Coffee Break English, season 2, episode 1.
Hello and welcome to season 2 of Coffee Break English.
My name is Josie. And my name is Mark and we are delighted that you are here with us today.
Josie, tell us what is Coffee Break English?
In the Coffee Break English podcasts, we study different texts about many interesting things from around the English speaking world.
That's right. And you're going to be hearing different voices, different English accents from different parts of the world.
And that will help you understand these different accents in English.
Yes. And the texts are at an intermediate level.
And in each episode, we'll be focusing on a different language point.
Perfect. Well, I think the time has come to get started.
So let's begin our first text.
Let's go. For our first text, we are travelling over to the United States of America.
And we're going to be learning about a very important monument there.
So let's listen to the text.
Hey, Mark. Hello, Josie.
I'm Kate, reporting today from New York.
And we're going to be talking about the Statue of Liberty.
Let's begin. If you've ever seen the New York City skyline, you will recognize the Statue of Liberty.
This huge green figure looks over the harbor and is a symbol of inspiration to many Americans.
The Statue of Liberty was built by the French as a gift to the United States of America and a symbol of friendship between the two countries.
The idea for the statue was developed around 1870, and the project was managed by Édouard René de Laboulet, the president of the French Anti -Slavery Society.
The statue was designed by the sculptor Fréthric Bartoldi.
They decided that the statue should represent one of the USA's most important values, freedom.
Over the following years, the statue was built in sections, and some parts were displayed on their own before the statue was put together.
For example, the giant torch was shown at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and the head was displayed at the 1878 Paris World's Fair.
The frame inside the statue was actually built by Gustave Eiffel, who is more famous for the Eiffel Tower.
The Statue of Liberty now stands on Liberty Island, in the middle of many other New York islands.
Bartoldi wanted to put the statue here to welcome immigrants arriving by boat to start a new life in America.
The statue is made of copper, so it was originally a golden red color.
However, since it was built, it has oxidized, giving it the distinctive green color we see today.
Today, visitors can go inside the statue and take the lift up to its crown to see some incredible views of New York.
So, if you're ever in the city that never sleeps, why not go and visit this amazing monument to freedom?
Very interesting. Okay, let's go through the text in more detail now.
So, Josie, could you read each line and we'll talk about the words and phrases in this text?
Of course. So, the first line, if you've ever seen the New York City skyline, you will recognize the Statue of Liberty.
Okay, so what is there to talk about in this first sentence?
So, the first thing that stands out for me is the use of the tense we're using here.
If you've ever seen, here we're using the present perfect tense to talk about our life experiences.
So, something we've done in the past, but we don't specify exactly when.
For example, Mark, I could ask you, have you ever seen the Statue of Liberty?
Yes, I've seen the Statue of Liberty.
And have you ever seen the Eiffel Tower?
Yes, I've seen the Eiffel Tower many times.
And have you ever seen the pyramids?
No, I've never seen the pyramids.
Me neither. I'd like to.
Me too. So, notice there, when you gave a negative answer, you used the word never.
So, have you ever? I have never.
The next thing that is interesting to notice in this phrase is the spelling of the word recognize.
Okay, so what's interesting about that?
Well, you and I, Mark, we're both British, we're both Scottish.
So, we spell this word, R -E -C -O -G -N -I -S -E.
But do you know how we spell it in the US?
I think in the US it would be spelled I -Z -E or I -Z -E, recognize.
Exactly. So, there are quite a few words where the British spelling and the American spellings are different.
So, the American spellings use Z or Z and the British spellings use an S.
Perfect. Okay, let's keep going then.
So, the next sentence.
This huge green figure looks over the harbor and is a symbol of inspiration to many Americans.
Okay, so what do we want to discuss in this sentence?
So, the first word for me is the word huge.
Can you explain to us what this means?
It means really big, very big.
So, it's a huge green figure, a huge statue.
Exactly, huge. The thing to watch out for here is that we must pronounce the H, so huge, not huge.
Okay, you may hear that pronounced slightly differently in different parts of the English -speaking world, but we both say huge.
Exactly, exactly. The next word I think is interesting is harbor.
Again, here there's no argument about this, you must pronounce the H, harbor, and harbor means port.
Okay, now, harbor is also one of these words which is written differently in the US.
Absolutely right, yep.
So, we spell this in Britain, H -A -R -B -O -U -R, but in the US we take away that final U and it becomes B -O -R at the end.
Okay, and as we go through, each time we come across words which have different spellings, we'll try to explain those different spellings to help you.
Absolutely. Let's keep going.
So, the next part of the text, the Statue of Liberty was built by the French as a gift to the United States of America, and a symbol of friendship between the two countries.
Okay, so, what do you want to look at here, Josie?
So, here we have our first use of the language point I'd like to focus on in this episode.
We have the Statue of Liberty was built by.
Was built by is an example of the passive voice.
Tell us more about the passive voice.
So, the passive voice is a different way of formulating a phrase.
It depends on where you want to put the focus.
We could say here, the French built the Statue of Liberty.
And that would be an example of the active voice.
So, the French built the Statue of Liberty.
That's the active voice.
But in the passive voice, the Statue of Liberty was built by the French.
Is there a difference in meaning?
Not quite, but there is a difference in the emphasis.
So, if we say the Statue of Liberty was built by the French, we are focusing on the Statue of Liberty.
That's the most important part of this phrase.
Okay, and if we said the French built the Statue of Liberty, then there's more of a focus on the French.
It was the French who built the Statue of Liberty and not the Italians.
Exactly, exactly. But here the text is about the Statue of Liberty.
So, of course, the focus is on the statue itself.
Okay, and I think we're going to see more examples of this passive construction in the rest of the text.
We are indeed. Let's continue on then.
Okay, the idea for the statue was developed around 1870, and the project was managed by Édouard René de Laboulet, the president of the French anti -slavery society.
Okay, so immediately we have two more examples of the passive in this next sentence.
So, can we talk about them?
Yes. So, we have another example, was developed.
The statue was developed.
Here we are using the passive because we want to put the focus on the statue again.
Here we don't even mention the development of the statue because we already know it's the French who developed it.
In this case, then, there's no by.
We don't need a by.
The idea for the statue was developed around 1870.
Exactly. Yes, we already know who did it.
But in the next example of the passive, the project was managed by, we do mention, who managed this project.
It was Édouard René de Laboulet.
Just another thing about the construction of the passive.
So, the way we make the passive is that we take the verb to be, and we put it in whatever tense we're speaking in.
So, in this case, it's the past simple.
So, we take was, the project was.
The next word is the main verb, the verb which carries the meaning.
In this case, it's manage, and we take the past participle of that verb, or the third form of the verb in your verb table.
Okay. So, if there are three forms in the verb table, just to remind us, what would those three forms be?
So, in this case, for the verb manage, we have manage, present simple, managed, past simple, and managed, past participle.
Okay. So, we're combining the past participle with the part of the verb to be.
And in this case, in both these cases, we're using the simple past of the verb to be.
Exactly. Okay. Is there anything else that you want to look at in this sentence?
I'm wondering about the date 1870.
Yes. So, a lot of people often think it's quite difficult to pronounce dates in English because this is a long number, but we don't have to say 1870.
We can actually divide that date in the middle and split it into two numbers, 1870.
And the same would happen with most dates.
So, for example, we could talk about 2020, or 1651, or 1972.
Exactly. It works for all dates.
So, the final, maybe difficult piece of vocabulary in this phrase is anti -slavery.
We talked about the president of the French anti -slavery society.
So, first of all, the word slavery, can you explain that to us, Mark?
Slavery is when people are kept against their will.
Exactly. And here we are adding the prefix anti on the beginning of that word.
And anti means against.
So, this is a society which is working against the keeping of slaves, or they're working for the abolition of slavery.
That's right. Let's read the final sentence in this paragraph then.
OK. We've got another passive in there.
We have indeed. This use of the passive is actually exactly the same as the previous ones we've seen.
The statue, the most important thing, was designed by.
And then we have the sculptor and his name.
What's a sculptor, Josie?
Well, a sculptor is someone who makes things, makes pieces of art, statues, out of stone, or maybe bronze, or some other kind of metal.
OK. Right. That's the first paragraph.
Let's continue on and listen to the next part.
OK. They decided that the statue should represent one of the USA's most important values, freedom.
OK. Anything important here?
I think we can continue here.
OK. Over the following years, the statue was built in sections and some parts were displayed on their own before the statue was put together.
Right. So, we've got more passives here.
The statue was built in sections.
Again, the same idea as before.
We've got the simple past of the verb to be, and we've got the past participle of the verb build.
The statue was built in sections.
That's right. Yeah.
So again, we already know who built the statue.
It was the French. So we don't need to use the active form here.
Moving on. Our next passive example.
Some parts were displayed on their own.
So, this is the plural form here.
Some parts were displayed on their own before this statue was put together.
That's an interesting verb.
Yes. Put together is what we call a phrasal verb.
So, a phrasal verb is basically a verb made up of two words.
There are many of these in English.
For example, get up.
I get up in the morning.
Take off. I take off my shoes.
But this one, put together, it means to assemble something.
So before the statue was assembled.
Okay. Let's continue.
For example, the giant torch was shown at the 1876 centennial exposition in Philadelphia.
And the head was displayed at the 1878 Paris World's Fair.
Okay. So, two more examples of the passive.
Let's talk about these ones.
Exactly. So, here we have the giant torch was shown.
So, here we're using the passive because we don't exactly know who showed this giant torch at this exposition.
So, this is another use of the passive.
You can use the passive when it's unclear who did an action.
Okay. So, for example, we could say, the bike was stolen.
There we're starting with the bike.
And we say it was stolen, but we don't know who stole it.
Okay. And the same really applies to the next part of the sentence.
The head was displayed at the 1878 Paris World's Fair.
It does indeed. That's exactly the same use.
Yes. Okay. Let's read the final sentence of the paragraph.
Okay. The frame inside the statue was actually built by Gustave Ivel, who is more famous for the Eiffel Tower.
So, we are familiar with the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
We are indeed. And the same person who built the Eiffel Tower built the frame inside the Statue of Liberty.
What's the frame? So, a frame in this case is a kind of inner support for this statue, sort of like a skeleton inside your body to support you.
But it also has another meaning, doesn't it?
That's right. We could put, for example, a painting or a photograph in a frame.
That's right. Okay.
We're going to take a short break now, but we'll be back in just a moment and we'll continue the rest of the text then.
Each episode of the Coffee Break English podcast is free.
And you can use our podcast to help you improve your English.
But there's more. That's right.
We have a full course available on our website, which will help you make faster progress and understand everything much better.
For every lesson, we offer videos, bonus audio recordings, lesson notes with exercises and vocabulary lists in lots of languages.
All this is available on the Coffee Break Academy, so visit coffeebreakacademy .com Welcome back.
Let's continue our text about the Statue of Liberty.
Josie, would you like to read the next sentence?
Okay. The Statue of Liberty now stands on Liberty Island in the middle of many other New York islands.
Okay. Anything in particular you'd like to talk about in this sentence?
From a language point of view, not really.
Okay. Have you ever sailed past Liberty Island?
I have. I have indeed.
I did this a couple of years ago.
We sailed right past the Statue of Liberty.
But unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to go inside and explore the Statue of Liberty.
Hopefully you'll get the chance to do that someday.
Yeah, I hope so. Okay, let's continue.
Bartoldi wanted to put the statue here to welcome immigrants arriving by boat to start a new life in America.
Okay, so as immigrants, people coming to live in America, arrived by boat, this would be the first thing that they would see.
That's right, exactly.
And notice here we're using the word by, not because we have a passive, as we've seen, was designed by, was built by.
But here we're talking about a form of public transport.
So when you talk about transport, we use the preposition by.
I go by car, by boat, by plane.
Are there any exceptions to that?
Good question. There is one exception, which is when you are walking, you don't say, I go by foot.
We say, I go on foot.
Excellent. Okay, let's continue.
Okay. The statue is made of copper.
So it was originally a golden red color.
Okay. Anything interesting here?
Yes. So here we have yet another use of the passive, is made, the statue is made of copper.
Here we have the passive in the present simple tense instead of the past simple.
So before we were saying was built, was designed, but here we say is made because it's the present simple tense here.
Okay. And what is it made of?
So it's made of copper.
So copper is a type of metal, as it says in the text, it is a golden red color metal.
And the word color, perhaps just to mention.
Yes. So we've already seen the word harbor earlier in the text.
So if you remember, we said there was a difference in spelling in Britain and in the US.
So this is the same with the word color.
In the UK, we spell this word, C O L O U R, but in the US, we spell it C O L O R.
So no final U there.
Okay. So the copper statue was originally golden red, but something has happened to that in time.
Let's see what happened in the next sentence.
Yes. However, since it was built, it has oxidized, giving it the distinctive green color we see today.
Okay. Oxidized. Can you tell us about that?
So oxidized. If we think about this word, we have ox at the beginning, which is something to do with oxygen, so air.
So if something oxidizes, the oxygen affects it and it changes it in some way.
So in this case, the Statue of Liberty, which we all know is green, it has been changed to this color by the air over time.
And it's also interesting to note that oxidized like recognize that we saw earlier has the same spelling change.
So in the UK, we spell that I S E D and in the US, it would be spelled I Z or Z E D.
That's right. Okay.
Let's look at the final paragraph.
Okay. Today, visitors can go inside the statue and take the lift up to its crown to see some incredible views of New York.
Okay. What's a lift?
So a lift, maybe our listeners will be more familiar with the word elevator.
I don't know, but a lift is something that you get in and it takes you up inside a building instead of taking the stairs.
So in the UK, we say lift and in the US, it's elevator.
Okay. So you can take the lift up to the crown of the statue.
So that's the crown of the statue where there is a viewing platform.
You can see some incredible views of New York.
Let's finish off the paragraph now.
So if you're ever in the city that never sleeps, why not go and visit this amazing monument to freedom?
Okay. This is a nice way to refer to New York, the city that never sleeps.
Can you think of any other ways we can talk about New York?
Yes. The other nickname that I can think of is the Big Apple.
Excellent. Okay. So that is our whole text.
Let's listen one more time to the whole thing.
And this time, hopefully you'll understand everything.
If you've ever seen the New York City skyline, you will recognize the Statue of Liberty.
This huge green figure looks over the harbor and is a symbol of inspiration to many Americans.
The Statue of Liberty was built by the French as a gift to the United States of America and a symbol of friendship between the two countries.
The idea for the statue was developed around 1870, and the project was managed by Édouard René de Laboulet, the president of the French Anti -Slavery Society.
The statue was designed by the sculptor Fréthérique Bartoldi.
They decided that the statue should represent one of the USA's most important values, freedom.
Over the following years, the statue was built in sections, and some parts were displayed on their own before the statue was put together.
For example, the giant torch was shown at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and the head was displayed at the 1878 Paris World's Fair.
The frame inside the statue was actually built by Gustave Eiffel, who is more famous for the Eiffel Tower.
The Statue of Liberty now stands on Liberty Island, in the middle of many other New York islands.
Bartoldi wanted to put the statue here to welcome immigrants arriving by boat to start a new life in America.
The statue is made of copper, so it was originally a golden red color.
However, since it was built, it has oxidized, giving it the distinctive green color we see today.
Today, visitors can go inside the statue and take the lift up to its crown to see some incredible views of New York.
So, if you're ever in the city that never sleeps, why not go and visit this amazing monument to freedom?
Thank you. So let's have a quick review of the passive voice that we've seen today.
That sounds like a good idea.
Yes. So we have three main uses, three main reasons to use the passive.
The first use is when the person who did the action is less important.
So we make the thing, in this case the statue, the subject, and we add the person who did this action with the word by.
For example, the Statue of Liberty was built by the French or the book was written by a British writer.
Okay. What about the second use of the passive?
Yeah. So the second use, it's very similar.
It's when we already know who did the action.
So we don't need to mention them at all because it's obvious.
A good example of this is the man was arrested.
Of course, we know that the police are the people who arrest people, so we don't need to even mention them.
The man was arrested is enough.
And there's also a third use of the passive too.
There is a third use, which we briefly saw in this text.
This is when we don't exactly know who did the action.
So we use the passive.
For example, the torch was displayed.
We don't know who exactly did this.
So this is similar to the car was stolen.
We don't know who stole the car.
We're probably trying to find out.
Excellent. Okay. Well, we hope that you've enjoyed this text and finding out a little more about the Statue of Liberty.
That's all for this episode of Coffee Break English.
If you'd like to find out more and access the written version of the text, you can do so at coffeebreakacademy .com.
There you'll find everything you need to know.
That's right, Mark.
And if you'd like to practice your English, you can also do so on social media.
Just search for Coffee Break English on Facebook and on Instagram, where we post regular language challenges and cultural information.
We'll be back soon with another text and we'll be traveling south to South Africa next time.
We're looking forward to seeing you again soon.
Bye. Thanks for listening.
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