Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1017, Driving an Off-Road Vehicle.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1017.
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 between Claudia and Jay about driving a different kind of vehicle, a different kind of car.
It's called an off-road vehicle.
Let's get started.
When you invited me to go for a drive, this wasn't what I pictured.
You're about to have the ride of your life.
What is this thing?
It's an off-road vehicle.
Haven't you seen one before?
It has four-wheel drive and can travel on any terrain.
When you say any terrain, what exactly do you mean?
With this baby, we can drive on sand, gravel, mud, and even snow.
You mean you intend to take me driving on sand and gravel?
No.
Yeah, just wait until we start spinning and skidding.
You're going to love it.
You'd better put on this crash helmet, just in case.
I was picturing a drive in the country.
But this is much more exciting, right?
I don't know.
Come on.
If you're lucky, I'll take you mudding next weekend.
Whoopee.
Claudia begins by saying to Jay, When you invited me to go for a drive...
This wasn't what I pictured.
To go for a drive usually means to go in your car and drive somewhere that's pleasant, somewhere that will help you enjoy the area through which you are driving.
To go for a drive often means that you're not going to one particular destination.
You're just kind of going out in your car and enjoying driving your car in some perhaps nice area of your town or near where you live.
Jay has invited Claudia to go for a drive, but Claudia says that it isn't what she pictured.
To picture P-I-C-T-U-R-E as a verb means to imagine how something will be, to think about how something will look or will appear.
Claudia had a certain expectation, a certain idea about what going for a drive would look like, and it doesn't look like what is actually happening.
Jay says, you're about to have the ride of your life.
A ride, R-I-D-E, is in this case when you drive in a car or you go in some sort of vehicle.
The word vehicle V-E-H-I-C-L-E refers to a car or a truck or or a motorcycle, or perhaps even something like you would find on a farm a tractor.
Vehicles are things that move other things, including those of us who are in the vehicle.
When you go somewhere in a vehicle, you could say that you're going on a ride.
Jay tells Claudia that this will be the ride of your life.
The ride of your life would be the greatest ride you have ever had.
Anything that is the something of your life is the best possible experience of that thing.
If you talk about the vacation of your life, you're talking about the best vacation that you have ever taken.
Jay says to Claudia get in, meaning get in the car, or get in, in this case, the off-road vehicle, and I'll strap you in.
To strap S-T-R-A-P someone in is to put something over a person so that the person doesn't move, in case there's a problem with with the vehicle.
For example, in a car, you have to put on what's called your seat belt.
Here in the united states, in most states you must be wearing a seat belt.
It's like a belt, but it doesn't go around your waist to hold up your pants.
It goes across your body and connects to the seat of the car so that if there is an accident, You are going to be protected somewhat.
Instead of flying out of the window of the car, you will stay in the seat of the car.
That's what we're talking about here.
Jay is going to strap Claudia in.
He's going to put on seatbelts so that she doesn't fly out of the car in case there's a problem.
Claudia says, what is this thing?
Jay says it's an off-road vehicle.
An off-road vehicle is usually a car, truck or motorcycle that is designed to drive through an area that doesn't have any roads, that doesn't have any streets.
An off-road vehicle could be used, for example, in desert, or it could be used out in the country, away from the city, where there aren't any roads.
Anything that is designed to ride through an area or go through an area without streets or roads is called an off-road vehicle.
Off-road meaning, of course, that it is not on the road because there are no roads.
Perhaps Jay says haven't you seen one before?
It has four wheel drive and can travel on any terrain.
Four wheel drive is a feature of a car that allows it to use all four wheels in order to move forward.
The motor actually moves is connected to all four wheels in such a way that it gives the car more power or the vehicle more power.
Terrain, T-E-R-R-A-I-N, refers to the kind of land or the surface of the land.
Claudia says, when you say any terrain, what exactly do you mean?
Jay says, with this baby, we can drive on sand, gravel, mud, and even snow.
The term baby here doesn't refer to a young child who has just been born.
It refers to informally the vehicle.
When people use the term baby in this way, they're using it informally to talk about usually a thing, a piece of equipment.
You could talk, for example, about your phone.
If you have an iPhone or a smartphone, an Android phone, you might say, you know, with this baby I can text and I can check the Internet and I can talk to people.
Baby here refers to a cool, powerful piece of equipment or object that you have.
That's what Jay is saying here when he says baby.
He says with this baby, meaning with this vehicle, we can drive on sand, gravel, mud, and even snow.
Sand, S-A-N-D, is what you would find in a desert or on a beach by the ocean or by a lake.
Gravel G-R-A-V-E-L are many small rocks that are often used for areas where you can walk or drive where there's no formal road.
Gravel is sometimes used when there's a road, but it doesn't have any concrete or asphalt.
It's not a smooth road.
When I was growing up in the country, in Minnesota and the areas outside of the city, there were lots of gravel roads.
And you would have these little rocks on the road.
And the rocks were what you drove over.
You didn't have a regular street like you have in the city.
So gravel is a material, these small little rocks that is put on the road or some path that you travel on.
Mud, M-U-D, is basically wet dirt.
So an off-road vehicle can travel on all these different kinds of surfaces.
Claudia says to Jay, you mean you intend to take me driving on sand and gravel?
She's asking Jay if his plan is to take her driving on sand and gravel.
Jay says, yeah, meaning yes.
Just wait until we start spinning and skidding.
You're going to love it.
To spin S-P-I-N means to move in circles, often when you don't have complete control over your movement, although that's not always the case.
You could spin around on your legs.
You could...
Take your body and turn it 360 degrees.
That would be to spin your body like a ballet dancer.
A car can also spin, and it can spin around in a circle, especially if it's on a surface that isn't very stable, like ice, for example.
To skid S-K-I-D means to have your vehicle move in such a way that you're not controlling it completely.
It's moving in a direction that you don't want it to move, perhaps because the surface that you are driving on is slippery like ice, or that you are going too fast and you are trying to turn your car or vehicle.
That could also cause it to skid.
Usually when a car skids, there are marks on the road, what we call skid marks.
And these are caused by the rubber of the tires on the vehicle.
If you see someone stop suddenly, you'll often hear a high noise, a high-pitched sound.
And if you look on the street, you'll see black lines.
These are skid marks from the tires of the car.
Jay says, you'd better put on this crash helmet just in case.
A crash helmet is something you wear over your head, like a motorcyclist would wear to protect your head in case you fall out of the vehicle and hit your head.
Claudia says, I was picturing a drive in the country.
She's saying she thought that they were going to go on a nice, pleasant drive in a car through an area close to the city.
Jay says, but this is much more exciting, right?
Claudia says, I don't know.
Jay says, come on.
Jay is trying to encourage Claudia to go with him.
He says if she is lucky, if she has good luck, if she is fortunate, Jay will take her mudding.
To go mudding, M-U-D-D-I-N-G, is to drive your vehicle... in an area that has a lot of mud in it.
Some people think this is fun.
I don't know why, but it apparently is popular in certain places in the country.
People take their cars or trucks or motorcycles and they drive in the mud.
I know it's weird.
Claudia thinks it's weird, too.
She says at the end of the dialogue, whoopee.
Whoopee, W-H-O-O-P-E-E is an expression we use normally to show how excited you are about something.
However, it's often used as it is here sarcastically, meaning excited.
You're trying to make a joke.
It's not meant to be serious.
You're being funny.
You are in fact, saying the opposite, that this is not going to be exciting, that you are not excited about this particular activity.
Claudia is clearly not excited to go mudding, and I don't blame her.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
When you invited me to go for a drive, this wasn't what I pictured.
You're about to have the ride of your life.
Get in and I'll strap you in.
What is this thing?
It's an off-road vehicle.
Haven't you seen one before?
It has four-wheel drive and can travel on any terrain.
When you say any terrain, what exactly do you mean?
With this baby, we can drive on sand, gravel, mud, and even snow.
You mean you intend to take me driving on sand and gravel?
Yeah.
Just wait until we start spinning and skidding.
You're going to love it.
You'd better put on this crash helmet, just in case.
I was picturing a drive in the country.
But this is much more exciting, right?
I don't know.
Come on.
If you're lucky, I'll take you mudding next weekend.
Whoopee.
All our scripts are 100% safe.
You don't need a crash helmet to listen to them.
Thanks to the wonderful work by Dr. Lucy Say, our script writer.
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.
