Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 865, Believing in Predictions.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 865.
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 Armand and Patricia about believing in people who say they can predict the future.
Let's get started.
I hope that this new year will bring me better luck.
You can find that out easily enough.
My astrologer says...
It's not nonsense, and yes, I believe in it.
I like getting predictions about the future and knowing what is in the stars for me.
Astrologers are charlatans, and what they tell their customers is phony.
They make it all up and tell people what they want to hear.
The horoscope for my sign each day gives me warnings and helps me avoid mistakes.
And when I have big decisions to make, I go for a reading.
The guidance I get is invaluable.
You're too smart to be taken in by con artists who style themselves as mystics.
It's all smoke and mirrors.
You're wrong.
I'll give you an example.
Hey, where are you going?
Armand begins our dialogue by saying, I hope that this new year will bring me better luck.
He hopes that good things will happen to him this year.
Patricia says, you can find that out easily enough, meaning it's very simple.
It's very easy to get that answer.
You can find that out easily enough, she says.
My astrologer says.
An astrologer A-S-T-R-O-L-O-G-E-R is a person who studies the movements of the in the belief that somehow that will help him understand people and be able to predict events in the future.
Astrology has been around for thousands of years.
People have always believed somehow that what is up in the sky somehow controls what happens here on Earth.
And apparently there are still people today who believe such a thing.
Armand says, hold on.
You consult an astrologer?
To consult C-O-N-S-U-L-T here means to get someone's advice about something, to seek someone's guidance, to get their suggestions.
In this case, it means to talk to an astrologer and ask that person what the future will bring you, what will happen in your future?
Armand says, you really believe in that nonsense?
Nonsense is something that isn't logical.
It is not rational.
You shouldn't take it seriously.
It makes no sense.
Patricia says it's not nonsense, and yes, I believe in it.
I like getting predictions about the future.
A prediction is a guess about what will happen in the future.
Tomorrow it will rain.
I predict that it will rain tomorrow.
That's what I think will happen.
Patricia likes getting predictions about the future which, in a way, you don't really need to say about the future, because a prediction is always about something that will happen in the future.
But she says she likes getting predictions about the future and knowing what is in the stars.
For me, in the stars here means what is meant to happen in the future.
Once again, the idea is somehow that the stars and the planets are controlling our lives.
Armand says astrologers are charlatans and what they tell their customers is phony.
A charlatan C-H-A-R-L-A-T-A-N is someone who pretends to be very intelligent, who says they know a lot about something but is actually not.
A charlatan is someone who lies in order to make you think that they know something.
There are lots of charlatans on the internet, for example, about almost every topic.
Armand says that astrologers are charlatans and what they tell their customers the people who pay them money is phony.
P-H-O-N-Y.
Phony is fake, not real, false, not true.
They make it all up.
To make something all up is to invent it, to say something as if it were true, when you really don't have any idea whether it is true or not.
The astrologers make it all up and tell people what they want to hear.
Patricia says I don't know how you can say that meaning.
I don't understand why you are talking that way or saying those things.
The horoscope for my sign each day gives me warnings and helps me avoid mistakes.
A horoscope...
H-O-R-O-S-C-O-P-E is a prediction or a description of what will happen to someone on a particular day and what they should do about it.
Horoscopes are based on or are determined, according to astrologers, by when your birthday is and what the position of the stars and the planets are.
It's a type of astrology.
A lot of people like to read their horoscope for their particular sign.
Your sign refers to the 12 parts of what is called the zodiac, Z-O-D-I-A-C.
Supposedly, this is an area where the stars and the planets travel and they're associated with a name and a symbol.
The calendar is divided up into 12 signs.
Most people know their astrological sign, even if they don't believe in it.
I was born in September and so I'm late September and so I'm a Libra.
And then if you were born in a different month, you would be something else.
One of the other 12 signs of the zodiac.
This, again, is part of this whole belief that somehow the stars and the planets control us.
Some people read their horoscopes just for fun.
Most horoscopes are written so generally that they could probably be applied, or they would probably be true for almost anyone.
Patricia says, when I have big decisions to make, I go for a reading.
A reading is Here means you go to this person, this astrologer in this case, who will then predict what your future will be.
Maybe they'll look at your hands, your palms.
Maybe they'll look at some special cards.
Maybe they'll look at something else that's supposed to help them predict what your future will be.
Patricia says when she has a big decision to make, she goes for a reading.
She goes to her astrologer.
The guidance I get, the suggestions that she receives, is invaluable, meaning it's worth a lot.
It's extremely valuable.
It's impossible to say how much because it is so valuable. valuable to you, so worthwhile to you.
Armand says you're too smart.
You're too intelligent to be taken in by con artists who style themselves as mystics.
A couple of different expressions there.
To be taken in means to be tricked or to be fooled by someone.
For someone to lie to you and for you to believe it.
That's to be taken in.
A con artist is a person who does something to trick you out of your money.
To fool you into giving him your money.
Con is short for confidence.
Basically, trust that you...
That that person is able to get you to give them.
That's what a con artist does.
Armand says that Patricia is too smart to be taken in by con artists who style themselves as mystics.
To style S-T-Y-L-E yourself as something means to present yourself in a certain way, to pretend that you are something that you really aren't.
In this case, the con artists are styling themselves as mystics.
A mystic M-Y-S-T-I-C.
Is a person who is very spiritual, who seems to have a close relationship with God and is somehow closer to the truth than other people.
Armand says it's all smoke and mirrors.
The phrase smoke means SMOKE and mirrors.
M-I-R-R-O-R-S is used to describe a situation where what appears to be happening is not actually happening.
The idea is that you are being fooled, you are being tricked, you are being lied to.
A person is doing something to make you believe something that isn't true.
It's all smoke and mirrors, Armand says.
Patricia says you're wrong.
I'll give you an example.
My horoscope today says that an unpleasant person, someone who's not very nice, will try to shake my beliefs, to shake my confidence in my beliefs.
To shake S-H-A-K-E.
Someone's confidence in their beliefs, or to shake someone's beliefs, we might say, means to make another person doubt what they previously had believed, to make them less certain about something.
Patricia says that her horoscope told her that she should walk away, meaning she should leave when she finds or meets this unpleasant person.
Of course, what does she do?
She turns around and leaves.
Armand says hey, where are you going, indicating to us that Patricia is walking away from Armand because that's what her horoscope told her to do.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I hope that this new year will bring me better luck.
You can find that out easily enough.
My astrologer says... Hold on.
You consult an astrologer?
You really believe in that nonsense?
It's not nonsense, and yes, I believe in it.
I like getting predictions about the future and knowing what is in the stars for me.
Astrologers are charlatans, and what they tell their customers is phony.
They make it all up and tell people what they want to hear.
You're too smart to be taken in by con artists who style themselves as mystics.
It's all smoke and mirrors.
You're wrong.
I'll give you an example.
My horoscope today said that an unpleasant person would try to shake my beliefs.
It said I should just walk away.
Hey, where are you going?
Her scripts are invaluable to us here at ESL Podcast.
I speak of our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Tse.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
