Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 954, Participating in Winter Sports.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 954.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles.
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This episode is a dialogue between between Hannah and Achmud about playing sports in the wintertime.
Let's get started.
It's finally snowing outside.
Soon we'll be able to get out the sled.
Sledding is for kids.
I'm going downhill skiing as soon as there's enough powder.
I can't wait to feel the wind in my hair as I careen down the side of a mountain.
You're more likely to be on the bunny slopes.
You've only been on a snowmobile once and gone cross country skiing a few times.
What makes you think you'll be able to ski the slopes like an expert?
I can ice skate better than you can, so no matter what, I know I'll be better at it than you'll be.
When I get the hang of skiing, I'll probably try snowboarding.
Oh yeah?
You're on.
Hannah begins by saying, It's finally snowing outside.
To snow means for small, soft ice crystals to fall from the sky.
I think most of you have probably seen snow.
It snows in cold places like Minnesota during the wintertime, which in the Northern Hemisphere is anywhere between November and say, March.
Hannah says, soon we'll be able to get out the sled.
To get out here means to remove from where it is stored, to take something out of a place where you have been keeping it until you are ready to use it again.
To get out can also mean to leave.
It's often used as a command, as an order.
If you say to someone, get out, you're telling them to leave.
It's not a very nice way to tell someone to leave.
But here, we're not talking about leaving.
We're talking about sledding.
A sled.
S-L-E-D is something you use to go downtown hill, usually one that has snow or ice on it.
You usually have one, perhaps two people, in a sled.
The sled is usually flat and allows you to either lie down on the sled or sit on the sled and then slide down or move down a hill that has snow or ice on it.
The word sled can also be a verb to sled, which means the action of going down a hill with snow or ice on it in something called a sled.
Ahmed says sledding is for kids.
He says it's not something adults do, it's something children do.
He says, To ski, S-K-I. is also related to going down a hill with snow and or ice on it.
However, skis are long flat pieces of wood or other material. that you put your feet into.
You don't lie down or sit down.
You stand when you ski, or at least you're supposed to stand when you ski.
I know the one time I tried skiing, I didn't stand very much.
I spent most of the afternoon on the ground because I wasn't very good at skiing.
Downhill skiing is skiing down a hill or a mountain.
There's another kind of skiing called cross-country skiing, which Hannah will mention in a second.
Cross C-R-O-S-S hyphen country C-O-U-N-T-R-Y skiing S-K-I-I-N-G is skiing, but not going down a hill, rather going across flat land, going across the ground, but moving your legs so that you are able to move forward.
When you ski downhill, you more or less naturally go forward because it is a hill or a mountain.
In cross-country skiing, you have to really use your legs and arms in order to move yourself forward across the flat ground.
Akhmud is going downhill skiing as soon as there is enough powder.
Powder P-O-W-D-E-R usually refers to snow that has recently fallen on the ground and is still somewhat loose.
Apparently this is better for skiing.
Since I don't downhill ski, I don't know if that's true.
But that's what I'm told.
Achmud says I can't wait to feel the wind in my hair as I careen down the side of a, speaking very eloquently here almost like he's writing a novel.
I can't wait to feel the wind in my hair.
That means he can't wait to feel the wind rushing and blowing through his hair.
I guess he's not going to wear a hat.
To careen means to move at a very high speed toward a specific place, usually going from side to side and slightly out of control.
We often talk about careening in a car or some other vehicle.
Akhmud is talking about careening down the side of a mountain.
You have to have some experience in skiing in order to ski down the side of a mountain, because you will be going very fast and it would be easy to hurt yourself or at least easy to fall down every 10 feet.
However, Akhmud says he can do that.
He can ski down the side of a mountain.
Hannah doesn't believe him.
She says, you're more likely to be on the bunny slopes.
Bunny B-U-N-N-Y slopes S-L-O-P-E-S slopes are low hills covered with snow used by people who are just learning how to ski.
They will not cause you to go down at a very high speed, and that's why they are used to teach people how to ski.
We call those the bunny slopes.
I think I've been on a bunny slope once.
That was the one time I tried to learn how to ski.
Hannah says, Hannah says, Akhmud has only been on a snowmobile once.
A snowmobile.
S-N-O-W-M-O-B-I-L-E is a vehicle, something you move in that has an engine or a motor in it.
It's sort of like a motorcycle that allows you to go across the snow.
Cross-country skiing, we've already explained is skiing across flat land using your arms and your legs in a very different way than if you go downhill skiing.
Hannah doesn't think that Akhmud will be able to ski the slopes like an expert.
That is, to ski with a lot of expertise, to ski as though he were someone who was a very good skier.
Akhmud says, I can ice skate better than you can.
So no matter what, I know I'll be better at it.
You'll be.
When I get the hang of skiing, I'll probably try snowboarding.
Akhmud says he can ice skate, S-K-A-T-E.
To ice skate means to move across a flat piece of ice wearing special shoes that have what are called blades B-L-A-D-E-S on them.
The blades allow you to move across the ice.
In order to play the sport of hockey, for example, you have to use ice skates.
People also use ice skates to perform on the ice.
In the Olympics, for example, you will see ice skating as one of the events.
I'm speaking, of course, of the Winter Olympics.
Akhmud says because he knows how to ice skate, he will be better at skiing than Hannah.
I'm not sure if that's necessarily true, but that's what Akhmud thinks is true.
He says, when I get the hang of skiing...
I'll probably try snowboarding to get the hang.
H A N G of something means to learn how to do something.
To learn how to do something well enough so that you can perform it with some competence.
You are able to do it pretty well.
I never got the hang of skiing, at least downhill skiing.
I know how to cross-country ski and have cross-country skied many times.
I never liked it.
It was a lot of work.
I found it much easier just to take a car.
Well, Ahmed says that he...
After getting the hang of skiing, we'll probably try snowboarding.
To snowboard S-N-O-W-B-O-A-R-D is to use a flat short board to go down a hill of snow or ice, just like you would with skis.
But skis are two separate pieces of equipment that attach to your feet.
A snowboard is one piece of equipment, if you will, one piece of wood or whatever the material it is made out of, that you put your feet on and use to slide down a hill with snow on it.
A snowboard looks sort of like a skateboard, but without the wheels.
Hannah says, now I know you're blowing smoke.
You don't have the nerve.
The expression to blow smoke S-M-O-K-E means, very informally, to exaggerate, to say something that isn't true enough.
Hannah says you don't have the nerve, N-E-R-V-E.
To have the nerve to do something means to have the courage, to have the strength, especially when we are talking about something that may be difficult or inappropriate, even.
If someone says he has a lot of nerve problems, He's not giving a compliment or saying something nice about that person.
He's saying that that person has done something arrogant or rude that most polite people would not do.
Achmud says, oh yeah, I challenge you to a game of one-on-one ice hockey.
To challenge someone is to say, I want to compete with you.
I want to play a game with you.
One-on-one means there are just two people in the game.
Ice hockey is a sport usually played by two teams of players that try to get a small black ball disc called a puck p-u-c-k into a net.
It's sort of like soccer, but with sticks and ice skates and a lot of hitting the other player.
That's hockey.
A lot of fighting takes place in ice hockey, at least here in the United States.
I played ice hockey.
Yeah, I did when I was seven.
Hannah says, you're twice my size, meaning you are twice as big as I am physically.
Make it a snowball fight.
Make it means let's change it or let's do this.
Hannah wants to have a snowball fight.
A snowball is a round ball of snow, of course, that you make with your hands and you throw it at other people.
This is something that people who live in places where there is a lot of snow in the wintertime like to do.
Certainly, when I was a kid, we used to have snowball fights all the time, especially when with my brothers and sisters.
Achmud says, you're on.
That expression you're on is used to show that you agree with and accept what the other person has proposed, especially if it's a challenge, to play a game or to have a contest of some sort.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
It's finally snowing outside.
Soon we'll be able to get out the sled.
Sledding is for kids.
I'm going downhill skiing as soon as there's enough powder.
I can't wait to feel the wind in my hair as I careen down the side of a mountain.
You're more likely to be on the bunny slopes.
You've only been on a snowmobile once and gone cross-country skiing a few times.
What makes you think you'll be able to ski the slopes like an expert?
I can ice skate better than you can, so no matter what, I know I'll be better at it than you'll be.
When I get the hang of skiing, I'll probably try snowboarding.
Now I know you're blowing smoke.
You don't have the nerve.
Oh, yeah?
I challenge you to a game of one-on-one ice hockey.
You're twice my size.
Make it a snowball fight.
You're on.
She's an excellent downhill skier and an amazing hockey player, really.
I'm speaking of our very own scriptwriter.
Dr. Lucy Say.
She's pretty good at script writing, too.
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.
