Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, Episode 1007, Getting Mugged.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, Episode 1007.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is about a woman who gets mugged.
Someone steals something from her.
Let's get started.
Stop!
Thief!
What happened?
I just got mugged.
That guy stole my purse, jewelry, camera, all of my valuables.
Were you wearing flashy jewelry and carrying an expensive camera?
Those are big enticements for muggers.
I didn't have anything on that was flashy, and I was minding my own business.
Well, you should never go out alone at night.
And if you have to, stay in well-lighted areas.
Traveling on dim streets makes you a target for thieves.
Can you describe the person who mugged you?
It's a good thing you weren't hurt.
You should probably learn self-defense in case it happens again.
Thanks a lot.
I think I've had as much advice as I can take in one night.
Are you going to do anything to find that mugger?
Sure.
I'll file a report.
But don't get your hopes up.
Believe me, I won't.
Our dialogue begins with Vanessa yelling, Stop thief!
A thief, T-H-I-E-F, is a person who steals something from someone else.
Vanessa uses an expression that you would use if you are say, in a store or out on the street and someone comes and steals something from you.
In order to get the attention of other people so that they will stop this thief or help you.
You say stop thief.
A police officer is... somewhere near Vanessa, and he says to Vanessa, what happened?
Vanessa says, I just got mugged.
To get mugged.
M-U-G-G-E-D is to be robbed, especially when you are on the street or in a bus or in some public place.
To get mugged usually means to have your wallet or purse stolen.
Vanessa says that guy stole my purse, jewelry, camera, all of my valuables.
A purse, P-U-R-S-E, is sometimes called a handbag.
It's a small bag carried by a woman, typically.
That is used to hold her money, her makeup, her hairbrush, her identification.
Tonight's dinner a television.
All of these things will fit inside of a typical purse used by a woman.
Well, maybe not a television.
This guy stole my purse, Vanessa says.
He also, or she also, stole her jewelry and camera.
Jewelry J-E-W-E-L-R-Y refers to things that you wear on your body, such as a necklace or a bracelet or rings or earrings.
Your camera, of course, is what you use to take pictures with, photographs with.
Vanessa says this thief stole all of her valuables.
Your valuables are anything that costs money, that is expensive, that you own.
We typically use this word in the plural valuables, to refer to anything that you own that someone could steal and that was worth a lot of money.
The police officer then asks Vanessa, were you wearing flashy jewelry and carrying an expensive camera?
Flashy F-L-A-S-H-Y refers to something that gets a lot of attention, something that is expensive looking.
A lot of times you'll see musicians, for example, wearing jewelry that is very noticeable, that you can see very easily.
We might describe this jewelry as being flashy.
It's expensive jewelry that you notice because it's very easy to see.
The police officer is asking Vanessa if she was wearing flashy jewelry and carrying an expensive camera.
He says, Those are big enticements for muggers.
An enticement E-N-T-I-C-E-M-E-N-T is something that will make someone want to do something, something that will motivate someone to do something.
In this case, it will motivate a thief, a mugger, which is a person who mugs you to steal whatever it is that you have.
Vanessa says I didn't have anything on, that is, I wasn't wearing anything that was flashy and I was minding my own business.
To mind M-I-N-D.
Your own business means to not be focusing on other people, to be only worrying about yourself.
Here it probably means to not be bothering other people.
I'm minding my own business.
You may say this to someone as a command mind your own business when the person is trying to ask you personal questions or get information from you that you don't think are of any concern to that person, that you don't think that person should know.
Vanessa says she was minding her own business.
The police officer says, well...
You should never go out alone at night.
And if you have to, stay in well-lighted areas.
Well-lighted refers to an area that has a lot of street lamps or an area that is not dark.
The police officer is telling Vanessa she shouldn't be out alone at night, which is probably good advice in most American cities.
The officer says, traveling on dim streets makes you a target for thieves.
Dim, D-I-M, is the opposite of well-lighted.
It means dark, without a lot of light.
A target, T-A-R-G-E-T, is the focus of your attention.
It could be a person or it could be a thing.
Often when we use the word target, we're talking about attacking that thing or person.
So in a war...
You may have a building as your target.
You're trying to blow up or destroy a building.
That building is your target.
Here, the police officer is referring to a thief's target.
That is the person that the thief is going to attack, the person the thief is going to steal from.
Vanessa is not very happy with the police officer who doesn't seem to be helping her very much.
Rather, he seems to be just giving her some advice.
And it seems to Vanessa that the advice is rather obvious, that she didn't really need this advice from the police officer.
That's why she says, thanks for that insight.
An insight, I-N-S-I-G-H-T, is some understanding about something that is not obvious.
But the way Vanessa says it, she's indicating that it is obvious.
The police officer is telling her something that he doesn't need to tell her because she already knows.
Of course, the police officer might say, well, if you already know, then why were you doing it?
But back to our story.
The police officer then asks, can you describe the person who mugged you?
Vanessa says, no, it happened in a flash, F-L-A-S-H.
When we say something happened in a flash, we mean it happened very quickly, so quickly that you didn't even realize what was happening until after it happened.
Vanessa says I didn't get a good look at his face, although I guess she knows it's a man, but I'm sure it was a man.
And there she tells us.
The police officer says, it's a good thing you weren't hurt.
You should probably learn self-defense in case it happens again.
Self-defense is the practice of using your body or something that you carry to defend yourself, to protect yourself against someone who attacks you, someone who is trying to hurt you.
Once again, Vanessa thinks that this advice is somewhat obvious and not very helpful.
She says thanks a lot, but she says it in a way that indicates that she isn't really thanking the officer.
She's telling the officer that this is not very helpful to her.
She says, I think I've had as much advice as I can take in one night.
Advice would be recommendations or suggestions that someone gives you.
She uses the expression as much as I can take in one night, meaning as much as I want to listen to, as much as I can handle.
I don't need any more advice, she's saying.
Are you going to do anything to find that mugger?
Vanessa is asking the police officer if he's going to do anything to actually catch the thief.
The police officer says, sure, I'll file a report, but don't get your hopes up.
To file a report means to fill out some paperwork, to fill out some form or to write a description of what happened and give it, in this case, to the other police officers or to the police station.
In more general terms, the expression to file a report is to officially inform someone, often a government official, of some certain fact or some information that they should know about.
Really, it means that the police officer isn't going to do much of anything.
He's going to write up what happened and give it to someone, but it probably won't.
It probably won't lead to the police arresting the thief.
The police officer says to Vanessa, don't get your hopes up.
To get your hopes up means to begin to feel optimistic about something, to think that something good is going to happen.
Vanessa, however, knows that nothing good is going to happen.
And that's why she says to the police officer, believe me, I won't.
Believe me is the same as trust me.
We use it in a circumstance like this, where you are trying to emphasize to the person that what you are saying is true.
What Vanessa is saying is that she won't get her hopes up.
She knows the police officer isn't really going to do anything to catch the thief.
I was mugged once, not here in the United States, in another country, many years ago.
Some thief came up, actually two thieves, on a public bus and stole my wallet.
And I went to the police and they filed a report.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Stop thief!
What happened?
I just got mugged.
That guy stole my purse, jewelry, camera, all of my valuables.
Were you wearing flashy jewelry and carrying an expensive camera?
Those are big enticements for muggers.
I didn't have anything on that was flashy, and I was minding my own business.
Well, you should never go out alone at night, and if you have to, stay in well-lighted areas.
Traveling on dim streets makes you a target for thieves.
Thanks for that insight.
Can you describe the person who mugged you?
No, it happened in a flash.
I didn't get a good look at his face, but I'm sure it was a man.
It's a good thing you weren't hurt.
You should probably learn self-defense in case it happens again.
Thanks a lot.
I think I've had as much advice as I can take in one night.
Are you going to do anything to find that mugger?
Sure, I'll file a report, but don't get your hopes up.
Believe me, I won't.
Our scripts are full of insights, thanks to the wonderful work of our script writer, 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 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.
