Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1107, The Death of a Pet.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1107.
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 a father and his daughter about a pet that has died.
Let's get started.
Honey, I have some bad news for you.
Fluffy has gone to the other side.
You mean she's out of her cage again?
I'll go and try to find her.
No, you don't understand.
Fluffy passed away in the night.
Oh, she died.
That's too bad.
But she was getting up there in years.
Yes, but she didn't die a natural death.
She was run over by the neighbor's car.
You mean she was flattened?
Cool!
Well, I wouldn't put it that way, but I understand if you're in shock.
I guess people show grief in different ways.
Fluffy went out with a bang.
That's the way she would have wanted to go.
I'd like to think of her as being in heaven, and she's gone to meet her maker.
I don't think there's an afterlife for animals, Dad.
It's all just a part of the circle of life.
Okay.
I thought we could have a funeral for her so we can pay our respects.
I thought you'd want one.
She was your pet, after all.
And who said that the youth of today is cynical?
This episode is all about one's pet, PET, dying.
A pet is an animal that you have, usually in your house or near your house.
A pet is typically something like a dog or a cat that people like to have as sort of a companion, a friend, if you will.
I don't know.
I don't have any pets.
I don't really like animals.
But if you've been listening to ESL Podcast, you probably know that already.
Let's get into our dialogue then.
We have a father talking to his daughter, Sarah, He says, honey, I have some bad news for you.
Honey, H-O-N-E-Y, is a word we use for a girl or a woman.
It's what we would call a term of endearment.
It's sort of a nice thing to say to someone.
A man may call his wife honey or girlfriend honey.
It's a term of affection used for a woman or a girl.
Certainly it's something that a father could use with his daughter, and that's what we see here.
Dad says, I have some bad news for you.
Fluffy has gone to the other side.
Fluffy was either a dog or a cat.
I'm not sure which.
Let's call it a cat.
I think that's probably a more likely match or fit for the name Fluffy.
Fluffy, Dad says, has gone to the other side.
Gone to the other side is just a nice way of saying that someone has died.
That someone, or in this case, some animal, is no longer living.
Sarah, however, doesn't really understand her father.
Because to go to the other side could mean simply to go say, from your property to the property next to you, from your house to somewhere else.
So she says, you mean she's out of her cage again?
A cage, C-A-G-E, is something that you would keep an animal in.
So maybe this isn't a cat.
Maybe this is a rabbit or something.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
Sarah says, I'll go and try to find her.
Sarah thinks that the animal has escaped from its cage, from the place where she was keeping it.
Her father says, no, you don't understand.
Fluffy passed away in the The phrasal verb to pass away also means to die.
It's much more common to hear someone describe someone dying as the person passing away than it is going to the other side.
In fact, I don't think you would hear the expression to go to the other side very often.
People often, however, do say that someone has passed away.
It's a nicer way of saying someone has died.
There are lots of euphemisms, nice ways of describing death and the process of dying.
In some Christian churches they use the expression fallen asleep in the Lord, which I kind of like the idea of falling asleep.
It sounds a bit more poetic.
Sarah says, oh, she died.
That's too bad.
But she was getting up there in years.
The expression to get up there in years means to be old, to no longer be young or even middle-aged.
Sarah doesn't seem too upset, at least not as upset as her father perhaps thought she would be.
Dad says, yes, but she didn't die a natural death.
A natural N-A-T-U-R-A-L death is when you die of some disease or illness or failure of some bodily organ or part, such as your heart or your lungs.
If it's not a natural death, then it's either an accident or it's murder.
Now I don't think Fluffy's been murdered, but that would be really interesting in terms of the story.
You know what I'm saying.
Then I could be like the detective, the person who tries to find out who murdered, in this case, Fluffy.
But no, it wasn't a murder.
It was, however, an accident.
Dad says she was run over by the neighbor's car.
To be run over means to be hit and injured or, in this case, killed by a car that goes over, in this case the animal.
We're not sure if it was an accident, however.
Remember, it was the neighbor who...
Maybe the neighbor was trying to kill Fluffy.
It's possible.
But we continue.
Cool.
Cool.
To flatten F-L-A-T-T-E-N something is to make it flat, meaning to make it so that it has very little height.
Usually we flatten something with a heavy weight or object.
Sarah thinks it's cool.
Sarah thinks it's kind of interesting in a good way, that the pet was flattened by the neighbor's car.
Maybe Sarah shouldn't be owning pets.
Anyway, Dad says, Well, I wouldn't put it that way.
Meaning, I wouldn't say that.
But I understand you're in shock.
To be in shock, S-H-O-C-K, is to be very surprised by something.
Usually something negative.
Dad continues, I guess people show grief in different ways.
Grief, G-R-I-E-F, are feelings of extreme sadness after someone has died.
Sarah says, Fluffy went out with a bang.
To go out with a bang B-A-N-G is to die doing something exciting unusual, surprising and or memorable in some way.
I really don't care about going out with a bang.
I'd rather just not go out, that is, die.
But we all have to, don't we?
Sarah says that's the way she would have wanted to go, meaning that's the way Fluffy would have wanted to die.
Assuming animals could want something in the same way that we want something.
Dad says I'd like to think of her, I'd like to imagine her as being in heaven and she's gone to meet her maker.
Heaven, H-E-A-V-E-N, in many religions is a place where God lives, where you go after you die, or where you may go after you die.
According to the theologians in the rock group the Bangles, heaven is a place on earth, but I don't think many people believe that.
The expression, gone to meet God, Your maker, M-A-K-E-R, means that you have died.
It's another way of saying someone has died and has gone on to meet God.
God here being the maker of the world and of all things.
Sarah says, I don't think there's an afterlife for animals, Dad.
An afterlife, A-F-T-E-R-L-I-F-E, is a state that your soul is in after it dies.
It's the idea that you have a soul or spirit that continues living on.
Or it could simply refer to whatever happens to you after you die, whatever continued existence you have.
Sarah says, it's all just part of the circle of life.
The phrase circle of life is sometimes used to talk about the natural processes of birth, life and death.
Dad says, okay.
I thought we could have a funeral for her so we can pay our respects.
A funeral F-U-N-E-R-A-L is a ceremony that you hold after someone dies, often intended to honor the person who has died, to give friends and family a chance to talk about the person perhaps, or remember the person.
To pay P-A-Y your respects, R-E-S-P-E-C-T-S, notice it's plural, means to honor someone's memory or to remember someone in a nice way by actually going to his or her funeral.
Sarah says, is that really necessary?
Dad says, I thought you'd want one, meaning I thought you would want a funeral for Fluffy.
Dad says, she was your pet after all.
But Sarah says, no, let's just bury her in the backyard.
To bury, B-U-R-Y, is to put a dead body into a hole in the ground and cover it with dirt.
Usually you put the body in some other container, some sort of box which, for a human body, we would call a coffin, C-O-F-F-I-N.
Dad is a bit surprised by Sarah's attitude.
He says, and who said that the youth of today, that is young people today, is cynical?
C-Y-N-I-C-A-L.
Cynical in this case means not interested in commonly accepted standards and behaviors.
It can also be used to describe someone who is self-interested, who is looking after his own interests before other people's.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Honey, I have some bad news for you.
Fluffy has gone to the other side.
You mean she's out of her cage again?
I'll go and try to find her.
No, you don't understand.
Fluffy passed away in the night.
Oh, she died.
Oh, that's too bad.
But she was getting up there in years.
Yes, but she didn't die a natural death.
She was run over by the neighbor's car.
You mean she was flattened?
Cool.
Well, I wouldn't put it that way, but I understand if you're in shock.
I guess people show grief in different ways.
Fluffy went out with a bang.
That's the way she would have wanted to go.
I'd like to think of her as being in heaven, and she's gone to meet her maker.
I don't think there's an afterlife for animals, Dad.
It's all just a part of the circle of life.
Okay.
I thought we could have a funeral for her so we can pay our respects.
Is that really necessary?
I thought you'd want one.
She was your pet, after all.
No, let's just bury her in the backyard.
And who said that the youth of today is cynical?
We're thankful that our scriptwriter has not yet gone to meet her maker.
I speak of the wonderful 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.
