, some of our freeways have four, five or even six lanes of cars, six lines of cars going in the same direction.
In many cities, at least here in Los Angeles, the traffic reporters will number the lanes so you'll know which lane they're talking about.
The number one lane is the lane that is farthest to the left as you drive down the freeway.
That's the lane where people go fast.
So if you don't want to go fast, you should not be in the number one lane.
The number 2 lane then would be the lane next to the number 1 lane, to the right of the number 1 lane.
And then, of course, number 3, number 4, and so forth, depending on their position on the freeway.
So this overturned big rig is blocking the number 2 lane.
It's blocking part of the freeway.
I then say, oh no...
That meant that I had to take the 40W instead.
I had to take another freeway.
But then we hear the traffic reporter again telling us about the problems on the other freeway, on the 40W.
He says if you're traveling on the 40W, you will find a lot of congestion here.
Congestion is traffic that's moving very slowly, cars that are moving very slowly.
The reporter says that it's, meaning the freeway, it's down to one lane because of a pileup.
To be down to means that it has been reduced to.
It has been lowered to that number.
You might say if you only have 1 left in your pocket, I'm down to 1, meaning the amount of money I have has been reduced to 1.
I spent all the rest of it. buying coffee at Starbucks or wherever.
The freeway is down to one lane because of a pileup.
A pileup, P-I-L-E-U-P, one word, is a crash involving more than two cars or more than two vehicles.
A pileup would be three or more cars that have hit each other on the freeway or on a road somewhere and are blocking other people from driving by, or at least that's what typically happens.
The traffic reporter says that emergency vehicles are responding.
Emergency vehicles refers to a police car, an ambulance for people who are injured or a fire truck, if there's a fire.
All of those are emergency vehicles, a police car, an ambulance, or a fire truck.
When we say the emergency vehicles are responding, we mean they're actually going to the scene, the place where the accident is, in order to help.
We talk about responders being people who in an emergency are the first to go and help.
The policemen and women, the firemen and women, and so forth.
I then say, wow, that meant I might have to take surface streets all the way home.
Because the two freeways are congested, I say that I might have to take surface streets.
Surface S-U-R-F-A-C-E streets.
Are any roads open, any boulevards, any streets in a city, not including freeways, highways and expressways?
Those three words all mean the same thing, really.
Surface streets is anything but the freeway.
It's all of the other streets, not including the freeway or the highway.
The traffic report's final statement is that if you're thinking of taking of driving on Broadway Boulevard west of downtown, think again, meaning you should reconsider your plans.
You should come up with a better idea.
Think again.
There is a stalled vehicle blocking the right lane.
Stalled, S-T-A-L-L-E-D, is an adjective we use to describe a car that won't move because of some mechanical problem.
That's a stalled car.
In this case, there's a stalled vehicle, which is just a more general word for a car or a truck, blocking the right lane and construction all the way to Main Street.
Construction here means they are building a new road or fixing the road and you can't drive on it.
Well, I said, I was in a no-win situation.
A no-win. hyphen win situation is a situation where no matter what happens, it's going to be bad.
It's a situation where regardless of the decision you make, something bad will happen.
I say, do I want to spend two hours in gridlock or two more hours at work?
Gridlock G-R-I-D-L-O-C-K is a situation where there are so many cars that nobody can move, or it seems like nobody can move.
The cars are all stopped because there are too many cars on the road.
That's gridlock.
If I go home now, I'm going to be on the road for two hours before I get home.
The other option is to stay at work and work later, waiting for the traffic to die down, to reduce, to be less of a problem.
Neither of those are very good options for me, and that's why I say this is a no-win situation.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a normal speed.
Every afternoon before I leave work, I listen to the traffic report to see if I should take my usual route home or make a detour.
So today, like every day, I turned on my radio.
It's a tough commute today if you're traveling on I-35 North.
There's a major slowdown due to an overturned big rig that's blocking the No.
2 lane.
Oh no.
That meant that I had to take the 40W instead.
If you're traveling on the 40W, you'll find a lot of congestion.
It's down to one lane because of a pileup.
Emergency vehicles are responding.
Wow.
That meant I might have to take surface streets all the way home.
And if you're thinking of taking Broadway Boulevard west from downtown, think again.
There is a stalled vehicle blocking the right lane and construction all the way to Main Street.
She builds freeways to better English that are never congested, never blocked.
I speak... poetically, of our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
Thank you.
