Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 734, Believing in Scary Things.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 734.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Ella and Jimmy.
It's related to Halloween and uses a lot of vocabulary related to scary things.
Let's get started.
No matter what you say, I am not going out tonight.
It's Halloween and evil things are lurking everywhere.
Come on, it's Halloween.
It's the holiday when kids get dressed up and ask for candy.
There is nothing evil or creepy about this day.
If you're scared stiff, it's your own doing.
Don't kid yourself.
This is the day when ghosts, witches, zombies, and vampires come out and have a field day.
I've got goosebumps just thinking about it.
Do you mean you actually believe in all of that stuff?
You are too old to be so gullible.
I'm going out.
Look!
Hurry up and close that door.
There's a black cat.
Oh, my God!
If you walk out that door, the next time I see you, it might be in a graveyard.
You're crazy, and I'm leaving.
What are they?
Ugh.
Ella begins by saying, No matter what you say, I'm not going out tonight.
It doesn't matter what you tell me, she's saying.
I'm not going to leave the house.
I'm not going to go out somewhere tonight.
It's Halloween and evil things are lurking everywhere.
Halloween, you may know, is celebrated on October 31st.
It is the eve of All Hallows Day, or we would say, in the United States, All Saints Day.
Traditionally, it's been associated with spirits ghosts, scary things and people here in the US, especially children, dress up on this holiday and go around asking for candy.
We've talked about Halloween on other episodes.
Go back and listen to episode number 73.
Ella says that there are evil things lurking everywhere.
Evil is bad, wrong, something that is very wrong, very perhaps immoral.
To lurk, L-U-R-K, means to be somewhere, but to be hidden away, perhaps waiting to appear.
We have an expression, he was lurking in the shadows.
He was waiting there, perhaps for someone to come by.
It sounds like a dangerous thing, although...
It might not be.
So lurking is waiting around but hidden so no one can see you.
Jimmy says, come on, it's Halloween.
It's the holiday when kids get dressed up and ask for candy.
Come on means change your mind, Ella.
Don't be so silly.
Don't be that way.
This holiday, and by the way, it's not technically a holiday in the United States.
You still have to work on Halloween.
It's the holiday when kids get dressed up.
To dress up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to put on different kind of clothing than you normally would.
It could be clothing that's very formal, if you're going to a wedding or a job interview.
Or it could be a costume, something that makes you look like a different kind of person.
And that's the kind of dressing up that Jimmy is talking about here.
On Halloween, kids put on different costumes so they look like Spider-Man and, I don't know, Harry Potter.
I haven't been paying attention recently.
So Jimmy says, there is nothing evil or creepy about this day.
Creepy, C-R-E-E-P-Y, means scary, but also uncomfortable.
Something that makes you a little fearful or not very comfortable, uneasy, we might say.
Jimmy says, To be scared stiff, S-T-I-F-F, means to be very frightened, to be very scared.
You can't do anything because you are so afraid of what is going to happen or what is happening.
Jimmy says if that's how scared you are, it's your own doing, meaning it's your own fault.
It's because of something you do, not what someone else is doing.
Ella says don't kid yourself.
To kid, K-I-D, yourself, means to make yourself believe something that isn't true.
To kid as a verb normally means to joke with, to say something that isn't really true, just to be funny.
But the expression to kid yourself means, in a way, to play a joke on yourself, to make yourself believe something that isn't true.
She says, this is the day when ghosts, witches, zombies, and vampires come out and have a field day.
A ghost traditionally has been defined as the spirit of a dead person.
If you ever read the famous play Macbeth by Shakespeare, you know that there is the ghost of Banquo.
When I was growing up there was a famous cartoon ghost Casper.
Casper the Ghost, whatever happened to him.
I think he died.
A witch is someone, usually a woman, who has magical powers and uses them to do bad things.
If you saw the movie The Wizard of Oz, there were different witches in the movie.
There were good witches and there were bad witches, however, in The Wizard of Oz.
But normally a witch is someone we think of again, usually a woman who has magic powers to do evil things.
A zombie is the body of a person who has died but still walks around the earth, even though he or she cannot speak.
So it's a little different than a ghost.
A ghost is just the spirit, that can appear and disappear, that can travel through walls and so forth.
A zombie is an actual body, a dead body that walks around as if it were alive.
Of course, all of these things are imaginary, but that's what they are when you read about them in fiction.
Vampires are people who are immortal.
That is, they never die.
They traditionally have long, sharp teeth.
They walk in the night.
They can't sleep.
They bite people's necks and drink their blood.
Sounds like an old girlfriend I had.
The most famous vampire is probably Dracula in English literature.
The second would probably be those guys from Twilight.
I don't know.
There was a famous movie interview with a vampire, with I think it was Tom Cruise, who some people believe is actually a vampire.
I don't know if that's true or not.
So we have ghosts witches, zombies and vampires that come out, that can be seen, and they have a field day.
The expression to have a field F-I-E-L-D day means to have fun, to do whatever you want, as much as you want to do it.
Ella says, I've got goosebumps just thinking about it.
Goosebumps are little small bumps or raised areas on your skin that are caused by either cold temperatures, that is, when it's cold suddenly you may feel these little bumps on your skin.
Some people say they can also be caused by fear.
So the idea that something gives you goosebumps means that it makes you very afraid, very scared.
There's actually a famous children's book series, very popular with young boys at least it was a few years ago in the United States called Goosebumps.
And these are scary stories. that were popular among 5th and 6th and 7th graders.
Some of them are actually kind of interesting.
They're easy English and if you enjoy reading scary stories and your English is still not ready for adult stories well, Goosebumps is not a bad option, not a bad choice.
Jimmy says, do you mean you actually believe in all of that stuff?
All of those things?
You are too old to be so gullible.
To be gullible, G-U-L-L-I-B-L-E, means to be easily tricked or deceived.
To believe everything that you are told.
Jimmy says, I'm going out.
I'm going to leave the house.
Ella says, look, hurry up and close that door.
There's a black cat.
Oh my God, if you walk out that door, the next time I see you, it might be in a graveyard.
Okay, so traditionally, if you see a black cat, you have bad luck.
And that's what Ella sees when Jimmy opens the door.
She says, if you walk out that door, the next time I see you, it might be in a graveyard.
A grave, G-R-A-V-E, is where you put a body after it dies.
A graveyard is also called a cemetery.
It's a large area where you have a lot of graves.
What Ella is saying is that if Jimmy leaves, he might be killed.
Jimmy says, you're crazy and I'm leaving.
Alice says, if you have to go, take these with you.
Jimmy says, what are they?
She says, it's a cross and some garlic.
You'll thank me later.
A cross is two pieces of wood or some material that form like a T.
It is the symbol of the Christian religion, where Jesus Christ was said to have died on a cross.
That's why the cross is a symbol of Christianity.
Traditionally, the idea was that if you had a cross, you could hold it up and it would prevent evil beings from coming close to you or coming near you because they were afraid.
It was essentially a symbol of God.
Garlic, traditionally in literature, was thought to have protected you against vampires, people like Tom Cruise.
So Ella is offering Jimmy a cross and some garlic so he can protect himself against these evil beings that she believes in.
Jimmy says, ugh, he's frustrated.
He doesn't believe what Ella is telling him.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
No matter what you say, I'm not going out tonight.
It's Halloween and evil things are lurking everywhere.
Come on, it's Halloween.
It's the holiday when kids get dressed up and ask for candy.
There is nothing evil or creepy about this day.
If you're scared stiff, it's your own doing.
Don't kid yourself.
This is the day when ghosts, witches, zombies, and vampires come out and have a field day.
I've got goosebumps just thinking about it.
Do you mean you actually believe in all that stuff?
You are too old to be so gullible.
I'm going out.
Look, hurry up and close that door.
There's a black cat.
Oh my God, if you walk out that door the next time I see you, it might be in a graveyard.
You're crazy and I'm leaving.
If you have to go, take these with you.
What are they?
It's a cross and some garlic.
You'll thank me later.
Ugh.
Our script was not written by a ghost, a witch, a zombie, or a vampire.
It was written by the not very scary 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 Podcasts.
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.
