Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 355, Finding a Bargain.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 355.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpodcom.
There you can download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Finding a Bargain.
It's a dialogue between Manuel and Georgia about Georgia's trip to the store.
Let's get started.
Wow, I've never seen so many shopping bags in my life.
I can guess where you've been.
I did go overboard a bit today.
I went to the outlet mall and I found some real bargains.
Nearly everything was discounted.
I was in shopping heaven.
I can see that.
My favorite store had reduced prices for all of its sweaters, so I bought five.
They were already on sale, but the store knocked another five dollars off the price.
I got them at half price.
I was going to buy three, but the store had a special offer.
If you buy four, the fifth one is free.
But doesn't that mean you spent more money, since you bought five sweaters when you only wanted three?
How could I resist?
They were being sold at bargain basement prices.
At another store, the sale items were two for the price of one.
I've never seen things in that store so cheap.
Where are you going now?
I'm going back to the outlet stores, of course.
I just came home for a little breather.
There's more shopping to be done.
Our dialogue begins with Manuel saying, Wow!
Meaning, those are a lot of shopping bags.
The bags that you use from the store to carry things back home.
He says.
Georgia says To go overboard means to do too much of something, to do something to an extreme.
If you go to a buffet lunch where you can eat as much food as you want, it's important not to go overboard.
Georgia says she went to an outlet mall.
A mall is a large building full of stores where you go shopping.
An outlet mall is where companies sell clothing and other things at a cheaper price than at the regular stores.
It is usually a place where you find clothing that wasn't very popular or perhaps may have some small problems.
These are sold at outlet malls.
Many of the big clothing companies sell their clothes at these outlet malls when they can't sell them in the regular stores.
Georgia says she found some real bargains.
A bargain is something that costs less than it usually would.
The word bargain actually has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Georgia says that nearly everything in the store was discounted.
To be discounted means to be sold at a price that is lower than usual.
Another expression for this would be on sale.
This was discounted.
This was on sale.
Georgia says, Heaven is a place where everything is perfect, where one is completely happy.
That's the idea.
Someone may say I went to the comic book convention and I was in heaven, or I was in Spider-Man heaven, meaning it was a very happy place for me to be.
Manuel says, I can see that.
I can see you were in shopping heaven.
Georgia says, my favorite store had reduced prices for all of its sweaters.
A reduced price is the same as a discounted price when the price is lower than normal for a certain amount of time.
She says that she bought five sweaters.
They were already on sale.
They were already discounted.
But the store knocked another $5 off the price.
To knock a certain amount off the price means to lower the price, to make the price less than it was before.
You may say, my mechanic knocked off $20 on my bill to fix my car.
He reduced the price $20.
He knocked off $20.
Of course, the bill was $1,000, so it wasn't very much.
Georgia says...
I got the sweaters at half price at 50% off or 50% discount.
I was going to buy three, she says, but the store had a special offer.
A special offer is sometimes called a promotion, when the store offers to give the customer something special or something at a lower price for a certain amount of time.
The offer was, if you buy four sweaters, you can get a fifth sweater for free.
Georgia was only going to buy three, but she bought four because then she would get five sweaters.
Manuel says, doesn't that mean you spent more money than you were going to spend?
Georgia says, how could I resist?
To resist means to be able to stop yourself from doing something that you want to do.
For example, you went to the buffet and you went overboard.
Now you're at home and you have a piece of apple pie in your refrigerator.
You have to resist that resistance. temptation, that desire to eat the pie.
You have to stop yourself from doing it.
I say you have to stop yourself.
I don't have to stop myself.
Georgia says the sweaters were being sold at bargain basement prices.
The basement is the part of a building or a house that is below ground, that is underneath the ground.
The term bargain basement refers to the fact that some stores used to sell things cheaply, put things on sale in the basement of the store, in the bottom of the store.
And so we have this expression, bargain basement.
So these were bargain basement prices.
They were low prices.
At another store, she continues, the sale items were two for the price of one.
Sometimes we just say they were two for one.
You buy one thing and you get a second thing free.
She says, I've never seen things so cheap, so inexpensive, with such a low price.
The word cheap actually has a couple of different meanings also in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more explanation.
Manuel says, where are you going now?
Georgia says, I'm going back to the outlet stores, of course.
I just came home for a little breather.
A breather B-R-E-A-T-H-E-R here means a break, a pause in an activity, a short time for you to rest.
I'm going to take a breather or I'm here just for a breather.
She says there's more shopping to be done, meaning she has more shopping she wants to do.
Manuel says try to leave a few things for the other shoppers, meaning don't buy the entire store.
My love.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Wow, I've never seen so many shopping bags in my life.
I can guess where you've been.
I did go overboard a bit today.
I went to the outlet mall and I found some real bargains.
Nearly everything was discounted.
I was in shopping heaven.
I can see that.
My favorite store had reduced prices for all of its sweaters, so I bought five.
They were already on sale, but the store knocked another $5 off the price.
I got them at half price.
I was going to buy three, but the store had a special offer.
If you buy four, the fifth one is free.
But doesn't that mean you spent more money, since you bought five sweaters when you only wanted three?
Where are you going now?
Try to leave a few things for the other shoppers.
The script for this episode was written by a woman who works so hard.
She could use a breather too.
Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
