Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1137.
Using battery power.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1137.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to ESLPOD.com.
Why?
Well, I thought you'd never ask, so you can become a member of ESL Podcast and download the learning guide for this episode.
You can also like us on Facebook at facebook.com slash ESL POD.
And why not follow us on Twitter at ESL POD, of course.
This episode is a dialogue between Luisa and Alessandro about using battery power for your electronic devices.
Let's get started.
The battery on my computer is almost out of juice.
Did you bring a spare?
It's a rechargeable battery, so instead of replacing it, I need to plug it in, but there are no outlets in here.
I don't see one either.
Forget it.
I'll just finish watching the movie on my phone.
Oh no, my phone battery is running low too.
It's a high-capacity battery and is supposed to discharge slowly, giving me a full day of power.
I don't know what's wrong with it.
Do you want to borrow my radio?
At least you can listen to music for a while.
A radio?
You mean an old-fashioned radio?
Yeah.
It uses disposable batteries, and I brought plenty.
No thanks.
I don't think a radio will do me any good.
Maybe there's an emergency generator around here.
I just need enough electricity to finish watching my movie.
I don't think that will do you any good.
And plus, the emergency generator is supposed to be used for emergencies and only in the event of a power failure.
Exactly.
What can be more of an emergency than not knowing how a movie ends?
Louisa kicks things off, that is, starts things in our dialogue by saying the battery on my computer is almost out of juice.
Your battery is what stores energy that you use for an electronic device.
Your cell phone, your tablet.
Most laptop computers have batteries in them, so you can use them without plugging in directly to the electrical outlet in the wall.
To be out of juice, J-U-I-C-E, means that your battery no longer has any power, any energy.
The word juice is also used, of course, for a liquid that you drink, made from usually some sort of fruit.
Think of orange juice or apple juice or pineapple juice, although pineapple juice isn't very popular.
This juice, however, has nothing to do with something you drink.
It has to do with the power or energy remaining in your battery.
Please don't email me and tell me that power and energy are not the same thing.
I understand that, but in conversational English we use those two words interchangeably, often one for the other.
Alessandro says, Did you bring a spare...
A spare S-P-A-R-E is an additional item or an additional thing that you can use as a replacement for something else if it stops working.
So here, the word spare really means spare battery, an extra battery.
We also in our cars carry a spare tire, which some people often referred to simply as the spare.
The spare is the extra tire or wheel you have in your car in case you have a problem with one of your tires.
We call it a spare tire for your car even though the tire goes around the wheel.
We probably should call it a spare wheel, but we don't.
We usually just say a spare tire.
Anyway, we're not talking about cars here, Jeff.
Get back to the story.
Alessandro asks Luisa if she brought a spare, that is, spare battery.
Luisa says it's a rechargeable battery.
So instead of replacing it, I need to plug it in.
But there are no outlets here.
There are basically two kinds of batteries.
There are batteries that you use once and then you throw away.
And there are batteries that you can recharge.
To charge, C-H-A-R-G-E, something, means to add power to it, in a sense.
So rechargeable, R-E-C-H-A-R-G-E-A-B-L-E, is a battery that you can use more than once.
You can add power or energy to it again so that you can use it again.
Luisa says that she has a rechargeable battery called, So instead of replacing it, that is, instead of throwing it out and putting a new battery in, she needs to plug the battery in.
To plug something in means to connect it to a source of electricity so that it will work.
If you have a television, usually you have to plug it in.
You have to connect the television to some form of or source of electricity.
Luisa is saying that she wants to plug her battery in so she can recharge it, but she says there are no outlets here.
An outlet, O-U-T-L-E-T, is a small set of holes in the wall into which you plug something in.
We may also call it a power outlet or an electrical outlet.
One of the problems of traveling to another country is that sometimes their outlets are different than the outlets you have in your own country.
So you have to buy what's called an adapter.
Luisa says she cannot find any outlets wherever she is there in this dialogue.
Alessandro says, I don't see one either.
Luisa then says, forget it.
I'll just finish watching the movie on my phone.
So apparently Luisa was watching a movie on her computer and now she's going to watch it on her phone.
Then she says, oh no, my phone battery is running low too.
To run, R-U-N, low, L-O-W, means to have very little of something left.
To be running out of something, we may also say.
I'm running low on coffee means I don't have very much coffee left.
I'm running low on battery power means my battery is almost out of juice.
Luisa says the battery is a high-capacity battery and is supposed to discharge slowly, giving me a full day of power.
Capacity C-A-P-A-C-I-T-Y refers to how much something can contain, or how big, or or sometimes how powerful something is.
A high-capacity battery would be a battery that one presumes you could use for a long time.
Luisa says the battery is supposed to discharge slowly.
To discharge, D-I-S-C-H-A-R-G-E, is the opposite of to charge.
So if to charge is to add electrical power to a battery, to discharge would be to take that away.
When you use a battery you are slowly discharging it.
Luisa thought that her high-capacity battery would give her a full day of power, a full day of use of energy.
I don't know what's wrong with it, she says.
Alessandro then asks, do you want to borrow my radio?
A radio R-A-D-I-O for those too young to remember is a device that receives what are called radio frequency waves and uses them to produce sound.
Alessandro says at least you can listen to music for a while.
Luisa says a radio?
You mean an old-fashioned radio?
Old-fashioned here means something that no one uses anymore.
Alessandro says, yeah, meaning yes.
It uses disposable batteries and I brought plenty.
Disposable, D-I-S-P-O-S-A-B-L-E, is the opposite of rechargeable.
A disposable battery is one of those batteries that you use once and then you throw it away.
A paper napkin is disposable.
Once you use it, you can't wash it.
You just have to throw it away.
Alessandro says he brought plenty, P-L-E-N-T-Y.
Here he means plenty of batteries.
Plenty is a lot of something.
We have plenty of food, meaning we have enough food for everyone.
Luisa says, no thanks.
I don't think a radio will do me any good, meaning it won't help me.
Maybe there's an emergency generator around here.
An emergency generator means G-E-N-E-R-A-T-O-R is a machine that produces energy when the regular supply of electricity that you get to your house or your office building doesn't work.
In some parts of the world emergency generators are very common because the electrical system perhaps is not very reliable.
Some people have emergency generators in case there is well an emergency, a situation that may cause the electricity to no longer work.
Here in Southern California, it's probably a good idea to have an emergency generator in case we have an earthquake, where the earth begins to move and bad things can happen.
Do I have an emergency generator?
Of course not, because I do not plan ahead very well.
Kind of like Louisa.
Louisa says, maybe there's an emergency generator around here.
I just need enough electricity to finish watching my movie.
The word electricity here is used to mean something similar to power and energy.
Alessandro says, I don't think that will do you any good, meaning I don't think that will help you.
And plus Alessandro says, meaning.
In addition, the emergency generator is supposed to be used for emergencies and only in the event of a power failure.
A power failure F-A-I-L-U-R-E is when, as I mentioned earlier, you don't have any electrical power coming to your house or your building.
A failure is when something stops working the way it should.
Alessandro says that an emergency generator is supposed to be used only in the event of a power failure.
In the event, E-V-E-N-T, of something means if something happens or in case something happens.
Luisa says exactly, meaning that's exactly what I mean.
What can be more of an emergency than not knowing how a movie ends?
Luisa thinks that not knowing how the movie ends is an emergency and therefore she needs an emergency generator.
I suppose if you have young children and you are entertaining them by having them watch a movie on a tablet such as an iPad and your battery dies, it might be considered an emergency because your young children may be very upset.
They don't know how the movie ends.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
The battery on my computer is almost out of juice.
Did you bring a spare?
It's a rechargeable battery, so instead of replacing it, I need to plug it in.
But there are no outlets in here.
I don't see one either.
Forget it.
I'll just finish watching the movie on my phone.
Oh no, my phone battery is running low too.
It's a high-capacity battery and is supposed to discharge slowly, giving me a full day of power.
I don't know what's wrong with it.
Do you want to borrow my radio?
At least you could listen to music for a while.
A radio?
You mean an old-fashioned radio?
No.
Yeah, it uses disposable batteries and I brought plenty.
No thanks.
I don't think a radio will do me any good.
Maybe there's an emergency generator around here.
I just need enough electricity to finish watching my movie.
I don't think that will do you any good.
And plus, the emergency generator is supposed to be used for emergencies and only in the event of a power failure.
Exactly.
What can be more of an emergency than not knowing how a movie ends?
Our scriptwriter has plenty of good ideas about vocabulary and expressions that you should know in English.
That's because she's wonderful.
The wonderful Dr. Lucy Saye.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm the not very wonderful Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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.
