Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, episode 570, Guessing a Number.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 570.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is called Guessing a Number.
It's a dialogue between Angela and Dwight.
It's also going to be using some vocabulary not just about guessing, but, well, about numbers.
Let's get started.
Hey, look at this.
This restaurant is holding a contest.
If you can guess the number of marbles in this bowl, you'll get a free meal every day for one year.
I'll take a stab at it.
So will I. Let's see.
I think there must be close to 1,000 or 1,200 marbles in there.
What are you doing?
I'm doing some calculations in my head.
The bowl is about 75% full.
And it's 15 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches.
The marbles are about three quarters of an inch in diameter.
Are you actually trying to figure out the capacity by crunching the numbers?
This is a game.
You're supposed to guess.
I know it's a game, but I want to increase my chances by making an educated guess.
That's cheating.
No way.
I'm just using what God gave me to beat you out of a year's worth of meals.
Bring it on.
I'll pit my random guess against your educated guess any day.
Angela says to Dwight, Hey, look at this.
A contest is a competition where different people participate to try to win something.
We often use the verb hold.
I'm going to hold a contest.
I'm going to have a competition.
To guess means to provide an answer even though you're not sure if it is correct.
Guess actually has several meanings in English.
You'll find those in this episode's learning guide.
Marbles are small, round pieces of colored glass.
You often find them with children.
They play a game where they roll the marbles on the floor.
This was at one time a popular contest in restaurants.
They would have a big glass bowl full of these little marbles and you had to try to guess the number of marbles in there.
Many different people would guess, and then if you guessed it correctly, you got some prize.
Dwight says, I'll take a stab, S-T-A-B, at it.
To take a stab at something means to either make a guess or try to do something, even though you will probably not be right, even though you may not succeed or be successful.
To take a stab at means to attempt to do something.
Angela says, so will I, meaning I will try to guess too.
Let's see, there must be close to 1,000 or 1,200 marbles in there.
What are you doing?
Dwight says, I'm doing some calculations in my head.
Calculations are when you combine numbers, you add them, you subtract them, you multiply them or you divide them to find out how much of something there is.
In general, calculations are what you do to solve some sort of mathematical problem.
Dwight is doing them in his head, meaning mentally, not with a machine.
He says the bowl is about 75% full.
Percent is one hundredth.
It's the amount of something out of 100 parts.
So 75% would be 75 out of 100.
So the bowl is 75%, or three-quarters full.
It's about 15 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches.
We talk about or use the word by when we are describing the length, the width and the height of something.
If we say it's 15 inches by 12 inches, by 6 inches, we mean it is 15 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high.
Dwight says the marbles are about three quarters of an inch in diameter.
Three quarters or three fourths is used also when talking about part of something.
Three fourths is written three over four.
There's a diagonal line that divides them.
It's the same, of course, as 75%.
That's three-fourths of a hundred.
The marbles are three-fourths of an inch in diameter.
Diameter, D-I-A-M-E-T-E-R, is the distance across a circle.
If you take a circle and you cut it in half, that length is the diameter.
Angela then says are you actually trying to figure out the capacity by crunching the numbers.
To figure out means to understand to get an answer.
Dwight is trying to figure out the capacity of this jar where the marbles are.
Capacity is the amount of space available.
To crunch the numbers is an idiom which means to make a mathematical calculation.
Often we talk about that when, for example, we have a new project but we're not sure if we have enough money.
We need to find out exactly how much it's going to cost.
I may say, I need to crunch the numbers.
Angela says, this is a game.
You're supposed to guess.
Dwight says, To increase your chances means to increase the likelihood that the possibilities for you to win to be successful.
If you are interviewing for a new job and you go to the interview in your swimming outfit, your swimming trunks which is what we call what a man wears or your swimming suit for a woman well, that's not really a very good strategy.
You could increase your chances by wearing a suit instead of a bikini, although I look pretty good in a bikini.
Dwight says that he's trying to make an educated guess.
An educated guess is still a guess.
You still don't know, but you have some facts or experience or knowledge that will help you make your guess.
Dwight says, I just need to do one more calculation and I'll have the magic number.
The magic number just means the correct number here.
Angela says that's cheating.
Cheating is when you do something against the rules, especially in a game.
And this is a contest, a kind of game.
Dwight says, no way, meaning that is completely wrong.
The expression.
To use what God gave you or someone means that you take advantage.
You use the intelligence and talent that you were born with.
This is especially true when many people do not have those talents.
So if you are a very good skier, you could use what God gave you to go to the Olympics, for example.
Dwight says that he's going to use what God gave him. presumably, we're guessing, the mathematical ability he has, he's going to use that to beat Angela out of a year's worth of meals.
To beat someone out of something means to win a game, a contest, something or a competition against another person.
You win the prize.
You take first place.
You beat someone out of.
You can also say that, for example, about a job.
He beat me out for that job at Berkeley.
You could, I suppose, say it about a woman or a man.
I beat my friend out for the affections and love of this particular woman.
Hopefully, you are not in a competition.
Angela says to Dwight, bring it on.
This is an informal expression that's used to show when you're ready to do something.
You're ready for a friendly competition.
Bring it on means I'm ready.
I'm ready to enter into this game and beat you.
Angela says, I'll pit my random guess on.
To pit P-I-T something against something else means to test one thing against another to see how well one person can do something compared to another person.
Angela says that she's going to make a random guess, meaning she's not going to try to calculate.
She's not going to crunch the numbers.
She's just going to take a random, we might say a wild guess.
She's going to pit.
She's going to Basically say my random guess is as good as really better than your educated guess.
Pit has a couple of different meanings in English.
Of course, those are found in the learning guide.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hey, look at this.
This restaurant is holding a contest.
If you can guess the number of marbles in this bowl, you'll get a free meal every day for one year.
I'll take a stab at it.
So will I. Let's see.
I think there must be close to one thousand or twelve hundred marbles in there.
What are you doing?
I'm doing some calculations in my head.
The bowl is about 75% full, and it's 15 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches.
The marbles are about 3 quarters of an inch in diameter.
Are you actually trying to figure out the capacity by crunching the numbers?
This is a game.
You're supposed to guess.
I know it's a game, but I want to increase my chances by making an educated guess.
Hold on.
I just need to do one more calculation and I'll have the magic number.
That's cheating.
No way.
I'm just using what God gave me to beat you out of a year's worth of meals.
Bring it on.
I'll pit my random guess against your educated guess any day.
Guess who wrote today's script?
That's right.
Dr. Lucy Say, your prize to listen to even more ESL podcasts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
