Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1015, Conducting a Search.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1015.
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.
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Our learning guide contains a complete transcript of everything we say on this podcast, in addition to a vocabulary list definitions, sample sentences, additional cultural information and a whole lot more.
This episode is a dialogue about...
Someone who is looking for something.
Someone who is conducting a search.
Let's get started.
Okay people, we've just had a report of a missing child on this property.
We need to find him fast.
I want you two to search every room in this building.
Look in every nook and cranny.
Excuse me, may I ask a question?
You can when I'm done.
Now, you two.
I want you to look all over the grounds.
Do you mind if I ask?
I'll stay here to coordinate the search.
Report in if you see anything that could point us in the right direction.
I really think I should tell you... Don't interrupt, please.
The rest of you, spread out and look in the parking lot and behind the buildings.
Look high and low.
We'll search this place from top to bottom and leave no stone unturned.
Now, are there any questions?
Yes.
Is the little boy about five years old with brown hair and glasses?
Yes, that's right.
How did you know?
Don't look now, but he's just about to walk off with your taser.
Our dialogue begins with the head of security, the security chief, the person in charge of security, of keeping people safe.
Saying to Ramona
Okay, people, we've just had a report of a missing child on this property.
We need to find him fast.
I want you two to search every room in this building.
Look in every nook and cranny.
The security chief is talking to the people who work for him, we're guessing.
He's talking about a missing child.
A missing child would be a child who is not where he should be.
Anything that is missing is not where it should be, not in the location where we expect it to be.
If it's missing we can't find it.
In this case they can't find this child.
The security chief tells the people there to search or look in every room in this building.
Look in every nook and cranny he says.
Every nook N-O-O-K and cranny C-R-A-N-N-Y is an old expression.
That means look in every little place, even though you may think it's too small or not important.
To look in every nook and cranny is to be very thorough, to look in every possible place.
Ramona says, excuse me, may I ask a question?
The security chief says you can.
When I'm done meaning when I finish talking then you can ask your question.
The security chief goes on and says, now, you two, I want you to look all over the grounds.
The word grounds, G-R-O-U-N-D-S, refers to the land that a group of buildings is on.
It's used to refer to the property of some, usually organization or company, or It's often used to describe a larger piece of property.
You wouldn't usually talk about the land around your small house, for example, as the grounds of your property.
It's normally used to describe a larger piece of property on which there are several different buildings.
The security chief says make sure you check in the undergrowth and in the trees and cover the entire terrain.
The undergrowth is the group of small plants that often grow close to the ground, usually underneath much taller trees.
The security chief is telling them to look or to check in the undergrowth, because this perhaps is a small child who might be hiding there.
He tells them to cover the entire terrain.
To cover the terrain means to go and walk or look in the entire terrain.
Terrain, T-E-R-R-A-I-N, refers to the land.
It's similar to the word grounds in this instance.
Ramona says do you mind if I ask?
She wants to ask a question, but again the security chief doesn't let her.
He says, I'll stay here to coordinate the search.
To coordinate C-O-O-R-D-I-N-A-T-E means to organize and plan something, usually something involving the work of a group of people.
The security chief says, report in if you see anything that could point us in the right direction.
To report in is a phrasal verb meaning to give someone an update on where you are or what you're doing.
A police officer says who is out looking for someone might report in every hour and tell his boss what he has found or where he is.
To point someone in the right direction is to give someone an idea of where to go or how to do something.
To give someone advice or guidance, we might say, about how either to arrive at a certain place or how to do something.
It can be used to refer to actually giving someone a direction in the physical sense.
You're telling the person where to go in order to arrive at a certain place.
More generally though, it's used to talk about giving some information to someone that will help them accomplish some task, to do something.
In this case, it would be to help them find the child.
Ramona says I really think I should tell you, But the security chief again doesn't let poor Ramona talk.
He says, in fact, don't interrupt.
Don't interrupt means don't stop me from talking while I am still talking.
This chief says, the rest of you spread out and look in the parking lot and behind the buildings.
The phrasal verb to spread S-P-R-E-A-D out means for a group of people to go in different directions so that together they can cover or search a larger area.
If there are five people who are trying to find the child, it doesn't make any sense for all five people to stay together.
Instead, they should spread out.
They should separate so that they can look over a larger area more quickly.
The security chief tells them to look high and low.
This is a phrase we use when giving instructions to to indicate that someone should look everywhere.
It's similar to the previous expression to look in every nook and cranny.
To look high and low means to look everywhere.
The security chief says, we'll search this place from top to bottom and leave no stone unturned.
Now, are there any questions?
The expressions from top to bottom and to leave no stone S-T-O-N-E unturned, are quite similar to looking high and low or looking in every nook and cranny.
It means to look everywhere from top, from the very highest point to bottom, the very lowest point.
If you're leaving no stone unturned, you're looking perhaps literally under every rock.
The word stone here means rock.
To leave no stone unturned means that you are leaving no stone that hasn't been looked under, that you haven't turned over in order to look underneath.
All these expressions mean to look very thoroughly, to look everywhere possible.
Ramona finally gets a chance to ask her question.
She says, yes, is the little boy about five years old with brown hair and glasses?
She's asking about the description of the boy, what he looks like.
The security chief says, yes, that's right. how did you know?
Ramona then says, don't look now, but he's just about to walk off with your taser.
The expression don't look now is used to mean the same as surprise or guess what just happened.
It's used to tell someone that You are about to give them some unexpected information, some information that the other person, if he had been more observant, if he had been paying attention, should have seen for himself.
It can also be used however, just to refer to surprising or startling information that you are about to tell someone.
Ramona says don't look now, but this little boy is just about to walk off with meaning to take and to leave with your taser.
A taser T-A-S-E-R is a weapon sometimes used by police that produces an electric shock that causes pain and prevents the person temporarily from moving.
So what happens here is that the security chief is so busy organizing the search for the little boy that he doesn't realize the little boy is right there and is about to walk off with one of the weapons of the security chief, which of course would be rather dangerous.
This script reminds me of a story I read not too long ago about a woman who was part of some tour group.
When the tour group was about to leave, the leader of the tour group didn't see the woman, and so they started to search for the woman.
Now the woman herself didn't realize who they were searching for, and so she started basically searching for herself.
It was only after several hours did she realize that the group was searching for her.
She apparently had changed her clothing or something.
I don't know.
Anyway, I don't know if that story is true or not.
That's what I read in the newspaper.
But don't believe everything you read in the newspaper.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Okay, people, we've just had a report of a missing child on this property.
We need to find him fast.
I want you two to search every room in this building.
Look in every nook and cranny.
Excuse me, may I ask a question?
You can when I'm done.
Now, you two, I want you to look all over the grounds.
Make sure you check in the undergrowth and in the trees and cover the entire terrain.
Do you mind if I ask?
I'll stay here to coordinate the search.
Report in if you see anything that could point us in the right direction.
I really think I should tell you.
Don't interrupt, please.
The rest of you, spread out and look in the parking lot and behind the buildings.
Look high and low.
We'll search this place from top to bottom and leave no stone unturned.
Now, are there any questions?
Yes.
Is the little boy about five years old with brown hair and glasses?
Yes, that's right.
How did you know?
Don't look now, but he's just about to walk off with your taser.
There's no need to search for the scriptwriter of today's script.
She's right here, and her name is Dr. Lucy Saye.
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.
