Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,286, Experiencing Headaches.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,286.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode is a dialogue between Lupe and Eiji about having a headache.
Let's get started.
Why are you lying on the couch with the lights out?
Oh, you poor thing.
Do you have a headache?
Yes, a very bad one.
My head is throbbing.
Why don't I get you some hot tea?
No, I just want to lie here quietly.
I know that when I have a tension headache, it always eases the pain when someone massages my neck and shoulders.
Would you like that?
No, I don't think it's a tension headache.
It came on suddenly.
Then it's not a sinus headache either?
Are you feeling pain around your cheekbones?
No, it's not a sinus headache.
I feel a little nauseous, actually.
Ah, then it must be a migraine.
That explains the dark room and the need for quiet.
I know the perfect cure for a migraine.
Me too, but I don't have it here.
Great.
The only place that stocks it is in the next town.
If it's too much trouble...
No, no, I'll go.
But how will you manage while I'm gone?
I'll just have to find a way to muddle through.
The word ache, A-C-H-E, means pain.
So a headache is a pain that you have in your head, of course.
Our dialogue is all about headaches.
Lupe begins by asking Eiji, why are you lying on the couch with the lights out?
To lie, L-I-E, means to put your body in what we would call a horizontal position.
When you sleep on a bed, you lie on the bed.
Your body is not standing up.
It's, we would say, lying, L-Y-I-N-G, down.
Notice the spelling changes when it is turned into a participle or ING form.
Eiji is lying on a couch or a sofa, a big thing that two or more people can sit in.
He has the lights out, meaning he's turned the lights off in the room so that it's dark.
Lupe says, oh, you poor thing.
The phrase poor thing is used to show that Sympathy or pity for another person who is in a bad or difficult situation.
When you feel sorry for another person who is having a bad time, you might use that phrase.
Oh you, poor thing.
She says, do you have a headache?
Eiji says, yes, a very bad one.
My head is throbbing.
The verb to throb T-H-R-O-B means to have a very in this.
Often, when you have a bad headache, you feel like your head is throbbing.
It's almost as though part of your head is like your heart.
In fact, we use that verb to throb when describing what a heart does.
A heart is, of course, a muscle that is constantly moving.
That motion we could call a throbbing motion.
It's like something is going up and down inside of your body.
Well, that's the feeling of pain that Eiji is experiencing, a throbbing pain in his head.
Lupe says, why don't I get you some hot tea?
That always helps me when I have a pounding headache.
The word pounding P-O-U-N-D-I-N-G is the feeling, or we might say the sensation, of being hit repeatedly, over and over again.
Sometimes your headache feels like you're being hit in the head constantly.
Throbbing and pounding are very closely related in meaning here.
Eiji says, no, I just want to lie here quietly.
Lupe says I know that when I have a tension headache, it always eases the pain when someone massages my neck and shoulders.
Would you like that?
Lupe describes what helps her when she has a tension headache.
Tension is a feeling often caused by stress where your muscles are tight.
So a tension headache is usually one that is caused by feeling stressed or feeling anxious or feeling nervous about something.
Lupe says that it always eases E-A-S-E-S the pain when someone massages M-A-S-S-A-G-E-S her neck and shoulders.
To ease means to reduce pain or to get rid of pain.
A massage is when someone rubs your body, usually in an effort to relax your muscles, to make them less tight.
Eiji says he doesn't want a massage from Lupe.
He says it's not a tension headache.
It came on suddenly, he adds.
When something comes on, it begins very quickly or without warning.
When we say a headache came on suddenly, we mean it appears to have started instantly.
It wasn't a small headache that grew into a big headache.
It was a big headache right away.
Lupe says, then it's not a sinus headache either.
A sinus, S-I-N-U-S, headache is a headache caused by pain in, of course, your sinuses.
Your sinuses are in your head.
They're connected to or part of your breathing system. that is done through your nose.
Sometimes, when we have a cold or our sinuses become infected, it's difficult to breathe, but also it causes pain in our head.
Lupe says Your cheeks C-H-E-E-K-S are the parts of your face that are located on either side of your nose.
Your cheekbones, then are the bones that are on that part of your face, below your eyes, on either side of your nose.
Eiji says, no, it's not a sinus headache.
He adds, I feel a little nauseous actually.
Nauseous.
N-A-U-S-E-O-U-S is an adjective that describes a feeling in your stomach that you're going to be sick, that you're going to, we would say, throw up or vomit.
To vomit is when the contents of your stomach, what's in your stomach, comes out through your mouth.
Not a very nice feeling.
Lupe says, ah, then it must be a migraine, M-I-G-R-A-I-N-E.
A migraine or migraine headache is a very severe, a very intense headache that causes a lot of pain.
Sometimes it can also cause nausea.
That is, that feeling of being sick in your stomach, as well as problems with your vision.
You can't see properly.
Not all migraines, however, have those symptoms or those things that are associated with it.
Lupe says that explains the dark room and the need for quiet.
People who get migraine headaches often are able to ease their pain by lying down and turning off the lights.
I know the perfect cure for a migraine, Lupe says.
A cure, C-U-R-E, is something that helps a medical problem.
Usually it's something that makes the medical problem, the sickness, the disease, the illness go away.
Some of you old enough might remember a rock band called The Cure that was popular in the 80s and 90s.
Anyway, Lupe thinks she has the perfect cure for a migraine.
Eiji says, me too, meaning I also know what the perfect cure is.
But, he adds, I don't have it here.
We get the feeling right now that perhaps Eiji is just trying to get rid of Lupe.
He wants Lupe to leave him alone.
Lupe says, Eiji says, The only place that stocks it is in the next town.
To stock, S-T-O-C-K something, means for a store to have something available to sell you.
That's why we sometimes use the expressions in stock and out of stock.
If you go to a store to buy say, a pair of shoes, and the store says we don't have that kind in stock, they mean they don't actually have any of those shoes there at their store.
They are, we might also say, out of stock.
To be out of stock means you don't have it.
To be in stock means you do have it.
Agee says the only place that stocks this drug, we're guessing is in the next town, meaning not in the town or small city where they are right now, but in one that is close to them, perhaps 10 miles or 20 miles or even farther away.
Lupe says, but that's over two hours away, meaning the next town is two hours from where they are now.
I must say that is a little unlikely.
If they're in the main part of the United States, most towns have another town within oh, ten or twenty miles.
That's because when the country was first getting started that's about how long you could go in a single day.
But Perhaps they're located in Alaska.
I don't know.
Alaska is a big state located, of course, between Canada and Russia.
That is part of the US that doesn't have very many towns or people in it.
Eiji wants Lupe to go get him this medicine.
Eiji says however, if it's too much trouble, meaning well, if it is too much work or involves too much time for Lupe, she doesn't have to do it.
But you can tell by the way he says it that he really wants Lupe to leave, to go to this town.
Lupe then agrees.
She says, no, no, I'll go.
She's saying, no, it is not too much trouble.
I'll go to this town.
Then she asks, but how will you manage while I'm gone?
The verb to manage, manage.
N-A-G-E has a lot of different uses in conversational English.
Here it means to be able to do something that is difficult, to be able to survive through a difficult situation.
Agee says, I'll just have to find a way to muddle through.
In other words, I'll have to find a way to muddle through while you are gone, without your help.
The phrasal verb to muddle M-U-D-D-L-E through something means to be able to do something that is difficult, even when you don't have the necessary experience, education or skills to do it.
It means to be able to do something but probably not do it very well.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are you lying on the couch with the lights out?
Oh, you poor thing.
Do you have a headache?
Yes, a very bad one.
My head is throbbing.
Why don't I get you some hot tea?
That always helps me when I have a.
I know that when I have a tension headache, it always eases the pain when someone massages my neck and shoulders.
Would you like that?
No, I don't think it's a tension headache.
It came on suddenly.
Then it's not a sinus headache either?
Are you feeling pain around your cheekbones?
No, it's not a sinus headache.
I feel a little nauseous actually.
Ah, then it must be a migraine.
That explains the dark room and the need for quiet.
I know the perfect cure for a migraine.
Me too, but I don't have it here.
I'd be happy to get it for you.
Great.
The only place that stocks it is in the next town.
But that's over two hours away.
If it's too much trouble...
No, no, I'll go.
But how will you manage while I'm gone?
I'll just have to find a way to muddle through.
If you're lying around wondering what the cure is for your English problems, the answer is is ESL Podcast and the Dialogues by Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm 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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
