Welcome to ESLPod.com's A Day in the Life of Jeff.
Part 7 The commute home and running errands.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan from the Center for Educational Development.
In part 6, we were at work, we took a break and we went to lunch.
Now our work is finished and we get to go home.
Let's get started. It's 5 o'clock and it's quitting time.
I put a few files into my bag, grab my mug and say good night to the rest of the people in my area.
I go to the parking garage and get into my car.
I signal my turn onto the street and drive toward the freeway on ramp.
I merge as best as I can onto the freeway, which is always a bit of a hassle at this hour.
Traffic is stop and go all the way from downtown.
I hear on the radio that there's a stalled car in the fast lane near La Brea, backing up traffic all the way to Hoover.
I decide to get off the freeway and to take surface streets for the rest of the trip.
I need to make a stop on the way home.
I know that the fridge is empty, so I decide to stop by the market.
I get there and I pick up some French bread, a bag of apples, a few bananas, some pasta, tomato sauce and a cooked chicken.
Luckily, they have a lot of checkout stands open and I get through the line pretty quickly.
I thank the cashier and the beggar and push my cart to my car.
I open the trunk and load everything up.
Just then my wife calls me on my cell phone.
She was going to be a little late getting home and asks me to make something for dinner.
Tonight I will be the cook.
This episode is called the commute home and running errands.
What you know means driving back and forth from your house to your work.
To run an errand, e-r-r-a-n-d means to do something, usually something outside of your house.
For example, going to the grocery store, going to the drug store, stopping by the post office to mail a letter.
These are things that you have to do that are not part of your work but that you need to do in your daily life.
And we call these things errands and the verb is to run an errand.
Our story says it's 5 o'clock and it's quitting time.
Quitting time is the time that you stop working.
To quit Q-I-T means to stop.
So quitting time is the time that you stop working at the end of the day.
I put a few files into my bag, I grab my mug, my coffee mug, and I say goodnight to the rest of the people in my area.
If you work at a big company, usually you are divided into smaller groups that work on the same topic, the same type of work.
So there is an accounting section and there is a sales section.
One way to describe those smaller groups is an area.
So people in your area would be people who work next to you on the same things that you do.
I go to the parking garage and get into my car, I signal my turn onto the street.
To signal S-I-G-N-A-L means to indicate and in a car it means to turn on what we call the blinker.
B-L-I-N-K-E-R. The blinker is what indicates whether you are going to turn left or right.
So when you are driving your car and you want to make a turn, you have to signal, are you going left or are you going right?
And of course in the back of the car there is a little light that goes on and off.
We would say it flashes F-L-A-S-H-E-S to flash means to go on and off quickly.
So I signal my turn left or right onto the street and drive toward the freeway on ramp.
I merge as best as I can onto the freeway.
To merge on the freeway or to merge when you are driving means that there are two lanes, two cars next to each other, but the road is getting more narrow.
The road becomes smaller and now you only have one lane.
So these two lines of cars have to go into the same lane.
And we call that merging to merge M-E-R-G-E as a verb means to take two things and to put them together.
We talk about companies that merge.
One company buys another company and they merge.
They come together. Well, in traffic when you are driving to merge means to go from two lanes to one lane and you have to go into and combine with another lane of traffic.
I merge as best I can which is always a bit of a hassle at this hour.
A hassle, H-A-S-S-L-E is the same as a problem.
So it is always a bit of meaning a little bit somewhat of a problem at this hour.
Traffic is stop and go all the way from downtown.
To use that word traffic, T-R-A-F-F-I-C, to mean the cars on the street or the cars on the freeway.
You may ask someone, how was traffic and they may say, oh, it was terrible.
Traffic was really bad on the freeway this afternoon.
So it refers to the number of cars and how easy it is to move on the freeway or the street.
When we say traffic is stop and go, we mean that cars are stopping.
Then they go forward maybe 10 feet, 20 feet, then they stop again.
And there are too many cars on the freeway or on a road.
You cannot just drive straight through.
You have to stop, wait for the other car and then go.
So stop and go traffic means that the traffic is moving very slowly.
I hear on the radio that there's a stalled car in the fast lane near La Brea.
I'm listening to the radio to the Drive Time Traffic Report and they tell me that there is a stalled car.
To stall S-T-A-L-L means here to stop, to stop working.
It doesn't mean that the car will never run again, will never work again.
Usually when we use the verb stall, we mean that it is stopped for a temporary time because it has some problem.
So a stalled car is a car that has stopped working.
And if you are on the freeway and your car stalls, you will of course cause a problem for the other drivers.
Normally, you try to get your car onto the shoulder.
The shoulder is the part of the freeway where you can stop your car and not get in the way of anyone else.
It's on the right hand side or the left hand side.
You can have a shoulder on either side of the freeway.
The car that is stalled is in the fast lane.
The fast lane on an American freeway or highway is the first lane on the left.
What we would say the far left lane if there are more than three lanes or more than two lanes on the freeway.
Here in Southern California, we have freeways that have six or seven lanes.
So if you want to go fast, normally you go to the lane that is in the far left, the first lane on the left.
That's the fast lane. Not everyone drives fast in the fast lane, but it's the common understanding among drivers that if you are in the fast lane, you should go faster than the other cars.
Well this car is stalled in the fast lane near La Brea.
La Brea is a name of a street here in Los Angeles.
And the car is backing up traffic all the way to Hoover.
Hoover is another street here in LA.
To back up traffic means that the cars are stopped behind you.
When we say there is a backup on the freeway, we mean that the cars are moving very slowly or they're stopped.
Usually because there's an accident, there's construction, they're fixing the freeway and they have one of the lanes closed.
Here in our story it's because a stalled car is in the fast lane.
So the traffic is moving very slowly.
It is backed up all the way to Hoover, meaning that beginning at Hoover Street, the cars are stopped or are going very slowly and all the way to La Brea.
I decide to get off the freeway and take surface streets for the rest of the trip.
Surface, S-U-R-F-A-C-E, means the top of something.
But when we say surface streets, we mean the roads and streets that are not the freeway or the highway.
So the regular roads and streets we would call the surface streets.
I need to make a stop on the way home.
I need to go somewhere before I go home.
I know that the fridge is empty.
So I decide to stop by the market.
Fridge F-R-I-D-G-E is another way of saying refrigerator.
It's a short way of saying refrigerator.
The fridge is where you put food to keep it cold.
So my fridge is empty, which means I don't have any food.
So I decide to go to the market.
The market here means the supermarket, a place where you can buy food, or it could be a smaller market.
But we might call a corner market, that would be a small store, often they are located at the intersection, at the corner of two streets.
I get to the market and I pick up some food.
I pick up some French bread, which is a type of bread.
I pick up a bag of apples.
I get a few bananas, some pasta, because I love pasta, some tomato sauce for my pasta, and a cooked chicken.
In many American supermarkets, you can buy a small chicken that is already cooked for you, so you can just take it home and eat it.
If you are lazy like me, this is a very good way to get some good food, and it is not very expensive.
I think it's about maybe six or seven dollars for a cooked chicken.
I like to take the chicken and put it into the pasta and tomato sauce and mix them all together.
Luckily, the supermarket has a lot of checkout stands open.
A checkout stand is the place where you pay for your food.
The verb to check out CHECKOT means to leave and to pay.
We use that verb when we are talking about the supermarket.
We also use it when we are talking about a hotel.
I'm going to check out of the hotel.
That means I'm going to leave the hotel, and I hope pay.
A stand, S-T-A-N-D, here just means the place where you pay for something.
Well I get through the checkout line pretty quickly, very quickly.
I think the cashier, C-A-S-H-I-E-R, the cashier is the person who takes my money, and the beggar, B-A-G-G-E-R, this is the person who puts your groceries into a bag.
In some stores they do not have beggars.
You have to bag your groceries yourself.
This we use the word B-A-G as a verb, meaning to put things into a bag.
In American grocery stores you can have either a paper bag or a plastic bag.
Well the beggar puts my food into my cart, and I push my cart to my car.
My cart, C-A-R-T, sometimes called a shopping cart, is what you use to move or to take your food to your car, what you put your food into when you are shopping.
It's a little like a big box, metal box with wheels on it, so it helps you move things you don't have to carry them yourself.
I open the trunk of my car and I load everything up.
To load up means to put things into, in this case, your car.
So if someone says I'm going to load up my car, L-O-A-D, up, they mean they're going to put the things that they need to put into their car.
We often use that verb when we are talking about moving something in your car or going on a trip.
Just then my wife calls me on my cell phone.
She was going to be a little late this evening.
She says she is not going to get home at her normal time.
And so she asks me to make something for dinner.
This is not a good idea since I am not a good cook.
But I of course say yes, tonight I will be the cook, the person making the food.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a regular speed.
It's 5 o'clock and it's quittin' time.
I put a few files into my bag, grab my mug, and say goodnight to the rest of the people in my area.
I go to the parking garage and get into my car.
I signal my turn onto the street and drive toward the freeway on ramp.
I merge as best I can onto the freeway, which is always a bit of a hassle at this hour.
Traffic is stop and go all the way from downtown.
I hear on the radio that there's a stalled car in the fast lane near La Brea, backing up traffic all the way to Hoover.
I decide to get off the freeway and take surface streets for the rest of the trip.
I need to make a stop on the way home.
I know that the fridge is empty, so I decide to stop by the market.
I get there and I pick up some French bread, a bag of apples, a few bananas, some pasta, tomato sauce, and a cooked chicken.
Luckily they have a lot of checkout stands opened and I get through the line pretty quickly.
I thank the cashier and the bagger and push my cart to my car.
I open the trunk and load everything up.
Just then my wife calls me on my cell phone.
She was going to be a little late getting home and asked me to make something for dinner.
Tonight I will be the cook.
That concludes part 7 of a day in the life of Jeff.
On part 8 we are going to make dinner, eat dinner, and wash 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 a day in the life of Jeff.
Part 8. Making dinner, eating dinner, and washing up.
I'm your host Dr. Jeff McQuillan from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In part 7 of this series we drove home and we ran some errands.
In this part I'm going to make dinner which should be very interesting since I am a terrible cook.
Let's get started. When I get home I start on dinner right away.
I clean off the kitchen counter after putting away the groceries and decide to make pasta.
I preheat the oven to 375 to bake the bread and to keep the chicken hot until my wife gets home.
I put some water in a pan and turn the burner on high.
When the water starts boiling I put in the pasta and decide to make a salad.
Next then my wife opens the back door and yells, I'm home.
She comes into the kitchen and helps with chopping the tomatoes to add to the sauce.
She stirs the sauce until it's done while I finish tossing the salad.
I get out the placemats and napkins to set the table.
I also make sure that there is a spoon, knife, fork and plate for each of us.
About 15 minutes later we sit down at the table in the dining room and talk about our long day.
My wife says she'll do the dishes since I cooked, but of course I help out by drying them.
First I put some of the leftovers in a tub-aware container and some in plastic wrap and the rest in aluminum foil.
Then I dry the pans, plates, glasses and silverware.
In this episode we are making dinner at the beginning.
When I get home I start on dinner right away.
Once again we have one of those two word verbs in English, I start on dinner.
That means I begin to prepare dinner.
So I start on dinner right away.
I clean off the kitchen counter after putting away the groceries.
The kitchen counter, C-O-U-N-T-E-R, is the place in your kitchen where you have a long, flat top or board where you can prepare food and you can put things on.
It's like a table almost.
But usually in a kitchen you have cabinets or cupboards where you store things and on top you have a counter.
A counter is a general word that refers to the top of something, usually somewhere where you do something on top of it.
In this case the kitchen counter is where you prepare food.
While I clean off the kitchen counter after I put away the groceries, the groceries, G-R-O-C-E-R-I-E-S, plural, are the food that I buy at the market.
We sometimes call a supermarket a grocery store, a place where you buy groceries, buy food that you bring home and prepare and eat at home.
I decided to make pasta so I preheat the oven to 375.
To preheat P-R-E-H-E-A-T really means the same here as to heat.
But if you look at the instructions for making food, what we would call the recipe, R-E-C-I-P-E, the recipe for making food, usually it begins if you are going to be cooking something in the oven by telling you to preheat the oven.
That just means to turn it on so that when you are ready, when it is hot, you can put the food in to cook.
Pre-P-R-E means before or to do something before.
So I preheat the oven to 375.
In other words 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
I preheat it because I want to bake the bread and keep the chicken hot until my wife gets home.
To bake B-A-K-E is to cook something usually in an oven.
So I open the oven door, I put in the bread, I put in the chicken and then I close the door.
My wife is going to be home late so I want to keep the chicken hot.
I want to make sure that it stays hot.
I put some water in a pan.
A pan is what you use to cook something in.
So I put some water in a pan and I turn the burner on high.
The burner B-U-R and E-R is on top of what we would call your stove S-T-O-V-E.
Your burners are for cooking food where you have the heat comes from the bottom and you put the pan on top of the heat.
So if you are going to boil some water, make the water hot, you would put it in the pan and then put it on top of a burner.
The burner is part of your stove.
Usually stoves and ovens are one machine, one in one single piece in many American kitchens in my kitchen, the stove is on top of the oven.
I am going to boil some water.
To boil B-O-I-L means to make the water very hot until you start to see bubbles.
The average temperature is 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius in order to boil water.
Well when the water starts boiling, when it starts to make bubbles because it is very hot, I put in the pasta.
I take the pasta, the pasta noodles and O-O-D-L-E-S, the little pieces of pasta, we call those noodles, and I put them into the boiling water so they can cook.
When I decide I want to make a salad because I am very hungry, well just as I decide to make the salad, just then my wife opens the back door.
Just then that expression means at that time, at that same time, my wife opens the back door, the door to the house in the back, the opposite would be the front door.
She yells, I'm home, that's what you would say when you come home to someone who is already there, you would say, I'm home, you wouldn't say I've arrived or I'm here, you would say, I'm home.
My wife comes into the kitchen and helps me chop the tomatoes.
To chop CHO-P means to cut something into small pieces.
We chop tomatoes, we make them into smaller pieces, and we add them to the pasta sauce, that's the red liquid that we're going to put over the pasta.
My wife stirs the sauce until it's done.
To stir, S-T-I-R when you are cooking means to take a spoon and put it into the pan and move the spoon back and forth so that you are mixing what is in the pan.
So my wife is stirring the sauce, the pasta sauce, the tomato sauce until it's done, until it is ready, until it is cooked.
While I finish tossing the salad, so she is stirring the sauce and at the same time, I am finishing the salad and I finish by tossing it to toss T-O-S-S, a salad, means to mix the salad together.
In a salad, you often have lettuce and maybe tomatoes, other food, other vegetables, and you want to mix them together, often you put in a salad dressing, D-R-E-S-S-I-N-G.
Salad dressing is a liquid often made from some oil that gives a better taste to your salad.
So you toss the salad in order to mix everything up.
That verb to toss can also mean to throw.
Usually to throw something to someone else, someone may say, toss me that pin.
They mean throw me that pin.
Well I am tossing the salad here, mixing it up.
I get out the placemats and napkins to set the table.
The Place PLACE, MATS, M-A-T-S, are things that you put underneath the plate and the spoon fork and knife so that the table doesn't get dirty.
We call those placemats.
They can be plastic. They can be made out of cloth and they are used to protect your table.
So I get out the placemats and the napkins to set the table.
A napkin, N-A-P-K-I-N, is like a little towel that you use in case you need to wipe your face while you are eating.
You can use your napkin and it is common in American restaurants and in houses for people to put the napkin on their legs while they are sitting on the top of their legs which we would call the LAP on your LAP LAP.
You put the napkin while you are eating.
To set the table means to put all of the things that you need on the table, plates, spoons, knives, forks and so forth.
That is to set the table.
To make the table ready so you can eat.
About 15 minutes after I set the table, my wife and I sit at the table.
We sit down at the table.
In the dining room and talk about our long day, the dining room, D-I-N-I-N-G, is a place where you eat to dine as a verb, D-I-N-E means to eat.
So the dining room is the room in your house where you eat your meals.
My wife and I talk about our long day, meaning we had many things happen today and maybe we are very tired, so we had a long day.
My wife says that she'll do the dishes.
To do the dishes means the same as to wash the dishes.
My wife offers to do the dishes because I cooked.
But of course, since I am a wonderful husband, I help out by drying the dishes.
To help out means the same here as to help, but if we are talking about helping another person do something, maybe something that we don't have to do, but we want to be nice, we would say we help them out.
So I help my wife out by drying the dishes.
First I have to put some of the leftovers in a Tupperware container.
Leftovers, L-E-F-T-O-V-E-R-S, all one word, is extra food, food that you did not eat at the end of your dinner, at the end of your meal.
If you want to keep some of that food, we call it leftovers.
And in this case, I'm going to put the leftovers into a small plastic box that has a top on it.
We call that kind of little box, a container, C-O-N-T-A-I-N-E-R.
We usually refer to these plastic boxes that we put food in as Tupperware containers.
Tupperware, capital T-U-P-P-E-R-W-A-R-E, is actually a company that makes these small plastic containers for food.
Even if you don't have a container made by that company, many people just call it my Tupperware, the Tupperware containers.
That means the plastic boxes that you can put food into.
Well some of the food I put in a plastic wrap, a plastic wrap, W-R-A-P, is a thin, clear piece of plastic that I put food into.
And we call it a wrap, W-R-A-P, because we put it around something.
To wrap something is to put something around it, usually to keep it cold or to keep it warm or to keep it fresh when we are talking about food.
We use that same word wrap for putting paper around a present or a gift that you are giving someone.
And paper is called wrapping paper.
You can also put food in aluminum foil.
Aluminum, AL-U-M-I-N-U-M, is a kind of metal.
It's usually a silver color.
Foil, F-O-I-L, is like a plastic wrap, but it's made from aluminum.
It's like a long, flat sheet that you can put around something to keep the food in your refrigerator or in your freezer where you have even colder temperatures.
At the end of the story, I dry the pans, the plates, the glasses, and the silverware.
The silverware, remember, is the spoon knife fork that you use when you eat.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a regular speed.
When I get home, I start on dinner right away.
I clean off the kitchen counter after putting away the groceries and decide to make pasta.
I preheat the oven to 375 to bake the bread and to keep the chicken hot until my wife gets home.
I put some water in a pan and turn the burner on high.
When the water starts boiling, I put in the pasta and decide to make a salad.
Just then my wife opens the back door and yells, I'm home.
She comes into the kitchen and helps with chopping the tomatoes to add to the sauce.
She stirs the sauce until it's done while I finish tossing the salad.
I get out the plates mats and napkins to set the table.
I also make sure that there is a spoon, knife, fork, and plate for each of us.
About 15 minutes later we sit down at the table in the dining room and talk about our long day.
My wife says she'll do the dishes since I cooked, but of course I help out by drying them.
First, I put some of the leftovers in a Tupperware container and some in plastic wrap and the rest in aluminum foil.
Then I dry the pans, plates, glasses, and silverware.
That concludes part 8 of a day in the life of Jeff.
In part 9 we'll talk about relaxing, looking at your mail and taking out the trash.
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 Seig.
Copyright 2006. Welcome to eslpod.com's, a day in the life of Jeff.
Part 9. Relaxing, the mail, and the trash.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In part 8 of this series, we prepare dinner and eight dinner and then we washed up or cleaned the dishes.
In this part we're going to relax after dinner and watch a little TV.
Let's get started. With the dinner dishes done, my wife and I each sit down on the couch to chill out and watch the national news which comes on at 6.30.
During the newscast, I sort through the day's mail.
Most of it is junk mail and bills.
There are also several flyers for houses for sale in the area.
I check the front stoop and see that there are no packages.
I like to watch TV and my wife likes to watch reality shows.
One thing I hate is having to watch all of the commercials so I turn the sound down when they come on.
After the show is over, I thumb through the latest issue of the Atlantic monthly.
While my wife reads a novel by her favorite mystery writer, at around 9 I remember that tomorrow is trash day so I take the kitchen garbage out and dump the recycling bins as well.
I roll the trash container out to the street ready for the garbage trucks which come by early in the morning.
Part 9 is called relaxing the mail and the trash.
We begin with the dinner dishes done.
The dinner dishes are the dishes we use to eat our dinner and when I say they are done, I mean that they are washed and dried.
So with the dinner dishes washed and dried, my wife and I sit down on the couch to chill out.
To chill CHIL out OUT, two words, means to relax.
Sometimes we use this expression as a command.
If someone is very excited, you may say, hey, chill out, means relax.
Don't be so excited. You will also hear just the word chill.
Hey, chill. That's informal for relax.
Don't be so excited. You will also hear people say, I'm just chilling.
I am just chilling. Means I'm just relaxing.
Again, that's very informal.
Well, my wife and I are chilling and we're watching the national news.
The national news is the news broadcast on television and in Los Angeles, this is at 630 in the evening.
It comes on at 630. When we say a television show comes on, we mean that that is when it begins, that is when you can watch it.
The national news can also be called a newscast, N-E-W-S-C-A-S-T.
A newscast is a news program.
You could have a local newscast with just news about Los Angeles for me or a national newscast.
Well during the newscast, I sort through the day's mail.
To sort SORT through means that I am looking at today's mail and usually I am separating it so that I separate the different kinds of mail, the different kinds of letters that I got that day.
Most of my mail, and this is true, is either junk mail or bills.
Junk J-U-N-K mail is mail that you get that you don't want.
Usually it is advertisements, people trying to get you to buy something, we call that junk mail.
Most of my mail is either junk mail or it's bills.
And a bill is a statement, a piece of paper from some company that you have to pay money to.
You get a bill for your electricity, for your phone, for your internet access.
You have to pay your bills.
Well, you should pay your bills.
Maybe you don't. There are also several flyers for houses for sale in the area.
A flyer, F-L-I-E-R, the plural is flyers with an S, is an advertisement.
It's an announcement or an advertisement.
Usually it's one or two pages, one or two pieces of paper.
Sometimes the advertisements or the flyers are folded up.
And it's very popular for people who are selling houses to use flyers that they mail you or they put on your house outside of your house.
These flyers are for houses that people are selling, houses for sale in the area.
I check the front stoop and see that there are no packages.
I check I look out at the front stoop.
A stoop, S-T-O-O-P, is the stairs in front of your house.
Often this word is used when we are talking about large buildings, apartment buildings, or condominium buildings in New York or Boston, some of the cities on the eastern coast of the United States.
People talk about sitting on the stoop.
That means you're sitting on your stairs.
But you can also use the word to talk about your own stairs in front of your house.
The top of those stairs is where you might find packages.
A package, P-A-C-K-A-G-E, is usually a box or something that is bigger than just a regular letter that you receive in the mail or that is delivered to you by some private company.
Well I look at my stoop and I see there are no packages.
No one loves me, no one sent me a package.
I then talk about how I like to watch television and so does my wife.
My wife likes to watch reality shows.
A reality show, R-E-A-L-I-T-Y, is a type of television show where they have a competition or a contest.
Big brother and American Idol are two examples of popular reality shows.
They take people, average people, they say, and they have a competition or a contest.
One thing I hate about watching television, something I don't like, is having to watch all the commercials.
A commercial is the same as an advertisement on television or radio.
It's an announcement from a company that wants you to buy what they are selling.
Well I don't like watching the commercials, so I turn the sound down.
To turn the sound down means to lower the volume, to make it so that it is less loud.
It is quieter. I turn the sound down when the commercials come on.
Again, that verb to come on means that they are on the television, that they start.
After the show is over, after the show is done, finished, I thumb through the latest issue of the Atlantic Monthly.
The Atlantic Monthly is a monthly magazine in the United States.
To thumb through something, THUMB through two words, means to look through something, but usually not to be paying too much attention.
You're sort of looking but you're not necessarily reading very carefully.
We use that expression, that verb when we are talking about magazines in particular.
You're looking at them perhaps waiting in a doctor's office, in the waiting room of a doctor's office, you thumb through the magazines.
Well, I'm thumbing through the Atlantic Monthly.
My wife is reading a novel, a novel, NOVL is a fictional book, a book that is not a true story.
At around 9, that is at 9 p.m., I remember that tomorrow is trash day.
Trash T-R-A-S-H is anything that you are getting rid of, that you are throwing out, that you don't want anymore.
Trash day is the day that the garbage trucks come by and take the trash away.
In Los Angeles, we have a public trash service so that the government has trucks that it sends out and it picks up your trash.
It takes your trash and puts it into the truck and then takes it away.
That is trash day. In my neighborhood, it is on Fridays.
In every neighborhood is different.
They do a different part of the city each day.
So this is trash day. I need to take the kitchen garbage out and dump the recycling bins as well.
The garbage, G-A-R-B-A-G-E, is just another word for trash.
We sometimes talk about garbage that is trash in the kitchen in particular.
This is the kitchen garbage and I have to take it out, meaning I have to take the bag and put it outside so that the garbage truck can come by and pick it up.
In Los Angeles, we also have recycling bins.
In Los Angeles, we have a recycling bin where you can put your newspapers and other things that they can use again.
They can recycle. A bin, B-I-N, is just another name for a box, usually a plastic box.
In my city, we have trash containers that you can roll.
They have little wheels on them.
A container is like a big box that you put something in.
So a trash container is a big, in my case, plastic box that has wheels that I can then put it down on the street.
You have to put your trash containers on the street.
Each container has a different color.
In my case, black is the color for trash.
Green is where you put things like leaves and grass, things that you have outside of your house that you want to get rid of that are plants, that sort of thing.
I put the trash containers out on the street because the garbage trucks come by early in the morning.
They come by a two-word verb, which means that they come to your house.
They drive to your house.
In my neighborhood, they come by very early.
So at 6 o'clock on Friday morning, I can hear the trucks outside my window.
I don't like it, but I need to have my trash taken away.
So one day of the week, I wake up early because I can hear the garbage trucks outside.
Now let's listen to the story this time at a native rate of speech.
With the dinner dishes done, my wife and I each sit down on the couch to chill out and watch the national news, which comes on at 6.30.
During the newscast, I sort through the day's mail.
Most of it is junk mail and bills.
There are also several flyers for houses for sale in the area.
I check the front stoop and see that there are no packages.
I like to watch TV and my wife likes to watch reality shows.
One thing I hate is having to watch all of the commercials, so I turn the sound down when they come on.
After the show is over, I thumb through the latest issue of the Atlantic monthly, while my wife reads a novel by her favorite mystery writer.
At around 9, I remember that tomorrow is trash day, so I take the kitchen garbage out and dump the recycling bins as well.
I roll the trash container out to the street ready for the garbage trucks, which come by early in the morning.
That concludes part 9 of a day in the life of Jeff.
In our 10th and final part, we get ready for bed and go to sleep.
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.
We write 2006. Welcome to ESLPod.com's a day in the life of Jeff.
Part 10. Getting ready for bed and going to sleep.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in Beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In part 9 of this series, we relaxed, read our mail, and took out the trash.
In this 10th and final episode, we're going to get ready for bed and go to sleep.
Let's get started. At 10.30, I decide to get ready for bed.
When I was little, my mother would read me a bedtime story.
I'm looking forward to having that ritual with my own kids someday.
I go into the bathroom and turn on the tap.
I wash my face and dry it with my towel.
I floss and brush my teeth.
I have to admit that by this time, I'm beat and so is my wife.
She cleans up when I've finished up.
In the meantime, I walk into the bedroom and get undressed.
I put my dirty clothes in the hamper and I put on my pajamas.
Wearing my slippers, I go into the kitchen to get a glass of water to put next to the bed in case I need it during the night.
I pull back the covers, fluff my pillow, and climb into bed.
I set my alarm clock for 6.15 and turn off the overhead light.
I lay my head down and pull up the covers, kissing my wife good night.
Some nights I have trouble falling asleep, but tonight I didn't need to count any sheep.
I nod off right away and before long, I'm fast asleep.
This episode is called Getting Ready for Bed and Going to Sleep.
At 10.30, I decide to get ready for bed, to do the things I need to do so I can go to sleep.
When I was little, my mother would read me a bedtime story.
Bedtime, B-E-D-T-I-M-E, all one word, is of course the time that you go to bed, that you go to your bed so you can sleep.
A bedtime story is a story you would tell a child to help them fall asleep.
Many children like to be told a bedtime story.
These are often what we would call fairy tales, F-A-I-R-Y, tales, T-A-L-E-S.
A tale is just another word for a story.
And a fairy tale is a story about something that isn't true, usually with imaginary characters.
I'm looking forward to having that ritual with my own kids someday.
I'm looking forward to having that ritual.
A ritual, R-I-T-U-A-L, is something that you do on a regular schedule or at a regular time every day or maybe every week or every month.
And you do the exact same things in the exact same order.
We also use that word ritual when we are talking about some religious ceremonies, some religious events have certain rules, certain order, a certain order that they follow.
And that is a ritual. I go into the bathroom and I turn on the tap.
Well you turn on the tap so the water comes out.
I wash my face and I dry it with my towel.
I dry my face. I make it dry using a towel, T-O-W-E-L, which is a cloth that you use to dry yourself or to clean yourself.
I floss my teeth and I brush them.
I have to admit that by this time I'm beat.
I have to admit is an expression that we use when you're going to say something that maybe you don't want to say.
You don't want to tell the truth.
In fact there is also an expression to tell the truth.
So I have to admit means I have to say to tell the truth by this time, meaning by 10 30, by this time I'm beat.
To be beat, B-E-A-T means to be very tired.
Someone says, I'm beat.
They've been working all day or they like me, been watching television all day and now I'm beat, I'm tired.
Of course I don't watch television all day just part of the day.
Well my wife is also beat.
In the story I say, I'm beat and so is my wife, meaning my wife is also very tired.
She cleans up when I've finished up.
Once again you see those two word verbs to clean up is in this case to clean your face, to brush your teeth, to get yourself clean is to clean up.
To finish up is really the same as to finish but we love in English to use those prepositions as part of these two word verbs.
So I finish up, meaning I finish doing what I need to do and then my wife goes in to the bathroom and cleans up.
In the meantime, meaning while my wife is doing that, in the meantime M-E-A-N-T-I-M-E, all one word, I walk into the bedroom and get undressed.
So when my wife is in the bathroom, I walk at the same time into the bedroom and I get undressed.
To get undressed is the opposite of to get dressed.
So if you get undressed you take off your clothes.
I put my dirty clothes, the clothes I was wearing, in the hamper and I put on my pajamas.
A hamper H-A-M-P-E-R as a noun is a place usually in your bedroom or bathroom where you put dirty clothes or dirty towels.
You call that a hamper. To hamper as a verb means something different.
To hamper someone means to get in their way, to prevent them from doing something.
But as a noun, a hamper or a clothes hamper is a place usually it's a big plastic box with a top on it or it could be made of wood and that's where you put your dirty clothes and then at some point during the week I hope you wash your clothes so you can have clean clothes again.
Unless of course you're not married, in which case if you are a man and single you may not wash your clothes that much.
Well, I have my dirty clothes in my hamper and since I don't have any clothes on, remember I have undressed, I put on my pajamas.
P-A-J-A-M-A-S are sometimes abbreviated as PJs, PJs.
Your pajamas or PJs are the clothes that you wear when you are going to bed.
For example, I have pajamas that say Superman on it and I wear my Superman pajamas to bed.
Does it everyone? Well, in addition to putting on my pajamas, I also put on my slippers.
A slipper SLI-P-P-E-R is a shoe that you wear usually just inside the house.
So when you are getting ready for bed and you want to walk around the house, you don't put your shoes on, you would put some slippers on.
Some people wear slippers in their house, especially if the floors are cold and they'll put those slippers on at night and have them on at night as they walk around in their house or in the morning.
Well, wearing my slippers, I go into the kitchen to get a glass of water and I want to put that water next to my bed in case I need it during the night.
So if I need to drink water at night, I have a glass of water next to me.
I pull back the covers. The covers, COV-E-R-S, are the blanket, the comforter and the top sheet.
We take those things and we have to pull them back.
To pull back means to take them and move them towards the bottom of the bed so that you can get in.
And after you get in, you're going to pull the covers up.
So you pull back the covers to get into the bed and then you pull them up to cover you again so you can stay warm.
I pull back my covers and I fluff my pillow.
The pillow is what I put my head on to fluff, F-L-U-F-F, means to make your pillow bigger by hitting it very softly on the sides.
So you take your pillow and you put one hand on each side of the pillow and you move your hands back and forth toward each other and away from each other.
And that allows the pillow to be a little bigger, to be a little softer.
I fluff my pillow and I climb into bed.
Notice that verb to climb CL-IMB into bed.
It means the same as to get in to bed.
We might use that particular verb to climb into if we are very tired, for example.
You can also use it just to mean to get into bed.
So I climb into bed. I set my alarm clock for 6.15 in the morning, of course.
And I turn off the overhead light.
The overhead O-V-E-R-H-E-A-D, all one word, is a light that is on the top of your room, on the ceiling of the room.
The top of the room is called the ceiling, C-E-I-L-I-N-G.
So an overhead light is on the top of the ceiling or on the ceiling.
And I turn the overhead light off.
I lay my head down to lay L-A-Y.
Here means to put something down.
Usually we use that verb when we are talking about people or a part of your body.
I lay my head down and I pull up the covers, so I'm warm.
And because I'm such a great husband, I kiss my wife goodnight.
To kiss someone goodnight means to kiss them and, in a sense, to say goodnight to them.
Some nights I have trouble falling asleep.
To fall, F-A-L-L, asleep, A-S-L-E-E-P, means to go to sleep, to start sleeping.
Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep, but tonight I didn't need to count any sheep.
The expression to count sheep, S-H-E-E-P, is used because we traditionally, when we are trying to fall asleep, some people say that it helps if you try counting numbers.
So you start with 1, 2, 3, 4.
And for some reason, I don't know why, it is traditional to count sheep.
Sheep are a type of animal.
A sheep is an animal that you take the hair off of and you use the hair of the sheep to make clothing, for example.
I don't need to count sheep because I'm very tired.
If you are not tired or you have difficulty falling asleep, you might want to try counting sheep.
1, 2, 3, 4. And by the time you reach 5 million, you should be asleep.
I nod off right away. To nod N-O-D off, two words, means the same as to fall asleep.
It's just another way of saying fall asleep.
I nod off. Sometimes people will use that expression when they're at a meeting and it is very boring at work.
And you may say to someone, I almost nod it off.
I almost fell asleep. That usually happens to my students when I am teaching.
For long, meaning in a very short time, before long, I'm fast asleep.
To be fast, F-A-S-T asleep, means to be completely asleep.
There's a similar expression that means the same to be sound asleep, SO-U-N-D.
To be sound asleep means that you are sleeping completely, it will not be easy to wake you up.
Now let's listen to the story this time, at a native rate of speech.
At 10.30, I decide to get ready for bed.
When I was little, my mother would read me a bedtime story.
I'm looking forward to having that ritual with my own kid someday.
I go into the bathroom and turn on the tap.
I wash my face and dry it with my towel.
I floss and brush my teeth.
I have to admit that by this time I'm beat and so is my wife.
She cleans up when I've finished up.
In the meantime, I walk into the bedroom and get undressed.
I put my dirty clothes in the hamper and I put on my pajamas.
Where in my slippers, I go into the kitchen to get a glass of water to put next to the bed in case I need it during the night.
I pull back the covers, fluff my pillow and climb into bed.
I set my alarm clock for 6.15 and turn off the overhead light.
I lay my head down and pull up the covers, kissing my wife good night.
Some nights I have trouble falling asleep, but tonight I didn't need to count any sheep.
I nod off right away and before long I'm fast asleep.
That concludes part 10 of a day in the life of Jeff and it concludes this series.
I want to thank you for listening.
Remember to visit our website at ESLPD.com for more special courses like this one.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillin.
Thanks for listening. This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at ESLPD.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
