Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1093.
Having a picnic.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1093.
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 Bill and Madison about having a picnic, going out and eating outside somewhere.
Let's get started.
Surprise!
Surprise!
I brought you here to this beautiful spot for a romantic picnic.
I have a very special question to ask you.
Oh, that's so sweet.
Did you remember to bring a picnic blanket?
I did.
I have everything we'll need in this picnic basket.
Don't put it down there.
There are ants.
You should put it on the blanket.
And I hope you remembered to bring something to drink.
I'm thirsty.
I brought both food and a bottle of champagne.
Well, I hope the food isn't too cold and the champagne isn't too warm.
You know how I hate warm champagne.
Actually, the food is cold because I brought chicken sandwiches and potato salad.
Oh, I thought you would have brought something a little more, well, gourmet or lavish.
Something a little special.
That's why I brought the champagne.
It'll make this picnic extra special.
I guess we'll have to make do with warm champagne and sandwiches.
I hope you remember to bring a corkscrew and some dishes and silverware.
I bought paper plates and plastic utensils.
Paper and plastic?
I guess we'll have to make do with those, too.
Okay, now, you said you had a special question you wanted to ask me.
What is it?
Question?
Oh, never mind.
It'll keep.
Bill says to Madison, surprise, I brought you here to this beautiful spot for a romantic picnic.
A spot, S-P-O-T, here just means a location or area.
Bill has brought Madison, his wife or girlfriend maybe it's the girlfriend and the wife's at home, I don't know to this beautiful spot for a romantic picnic.
A picnic, P-I-C-N-I-C, is a meal that you usually eat in a park or in some nice area.
You often sit on the grass and have a small meal, a lunch, let's say.
Bill says, I have a very special question to ask you.
Madison says, oh, that's so sweet.
If something is sweet, it's nice, or perhaps in this case, romantic.
Madison asks, did you remember to bring a picnic blanket?
A blanket, B-L-A-N-K-E-T, is normally something you put over yourself to keep warm.
Here however, it's used to mean something you would put on the ground, so that you don't have to sit on the dirt or perhaps on the wet grass.
Bill says, I did, meaning I did remember.
I have everything we'll need in this picnic basket.
A picnic basket B-A-S-K-E-T is usually a large container in which you put the items you will need for your picnic.
So you put all of your food and your plates, your napkins, your knives and forks, if you need them, into this large container called a basket.
A picnic basket is used to transport food and other items needed for a picnic.
Madison tells Bill, don't put it down there.
There are ants.
Ants A-N-T-S are small insects that have little body parts and legs that often go after food if it is left outdoors.
Madison is telling Bill not to put the picnic basket in a certain place because she sees that that place has ants.
She says you should put it on the blanket.
Bill says, yes, you're right.
Madison continues, and I hope you remembered to bring something to drink.
I'm thirsty.
Madison seems to be making a lot of demands on Bill, seems to be asking him for a lot of things.
She says she's thirsty and therefore hopes that Bill remembered to bring something to drink for her, of course.
Bill says, I brought both food and a bottle of champagne.
Champagne C-H-A-M-P-A-G-N-E is a white sparkling wine, a bubbly wine that is from a certain region in France.
In order to be sold as champagne in many countries, it has to be only from that region in France.
Madison says, well, I hope the food isn't too cold and the champagne isn't too warm.
So already we don't like Madison, right?
I mean, she's complaining now that perhaps the food will be cold and the champagne will be warm.
Of course, you want the champagne to be cold, and if it's supposed to be hot, the food to be warm.
She says, you know how I hate warm champagnes.
Bill says, actually, the food is cold because I brought chicken sandwiches and potato salad.
Bill is saying that the food is cold, but it's supposed to be cold because he has brought some chicken sandwiches and potato salad.
A sandwich, of course, is a popular food in the United States.
It's made with two pieces of bread typically, and in between the two pieces of bread you put meat, vegetables and other things to eat.
Potato salad is a cold mixture of chopped potatoes, potatoes cut up into small pieces that have been baked, combined with mayonnaise, typically onions, celery and some other things.
Potato salad is a very popular picnic food in the United States, especially during the summer.
Whenever my family would have big family parties in the summertime, there would always be potato salad.
Madison says oh, Madison is complaining now that what Bill brought on this surprise picnic isn't very gourmet or lavish.
Gourmet G-O-U-R-M-E-T refers to very good-tasting food that usually is expensive and often takes a long time to prepare.
The word lavish, L-A-V-I-S-H, as an adjective means expensive or luxurious.
If we are talking about food, lavish would be very expensive, very good-looking and good-tasting food.
Bill says that's why I brought the champagne, in order to bring something a little special for the event.
It'll make this picnic extra special, he says.
Madison continues complaining, I guess we'll have to make do with warm champagne and sandwiches.
To make do is an interesting two-word phrasal verb meaning to be satisfied with something that isn't exactly what you want.
To be able to get by or to survive through a certain situation, not having all of the resources, all of the things that you would like to have in a perfect world or ideally.
Madison is saying that she and Bill will have to make do with warm champagne and sandwiches.
She says A corkscrew C-O-R-K-S-C-R-E-W is a special tool that you use to remove the very top of a wine or champagne bottle.
Technically, you're removing the little piece that is put into the top of the bottle to keep the liquid inside of it.
That little piece is called a cork and hence a corkscrew screws into or goes into the cork in order to allow you to pull it out.
Dishes are, of course, the things that you use for eating, plates and bowls, for example.
We use the term silverware often to mean the same as eating utensils, that is to say knives, forks and spoons.
Technically, silverware would be eating utensils made out of or plated with silver, but we use the term more generally to mean the knives, forks and spoons that you eat with.
Bill said, I bought paper plates and plastic utensils.
So he has plates made of paper and utensils that is again a knife, a fork, a spoon made of plastic, which is quite common on a picnic.
You often bring paper and plastic to eat with.
Madison is not impressed.
She says, paper and plastic.
She's not happy.
She continues, I guess we'll have to make do with those two.
Okay, now, you said you had a special question you wanted to ask me.
What is it?
We can guess by now that Bill was going to ask Madison to marry him.
He was going to propose to her.
To propose here means to ask someone to marry you.
But after all of the questions that Madison has asked, all the complaints that she has, Bill has decided, we believe, not to ask Madison anything.
To marry him, he says, question?
Oh, never mind.
Never mind is a phrase meaning that whatever you were talking about is not important and that the other person should just forget about it.
He says that the question will keep, K-E-E-P.
To say something will keep means that it doesn't have to be done right now or it doesn't have to be talked about right now.
It's something you can do in the future.
Maybe Bill will change his mind and decide never to ask Madison to marry him.
That would be my advice.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Surprise!
I brought you here to this beautiful spot for a romantic picnic.
I have a very special question to ask you.
Oh, that's so sweet.
Did you remember to bring a picnic blanket?
I did, yes.
I have everything we'll need in this picnic basket.
Don't put it down there.
There are ants.
You should put it on the blanket.
Yes, you're right.
And I hope you remember to bring something to drink.
I'm thirsty.
I brought both food and a bottle of champagne.
Well, I hope the food isn't too cold and the champagne isn't too warm.
You know how I hate warm champagne.
Actually, the food is cold because I brought chicken sandwiches and potato salad.
Oh, I thought you would have brought something a little more, well, gourmet or lavish.
Something a little special.
That's why I brought the champagne.
It'll make this picnic extra special.
I guess we'll have to make do with warm champagne and sandwiches.
I hope you remember to bring a corkscrew and some dishes and silverware.
I bought paper plates and plastic utensils.
Paper and plastic?
I guess we'll have to make do with those, too.
Okay, now.
You said you had a special question you wanted to ask me.
What is it?
Question?
Oh, never mind.
It'll keep...
Our script writer prepares gourmet English for you each and every episode.
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 Podcasts.
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.
