Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 914, Wanting Peace and Quiet.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 914.
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 to download a learning guide.
This episode is a dialogue between Carl and someone working at a hotel.
Let's get started.
After three days of travel and meetings, I returned to my hotel room ready for some downtime.
All I wanted was some peace and quiet so I could get a good night's sleep.
Hello?
Hello, Mr. Mendez.
I'm calling to welcome you to our hotel.
I hope you're finding everything to your satisfaction.
Yes, yes, everything's fine.
I just want to get some rest right now.
Of course, Mr. Mendez.
If there's anything we can do for you, don't hesitate to ask.
I hung up the phone and turned off the ringer.
I didn't want any more unsolicited phone calls.
But then there was a knock on the door.
Hello, sir.
I'm here to turn down your bed.
May I come in?
I don't need the bed turned down, thanks.
Before I closed the door, I put the do not disturb sign on my door.
I wanted no more interruptions.
All of a sudden, a loud alarm went off.
I opened my door and a hotel employee was explaining that there was a small fire in the kitchen and that the guests were being evacuated.
We would have to leave the building immediately.
I left my hotel room and wondered if there was a vast conspiracy to rob me of my sleep or if I'm just the unluckiest guy in the world.
We begin with Carl saying I returned to my hotel room ready for some down time.
Downtime is a period where you are able to relax, where you don't have anything scheduled.
Carl says, all I wanted was some peace and quiet so I could get a good night's sleep.
The expression peace P-E-A-C-E and quiet Q-U-I-E-T means a period of time when you don't hear any loud noises, you don't hear other people, you have silence.
That's what peace and quiet is.
We often use this term expression peace and quiet when we're talking about there being noise from your neighbors or, in this case, at a hotel.
You want some peace and quiet.
You want people to be quiet so that there's less noise and you can relax.
Carl wants to get a good night's sleep.
A good night's sleep is a night where you sleep well, where you're not interrupted by noise in the middle of the night while you're sleeping.
Carl then gets a phone call.
Carl says, hello.
And someone from the hotel staff, someone who works at the hotel, says, hello, Mr. Mendez.
The hotel staff member is calling Carl to make sure everything is to his satisfaction.
The expression to your satisfaction means that it is doing what you expected it to do, that it is meeting your requirements, that it is meeting your needs.
Carl says, yes, yes, everything's fine.
I just want to get some rest now.
The hotel staff member says, of course, Mr. Mendez.
If there's anything we can do for you, don't hesitate to ask.
To hesitate means to not do something, to stop something that you want to do.
We use the expression don't, do not hesitate to do something when we want to make sure the other person feels as though they can ask you or do whatever you are telling them they can do without any worries, without any problems.
Then Carl says that he hung up the phone, he put the phone down and turned off the ringer.
The ringer is what makes noise inside of a telephone.
Back in the old days, there used to be an actual bell in the telephone.
If you are old enough, you can remember those kinds of phones.
Now it's all electronic.
To turn off the ringer would be to...
Turn off the sound so that when the phone rings, when someone calls you, it doesn't actually make a noise.
It doesn't actually ring.
To ring is to make a noise, usually with a small bell or a big bell.
Carl says, I didn't want any more unsolicited phone calls.
Unsolicited means not solicited.
To solicit means, in general, to ask for something.
Unsolicited would be things that you didn't ask for.
Carl doesn't want any unsolicited phone calls.
But then, he says, there was a knock on the door.
A knock K-N-O-C-K is the noise that's made when you hit your hand against some object, usually a piece of wood.
So knocking on a door would sound something like... Something like that.
Then Carl gets up out of bed, I guess, and opens the door.
The hotel staff member says, Hello, sir.
I'm here to turn down your bed.
To turn down your bed is what some more expensive hotels do.
They come in and they pull the blankets and the sheets back so that you are able to go and use the bed without any problems.
It's often done in order to make sure that the blanket and the sheets are warm for you when you are ready to actually go to bed.
This is something that is done as I say at more expensive hotels, not the ones that I stay at.
Carl says, I don't need the bed turned down, thanks.
He says, then before I close the door, I put the do not disturb sign on my door.
To disturb, D-I-S-T-U-R-B, means to bother someone, to interrupt them.
Do not disturb means do not bother me, do not interrupt me.
A do not disturbed sign is a little, usually piece of plastic that you put on the door handle of your hotel door, telling the people who work for the hotel that you don't want them to knock on the door.
You don't want them to disturb you.
This is a good idea if you want to sleep and you don't want the hotel staff to wake you up early in the morning or, as we see here, to bother you late at night.
Carl says, I wanted no more interruptions.
An interruption is when someone or something stops you from doing what you're doing.
Interruptions often cause us to lose our focus.
We can't focus on what we're doing.
We can't concentrate on what we're doing.
Carl says, all of a sudden, suddenly...
A loud alarm went off.
An alarm, A-L-A-R-M, is a very loud noise.
To go off is a two-word phrasal verb that in this case means to sound.
When the alarm begins to make a noise, we would say it goes off.
Go off, as a phrasal verb, can be used in a couple of different ways.
You can go off on someone.
That would mean yell at someone.
Make a lot of noise by yelling and screaming at someone with whom you're angry.
To go off can also mean to leave.
I'm going to go off and be by myself.
Carl says that he opened his door after the alarm went off and a hotel employee someone who works for the hotel was explaining that there was a small fire in the kitchen and that the guests, the people staying at the hotel, were being evacuated.
To Be evacuated E-V-A-C-U-A-T-E-D means to be told that you have to leave the place where you are usually because there's something dangerous that might happen to you.
For example, if there is a flood near your home, where a river has too much water and so the water starts to go down on the other parts of the land, you might be asked to evacuate, to leave your house, because it's dangerous if you stay there.
Carl says we would have to leave the building immediately.
That's what he was told by the hotel employee.
He said he left his hotel room immediately Vast, V-A-S-T, means very large or extensive.
Conspiracy C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-C-Y is a secret plan that two or more people have to do something bad, to do something wrong, usually against the law.
A vast conspiracy to rob him would be a conspiracy to take something away from him.
To rob, R-O-B, someone, means to steal something from someone.
Carl is making a joke here.
He doesn't really believe there is a vast conspiracy to rob him of his sleep.
He doesn't believe that all of the employees at the hotel are secretly trying to keep him from sleeping.
He says he wonders if there was a vast conspiracy to rob him of his sleep or if if he's just the unluckiest guy in the world.
To be unlucky means to have bad luck, to have bad things happen to you.
And that certainly is the case with poor Carl.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
After three days of travel and meetings, I returned to my hotel room ready for some downtime.
All I wanted was some peace and quiet so I could get a good night's sleep.
Hello?
Hello, Mr. Mendez.
I'm calling to welcome you to our hotel.
I hope you're finding everything to your satisfaction.
Yes, yes, everything's fine.
I just want to get some rest now.
Of course, Mr. Mendez.
If there's anything we can do for you, don't hesitate to ask.
I hung up the phone and turned off the ringer.
I didn't want any more unsolicited phone calls.
But then there was a knock on the door.
Hello, sir.
I'm here to turn down your bed.
May I come in?
I don't need the bed turned down, thanks.
Before I closed the door, I put the Do Not Disturb sign on my door.
I wanted no more interruptions.
All of a sudden, a loud alarm went off.
I opened my door and a hotel employee was explaining that there was a small fire in the kitchen and that the guests were being evacuated.
We would have to leave the building immediately.
I left my hotel room and wondered if there was a vast conspiracy to rob me of my sleep or if I'm just the unluckiest guy in the world.
We hope our wonderful scripts are to your satisfaction.
We thank Dr. Lucy Say for them.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
