Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 799, Dealing with the Heat.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 799.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in you guessed it Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there.
Become a member of ESL Podcast.
Help support this podcast.
Keep us going.
This episode is about dealing with or handling the heat when it gets very hot outside.
Let's get started.
I'm sweating like a pig.
When is this heat wave going to end?
I've no idea, but I'm not moving a muscle until it does.
Hand me that pitcher of iced tea, would you?
Get it yourself.
I'm not moving until it drops below 80 degrees.
It's not the temperature.
It's the humidity.
It's not even the dog days of summer yet and it's scorching outside.
It's scorching inside too.
Why can't that fan move any faster?
Remind me why we moved into an apartment with no air conditioner?
We couldn't afford an apartment with an air conditioner.
We were lucky to get this place.
We could buy a portable air conditioner.
We can.
Yeah, but you'd have to get up.
Ugh.
Let's do it tomorrow.
This episode is entitled, has the title of, Dealing with the Heat.
To deal D-E-A-L with something is a phrasal verb meaning to manage or to handle, to react to something in a certain way.
This is dealing with the heat when the temperature gets very high.
Jolene, who... is not high but is apparently hot, says, I'm sweating like a pig.
To sweat.
S-W-E-A-T means you have liquid leaving your body because your body is so hot so that there is what feels like water on your skin.
© transcript Emily Beynon Sweat also has other meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for those.
Jolene says, when is this heat wave going to end?
A heat wave W-A-V-E two words is a period of time, usually a couple of days, maybe a week where, when the temperature seems very hot, when it's hotter than usual,
In the summertime we often have heat waves here in Los Angeles, where it gets very hot for maybe a week or so.
It doesn't happen all that often, but it does happen.
Eric says, I have no idea.
I have no idea when this heat wave is going to end, he means.
But I'm not moving a muscle until it does.
To not move a muscle means not to move, not to get up, not to move your body because it's so hot.
That's the idea here.
Eric says, hand me or give me that pitcher of iced tea, would you?
A pitcher is a large glass or plastic container that we use to put liquid in.
Pitcher P-I-T-C-H-E-R is something we would use for beer or tea or some other sort of usually cold liquid.
Eric says he wants some iced tea, some tea that has ice in it.
Jolene, however, is not interested in helping Eric.
She says, get it yourself.
I'm not moving until it, the temperature, drops below 80 degrees.
To drop means to go lower.
Drop has a couple of other meanings in English as well.
Take a look at our learning guide for those.
Here it means for the temperature to go down.
In this case, to go below 80 degrees.
A degree here means a unit of measurement of temperature.
In the United States, we use the Fahrenheit scale.
In most other countries, the Celsius scale is used.
Eric says it's not the temperature, it's the humidity.
He's saying.
The reason it's so uncomfortable outside or uncomfortable where they are is because of the humidity, not because of the temperature.
Humidity is how much moisture, how much liquid is in the air, how much water is in the air.
Temperature refers to how hot or cold it is.
So you could have a very high temperature but not very much humidity.
It could be very dry out.
There's not very much water in the air.
Places like Phoenix, Arizona or anywhere in a desert has very high temperatures but also very dry weather.
So It's what we would call dry heat.
There's not a lot of humidity.
Some places have both heat and humidity.
States like Florida, for example, in the southeast part of the United States.
And there, when it gets hot, it gets very uncomfortable because there's also a lot of water in the air.
This is actually sort of an old expression.
It's not the heat.
It's the humidity.
Eric says it's not the temperature.
It's the humidity.
But there's a more common way of saying that it's not the heat.
It's the humidity meaning.
The real problem is not that it's hot out, but that there's so much water in the air.
Eric says, it's not even the dog days of summer yet, and it's scorching outside.
The dog days of summer is an expression used to describe the hottest days of the year in the summertime.
Usually in the United States, that's sometime in July or August.
The phrase is sort of associated with a time where it's so hot that you can't really do anything else.
So it might not be a very exciting time of year because it's so hot.
The dog days of summer would be days where it's so hot you can't really have a lot of fun.
Eric says it's scorching outside.
When we say something is scorching, S-C-O-R-C-H-I-N-G, we mean it's extremely hot.
Jolene says it's scorching inside, too, meaning inside of the house.
Why can't that fan move any faster?
A fan, F-A-N, here means a small machine that moves air around.
It blows air in a little circle that is supposed to help make you cooler.
Jolene says, remind me why we moved into an apartment with no air conditioner.
An air conditioner is a machine that produces cold air during times when it's hot outside.
Jolene says, remind me.
Literally, this means help me remember something.
But in the way that she's using it, She's really sort of complaining.
She's wondering why we did something that perhaps wasn't very intelligent, wasn't a very good idea.
Remind me why we moved into an apartment with no air conditioner.
The remind me means I think we made a mistake.
She's saying that we made a mistake.
Eric answers her.
He says, To afford means to have enough money.
Eric says that he and Jolene could not afford an apartment with an air conditioner.
We were lucky to get this place, he says.
Jolene says, I don't feel so lucky right now.
My legs are stuck to this chair and I've sweated through my clothes.
To be stuck S-T-U-C-K means to be attached to something else, often so that you can't move it or not move it very easily.
Because Jolene is sweating so much, she's stuck to her chair.
She can't move because the water is sticking to her skin and to the chair.
Jolene says that she's To sweat through.
Means that you've been sweating so much, your clothes are now wet.
Your shirt and your pants are wet because of your sweat.
Wet from sweat, we might say.
Eric says Something that is portable.
P-O-R-T-A-B-L-E is something you can move easily from one place to another.
Eric says they could buy a portable air conditioner.
Air conditioners usually are either in a window or they're part of the building or the house where you live.
They're part of the way that the house or apartment is built.
You don't have to buy a separate machine, but it is possible to buy a separate portable air conditioner.
You can just move from one room to another.
Jolene says, we can.
Eric says yeah, but we'd have to get up, meaning we'd have to leave our seats and actually go somewhere.
Jolene says, let's do it tomorrow.
She's so tired.
She's so hot.
She doesn't want to get up and get the portable air conditioner today.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'm sweating like a pig.
When is this heat wave going to end?
I've no idea, but I'm not moving a muscle until it does.
Hand me that pitcher of iced tea, would you?
Get it yourself.
I'm not moving until it drops below 80 degrees.
It's not the temperature.
It's the humidity.
It's not even the dog days of summer yet, and it's scorching outside.
It's scorching inside, too.
Why can't that fan move any faster?
Remind me why we moved into an apartment with no air conditioner?
We couldn't afford an apartment with an air conditioner.
We were lucky to get this place.
I don't feel so lucky right now.
My legs are stuck to this chair and I've sweated through my clothes.
We could buy a portable air conditioner.
We can.
Yeah, but you'd have to get up.
Ugh, let's do it tomorrow.
Many of you listen to this podcast on a portable device, something you can carry around, move around with you.
So you can carry around the wonderful scripts by Dr Lucy.
Say that you hear on these episodes 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.
