Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 989.
Dealing with a Mass Transit Strike.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 989.
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 dialogue about a strike, when workers decide to stop working in order to negotiate for more money or more benefits at their job.
We're dealing today with a mass transit strike that involves buses and subways and other means of transportation that people use in a city.
Let's get started.
Where have you been?
You should have been home over two hours ago.
I've been trying to get home.
Haven't you been watching the news?
The Transportation Workers Union has voted to strike.
There was a mass walkout at 4.30pm today.
You're kidding.
I didn't know anything about it.
They walked off the job right before the afternoon commute?
Yeah, I think it was calculated to make the biggest impact so that the powers that be will sit up and take notice.
You mean the walkout has halted services on all public transportation?
All buses, trains, and subways?
Yes, that's right.
Everything is at a standstill.
There are a lot of disgruntled commuters out there.
When will services be restored?
So, what are you going to do?
I might have to stay home from work.
I'm stranded with no mass transit services.
Oh, that's a shame.
Isn't it, though?
Marge begins our dialogue by saying to Homer, Where have you been?
You should have been home over two hours ago.
Homer is two hours late.
Homer says, I've been trying to get home.
Haven't you been watching the news?
The Transportation Workers Union has voted to strike.
There was a mass walkout at 4.30 p.m. today.
Homer says he has been trying to get home but he has been unable to because the Transportation Workers Union has voted to strike.
A union.
UNION is an organization created to protect the rights of workers so that the employer's don't do anything unfair to the workers.
It's a way of giving the workers more power in negotiating or trying to get better pay and better work conditions.
Many countries have unions as part of the government, so the people who work for the government are part of the union, and that seems to be what is happening here.
Homer is talking about the Transportation Workers Union, the people who work on the buses and the subways and the trains.
He says the union has voted to strike, S-T-R-I-K-E.
To strike is to stop working temporarily.
Because you're not happy with the situation at your job.
This is something that unions are typically allowed to do even if they work for the government.
Homer says there was a mass walkout at 4.30 p.m. today.
A walkout is when In this case, the workers all leave their job as a protest.
You might also have a walkout at a university.
The students may all leave their classes because they're not happy with something the university is doing.
I wish my students would have had more walkouts when I was a university professor.
I could have gone home early and not had to work.
These are workers who are striking and the mass walkout, the large-scale walkout, involved all of these different workers involved in the transportation system.
The adjective mass, M-A-S-S, refers to a large group of people or a lot of people.
Marge says, you're kidding, you're joking.
I didn't know anything about it.
Marge asks.
Marge is referring to the transportation workers.
She's asking Homer, somewhat in disbelief perhaps...
If these workers walked off the job right before the afternoon commute.
To walk off your job means to leave your job suddenly when you are supposed to continue working.
Right before means immediately before or just before.
The commute C-O-M-M-U-T-E here refers to the period of time when most people are either going to work in the morning or coming home from work in the afternoon.
Here in Los Angeles the afternoon commute begins around 430, 5 o'clock in the afternoon and continues until about 7 or 730 at night.
Those are times when most people are coming home from work.
Homer says yeah, I think it meaning the strike was calculated to make the biggest impact so that the powers that be arrived will sit up and take notice.
Calculate, C-A-L-C-U-L-A-T-E, usually means to consider something very carefully.
When we say something was calculated to do something, we mean it was planned to do something.
That was the intention.
This strike was calculated to make the biggest or largest impact.
I-M-P-A-C-T.
An impact is an effect.
It's a result.
Nowadays, people also use impact as a verb.
To impact something means to have an effect on something.
It's a relatively new use and not one that I particularly like.
In our story, Homer is talking about the impact made by this transportation strike, so that the powers that be will sit up and take notice.
The expression the powers that be refer to people in authority, the people who are making decisions, the people who have a lot of power and influence.
The transportation workers are trying to make a statement to.
They're trying to communicate a message to the powers that be, so that these people in authority will sit up and take notice.
The expression to sit up and take notice means to pay attention to something, to focus on something.
To sit up as a phrasal verb means to make sure that you are sitting completely straight up in your chair.
To take notice means to pay attention or to focus on something.
Marge says you mean.
The walkout has halted services on all public transportation, all buses, trains and subways.
To halt, H-A-L-T, means to make something stop.
The strike has stopped services on all of the various modes of public transportation buses, trains and subways.
Homer says, yes, that's right.
That's correct.
Everything is at a standstill.
To be at a standstill, S-T-A-N-D, S-T-I-L-L, means to be without any movement, to not be moving.
The trains, buses, and subways are not moving.
There are a lot of disgruntled commuters out there, Homer says.
To be disgruntled, D-I-S-G-R-U-N-T-L-E-D, means to be unhappy, to be dissatisfied.
Commuters are people who commute, who go back and forth from work.
Marge says, when will services... be restored.
The expression to be restored means to be returned to normal.
If something is broken, it means to be fixed.
In this case, it means for the transportation workers to return to their jobs.
Homer says, I have no idea.
I don't know.
I imagine that Things won't get back to normal before tomorrow morning's commute.
He's saying that he doesn't think the transportation workers will start working again before tomorrow morning.
Marge says so what are you going to do?
Homer says I might have to stay home from work.
I'm stranded with no mass transit services.
To be stranded, S-T-R-A-N-D-E-D, means to be left somewhere without any way of getting back to where you want to go.
So if you fly to New York and there's a snowstorm and you can't leave the city because the planes aren't flying, you are stranded in New York.
You want to leave, but you can't because there's no way for you to leave.
Homer is talking about being stranded without mass transit services.
Mass transit refers to the systems of transportation that move or transport a lot of people.
Buses, subways, and trains are the most common examples of mass transit in a city.
Some cities have excellent mass transit services, such as New York City.
Some cities, such as Los Angeles, have absolutely terrible mass transit services, public transportation services.
You really need a car in this city if you are going to stay here for any amount of time.
Marge says, oh, that's a shame.
She's saying, it's unfortunate.
That's a shame, S-H-A-M-E.
It's a phrase meaning that's too bad.
But Homer, we suspect, doesn't really think it's bad news.
He says, isn't it though?
Meaning, yes, it is.
But of course, it isn't really for Homer because now he doesn't have to go to work tomorrow.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Where have you been?
You should have been home over two hours ago.
I've been trying to get home.
Haven't you been watching the news?
The Transportation Workers Union has voted to strike.
There was a mass walkout at 4.30 p.m. today.
You're kidding.
I didn't know anything about it.
They walked off the job right before the afternoon commute?
Yeah, I think it was calculated to make the biggest impact so that the powers that be will sit up and take notice.
You mean the walkout has halted services on all public transportation?
All buses, trains, and subways?
Yes, that's right.
Everything is at a standstill.
There are a lot of disgruntled commuters out there.
When will services be restored?
I have no idea.
I imagine things won't get back to normal before tomorrow morning's commute.
So, what are you going to do?
I might have to stay home from work.
I'm stranded with no mass transit services.
Oh, that's a shame.
Isn't it, though?
Our scriptwriter has not gone on strike yet, thankfully.
And we do thank our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, for her wonderful work.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
