Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 881, Eating Genetically Modified Foods.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 881.
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.
Go there and look at the ESL podcast blog, as well as our special courses in daily and business English.
This episode is a dialogue between Ralph and Nikki about eating what is called genetically modified foods.
Let's get started.
It's a bigger and better tomato.
It's been genetically modified.
You're not going to eat that, are you?
Of course I am.
I'm making a salad.
Want one?
No way.
I don't want to eat something that's been genetically engineered. in a laboratory.
Who knows what kind of strange DNA it has?
It's perfectly safe.
It's been modified to grow faster, have more nutrients, and be resistant to disease and pests.
And it may contain strange mutations as part of its genetic makeup that they don't tell you about.
I really wouldn't eat that if I were you.
Where did you get this aversion to genetically modified foods?
Scientists and farmers have always used selective breeding with animals and crops to bring you bigger and better food.
This is nothing different.
Of course it is.
And just because it's bigger doesn't mean it's better.
I'll eat food that's been modified by the only person I trust.
Who's that?
Mother Nature.
Our dialogue begins with Ralph saying to Nikki, What's that?
Nikki says it's a bigger and better tomato.
A tomato is something that you might eat with a salad or on a sandwich, or use to make sauce for your pasta.
Nikki says it's a bigger and better tomato.
It's been genetically modified.
To modify, M-O-D-I-F-Y, means to change something.
To genetically modify something means to change the genes, if you will, the components of a plant or an animal that determine what kind of plant and animal that is.
Genes g e n e, s are what we might call the building blocks of life.
They're the basic components, the elements that life is constructed on.
It's hard to explain that in a very complete manner here, but that's what genetically means, related to your genes.
Ralph says you're not going to eat.
That, are you?
Ralph doesn't think Nikki should eat it.
Nikki says, of course I am.
I'm making a salad.
Want one?
Meaning, do you want one?
Ralph says, no way.
No way is a very strong way of saying no, absolutely not.
No way.
I don't want to eat something that's been genetically engineered in a laboratory.
To engineer E-N-G-I-N-E-E-R as a verb means to change, to usually change the structure of something.
Genetically engineered would be something where scientists have changed the genetic makeup, the genetic composition of that particular plant or animal.
A laboratory is a place where scientists do experiments.
Ralph says, who knows what kind of strange DNA it has?
DNA is the chemical substance that carries the genetic information.
It's what carries the information from our genes that affects our eye color, our skin color, our physical makeup and so forth.
Nikki says that this tomato is perfectly safe.
It's completely safe.
It's been modified to grow faster, have more nutrients, and be resistant to disease and pests.
So Nikki is saying the tomato is safe.
It has been changed only to make it grow faster and To give it more nutrients and to make it resistant to disease and pests.
Nutrients.
N-U-T-R-I-E-N-T-S is a general word used to describe the substances or the help you grow that animals eat or humans eat that helps their body grow better.
It could be a lot of different things.
Each food would have different kinds of nutrients.
Nicky says that the tomato was also modified to be resistant to disease and pests.
To be resistant means that you are not easily damaged by something.
You are not easily harmed by something.
Disease is the same as sickness or illness.
When something... is not growing and functioning the way it should.
Pests, P-E-S-T-S are insects or small animals that destroy plants, that destroy the plants that we use to get food from.
So pests are always bad things, whether they're mosquitoes or rodents or any other sort of animal that is going to harm the plants that we are growing to eat.
Ralph says, and it may contain strange mutations as part of its genetic makeup that they don't tell you about.
Ralph is saying that these genetically modified foods are dangerous and Because they may contain strange mutations.
A mutation.
M-U-T-A-T-I-O-N is a genetic change that makes one individual different from another individual, but it's not, if you will, a change that you would expect to take place.
So usually mutation when we're talking about science fiction, for example is when something changes in some weird way, some strange way that is considered dangerous or unusual.
Mutation is part of the way that the world works in terms of DNA and DNA.
But here Ralph is using the word as a negative, as a criticism of this genetically modified food.
Ralph says that these mutations could be part of the tomato's genetic makeup.
We've already talked about what genetic refers to.
Makeup, M-A-K-E-U-P, one word, refers to composition, what something is made of.
Ralph says, I really wouldn't eat that if I were you.
That's a common expression.
If I were you, if I were in your situation, I would not do that.
Nikki says, where did you get this aversion to genetically modified foods?
An aversion A-V-E-R-S-I-O-N is a hatred or strong dislike of something, something that you would want to avoid.
Nikki says scientists and farmers have always used selective breeding with animals and crops to bring you bigger and better food.
This is nothing different.
Selective breeding, B-R-E-E-D-I-N-G, is the practice of making plants or animals that reproduce or produce new plants or animals that have particular characteristics that you want to increase so if you have two different kinds of dogs and you want to make a dog that is a mixture of these two kinds of dogs well you would put the two dogs together one would have to be male and one would have to be female of course and let them do what they do, and then you would breed a new animal, a combination of these two different animals.
Selective breeding is using that basic logic, that basic process with plants or animals in order to produce plants or animals that have certain characteristics.
That's what Nikki says farmers and scientists have been doing for many years and that this is nothing different.
Ralph says, of course it is.
And just because it's bigger, meaning the tomato, doesn't mean it's better.
I'll eat food that's been modified by the only person I trust.
To trust means to believe in this case or to rely on.
Nikki asks, who's that?
Who is that person that you trust?
Ralph responds, Mother Nature.
Mother Nature is not a real person.
We say Mother Nature to refer to the idea that the whole world, the natural world, is somehow controlled by this female figure.
I guess mother nature refers to the way the environment is, the way nature is, without people interfering with it, without men and women making changes to the environment.
That's basically the idea behind this term mother nature.
Ralph treats Mother Nature as a real person that he can trust.
What he's really saying here is that he only wants to eat food that is somehow natural, that doesn't have any sort of either chemicals perhaps, or genetic modifications that would change the way the food is produced.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What's that?
You're not going to eat that, are you?
Of course I am.
I'm making a salad.
Want one?
No way.
I don't want to eat something that's been genetically engineered in a laboratory.
Who knows what kind of strange DNA it has.
It's perfectly safe.
It's been modified to grow faster, have more nutrients, and be resistant to disease and pests.
And it may contain strange mutations as part of its genetic makeup that they don't tell you about.
I really wouldn't eat that if I were you.
Where did you get this aversion to genetically modified foods?
Scientists and farmers have always used selective breeding with animals and crops to bring you bigger and better food.
This is nothing different.
Of course it is.
And just because it's bigger doesn't mean it's better.
I'll eat food that's been modified by the only person I trust.
Who's that?
Mother Nature.
The person I trust to produce the best podcast scripts on the Internet is our very own Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcasts.
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.
