Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1290.
Describing car speed and power.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1290.
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.
This episode is a dialogue between Martin and his friend Asta about the speed and power of a car.
Let's get started.
Did you see that?
It's the new McHugh.
It does 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
It has amazing performance.
That car?
I guess it's nice.
I like the color.
Color?
Who cares about the color?
The McHugh is supposed to top out at 155, but it's been clocked at 160.
Can you imagine?
No, I can't.
It has more horsepower than any car on the market and amazing torque.
You wouldn't believe the RPMs.
So it can go fast?
Yeah, it can go fast.
It's supposed to be really responsive, too.
And the reviews say that the acceleration is really smooth.
I bet that's because of the tuning.
I like cars with more trunk space.
You don't drive a car like the McCue for its storage capacity.
You drive it for speed.
My cousin doesn't like it that much.
He says it doesn't have enough legroom.
What?
Your cousin owns a McCue?
Yes, but he only drives it when his editor is in the shop.
How is it possible that I've known you for years and this is the first time you've mentioned this cousin to me?
You know that I'm the biggest car enthusiast in the world, don't you?
My cousin isn't in town very often.
He's usually traveling to races.
Your cousin is a race car driver?
Yes.
Didn't I mention that either?
Martin begins our dialogue by asking Asta, did you see that?
It's the new McHugh.
It does 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
0 and 60 here refer to miles per hour, as in the speed, in this case, of a car.
So if a car does or goes 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, it can go from 0 that is, from not moving at all to 60 miles per hour as a speed in 4 seconds.
In American television ads or advertisements for cars you often hear the term zero to 60 to describe how fast a car can accelerate, how fast it can speed up.
The shorter the time it takes to go from 0 to 60, supposedly the better the car engine or motor, the part of the car that makes it move.
Martin says this car, which is called the McHugh, no relation to me, has amazing performance.
Performance P-E-R-F-O-R-M-A-N-C-E refers to how well something works.
You could talk about a person's performance on the job.
Their job performance would be how well they work at this particular job or in this position.
The performance of a car refers to how well it drives, how fast it goes, how reliable it is, and so forth.
Asta says, that car, I guess it's nice.
I like the color.
Martin is talking about the performance of the car, but Asta refers to its color.
She's not interested in how well the car runs.
She's interested in how the car looks.
Martin is surprised because, of course, he doesn't care about the color of the car.
In fact, he says, who cares about the color?
The McHugh, meaning this car named McHugh, is supposed to top out at 155.
To top T-O-P out means to reach the highest value of something, or to reach what we might call the upper U-P-P-E-R limit of something.
To top out, in the case of a car, would mean the fastest it can go, the highest speed it can go.
In this case, it's 155 miles per hour, which is pretty fast.
That would be about 250 kilometers per hour for those of you who use kilometers, which is most of you.
Martin says that the car is supposed to top out at 155, meaning perhaps that's what the car company says.
But, he adds, it's been clocked at 160.
To be clocked C-L-O-C-K-E-D at means to be recorded at a particular speed or to be proven by someone else measuring the speed to be actually faster.
So if the car has been clocked at 160, someone has actually driven the car and measured its speed and found out that it can actually go faster than 155 miles per hour.
It can go 160.
Martin then asks Asta, can you imagine that question?
Can you imagine is used when we are surprised by something and we are indicating to someone else how surprising that is.
For example, let's say you go to work and your boss comes in drunk, having drunk too much alcohol that morning.
Because, you know, you can't drink too much alcohol before you go to work, just a little bit.
Well, you may say to your friend, my boss came in drunk today.
Can you imagine?
You are indicating how surprised you are that your boss came in drunk today.
Asta responds to Martin's statement, can you imagine, his question, by saying, no, I can't.
Meaning, I can't imagine.
She's also indicating by her response that perhaps she isn't very interested in the same thing Martin is.
Martin continues.
However, It meaning the McHugh.
The car has more horsepower than any car on the market and amazing torque.
Horsepower H-O-R-S-E-P-O-W-E-R is how we measure the power of a motor or an engine, in part because when energy cars were first introduced, people compared them to the most common form of transportation before the automobile, which was a horse, of course.
So horsepower would refer to how many horses you would need to travel as fast or to have the same power as the car.
It's equal to 550 foot-pounds per second, which is the equivalent of 745.7 watts.
I know, that isn't a very helpful definition.
Martin says this car has more horsepower than any car on the market, meaning basically, it's more powerful than any car that is being sold right now.
That's what he means by the expression on the market, M-A-R-K-E-T.
He says the car also has amazing, meaning very good, torque.
T-O-R-Q-U-E Torque refers to the power of turning or rotating something.
In this case, however, it is a measure of how quickly the car can go faster, can accelerate.
A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-E To accelerate means to increase in speed.
That's why in a car you have what we call a pedal P-E-D-A-L, which is a long piece of plastic or metal that you press on with your foot to make the car go faster.
We call that pedal the accelerator pedal.
That makes the car go faster.
The other pedal is called the brake, B-R-A-K-E, that slows down or stops a car.
The opposite, however, of acceleration is deceleration.
But we don't call a brake a decelerator.
We call it a brake.
Anyway, back to our...
Martin also says to Asta, you wouldn't believe the RPMs.
You wouldn't believe means I'm going to tell you something that is very difficult for you to believe because it's so amazing.
You wouldn't believe the RPMs, the revolutions per minute.
RPMs is a measure of how fast something moves around what we call an axis, A-X-I-S.
Basically, it's a measure of how hard the engine is working in a car.
Asta then says, so it can go fast?
Martin says, yeah, it can go fast.
It's supposed to be really responsive too, and the reviews say that the acceleration is really smooth.
When we say a car is responsive R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-V-E, we mean that When you, for example, try to turn the car to go left or right, it responds very quickly.
More generally, the car seems to do what you want it to do very easily.
Martin also says that the reviews, meaning articles about the car in the newspaper or in a magazine, say that the acceleration is really smooth.
We've already defined acceleration as how fast the car goes from one speed to another, how quickly it can accelerate.
If the acceleration is smooth, S-M-O-O-T-H, it feels as though there are no bumps or that...
You don't have any difficulty going from one speed to another.
Martin adds Tuning refers to how the car's motor or engine is adjusted so that it runs smoothly.
It runs without any problems.
Asta is not interested in all of these issues that Martin is.
She says instead, I like cars with more trunk space.
The trunk, T-R-U-N-K, of a car... in American cars, is in the back of the car.
It's where you can put things such as luggage or big boxes and bags.
Trunk space refers to how much room you have in your trunk.
In British English, the trunk is called the boot, B-O-O-T.
Martin says, you don't drive a car like the McHugh for its storage capacity.
Storage S-T-O-R-A-G-E capacity C-A-P-A-C-I-T-Y is the amount of room in something, the amount of space you have to store or put something in.
Martin is saying that A car like the McHugh is not one you would buy because it's a car you can put a lot of things in.
He says, you drive it for speed.
Asta then says my cousin, that is the son or daughter of my aunt or uncle, doesn't like it that much.
He says it doesn't have enough legroom.
L-E-G-R-O-O-M.
Legroom refers to the amount of space in front of you for your legs.
If you travel on an airplane, you know that many airplanes don't have very much legroom, especially in the cheaper seats, the less expensive seats.
Where I go on an airplane.
There isn't a lot of leg room.
There isn't a lot of space for your legs, especially if you're a tall person.
Martin is surprised by what Asta is saying.
He says, what?
Your cousin owns a McHugh?
Asta says yes, but he only drives it when his ediger is in the shop.
Ediger here is another kind of car.
I don't think it's a real car, but I'll have to ask my friend Warren.
In any case...
Asta says that her cousin only drives his McHugh when his other car, his editor, is in the shop.
S-H-O-P.
If your car is in the shop, it is being fixed.
It is being repaired by someone who fixes cars.
We call that person, by the way, a mechanic.
Shop here refers to a place where something is fixed or repaired.
Martin says how is it possible that I've known you for years and this is the first time you've mentioned this cousin to me?
You know that I'm the biggest car enthusiast in the world, don't you?
A car enthusiast, E-N-T-H-U-S-A-I-S-T, is a person who loves cars.
You could be a stamp enthusiast.
You could be a coffee enthusiast.
An enthusiast is someone who loves something, who's very interested in something.
Asta says, my cousin isn't in town very often.
In town here means he isn't in the city or the town where he normally lives.
He's usually traveling to races, she says.
Martin says, your cousin is a race car driver?
A race car.
C-A-R is a car that goes very fast, that competes in a race or a competition to see who.
A race car driver then, of course, would be someone who drives a fast car in a contest or competition.
Asta says Asta hasn't been telling Martin that her cousin owns these fast cars and is in fact a race car driver.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you see that?
It's the new McHugh.
It does 0 to 60 in 4 seconds.
It has amazing performance.
That car?
I guess it's nice.
I like the color.
Color?
Who cares about the color?
The McHugh is supposed to top out at 155, but it's been clocked at 160.
Can you imagine?
No, I can't.
It has more horsepower than any car on the market and amazing torque.
You wouldn't believe the RPMs.
So it can go fast?
Yeah, it can go fast.
It's supposed to be really responsive too, and the reviews say that the acceleration is really smooth.
I bet that's because of the tuning.
I like cars with more trunk space.
You don't drive a car like the McHugh for its storage capacity.
You drive it for speed.
My cousin doesn't like it very much.
He says it doesn't have enough legroom.
What?
Your cousin owns a McHugh?
Yes, but he only drives it when his editor is in the shop.
How is it possible that I've known you for years and this is the first time you've mentioned this cousin to me?
You know that I'm the biggest car enthusiast in the world, don't you?
My cousin isn't in town very often.
He's usually traveling to races.
Your cousin is a race car driver?
Yes.
Didn't I mention that either?
The best way to accelerate your English learning is to listen to the dialogues written by our wonderful script writer, 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.
