Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 853, Reading an Obituary.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 853.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
How are you today?
Oh, me?
Pretty good.
Thanks for asking.
This episode, like all of our episodes, has a learning guide, and you can find that guide at eslpodcom.
This is a dialogue between Ivy and Stephen about reading an obituary, a notice in the newspaper or on the internet about someone who's died.
Let's get started.
What is?
I'm reading the obituary for one of my favorite actors as a child, Mr. McBoo.
He had quite a life.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah, and this article has really done him justice.
It's a nice tribute to a man who touched so many lives.
It says here that he survived by his wife and five children.
Did he live to a ripe old age?
He was 97 when he died.
There'll be a memorial service and funeral for him this Saturday.
I think I'll send some flowers.
Really?
You didn't know him personally, did you?
No, but it would be nice to be part of the funeral in some small way.
I wonder who'll be giving the eulogies.
I'm sure it'll be somebody important.
If you say so.
I've never heard of him.
Was he on a children's show or something?
You've never heard of Mr. McBoo?
Were you raised in a cave?
Not quite.
We didn't have a TV in the home when I was growing up.
Oh, you poor, poor man.
You've been deprived of Mr. McBoo all your life.
Don't worry.
I'll fix that.
I have all of his shows so we can have a viewing marathon this weekend.
Lucky me.
Ivy begins by saying to Stephen, This is so sad.
Stephen says, What is?
Ivy says, I'm reading the obituary of one of my favorite actors as a child, Mr. McBoo.
He had quite a life.
An obituary?
O-B-I-T-U-A-R-Y is a short article or a short notice printed in a newspaper or nowadays, on the Internet, after someone dies about that person.
It will say the person's name, usually how old they were, the date they died and something about them, who they were.
Ivy says that she's reading the obituary of one of her favorite actors when she was young, a Mr McBoo.
He had quite a life, Ivy says.
The expression to have quite Q-U-I-T-E a life means means that it was an interesting or exciting life.
Stephen says, oh yeah?
Ivy says, yeah.
And this article has really done him justice.
To do someone or something.
Justice is to do something very well, to be good enough for that something, to do what that someone or something deserves.
So if a book does someone justice, we mean it describes them accurately, correctly.
It does what it should do in describing the life of that person.
When I sing, I never do the song justice because I do a very bad job.
So you can use it in the negative as well.
It doesn't do him justice.
Notice we use the verb to do, to do a person or to do a thing justice, J-U-S-T-I-C-E.
Ivy says, it's a nice tribute to a man who touched so many lives.
A tribute T-R-I-B-U-T-E is something that is done or said to show respect for someone or to something, to show admiration.
Sometimes, when someone is very famous and they get old, they will have a tribute on television to that person, where other people will stand up and they will talk about what a wonderful person that is.
That's a tribute.
Ivy says that this obituary is a nice tribute to a man who touched so many lives.
To touch T-O-U-C-H a life means to affect someone, to have an impact on someone in a positive way.
Ivy says it says here that he, Mr. McBoo, is survived by his wife and five children.
The expression to be survived by someone means that those are the people, usually your close relatives, who are still living.
So if I die and my wife is still living, my obituary would say that I was survived by my wife.
That's the close relation term.
So if you are survived by someone, those are people who continue to live even though you have died.
And typically that would be a spouse, your wife or husband, your children, maybe brothers and sisters cousins, perhaps even parents, if someone dies young.
Stephen says, The expression a ripe, R-I-P-E, old age, just means a very old age.
Typically we use this expression when the person not only has lived a long time, but they were in pretty good health even when they were old.
They could still think clearly.
They were still very much active.
Ivy says he was 97 when he died.
There'll be a memorial service and funeral for him this Saturday.
A memorial service is usually an event where people come and they talk about the person who has died.
They remember him.
They share their own memories with other people.
A funeral is typically a more formal event, often a religious event, where the body is either taken to a church and there is some sort of religious ceremony held, and or to a cemetery where the body is put into the ground.
A cemetery, C-E-M-E-T-E-R-Y, is a place where bodies are buried.
After you die, of course.
Ivy says, I think I'll send some flowers.
It's common, when someone dies especially if you're not able to go to the memorial service or funeral yourself to send flowers, and those flowers are usually put next to the body or somewhere in the room where the service is being held.
Stephen says, really?
You didn't know him personally, did you?
When we say we know someone personally, we mean we have met that person.
We have shook their hands.
We've talked to them.
We knew them personally.
I know who the president of the United States is, but I don't know him personally.
He's never come to my house for dinner, which is probably a good thing, because I don't cook very well.
Ivy says no.
No, I didn't know him personally, but it would be nice to be part of the funeral in some small way.
I wonder who will be giving the eulogies.
A eulogy E-U-L-O-G-Y means a speech usually delivered or given at a funeral or where the speaker says nice things about the person who died.
Sometimes this is done by a religious official.
Sometimes it's done by a member of the family.
It really depends on the situation.
Not all memorial services or funerals have eulogies.
Some do, some don't.
Ivy says, I'm sure the person who will be giving the eulogies will be somebody important.
Stephen says, if you say so.
This expression, if you say so, is used when you don't really believe what the other person has said, but you don't want to fight with them.
You don't want to argue with them.
Someone may say, oh, this is the best Mexican food I've ever eaten.
And you go.
Well, if you say so, meaning you don't really agree, you don't think it's very good, but you don't want to argue with the person.
Stephen says, I've never heard of him, of Mr. McBoo.
Was he on a children's show or something?
Was he on a show that was for children?
The phrase or something means or something else, something similar.
Ivy says, you've never heard of Mr. McBoo?
Were you raised in a cave?
A cave.
C-A-V-E is a large covered space, usually in a mountain or some other rocky area, some other hilly area, maybe even underground.
That is often the home for certain animals.
A cave is sort of like part of a mountain or a hill or in the ground that has been carved out, often through water going through it or some other process over a long period of time.
The expression were you raised in a cave however, really means that Did you grow up without any contact with the rest of the world?
It's sort of a criticism, a funny way of saying, how could you not know about this person?
Only someone who grew up in the middle of the forest or on an island or in a cave would not have heard of this person because he's so famous.
That's the idea.
Stephen responds to Ivy, not quite, meaning no, I didn't grow up in a cave.
We didn't have a TV in the home when I was growing up.
So he didn't have a television in his house.
It's not very common anymore, but it's possible.
Ivy says, oh, you poor, poor man.
She's sort of being funny here.
You poor, meaning unfortunate man.
You've been deprived of Mr. McBoo all your life.
To deprive D-E-P-R-I-V-E means not to let someone have something that is necessary or perhaps is very enjoyable.
Stephen has been deprived of Mr. McBoo.
He hasn't been able to find out about Mr. McBoo his entire life.
Don't worry, Ivy says, I'll fix that.
I'll take care of that situation.
I have all of his shows ready so we can have a viewing marathon this weekend.
A marathon M-A-R-A-T-H-O-N is usually the word we use for a long race, for people who are running.
However, More recently it has been used to describe when a television channel has many different episodes of the same show on a single day or on a single weekend.
So if we have a holiday weekend, a weekend where we have three days that we don't work.
One of those days might be a television marathon of a popular show.
Usually these are shows that were on a long time ago.
So in 2012, it would be perhaps shows like Star Trek or Seinfeld or Friends.
There might be a marathon of those shows.
So they show one show and then another one and then another one and so forth.
Ivy wants to have a marathon of the old Mr. McBoo shows.
Stephen says, lucky me.
This expression is used jokingly sarcastically, we would say to mean that you don't feel very lucky.
It means the opposite of what it says.
It all depends on how you say it, but usually it's used as a joke.
When someone says, oh, lucky me, they mean I don't feel so lucky.
I have to experience this thing, but I'm not really happy about it.
Stephen is not happy about having to watch all of these old children's shows.
And I kind of agree with Stephen.
Mr. McBoo, by the way, is not a real person, was not a real actor.
Which means, of course, he didn't really die.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
This is so sad.
What is?
I'm reading the obituary of one of my favorite actors as a child, Mr. McBoo.
He had quite a life.
Oh yeah?
Yeah, and this article has really done him justice.
It's a nice tribute to a man who touched so many lives.
It says here that he survived by his wife and five children.
Did he live to a ripe old age?
He was 97 when he died.
There'll be a memorial service and funeral for him this Saturday.
I think I'll send some flowers.
Really?
You didn't know him personally, did you?
No, but it would be nice to be part of the funeral in some small way.
I wonder who'll be giving the eulogies.
I'm sure it'll be somebody important.
If you say so.
I've never heard of him.
Was he on a children's show or something?
You've never heard of Mr. McBoo?
Were you raised in a cave?
Not quite.
We didn't have a TV in the home when I was growing up.
Oh, you poor, poor man.
You've been deprived of Mr. McBoo all your life.
Don't worry.
I'll fix that.
I have all of his shows so we can have a viewing marathon this weekend.
Lucky me.
Her scripts touch many lives every day.
I'm speaking about our own wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
