Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,239, Sharing an Online Account.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1,239.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Download the learning guide for this episode that contains a complete transcript of everything we say, along with culture notes, comprehension questions and a complete glossary with definitions and sample sentences.
This episode is a dialogue between Sarah and Gabriel about having more than one person use your online account.
Let's get started.
Hello.
Customer service.
How may I help you today?
Hello.
I noticed some suspicious activity on my account and I want to find out if there's been unauthorized access.
Let's take a look.
That's the problem.
I haven't made any purchases.
Do you have a shared account by any chance?
Yes, I have a household account that's shared by my entire family.
My wife has full access but my children only have restricted access.
I'm afraid that's not showing in your account preferences.
Both of your children have full access.
Even so, they know not to abuse their privileges.
They wouldn't buy things without asking my wife or me first.
Are you sure, sir?
I show that both of your children have accessed the account regularly.
In fact, they're both logged on right now.
They are?
What are they doing?
They're in the process of buying several more items and are checking out.
Stop them.
This is an emergency.
Shut down my account.
I'm not sure I can do that, sir.
Perhaps you can stop them on your end.
I'll stop them, all right.
Just wait till I get my hands on those two.
We're talking in this episode about sharing, or more than one person using an online or internet account.
An account is, in this case, permission to use a certain website, usually one that requires you register and often pay to use.
Our dialogue begins with Sarah saying, Sarah then works for a company, an online company.
She is part of their customer service, the people who are supposed to help you when you have a problem.
Gabriel says hello.
I noticed some suspicious activity on my account.
Suspicious S-U-S-P-I-C-I-O-U-S activity is something, some activity or action that you don't recognize or that you think might be a problem.
If you see someone standing by your car and looking as though he might try to steal your car, that would be an example of suspicious activity.
The person is standing there and you're not quite sure why.
You think there might be some problem in the near future with this person.
In the case of Gabriel, he noticed some suspicious activity on his online account.
He noticed things that he perhaps didn't recognize or should not have been there.
He wants to find out if there has been any unauthorized access.
Access, A-C-C-E-S-S, is the ability to get into somewhere.
It could be a physical place, or in this case, it could be an account on a website.
Unauthorized U-N-A-U-T-H-O-R-I-Z-E-D is not authorized, meaning you don't have permission to do that.
Sarah says, let's take a look.
Your account history shows purchases nearly every day beginning two weeks ago.
Your account history would be a list on your website account of all the things that have happened on your account.
All the things, in this case, that you have purchased or bought.
Gabriel says that's the problem.
I haven't made any purchases.
Sarah is saying that there have been purchases on Gabriel's account every day for the past two weeks.
But Gabriel is saying he hasn't bought anything.
He didn't buy anything from this website.
Sarah then asks him, do you have a shared account by any chance?
To share S-H-A-R-E is to use something with another person or to give something to another person to use as well.
A shared account would be an account, in this case on a website, that two or more people could use.
Sarah adds the expression at the end of her question, by any chance.
By any chance is a polite way of asking if something is possible.
We might also say maybe or perhaps.
Do you by any chance have a pen I can borrow?
You are politely asking someone if they have a pen that you could use.
Gabriel says in answer to Sarah's question Yes, I have a household account that's shared by my entire family.
Household H-O-U-S-E-H-O-L-D refers to the group of people who live in your house or in your home.
Usually, All of those people are members of your family.
A father, a mother, children, perhaps a grandmother, or even an aunt and an uncle.
Those are all part of a household.
People who live in one house or one apartment.
Gabriel says he has a household account. and every member of his family has access to this account.
He says, Gabriel talks about two kinds of access.
The first kind is full, F-U-L-L.
If you have full access to something, you have complete access.
You have just as much access as the person who owns the account.
Gabriel says his wife has full access, the same access that His children only have restricted R-E-S-T-R-I-C-T-E-D access.
Restricted means that you aren't able to do everything someone with full access can do.
Restricted means partial or just a part of the larger or whole amount.
Sarah says, I'm afraid that's not showing in your account preferences.
Sarah, the customer service woman, is telling Gabriel that his account is not set up.
His account is not, we might say, configured for restricted access for his children.
Your account preferences are the things that you can turn on and off or change about your account.
Sarah then tells Gabriel, both of your children have full access.
Gabriel says even so, meaning well okay, even if that were true they, meaning his two children, know not to abuse their privileges.
Gabriel is saying that, even though his children have full access to his account, they would not abuse A-B-U-S-E their privileges.
To abuse something is to use something in a harmful way, either doing too much of something or doing it in a way that could hurt you or someone else.
To abuse someone's privileges, P-R-I-V-I-L-E-G-E-S, is to use the authorization or right to do something In a wrong way, privileges refer to things that you are able to do in this case.
So to abuse your privileges would be to use the things that you can use in a way you should not use them.
In this case, Gabriel is saying his children would not buy something from this online account without asking him or his wife.
Sarah says, are you sure, sir?
I show that both of your children have accessed the account regularly, meaning frequently.
In fact, they're both logged on right now, to be logged l o g g e, d on means to be registered and using a website at a certain point at a certain time.
If you are logged on to your account, You have signed in, you have logged in with your username and password and are using a certain website.
Sarah is saying that Gabriel's two children are using this website right now.
Gabriel says they are.
What are they doing?
Sarah says...
They're in the process of meaning.
They are right now buying several more items, several more things, and are checking out.
To check, C-H-E-C-K, out, is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to complete your purchase of something.
Normally on a website, when you buy something, you say you want to buy it by adding it to a shopping cart.
This is sort of a page where what you want to buy is being kept.
Then you check out.
Then you say, okay, I want to buy it.
And you put in your credit card information and you say, yes, I want to buy it.
To check out then, means to complete your purchase of something to buy something, by giving a website your payment information, your credit card number or perhaps your PayPal account information.
Gabriel tells Sarah to stop his children from checking out.
This is an emergency, he says.
Shut down my account.
The phrasal verb to shut S-H-U-T down means to close something so that it no longer functions or no longer works.
If the owner of a company shuts down his business, he closes his business.
The business stops functioning.
Gabriel wants Sarah to shut down his online account.
But Sarah says, I'm not sure I can do that, sir.
Perhaps you can stop them on your end.
On your end means where you are, at your location.
Gabriel says, I'll stop them all right.
Gabriel is obviously angry.
He's upset.
He says, The expression all, A-L-L, right, R-I-G-H-T, means certainly, for sure, without any doubt.
Here, It's meant to indicate just how certain and, in a way, angry Gabriel is.
I'll stop them, all right, meaning I will definitely stop them.
I am certainly going to stop them.
Notice that all right is two words.
It's often spelled nowadays as one word, A-L-R-I-G-H-T.
But the more traditional spelling is A-L-L and then R-I-G-H-T as two words.
Gabriel then ends our dialogue by saying, Just wait till I get my hands on those two.
Wait till...
Apostrophe T-I-L means wait until.
Till is just a short way of saying until.
Wait until I get my hands on someone means I am very angry and I'm going to hurt someone for doing something wrong.
I'm going to punish someone for doing something wrong.
It might be something a parent would say about his or her child if the child has done something wrong.
That's the case here.
Gabriel is very angry at his two children.
We don't know if he's actually going to hurt them physically, but certainly he is going to punish them.
He is going to do something to discipline them for buying things on this website without his permission.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hello, customer service.
How may I help you today?
Hello.
I noticed some suspicious activity on my account and I want to find out if there's been unauthorized access.
Let's take a look.
Your account history shows purchases nearly every day beginning two weeks ago.
That's the problem.
I haven't made any purchases.
Do you have a shared account by any chance?
Yes, I have a household account that's shared by my entire family.
My wife has full access, but my children only have restricted access.
Even so, they know not to abuse their privileges.
They wouldn't buy things without asking my wife or me first.
Are you sure, sir?
I show that both of your children have accessed the account regularly.
In fact, they're both logged on right now.
They are?
What are they doing?
They're in the process of buying several more items and are checking out.
Stop them.
This is an emergency.
Shut down my account.
I'm not sure I can do that, sir.
Perhaps you can stop them on your end.
I'll stop them, all right.
Just wait till I get my hands on those two.
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From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
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English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
