ESLPod.com presents a day in the life of Jeff, a special 10 episode course to teach you everyday vocabulary in English.
This is Dr. Jeff McQuillin from the Center for Educational Development in Beautiful Los Angeles, California, and I'll be the host for this series.
In this course, you'll learn the vocabulary for everyday actions from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night and everything in between.
Each lesson has three parts.
First, a story read slowly, second, an explanation of the story and the vocabulary we use, and third, the story read at a normal speed.
Are you ready? Let's begin with lesson one, getting up.
The worst part of the day for me is definitely when I have to get up.
Waking up, that I can handle, but getting up, that I hate.
The covers I have on my bed are heavy, mostly because I have a comforter as well as a light blanket.
I sleep with two pillows, which for some reason have different color pillowcases.
Well, at least the sheets match.
I sometimes wake up before the alarm goes off.
I like to keep the alarm at a low volume, with some classical music.
Nothing too jarring. My old roommate used to like the terrible buzzer that you find on most alarm clocks nowadays, which always used to drive me nuts.
As I was saying, I sometimes wake up before the alarm, usually because of some noise outside the house.
A car door slamming, an alarm going off.
Gunfire. Well, okay. Not gunfire, but man is my neighborhood noisy.
Of course, when I'm staying in a hotel, it's usually easier to just get a wake up call from the hotel than set the alarm.
I'm not really an early riser, so I don't jump out of bed ready to take on the world.
I get up very slowly, usually one foot on the floor at a time.
Every once in a while, I'll over sleep, but not too often.
I really love the weekends when I can sleep in.
Our story begins by me describing how much I do not like getting up.
To get up means to get out of your bed, to stand up after you have been lying down on a bed.
I say that the worst part of my day is when I have to get up.
Waking up, that I can handle.
To wake up W-A-K-E-U-P, two words, means that you are sleeping and you stop sleeping.
And now you are awake. The verb is to wake up.
So you can wake up while you are in bed and then you get up.
You stand up after lying down.
I said that waking up is something I can handle.
To handle H-A-N-D-L-E here means to be able to control.
Something that I can manage.
Something that I can accept.
It's not a problem. Another expression would be something I can deal with.
To deal D-E-A-L with something is the same in this case as to be able to handle something.
I say that getting up is something that I hate.
The covers I have on my bed are heavy.
The covers, C-O-V-E-R-S, are the things that you put over you to keep you warm.
Usually, the covers include a blanket, sometimes a comforter, and usually what we would call the top sheet or flat sheet.
A comforter, C-O-M-F-O-R-T-E-R, is a very thick blanket, a very heavy blanket.
A blanket, B-L-A-N-K-E-T, is something that you put over you when you are sleeping to keep you warm.
Blanket is a general term.
A comforter is a kind of blanket, a heavy blanket.
The opposite of a comforter would be a light blanket.
A light Li-G-H-T blanket would be the opposite, and that is a blanket that will keep you warm, but if it gets very cold, it might not keep you warm.
It might not be sufficient.
So we have a comforter and we have a light blanket.
Usually, there is a top sheet, SH-E-E-T, that you put over you in between your body and the blankets.
And this top sheet is sometimes called a flat sheet.
The sheet that goes on the bed itself, that goes on to the corners of the bed, that's called a fitted sheet, a fitted F-I-T-T-E-D sheet.
So we have a fitted sheet on the bed that you sleep on top of, then we have a top sheet, and then a blanket, sometimes if it's very cold, a comforter as well.
I say in the story that I sleep with two pillows, a pillow, P-I-L-L-O-W, is what you put your head on when you sleep.
Now, for some reason, I say, I have different colored pillowcases.
This is true, actually.
I have a black pillowcase and a blue pillowcase for my two pillows.
I think the reason is I am too lazy to go and buy a new pillowcase.
Well, the pillowcase, P-I-L-L-O-W-C-A-S-E, one word, is the thing that you put over the pillow, so the pillow doesn't get dirty.
We call that the pillowcase.
I say, well, at least the sheets match.
We already know what a sheet is.
When we say the sheets match, M-A-T-C-H, we mean that they are the same color, or two colors that look good together.
We use that verb to match when we are talking about clothing as well, or anything where you have two colors.
I sometimes wake up before the alarm goes off.
When we say the alarm goes off, we mean that the alarm starts to make a sound.
Your alarm, AL-ARM, is a machine that makes noise at a certain time.
Usually, it has a clock.
Well, I sometimes wake up before my alarm makes noise.
My alarm goes off. I like to keep the alarm at a low volume, meaning not very loud at a low volume.
With some classical music, nothing too jarring.
When we say a sound is jarring, J-A-R-R-I-N-G, we mean that it is loud and it causes you to jump or to be surprised.
It's something that is not very nice, not very pleasant.
A jarring noise would be one that bothers you, perhaps, because it is very loud, or it is not a very nice sound.
So I don't want my alarm to have a jarring noise, instead I play classical music.
Now, my old roommate, the person I used to share an apartment with, used to like the terrible buzzer you find on most alarm clocks.
This again is true. I had a roommate that had a very loud and bad sounding buzzer.
It was a terrible buzzer.
The buzzer, B-U-Z-Z-E-R, is when the alarm clock doesn't play music, but it just plays a sound.
Sometimes it is like a bell ringing.
That's the buzzer. Well, this buzzer always used to drive me nuts.
To drive someone nuts, N-U-T-S, means to drive them crazy, to make them crazy, to make them go crazy.
I continue the story by saying, as I was saying, we use that expression, as I was saying, when we are talking about one thing, then we start talking about a second thing, and now we want to go back and talk about the first thing again.
So when you interrupt yourself, when you are talking, and then you change the topic, change what you are talking about, and then want to go back to your original topic, you say, as I was saying, as I was saying, I sometimes wake up before the alarm, usually because of some noise outside the house.
When we say there is some noise, some sound outside the house or outside of the house, you can say either one, we mean that someone is making a noise that is very loud.
Some of those noises are a car door slamming.
The verb to slam, SLAM, means that you close the door, usually very quickly, and you make a loud noise.
Someone closes their car door very fast, it will make a noise.
We call that slamming the door.
My mother always used to tell me when I was young, don't slam the doors, meaning when I come in and close the door, I should close it slowly and quietly.
Of course, I was not a good boy, so I would sometimes slam the door.
As I was saying, an alarm goes off, that's another noise that can wake you up outside, and this would be a car alarm.
Here in Los Angeles, everyone has a car alarm, and sometimes those alarms go off at night.
Another noise is gunfire.
Gun, G-U-N, fire, F-I-R-E.
Gunfire is when someone shoots a gun, and it makes a noise.
This is again Los Angeles, so we sometimes have gunfire, but of course I'm joking.
I say, well, okay, not gunfire, meaning I'm just kidding, that isn't actually true, although it is true, sometimes.
I then say, man is my neighborhood noisy.
That expression, man, is just a way of expressing your emotion when you are saying something that you really mean or really want to emphasize.
Man is my neighborhood noisy.
That means my neighborhood is very noisy.
Of course, when I'm staying at a hotel, it's usually easier to just get a wake-up call from the hotel.
A wake-up call, C-A-L-L, is when the hotel calls you on the phone to wake you up, so you don't have to set your own alarm.
To set S-E-T an alarm means to turn it on and to put a certain time that you want to get up.
Well, sometimes people have problems with their alarm clocks, and so if they are in a hotel, they can ask the hotel to wake them up with a wake-up call.
At the end of the story, I say, I'm not really an early riser.
An early E-A-R-L-I riser, R-I-S-E-R, means someone who wakes up and gets up very early in the morning.
You could be an early riser.
You could be a late riser.
The word riser comes from the verb to rise, R-I-S-E, which in this case means to get up.
Well, I'm not really an early riser, I say, so I don't jump out of bed.
To jump out of bed means to get out of bed very quickly.
I don't jump out of bed. Ready to take on the world.
To take on the world means I'm ready for the day.
It's an expression we use to say that I am ready to go out into the world and do my best.
I'm not an early riser. I don't jump out of bed ready to take on the world.
Instead, I get up very slowly.
Usually one foot on the floor at a time.
So first, I get up and I put one foot on the floor and then another foot on the floor and then I stand up.
Every once in a while, I say, I'll over-sleep.
To over-sleep O-V-E-R-S-L-E-E-P, one word, means that you sleep later than you should.
For example, you are wanting to get up at seven o'clock in the morning and you sleep until 7.30.
You don't realize that you are sleeping too late.
We call that over-sleeping.
To over-sleep means you sleep longer than you wanted to.
At the end of the story, I say I really love the weekends, Fridays and Saturdays, when I can sleep in.
To sleep in means that you don't get up at your normal time.
You sleep longer than you normally do.
So if you normally get up at seven on Saturday or Sunday, if you don't work, you may sleep in until 9 a.m.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a native rate of speech.
The worst part of the day for me is definitely when I have to get up.
Waking up, that I can handle, but getting up, that I hate.
The covers I have on my bed are heavy, mostly because I have a comforter as well as a light blanket.
I sleep with two pillows which for some reason have different color pillowcases.
Well, at least the sheets match.
I sometimes wake up before the alarm goes off.
I like to keep the alarm at a low volume with some classical music, nothing too jarring.
My old roommate used to like the terrible buzzer that you find on most alarm clocks nowadays, which I always used to drive me nuts.
As I was saying, I sometimes wake up before the alarm, usually because of some noise outside the house.
A car door slamming, an alarm going off, gunfire, well okay, not gunfire, but man is my neighborhood noisy.
Of course, when I'm staying in a hotel, it's usually easier to just get a wake-up call from the hotel than to set the alarm.
I'm not really an early riser, so I don't jump out of bed ready to take on the world.
I get up very slowly, usually one foot on the floor at a time.
Every once in a while, I'll over sleep, but not too often.
I really love the weekends when I can sleep in.
That concludes part one of a day in the life of Jeff.
In part two, we'll be cleaning up.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at pslpod.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Saye.
Copyright 2006. Welcome to ESLPod.com's day in the life of Jeff.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan from the Center for Educational Development.
In the first episode of a day in the life of Jeff, I talked about how I get up every morning.
In part two, we're going to talk about cleaning up what you do in the morning to get ready to eat and go to work.
Let's get started. I go into my bathroom sometime around 6.45am.
My sink and medicine cabinet are around the left when you enter my bathroom.
The toilet is next to that with the tub in front.
Anyway, I turn on the lights and try to find the mouthwash in the medicine cabinet.
I pour a small amount into a cup, switch it around for 30 seconds, gargle and spit.
Not pleasant, but necessary.
Then I get out the floss.
When I'm done flossing, I pull out the toothbrush and the toothpaste.
I brush and then it's off to the shower.
I pull the shower curtain aside, step into the tub and pull the curtain back.
I turn on both the hot and the cold water looking for the perfect temperature.
I lather up with soap, put some shampoo in my hair, then rinse and dry off.
Now it's shaving time. I used to own an electric razor, but I found it didn't shave close enough.
So now I'm back to the old hand razor.
I lather up with shaving cream and I start to shave.
I rinse the razor and throw the disposable blades in the trash.
It's about 7 a.m. and I'm on to breakfast.
In this episode we are cleaning up or making ourselves clean.
I go into my bathroom. I begin the story sometime around 6.45 a.m.
Notice that we say a.m. but you could also say in the morning, 6.45 is also the same as quarter to seven.
My sink and medicine cabinet are on the left when you enter my bathroom.
In your bathroom and in your kitchen there is usually a sink and a faucet.
The faucet F-A-U-C-E-T is where the water comes out and normally you have hot water and cold water.
The sink is where the water goes into.
Usually it is a round or square white bowl really that has a hole at the bottom and we call that hole the drain D-R-A-I-N.
That's where the water goes down into the pipe.
It's where the water goes out of the sink.
If you want to fill your sink with water you usually have to stop the drain.
To stop a drain means to put something over it so that the water doesn't go down.
So we have a faucet and we have a sink and in your bathroom you often have a small box sometimes with a mirror on it so you can see yourself that we call the medicine cabinet.
A cabinet C-A-B-I-N-E-T is like a small box where you put things but it's a box that hangs on the wall.
It is attached to the wall.
You can have cabinets in your kitchen where you put your dishes.
So there are containers.
There are things that you use to put and store or keep things.
A medicine cabinet is a place where you have medicine but also it's a place where you put your other things that you use in the bathroom.
Things like mouthwash, shaving cream, razors and so forth.
We'll talk about those in a second.
So that's your medicine cabinet.
In my bathroom the sink and the medicine cabinet are on the left side when you walk into the bathroom.
The toilet is next to that.
The toilet T-O-I-L-E-T is what you use to go to the bathroom.
What you use to get rid of things from your body we might say.
When you are done using the toilet you then flush the toilet.
The verb to flush F-L-U-S-H is when you get rid of what's inside the toilet after you're done using it.
Usually with water. There is a tub in my bathroom.
A tub T-U-B sometimes called a bath tub is where you can take a bath.
You can fill the tub up with water and you can get into the water.
Anyway I say in the story I turn on the lights.
Notice the use of the word anyway.
It's very common in English to use that word when you want to get back to something you were talking about before.
We can also say as I was saying it means something similar here.
Anyway I turn on the lights and try to find the mouthwash in the medicine cabinet.
The mouthwash M-O-U-T-H-W-A-S-H all one word is a liquid like water but it has something in it that helps clean your teeth.
Clean the inside of your mouth.
That is mouthwash. So you take the mouthwash and you pour a small amount into a cup.
The mouthwash usually comes in or is in a bottle.
This bottle you take and you pour some mouthwash into a cup.
To pour means to take something that is liquid like water or mouthwash and put it somewhere else.
In this case it's into a small cup.
After I put it in the cup I swish it around for 30 seconds.
To swish S-W-I-S-H something around means to move it around.
And we use that verb usually when talking about something that is liquid like water or mouthwash that you move back and forth very quickly.
So when you put the mouthwash in your mouth usually you take your sides of your mouth what we would call your cheeks CH-E-E-K-S your cheeks and you move them back and forth so that the mouthwash covers and cleans all of your teeth.
After I swish it around I gargle.
The verb to gargle G-A-R-G-L-E means to take water and to put it into your back of your mouth.
I will have to demonstrate this.
It's easier to understand if you can hear it.
That's to gargle. That's just an extra little bonus for listening to this episode you get to hear me gargle.
Well after I gargle I have to get rid of or remove the water from my mouth and I do that by spitting to spit S-P-I-T means to take something that's liquid like water and to remove it from your mouth.
Usually you make a certain sound like something like that.
Well now we've gargled and spit.
I say these are not pleasant but necessary.
Not necessarily something nice but something I have to do.
After I use the mouthwash then I get out or take out the floss.
Floss, F-L-O-S-S is a piece of string that you put in between your teeth to clean.
We call that floss and there's a verb to floss which means to use that little piece of string.
When I'm done flossing, when I have finished flossing I pull out or take out the toothbrush and the toothpaste.
The toothbrush is what you use to clean your teeth.
The toothpaste is like the soap that you use to clean your teeth but we do not call it tooth soap.
We call it tooth paste. It comes in a container that we call it tube and the tube T-U-B-E is where the toothpaste is and you usually squeeze the tube S-Q-U-E-E-Z-E to get the toothpaste out of the tube.
So I put some toothpaste on my toothbrush and then I brush.
We use that verb to brush to mean to clean my teeth but we don't say I'm going to clean my teeth.
Usually we say I'm going to brush my teeth.
That same verb to brush can also be used with your hair when you are trying to put your hair in a certain place, a certain position.
I don't brush my hair of course because I don't have any hair but I used to when I was younger brush my hair.
I finished brushing my teeth so now I'm going to take a shower.
There's a difference between taking a shower where the water comes from the top of the wall and goes over you and a bath which means to fill your bath tub with water and get in.
Most American homes have the tub and the shower in one place.
Some homes have a separate shower and a separate tub.
In the story I say that I pull the shower curtain aside.
The curtain C-U-R-T-A-I-N is what you use to keep the water in the shower from going onto the floor.
It prevents the water from leaving the shower area.
We use that word curtain also for the things that you can put over your window in your house or apartment so nobody can see inside.
That's also called a curtain.
Well I pull the shower curtain aside meaning I put it to one side, the left side or the right side.
I step into the tub and I pull the curtain back.
I put it back in its original position.
I turn on both the hot and the cold water.
To turn on means that I turn the faucet on so that the water comes out.
Remember the faucet is where water comes out for a sink.
It's also where the water comes out for a tub or a shower.
Actually for the shower, the top of the shower, we don't normally call that a faucet.
We call that a shower head H-E-A-D.
So the shower head is where the water comes out when you're taking a shower.
If you are drawing a bath meaning if you are putting water into your tub to take a bath, to draw a bath, then you use the faucet.
The water comes out of the faucet spout SPO U-T.
That's the part of the faucet where the water actually comes out of.
I step into the shower. I turn on the hot and cold water looking for the perfect temperature.
Not too hot, not too cold.
I lather up with soap to lather L-A-T-H-E-R or to lather up.
Means to take soap and put it on your skin and then put water on it.
And you rub the soap and the water together until you make little bubbles until the soap and water covers your skin.
That is to lather or to lather up.
Well, I lather up with some soap.
And then I put some shampoo in my hair.
Shampoo S-H-A-M-P-O-O is the soap for your head for your hair if you have hair.
So you take this special soap.
Usually it is a liquid soap and you put it on your hair and that is called shampoo.
You can also lather up your shampoo.
You take your hands and you move them back and forth quickly and that would lather up your shampoo.
Well, after you do that then you have to get rid of the soap and the shampoo and you do that by rinsing.
To rinse R-I-N-S-E means to take water and get rid of the soap and the shampoo that are on your body.
After you do that then you have to dry your body off.
To dry off means the same as to dry but we use that expression to dry off to mean to dry in this case your body with a towel.
Now it is time for me to shave.
To shave S-H-A-V-E means to remove hair usually from your face.
If you are a man and you don't shave you will grow a beard and a mustache you will have hair on your face.
Well, I don't like beards and mustaches so I shave.
I use something to get rid of the hair.
The thing I use to get rid of the hair is the razor R-A-Z-O-R.
A razor is like a knife. It has a blade B-L-A-D-E and the blade is the thing that actually cuts the hair that removes the hair.
So you have a razor that you use to shave the whiskers from your face.
A whisker W-H-I-S-K-E-R is the name we give the hair on your face at least for a man.
We call those whiskers.
So you can have an electric razor like I used to have or you can have a hand razor.
A hand razor is one that is not electric that you just take and you shave by moving the razor back and forth on your face.
Before I shave I have to lather up with shaving cream.
We already know that word lather up.
It means to mix the soap with water and make bubbles so that it spreads across your skin.
Shaving cream C-R-E-A-M is the special kind of soap or special kind of liquid material that you put on your face to make it easier for you to shave.
So you don't cut yourself or hurt yourself when you are shaving.
I rinse the razor after I am done shaving and I throw the disposable blades in the trash.
The blades are the things that go on top of the razor that cut the whiskers or remove the whiskers.
Disposable D-I-S-P-O-S-A-B-L-E comes from the verb to dispose D-I-S-P-O-S-E which means to throw away to put in the trash to put in the garbage that is disposable.
If something is disposable you use it once or twice and then you throw it away.
Well these are disposable blades.
Now it's seven o'clock when I finish showering and shaving and I am on to breakfast meaning now I am going to have my breakfast.
Let's listen to the story again this time at a native rate of speech.
I go into my bathroom sometime around 6.45 am.
My sink and medicine cabinet are on the left when you enter my bathroom.
The toilet is next to that with a tub in front.
Anyway I turn on the lights and try to find the mouthwash in the medicine cabinet.
I pour a small amount into a cup, swish it around for 30 seconds, gargle and spit.
Not pleasant but necessary.
Then I get out the floss.
When I'm done flossing I pull out the toothbrush and the toothpaste.
I brush and then it's off to the shower.
I pull the shower curtain aside, step into the tub and pull the curtain back.
I turn on both the hot and the cold water looking for the perfect temperature.
I lather up with soap, put some shampoo in my hair, then rinse and dry off.
Now it's shaving time. I used to own an electric razor but I found it didn't shave close enough.
So now I'm back to the old hand razor.
I lather up with shaving cream and I start to shave.
I rinse the razor and throw the disposable blades in the trash.
It's about 7 a.m. and I'm on to breakfast.
That concludes part two of a day in the life of Jeff.
In part three we'll eat our breakfast.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at pslpod.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Saye.
Copyright 2006. Welcome to eslpods a day in the life of Jeff.
Part three, Eating Breakfast.
I'm your host Dr. Jeff McQuillan from the Center for Educational Development.
On our previous episode we went into the bathroom, shaved, showered, brushed our teeth.
Now we are ready to eat breakfast.
Let's get started with part three, Eating Breakfast.
I walk into my kitchen and turn on the coffee maker.
I always put the coffee, filter, and water in the night before so it's ready to go.
Next, I open the door of the cupboard where the cereal is stored.
I would love to have ham and eggs for breakfast every morning or maybe a stack of waffles but the truth is that I just don't have the time to cook.
So I pour myself a bowl of cereal and put in a glass of skim milk, making sure I take a spoon out of the silverware tray.
I go outside and pick up my newspaper and sit down at the kitchen table.
I love reading the paper in the morning, though usually I just have time to read a few of the stories.
When I finished my cereal, I grab a banana and maybe make a slice of toast with jam.
I rinse off my breakfast dishes in the sink and put them in the dishwasher.
By that time my coffee is ready so I pour myself a cup and put the rest in a thermos for work.
In this episode we are eating our breakfast.
I begin by walking in to my kitchen and turning on the coffee maker.
Notice these verbs to walk into or to walk in to turn on.
Those two word verbs are very common in English.
So I don't just walk to my kitchen.
I walk into my kitchen and I turn on the coffee maker.
The coffee maker, C-O-F-F-E-E-M-A-K-E-R, all one word, is the machine that you can guess makes the coffee.
That's the coffee maker.
Usually a coffee maker has water on the top, place where you put the water, and then it has a place for the actual coffee.
Now you take the coffee and you put it into a piece of paper or a piece of plastic called a filter.
The filter F-I-L-T-E-R is something that allows the water to go through it but doesn't allow the coffee to go through it.
So you put the coffee into the filter and the hot water goes through the coffee, it goes out of the filter and it goes into the coffee pot, P-O-T.
The coffee pot is on the bottom.
So you have the coffee, the coffee filter, and the coffee pot.
After the water goes through the coffee, what you have to throw out, what you have to remove when you are done are called the coffee grounds, GR-O-U-N-D-S.
Well I put in the coffee, the filter, and the water the night before, meaning in this case last night.
So that it is ready to go, meaning when I walk into the kitchen it is already ready, I just have to turn it on.
Some coffee makers have clocks that will automatically turn your coffee maker on in the morning.
Next I open the door of the cupboard where the cereal is stored.
The cupboard C-U-P-B-O-A-R-D, which looks like the word cup and the word board put together but is pronounced cupboard.
A cupboard is like a cabinet.
It's a place where you store things, a place where you keep things.
To store S-T-O-R-E as a verb means to keep something in a place, to keep something in a cupboard or a cabinet or a box.
Well the cupboard is what we call the cabinets that are in the kitchen.
They're the like wooden boxes that have doors on them that you can put things in.
Usually if it's a big cupboard you have different shelves, S-H-E-L-V-E-S.
The singular is shelf, S-H-E-L-F.
Well I go into the cupboard and I get the cereal out.
The cereal C-E-R-E-A-L is a very popular breakfast in the United States.
It's usually dry and you put milk in a bowl with the cereal and eat the cereal and the milk together.
I love cereal in the morning.
I really do. I have cereal every morning since I was I think five years old.
I've been eating cereal.
I take the cereal out where it is stored in the cupboard and I prepare my breakfast.
I say in the story that I would love to have ham and eggs for breakfast every morning.
Ham is a type of meat that comes from a pig.
It usually has a lot of salt in it.
Another kind of meat that's popular in the morning for breakfast is bacon, B-A-C-O-N, which is also meat that comes from a pig.
It is long and thin. Usually it's cut to be long and thin.
Eggs are the things that come from chickens or does the chicken come from the egg?
I'm not sure. Anyway, we have ham and eggs which is a very popular American breakfast.
Many people in the United States eat what we would call a very heavy breakfast, meaning there's lots of fat and there's lots of food.
In some countries this is not done, but in the United States it's very common for people to have eggs and ham for breakfast.
My father used to have eggs every morning for breakfast before he went to work.
Well, I say I would love to have ham and eggs for breakfast every morning or maybe a stack of waffles.
A waffle, W-A-F-F-L-E, is something that is made from batter.
Batter, B-A-T-T-E-R, when we talk about cooking, is a liquid made usually with eggs and flour and perhaps milk.
You combine these together and you get a thick liquid which we call batter.
You take the batter and you put it into a special cooking machine which we call a waffle iron, I-R-O-N.
A waffle iron has a certain shape, usually it's square, and when you put the batter in, you close the top of it and you cook it from both sides and when you take it out it has little squares in it and this is called a waffle.
It's a kind of almost like a bread and after you make the waffle you usually put some special type of liquid sugar which we call syrup S-Y-R-U-P.
Often this comes from trees, the best syrup comes from maple leaf trees.
It's called maple syrup, it's very good and you put that thick sugar liquid on top of the waffle.
You can also put some sort of fruit on top of the waffle also.
I just like the sugar myself.
Something similar to a waffle is a pancake P-A-N-C-A-K-E, all one word, and a pancake is also made from this batter, this liquid, thick liquid, except it goes into a flat pan on your stove and you flip it over so it's completely flat.
There are no squares in it, usually it's round and that's called a pancake.
Both waffles and pancakes can be in stacks.
A stack S-T-A-C-K is when you have one long thin thing on top of another so you can have a stack of paper, pieces of paper, one on top of the other.
The same is true with a waffle or with pancakes, you can have a stack of waffles, one waffle on top of another or a stack of pancakes.
Usually we talk about a stack of pancakes.
If you go to a restaurant and order breakfast and you want pancakes, sometimes they will ask you if you want a short stack, meaning just one or two, or you might have a regular stack, which could be four or five.
Remember Americans eat a big breakfast.
That's why there's so many big Americans.
Getting back to our story, I am not having ham, eggs, or waffles.
I'm having a bowl of cereal.
And to prepare my cereal, I put it into a bowl and I pour skim milk on top.
Skim S-K-I-M milk is milk with no or very little fat in it.
Milk comes in four different types.
You have whole milk, which has the most fat.
You have two percent milk, which has somewhat less fat.
You can have one percent, which is even less fat, or you can have fat free or skim milk, which has little or no fat at all.
Well, because I don't want to be a big American, I have skim milk.
In order to eat my cereal, I have to take a spoon out of the silverware tray.
The silverware S-I-L-V-E-R-W-A-R-E, all one word, is the name we give the knife, the fork, and the spoon together.
Sometimes those are called silverware.
Even though they are not made of silver, other people in a restaurant may call them utensils.
Utensils, U-T-E-N-S-I-L-S.
If you go to a restaurant and you sit down and you don't have a spoon or a fork or a knife, you would ask the waiter or waitress for some utensils.
Or you could just say, I need some silverware.
A silverware tray, T-R-A-Y, is a place where you put the silverware, you put the utensils, the sporks, the spoons, the knives, in a drawer.
And usually a tray is like a little box that has holes in it for specific things that were tray can also be used to describe a small flat piece of plastic or wood that you use to carry things on, like your dishes.
Well, I get my spoon and I go out and I get my newspaper, which of course is what has the news, the sports, and the international and national news.
Many Americans like to read a newspaper in the morning, just like people all over the world do.
I sit down at the kitchen table and I read the paper.
Sometimes we call a newspaper just the paper.
Someone says, I read it in the paper this morning.
They mean the newspaper.
Usually I just have time to read a couple of stories, a few of the stories.
When I finish my cereal, I grab a banana and maybe make a slice of toast with jam.
To grab, g-r-a-b means to take something, usually with your hand, to grab something with your hand means to pick it up to take it with your hand.
I grab a banana, which I like to eat, and a slice of toast with jam.
Toast, T-O-A-S-T, is bread that you put in something called a toaster, T-O-A-S-T-E-R, and the toaster heats up the bread until the bread is brown on the outside, a slice of toast, SLI-C-E, is a piece of toast.
We use the word slice when we are talking about one piece of bread or one piece of cake.
You can have a slice of cake.
You can also have a slice of pie.
This is a slice of toast, which is bread that we put in a toaster, and we toast the bread.
We can use toast as a verb as well.
After I toast the bread, I can put butter on it, or I can put jam, J-A-M.
Jam is made from fruit, such as strawberries, and sugar, and they put them together, and it makes a thick liquid that you can put on a piece of toast.
We would say we spread the jam on the toast.
We use that verb spread, S-P-R-E-A-D, to talk about putting butter or putting jam on a piece of toast, usually with a knife.
When I am done with my breakfast, I rinse off my breakfast dishes.
To rinse means to clean something with water.
To rinse off is the verb.
You could just say I rinse my breakfast dishes, but we like those two word verbs in English, and so we would probably say rinse off my breakfast dishes.
I rinse them off in the sink, and I put them in the dishwasher.
The dishwasher, D-I-S-H-W-A-S-H-E-R, is a machine that cleans the dishes.
Some families have dishwashers.
The joke that we make sometimes in English is that when someone says, do you have a dishwasher?
And you say yes, I am the dishwasher, which means you don't have a machine that washes your dishes.
You wash your dishes by yourself.
We would say you wash them by hand.
By the time I'm finished rinsing off my breakfast dishes, my coffee is ready, and so I pour myself a cup.
Notice the use of that verb pour.
We use that verb when we are removing liquid from a bottle and putting it into a cup or a glass.
We also use that verb pour when I said, I pour myself a bowl of cereal.
Now cereal isn't liquid, but it is something that you can put into another container, in this case, into a bowl, and it comes out of the bigger container and into the smaller container.
So it comes out of the cereal box and goes into the bowl.
So we use that verb usually when we talk about liquid things like water or milk, but you can also use it when we talk about cereal.
Well, I pour myself a cup of coffee and I put the rest in a thermos for work.
A thermos, which is capital T-H-E-R-M-O-S, is a bottle that keeps hot liquid hot and cold liquid cold.
So if you have hot coffee and you put it into a thermos, the thermos, this bottle will keep it hot for a long time.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a regular speed.
I walk into my kitchen and turn on the coffee maker.
I always put the coffee, filter, and water in the night before so it's ready to go.
Next, I open the door of the cupboard with a cereal to store.
I would love to have ham and eggs for breakfast every morning, or maybe a stack of waffles, but the truth is that I just don't have the time to cook.
So I pour myself a bowl of cereal and put in a glass of skim milk, making sure I take a spoon out of the silverware tray.
I go outside and pick up my newspaper and sit down at the kitchen table.
I love reading the paper in the morning, but usually I just have time to read a few of the stories.
When I've finished my cereal, I grab a banana and maybe make a slice of toast with jam.
I rinse off my breakfast dishes in the sink and put them in the dishwasher.
By that time, my coffee is ready so I pour myself a cup and put the rest in a thermos for work.
That concludes part three of a day in the life of Jeff.
In part four, we get dressed and go to work.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This course was produced by Dr.
