Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 682, Minor Medical Injuries.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 682.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan. for this episode and all of our current episodes.
This episode is called Minor Medical Injuries.
It's a dialogue between Charisse and Evan, using vocabulary about ways that you may be hurt, but not seriously.
Let's get started.
Rise and shine.
Isn't it a lovely day?
I love getting back to nature.
There's nothing like going camping.
How did you sleep?
That was the most miserable night of my life.
Really?
What happened?
I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I heard a bear.
I got up, stubbed my toe and tripped.
I have scratches all over my arms, not to mention these bruises on my legs.
See?
Oh, don't you know that there aren't any bears this late in the year?
How should I have known that?
This was my first time camping.
All right.
Why are you holding your neck like that?
I couldn't get comfortable at all sleeping on the ground.
I woke up with a crick in my neck.
Stop moving around like that or you'll really hurt yourself.
Oh, I have a cramp in my shoulder.
It hurts.
I told you not to twist around like that.
Just let it work itself out.
All of this had to happen to me after getting a stitch in my side and a charley horse hiking five miles yesterday.
I've had it.
I'm going back to civilization.
What do you mean?
I'm walking.
Sharice begins by saying, Isn't it a lovely day?
The expression rise, R-I-S-E, and shine, S-H-I-N-E, is a way of saying wake up.
It's time to get up.
It was probably more popular among an older generation, but you'll still hear it, sometimes in order to make a joke.
Cherie says, isn't it a lovely day?
Isn't it a beautiful day?
Meaning it is a beautiful day.
She says, I love getting back to nature.
The expression to get back to nature means to spend time outdoors, away from a building or a house, in order to experience this feeling of being in the natural world, maybe by a lake or a river or trees.
Cherie says there's nothing like going camping.
And now we understand why she says that, because they are camping.
To go camping means to spend time outdoors, usually sleeping outdoors.
Sleeping perhaps in what we would call a sleeping bag, which is like a blanket in the form of a big bag that you put yourself into to keep yourself warm.
For some additional information on this word camp, go to our learning guide and look under the section what else does it mean?
Cherise says to Evan, how did you sleep?
Evan says, that was the most miserable night of my life.
Miserable M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E means very uncomfortable, very unpleasant, something you don't want to do because you suffered.
It caused you some pain.
Cherie says, really?
What happened?
Evan says I woke up in the middle of the night that is, after the time that most people have fallen asleep, and thought I heard a bear, a large bear, brown or black animal typically, at least in the United States.
I got up, stubbed my toe and tripped.
So Evan got up, he got up off the ground, presumably, we're guessing, and stubbed his toe.
To stub S-T-U-B your toe means to hit your foot against something by accident, causing pain in one of your ten toes that are on your feet.
It's not a serious accident.
You don't break any bones, for example, but it can hurt.
In Evan's case, it caused him to trip.
T-R-I-P.
To trip means to fall or almost fall when you hit something, usually with your feet.
Evan says, A scratch is a long, thin cut on your skin.
A little blood comes out, but not very much.
A bruise.
B-R-U-I-S-E is a large area on your skin that becomes blue or brown or purple, usually because you hit that part of your body against something, or someone hit you.
So Evan says that he has scratches, cuts all over his arms.
Not to mention these bruises on my legs, he says.
Not to mention means, in addition, I also have this.
He has bruises on his legs.
See, he says to Charisse.
Charisse says, Oh, don't you know that there aren't any bears this late in the year?
Evans says, how should I have known that?
Meaning, I had no way of knowing that.
Because he says, this was my first time camping.
The first time that he went camping.
Cherie says, all right, why are you holding your neck like that?
Evan is holding on to his neck with his hand.
He says, I couldn't get comfortable at all sleeping on the ground.
At all.
Here is used for emphasis, meaning I wasn't able to get comfortable in any way by sleeping on the ground.
Now, I have to agree with Evan.
I have gone camping when I was a younger man.
I've gone camping where we just had a sleeping bag on the ground in the middle of a forest.
It was probably the worst couple of days I have ever had.
I am not a camping kind of person.
In fact...
I think you can divide the world into campers and non-campers.
And campers should never marry non-campers.
Fortunately, I'm a non-camper and so is my wife.
I can camp if I'm in like a truck. where I have a regular bed, that's okay.
Camping on the ground, I'll leave that to the rest of you.
Meaning, I'll let you guys have fun doing that while I'm sitting in my hotel.
Evan doesn't like camping, at least he hasn't had a good experience of it.
He fell down, he didn't sleep well, his neck hurts.
Evan says, I woke up with a crick in my neck.
A crick C-R-I-C-K in your neck is when you have a muscle pain on the side of your neck, sometimes caused by the way that you were sleeping.
And it prevents you from turning your head from left to right very easily.
If you're sleeping on the ground without a nice pillow, well then that may give you a crick in the neck.
Cherie says stop moving around like that or you'll really hurt yourself.
We're not sure what Evan is doing here, probably moving his neck.
Evan says, oh, I have a cramp in my shoulder.
It hurts.
A cramp, C-R-A-M-P, is a sharp feeling of pain usually caused by a muscle that won't relax properly.
If you are running or doing some sort of athletic event, sometimes you will get cramps.
Your body will produce a sharp pain in the muscle.
It could happen in your arms.
It could happen in your legs.
This happened to Evan's shoulder.
Cherise says, I told you not to twist like that.
To twist means to turn or rotate something in a particular direction.
You can find other meanings of the word twist in our learning guide for this episode.
Cherise says, just let it work itself out.
The expression to work itself out means to have a problem fix itself.
When something bad happens, sometimes it will get better even if you don't do anything.
And that's what Charisse is telling Evan to do.
Evan says, all of this had to happen to me after getting a stitch in my side and a charley horse hiking five miles yesterday.
A stitch S-T-I-T-C-H in your side is a pain that you feel on one side of your body, usually between your hip or your waist and your arms.
It's often caused by doing too much physical activity, often running is the problem.
A charley horse...
C-H-A-R-L-E-Y horse.
Two words is another word for a cramp, a painful cramp, typically in your leg.
Evan says I've had it meaning I'm very tired and frustrated about something and I don't want to do it anymore.
Evan doesn't want to go camping anymore.
He says, I'm going back to civilization.
Civilization can mean a particular society over many years that follows similar rules and customs.
In this case it's really used to indicate somewhere that is not outdoors, a city, a town where there are buildings and hotels and restaurants, a place that has modern comforts and conveniences available.
Cherise says, how are you getting there?
Meaning, how are you going to get from where they are now to civilization, as Evan calls it.
Evan says, what do you mean?
I'm walking.
Cherise says, without food or water?
She says, you better wait for me.
She's giving him some advice.
You should wait for me to go with you.
Or she says, you may end up bear bait after all.
You may end up means that the final result might be that you are bear, like the animal, bait after.
B-A-I-T.
Bait is a small piece of food that's used to attract an animal, usually so that you can catch it.
You put the bait in something called a trap and the animal comes to get the bait and when it moves, the food.
The trap comes down on the animal to capture it, to keep it there, usually because you're trying to get rid of it.
The most common trap that most people are familiar with would be a mouse trap, trying to get rid of mice that are in your house.
The traditional bait for that is cheese, because everyone knows that mice love cheese.
Charisse is saying that Evan, if he's not careful, may fall down, get injured and become bait for a bear.
The bear might eat him.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Rise and shine.
Isn't it a lovely day?
I love getting back to nature.
There's nothing like going camping.
How did you sleep?
That was the most miserable night of my life.
Really?
What happened?
I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I heard a bear.
I got up, stubbed my toe, and tripped.
I have scratches all over my arms, not to mention these bruises on my legs.
See?
See?
Oh, don't you know that there aren't any bears this late in the year?
How should I have known that?
This was my first time camping.
All right.
Why are you holding your neck like that?
I couldn't get comfortable at all sleeping on the ground.
I woke up with a crick in my neck.
Stop moving around like that or you'll really hurt yourself.
Oh, I have a cramp in my shoulder.
It hurts.
I told you not to twist around like that.
Just let it work itself out.
All of this had to happen to me after getting a stitch in my side and a charley horse hiking five miles yesterday.
I've had it.
I'm going back to civilization.
How are you getting there?
What do you mean?
I'm walking.
Without food or water?
You'd better wait for me or you may end up bear bait after all.
Our dialogues never make you feel miserable.
That's because they're written by the one, the only, Dr. Lucy Say.
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 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
