Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1075, Define Orders.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1075.
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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On this episode we're going to have a dialogue between Carol and Miguel about someone who doesn't do what.
He is told to do.
Someone who defies orders.
Let's get started.
Hey, where are you going?
We can't sit here doing nothing.
We have orders to stay here and to keep watch.
You know as well as I do what the consequences are of defying orders.
I don't care what kind of punishment I get.
I can't sit still and let things happen without an attempt at intervention.
Enter the fray without a plan.
By doing what?
Have you thought this through?
I'll get the lay of the land and then formulate some options.
Everything will work out.
And I suppose you expect me to go with you, to stick my neck out too.
That's up to you.
I'm not twisting your arm.
How do you know that if I stay here, I won't squeal on you?
I don't.
I guess I just have to rely on your sense of honor.
Oh, come on, let's go.
You're coming with me?
Against my better judgment.
Carol begins our dialogue by saying, hey, where are you going?
Miguel says, we can't sit here doing nothing.
Carol says, we have orders to stay here and keep watch.
So Carol is asking Miguel where he is going, and Miguel says that he doesn't want to just sit there and do nothing.
But Carol says that the two of them have orders.
If you say you have orders, you mean that someone has given you instructions.
Someone has told you what you are supposed to do.
Usually someone in authority.
You can think about the military, for example the army or the navy, where one of the leaders will give orders to the other members of the military, telling them what to do.
Miguel and Carol's orders are to keep watch.
The phrasal verb to keep watch W-A-T-C-H means to monitor something, to observe something, but not to do anything or get involved with that thing.
So if you are keeping watch, for example, front of a building, you are watching to see what is going on, usually because you're looking for a problem.
If there is a problem, then you're supposed to call someone else and the other person will deal with or take care of the problem.
Or you might be keeping watch because you are expecting someone to arrive And the person who gave you the orders to keep watch wants you to tell him or her when the arrival takes place.
Carol says, you know as well as I do what the consequences are of defying orders.
A consequence is a result of something, something that happens as a result of something else.
There's an old expression, ideas have consequences.
That means that when you have certain moral religious, political or ethical opinions about things, ideas about things, those ideas often have practical results in the real world.
They actually will influence the way people behave, the way people act.
Here, Carol is talking about the consequences of defying orders.
To defy, D-E-F-Y, means to refuse to do something, to say no to someone who has authority over you.
Carol reminds Miguel that there are consequences for defying orders.
Miguel says, I don't care what kind of punishment I get.
A punishment is a negative consequence or a negative result.
Usually something that you get because you did something wrong.
Miguel says, I can't sit still and let things happen without an intervention.
To sit still means to not move, to remain in one place.
If you are keeping watch, you may also be sitting still.
That is, you're not moving around.
You're just staying where you are.
But Miguel says he cannot sit still. and let things happen without an intervention.
An intervention I-N-T-E-R, V-E-N-T-I-O-N is the act of becoming involved in something, especially to change the process or the result of some action.
We could speak of a military intervention, where one country sends its army or its military into another country in order to prevent something bad from happening in the other country.
Or at least that's what the normal excuse is for military interventions.
We also use the term intervention nowadays, perhaps more commonly, to refer to a situation where a person has a problem with drugs or alcohol.
The person's friends and family want to tell this person to stop, to get help.
And so they may put this person in a room and all of them together will talk to the person and try to convince the person to get help with his or her drug or alcohol problem.
That's an intervention.
Carol says, what are you going to do?
Enter the fray without a plan?
To enter the fray, F-R-A-Y, means to become involved in a fight, argument, or disagreement.
To join into a situation that is hostile, where perhaps people are yelling at each other or even fighting physically with each other.
Miguel says, I have a plan.
I have an idea about what I'm going to do.
I'm going to stop what's going on using whatever means necessary.
The word means M-E-A-N-S here refers to the method, the manner or the approach that you use in order to get something done.
Whatever means necessary is used in a situation where you will do anything.
You will do whatever it takes in order to get the result you want to get.
Carol is still confused about what Miguel plans to do.
She asks, by doing what?
What exactly are you going to do, Miguel?
She's asking.
She asks, have you thought this through?
To think something through is to think carefully about something, to think of all the possible consequences of your actions, to really understand what you are doing, including what might go wrong or what problems you might face as you do this action.
Miguel then gives us a little bit of his plan.
He says, To get the lay L-A-Y of the land means to understand the way things are organized by looking at the situation or by looking at a particular place.
Physically.
To get the lay of the land would be to understand where everything is, where the roads are, where the streets are, where the houses are in a given area.
It can be used more generally to mean to understand the way things are organized, the way an organization or a business is organized, for example.
Miguel says that he will formulate some options.
The verb to formulate F-O-R-M-U-L-A-T-E means to come up with or develop something, to think of something.
Miguel says everything will work out.
If someone says it's going to work out, He means that it's going to be okay.
It's going to be successful.
There aren't going to be any problems.
Carol says, and I suppose you expect me to go with you to stick my neck out too.
To stick your neck out is an expression meaning to take a risk, to do something that might cause you harm or injury or put you in danger.
Miguel says, that's up to you, meaning that's your decision.
I'm not going to force you.
In fact, the next sentence is, I'm not twisting your arm.
To twist T-W-I-S-T someone's arm is to persuade someone to do something that the person doesn't really want to do.
To force the person to do something.
If you can think of your arm and someone putting your arm behind your back in a painful way, Then you understand where this expression comes from to twist someone's arm to make them do something, because you are pressuring them.
Carol says, how do you know that if I stay here, if I don't go with you, I won't squeal on you?
To squeal S-Q-U-E-A-L on someone means to report someone's bad behavior to someone else, to tell someone else usually someone in authority about bad things that someone else has done.
Miguel says, I don't, meaning I don't know if you will squeal on me or not.
I guess I just have to rely or depend on your sense of honor.
A sense of honor, H-O-N-O-R, is wanting to do the right thing, the ethical thing, the moral thing.
Carol says, oh, come on, let's go.
Miguel asks, you're coming with me?
He's surprised that Carol is going to go with him.
Carol says, against my better judgment.
The expression against one's better judgment means that you don't agree with what this person is saying, but or what this person wants to do.
But you're going to do it anyway.
You're going to go against your better judgment, against your own reason, against the logic in your own mind, and instead you're going to do what this person wants you to do.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hey, where are you going?
We can't sit here doing nothing.
We have orders to stay here and to keep watch.
You know as well as I do what the consequences are of defying orders.
I don't care what kind of punishment I get.
I can't sit still and let things happen without an attempted intervention.
What are you going to do?
Enter the fray without a plan?
I have a plan.
I'm going to stop what's going on using whatever means necessary.
By doing what?
Have you thought this through?
I'll get the lay of the land and then formulate some options.
Everything will work out.
And I suppose you expect me to go with you, to stick my neck out too.
That's up to you.
I'm not twisting your arm.
How do you know that if I stay here, I won't squeal on you?
I don't.
I guess I just have to rely on your sense of honor.
Oh, come on, let's go.
You're coming with me?
Against my better judgment, helps you learn English by whatever means necessary, especially by writing good scripts.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
