Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 993, Doing Spring Cleaning.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 993.
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 cleaning the house.
Let's get started.
Do we really need to start doing spring cleaning today?
We really should.
The drapes need to be washed, the walls need to be wiped down, and the attic needs cleaning out.
And we really should clean the upholstery on the sofa and dining chairs.
And I haven't even mentioned what needs to be done in the kitchen.
We need to defrost the freezer, clean the oven, clean out the cabinets, and scrub the floors.
I'm not sure I have the energy for all that.
We also need to wash the windows, window screens and windowsills, steam clean the carpets and sweep out the garage.
If we hope to do all of that this weekend, then I think we need reinforcements.
What do you have in mind?
I'm not the high school football coach for nothing.
You mean... I think the guys need an extra hard workout this weekend.
We begin this episode with Malcolm asking Lorna Do we really need to start doing spring cleaning today?
Spring cleaning is something that Americans traditionally do in the springtime.
It means to clean your entire house, to give a very thorough detailed, if you will, cleaning of your house and organizing of things before summertime.
I guess we tend to do it in the spring, at least that is what has traditionally been the case, but really the expression refers to a very thorough cleaning and organization of your house.
Malcolm wants to know if they have to start doing spring cleaning today.
Lorna says we really should, we really ought to.
The drapes need to be washed, the walls need to be wiped down, and the attic needs cleaning out.
The drapes, D-R-A-P-E-S, are the coverings that are typically made of cloth that cover your windows.
You can have a lot of different things that cover your windows.
You could have shades, you could have blinds, or you could have drapes.
Drapes are made of cloth, usually a thick material that hangs down and covers the window when you want it covered.
To wipe down something is to clean it, usually by using a paper towel or a cloth that is wet.
You take the cloth or the towel and you move it in an up and down direction in order to clean something.
In this case, we're wiping down the walls, which are probably dirty.
Finally, Lorna mentions the attic that needs cleaning out.
The attic, A-T-T-I-C, is located at the very top of a house, immediately below the roof.
Not all houses have attics.
If your roof is flat, you don't have an attic.
But if your roof comes to a point...
Then you typically will have some space between the wall at the top of the house, whatever floor that is.
If you have a two-story house, a two-level house, there'll be space between the ceiling of the second floor and the top of the roof.
That space is called an attic and is typically used for storage, for keeping things, boxes and other things that you don't need to have out to use but want to keep.
In some big houses, the attic is actually finished off.
That is, walls are put up so that you can actually sleep there.
In my house that I grew up in as a child, our attic was finished, which meant that you could go up there and sleep.
And indeed, that's where four of my brothers slept when I was growing up.
And I eventually slept there when I got older.
But enough about me.
Back to Malcolm and Lorna and the attic that needs cleaning out.
To clean out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to clean completely.
The out is used mostly for emphasis here to indicate that you are doing something very thoroughly.
I need to clean out my desk.
I need to get everything out of my desk.
That actually is a phrase that you might hear if you are fired.
You may tell someone to clean out their desk, meaning take all of your things with you because you don't work here anymore.
Here we're just talking about cleaning out the attic in the house.
Lorna continues, and we really should clean the upholstery on the sofa and dining chairs.
U-P-H-O-L-S-T-E-R-Y is the cloth that covers the chair or the couch or some place where you sit.
You have upholstery in your car, for example, over the seats that you sit on.
You have upholstery on a sofa or a couch.
You have upholstery typically on nice chairs.
If the chair is made of wood and there's no cushion on it, then it doesn't have any upholstery typically.
But if there is a cushion that makes it soft and nice to sit on, then usually that will have upholstery on it.
That chair will have upholstery.
Malcolm, who obviously doesn't want to work very hard, says that's a lot of work for two people.
Lorna continues.
And I haven't even mentioned, I haven't even said anything about what needs to be done in the kitchen.
We need to defrost the freezer, clean the oven, clean out the cabinets and scrub the floors.
To defrost d-e-f-r-o-s-t a freezer f-r-e-e-z-e-r is to turn the freezer off and let all of the ice if there is ice inside the freezer melt in order to clean it out thoroughly.
A freezer is a place where you put food that you want to keep frozen below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
To defrost means to clean out all the ice.
In the old freezers, and I don't think this is as common anymore.
You used to have to defrost your freezer every few months or so if you wanted to clean it, because it would collect all sorts of ice inside of the freezer.
At least when I was growing up, that was the case with the freezer we had.
Cabinets, C-A-B-I-N-E-T-S, are also called cupboards, C-U-P-B-O-A-R-D-S.
They're basically wooden boxes with a door on them that are in your kitchen or other parts of your house where you keep things.
Kitchen cabinets usually have dishes and pans and probably some food in them.
Lorna's talking about cleaning out the cabinets, taking everything out of them and cleaning them.
She also mentions scrubbing the floors.
To scrub S-C-R-U-B usually means to rub something very hard in order to clean it, to move a cloth or perhaps some other instrument around.
Malcolm, again, seems to question whether he really has the strength to do this.
He says, I'm not sure I have the energy for all that.
But Lorna continues.
We also need to wash the windows, window screens and window sills, steam the carpets and sweep out the garage.
The window screens.
S-C-R-E-E-N-S are basically thin pieces of wire or plastic that are put up in your window to allow you to open the window without having insects and other things from the outside come inside your house.
So you open up say, your glass window, but you don't want bugs or mosquitoes or something to fly into your house, so you put up a metal screen that allows the air to come in and out, but nothing else.
Lorna says they have to wash the window screens and window sills.
W-I-N-D-O-W-S-I-L-L-S.
A windowsill is a flat piece of wood at the bottom of the window.
It's sort of the bottom part of the window.
Lorna mentions steam cleaning the carpets.
To steam S-T-E-A-M clean the carpets is to use a machine that cleans the carpets or other cloth furniture that you have, using water vapor, which is what steam is.
If you take water and you heat it up, you will create water vapor or steam.
These are machines that used to be popular.
I'm sure you can still find them today.
They're still used today that clean carpets quickly and thoroughly by using hot steam as part of the process.
Warner also mentions sweeping out the garage.
To sweep S-W-E-E-P is to use a broom in order to push dust and dirt on the floor into something called a dustpan in order to clean the floor.
The use of the word out here is, once again, mostly for emphasis.
To sweep out means to clean and sweep very thoroughly.
Malcolm says, if we hope to do all of that this weekend, then I think we need reinforcements.
Reinforcements here refers to other people who can help you.
Normally we use that term in the military when we're talking about fighting a war and you need more soldiers, you need more troops.
You bring in new men and women to help you fight.
Those would be reinforcements.
Here, Malcolm is using it sort of as a joke.
He's not actually talking about fighting a war.
He's talking about doing the cleaning.
Lorna says, Malcolm says, I'm not the high school football coach for nothing.
We use an expression such as this I'm not the high school football coach for nothing to indicate that there is some benefit to this situation, some additional benefit, in this case, to the situation.
Malcolm is suggesting is that, because he is the coach of the local high school football team, he can get the boys from the football team to come over and help do the spring cleaning.
Werner says you mean Malcolm, then replies I think the guys need an extra hard workout this weekend.
A workout, W-O-R-K-O-U-T, is a period of time when you exercise, which for me is usually never.
What Malcolm is saying here is that he's going to bring the members of the football team into his house to help him clean it.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
We really should.
The drapes need to be washed, the walls need to be wiped down, and the attic needs cleaning out.
And we really should clean the upholstery on the sofa and dining chairs.
And I haven't even mentioned what needs to be done in the kitchen.
We need to defrost the freezer, clean the oven, clean out the cabinets, and scrub the floors.
I'm not sure I have the energy for all that.
We also need to wash the windows, window screens and windowsills, steam clean the carpets and sweep out the garage.
If we hope to do all of that this weekend, then I think we need reinforcements.
What do you have in mind?
I'm not the high school football coach for nothing.
You mean... I think the guys need an extra hard workout this weekend.
I'd like to thank our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say, for her wonderful scripts.
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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
