Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 777, Supplies for Outdoor Recreation.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 777, or backwards 777.
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.
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This episode is a dialogue between Jim and Fumiko about spending time outside having fun.
Let's get started.
I shouldn't have let my brother pack my supplies for this trip.
I was running late and he offered to do it.
He doesn't know the first thing about hiking or camping.
Look at this.
My backpack is filled with bottles of water.
What's wrong with that?
He should have just packed me a water filter instead of all these heavy bottles to lug around.
And he forgot some of the most important supplies, like bug spray and a flashlight.
You're welcome to borrow any of our supplies.
Here's some bug spray.
Do you need matches?
Yeah, I do.
My brother packed matches, but not in a waterproof bag.
One of the bottles of water leaked and got them all wet.
Maybe your brother is telling you something.
What?
Maybe he wants to be included in your camping trips.
Then he'll learn what to do and what to bring.
You might have something there.
Jim begins by saying I shouldn't have.
I should not have let or allowed my brother pack my supplies for this trip.
Supplies are things that you need for some particular purpose.
It's a very general term.
It can be used when talking about making something.
We need certain materials, certain things.
In this case it's about going on a trip where you need to bring certain things.
Jim says, I was running late, meaning I was behind schedule and he offered to do it.
So his brother, Jim's brother, packed Jim's supplies.
He put them all in a bag or in some suitcase for Jim to take with him.
Fumiko says, what's the problem?
Jim says he, my brother, doesn't know the first thing about hiking or camping.
When we say someone doesn't know the first thing about something, we mean they don't know anything.
They have no knowledge at all about this topic, this subject.
In this case, it's about hiking and camping.
Hiking H-I-K-I-N-G is when you go out and walk in a forest or on a mountain or by a lake, some area outside of perhaps, the city, or in a park inside a city.
To hike is the verb.
Hiking is the noun.
Camping is when you go and you sleep away from your house outside, outdoors.
Not in a hotel.
That's where I'll be.
But you can be camping.
That's fine.
I'm not a camper.
I'm not really someone who likes to sleep outside.
But some people do, and so that's why we have this strange thing called camping.
So Jim then says, look at this.
Your backpack is a large bag that you wear on your back and you put things in there that you will need for your camping trip or your hiking.
In the United States it's very common in colleges and universities for students to carry their books in backpacks.
This is different than what happens in other countries.
In other countries, only little children wear backpacks.
But in the United States it's very common for college students to wear backpacks with all of their books and everything.
So Jim has a backpack, not for books, but to go camping.
Fumiko says, what's wrong with filling your backpack with bottles of water?
Jim says he should have just packed me a water filter instead of all these heavy bottles to lug around.
A water filter is a small device that you put inside a water bottle and that cleans the water so you can drink it.
So you can use the water that is outside out in the park or wherever you are, and the water filter will clean it.
That way, if you want clean water, you don't have to bring all the bottles of water with you.
You don't have to lug the bottles around.
To lug, L-U-G, is to carry something that is very heavy, very difficult to move.
Lug around just means to move from one place to another.
Jim said his brother also forgot some of the most important supplies like bug spray and a flashlight.
Bug B-U-G spray.
S-P-R-A-Y is a liquid you put on your skin to prevent or stop little mosquitoes and bugs from biting you.
A flashlight, F-L-A-S-H-L-I-G-H-T, one word, is a small portable light.
Usually it has batteries.
Here in the US a common kind of flashlight is a long tube, usually 6 to 12 inches, and there's a light at the end of it.
But it could be of a different shape, certainly.
So Jim's brother didn't put a flashlight into his backpack for this trip.
Fumiko says, you're welcome to borrow any of our supplies.
Your welcome is usually what you say when someone says thank you to you.
But in the expression you're welcome to do something, you're welcome to use my matches.
That means that I don't mind.
I would be happy to share my matches with you.
You can use them if you want.
Matches are usually small little sticks of wood or paper that have a special chemical on them that when you move the match against another surface, it creates a flame, it causes a fire.
Of course, if you don't have matches, then you just go eat in a restaurant and you don't have to worry about lighting a fire.
Well, Fumiko says that Jim is welcome to borrow any of their supplies.
She says, here's some bug spray, then asks him if he needs matches.
Jim says, yeah, or yes, I do.
He says his brother packed matches, but not in a waterproof bag.
Something that is waterproof, one word, does not allow water inside of that container or that thing.
So if a bag is waterproof, you could put it in the water or you could have rain fall on it and what is inside of the bag would not get wet.
It prevents the water from going inside.
Jim says one of the bottles of water that were in his backpack leaked.
In other words, the water came out of the bottle by accident, and that got all of the matches wet.
At least my tent and cook stove were spared, he says.
Your tent... is a small thing that you use to sleep in.
It is usually made of a thin material and you use poles or sticks to put it up.
It's like a little house that you build and where you can put yourself into and your supplies into when you are outside, when you are camping.
A cook stove is a small thing you use to cook on when you are outside.
You can cook food on one of these little stoves.
The stove usually is powered by or has gas to produce the fire for the heat.
Jim says that his tent and cook stove were spared.
To be spared.
S-P-A-R-E-D means they were not hurt or harmed or affected by, in this case, the water.
Spare has a number of meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some of those.
Fumiko says, maybe your brother is telling you something.
She means maybe his brother is trying to communicate some message to him by the way that he packed his supplies.
Jim says, what?
Fumiko says, maybe your brother wants to be included in your camping trips.
Then he'll learn what to do and what to bring.
Jim says.
The expression you might have something there is used to show that you believe something.
What the other person said is correct or at least is partially correct.
Maybe you don't agree with everything, but most of what they say, or part of what they say, is correct, is something you agree with.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I shouldn't have let my brother pack my supplies for this trip.
I was running late and he offered to do it.
What's the problem?
He doesn't know the first thing about hiking or camping.
Look at this.
My backpack is filled with bottles of water.
What's wrong with that?
He should have just packed me a water filter instead of all these heavy bottles to lug around.
And he forgot some of the most important supplies like bug spray and a flashlight.
You're welcome to borrow any of our supplies.
Here's some bug spray.
Do you need matches?
Yeah, I do.
My brother packed matches, but not in a waterproof bag.
One of the bottles of water leaked and got them all wet.
At least my tent and cook stove were spared.
Maybe your brother is telling you something.
What?
Maybe he wants to be included in your camping trips.
Then he'll learn what to do and what to bring.
You might have something there.
Our scriptwriter might not know the first thing about camping, but she does know a lot about writing good scripts.
Thank you, 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 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
