Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 893, Sports-Related Injuries.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 893.
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.
Become a member of ESL Podcast by going to our website.
This episode is a dialogue between Grace and Paul about getting hurt, getting physically injured while playing sports.
Let's get started.
What happened to you?
I had a little accident at the game today.
Little accident?
You're limping and obviously in pain.
I just pulled a muscle in my back and aggravated my runner's knee.
That's all.
It's nothing to worry about.
And you're still recovering from the sprained ankle, concussion and neck strain from three weeks ago.
Don't you think you should sit out of the game for the next few weeks?
I might have to, but these aren't serious injuries.
They're just part of playing sports.
I hate to bring this up again, but you're not a 20 year old anymore.
Maybe your ligaments, tendons, and joints aren't what they used to be.
Don't start with me.
I'm in the prime of my life and in perfect physical condition.
Don't try to tell me I'm over the hill just because I get an injury or two now and then.
Who says I can't?
Ow!
Grace begins our dialogue by saying to Paul, what happened to you?
That's a question we would ask, especially in that excited or shocked tone of voice, in that surprised tone when you see something that you don't expect.
Something is wrong with the other person.
Grace says, what happened to you?
And Paul says, I had a little accident at the game today.
An accident is usually something that goes wrong.
It could be you did something wrong and you hurt yourself.
Or it could be someone hit you and you got hurt.
Paul had a little accident.
Grace says little accident.
You're limping and obviously in pain.
Grace says this is no little accident.
It's not a small or minor accident because Paul is limping.
To limp, L-I-M-P, means to walk fast.
With difficulty not to walk normally, when you hurt your leg, for example, you usually will limp.
You will walk in a funny way, in a strange way.
Paul says, I just pulled a muscle in my back.
To pull a muscle means to put too much force on a muscle, to strain it, to stretch it in such a way that you hurt it.
Paul says he pulled a muscle in his back and aggravated his runner's knee.
To aggravate A-G-G-R-A-V-A-T-E means to make something worse, typically something that is already bad.
You do something to make something that's already bad even worse.
Paul had a bad knee.
He had what is called sometimes runner's knee.
Your knee is that part of your body in the middle of your leg that connects the top of your leg to the bottom of your leg.
Runner's knee is an injury that your knee can have, especially if you do a lot of running.
You might hurt it by running.
That's why I never run.
Never run anywhere.
If you never run, you'll never hurt your knee.
That's my philosophy.
So I never run.
Anyway, Paul, not as smart as I am, obviously, was a runner and he hurt his knee.
By playing in the game yesterday, or I guess it was today, Paul aggravated his runner's knee.
He made it worse.
Paul says it's nothing to worry about.
You don't have to be concerned.
Grace says and you're still recovering from the sprained ankle, concussion and neck strain from three weeks ago.
Grace says wait a minute.
You already had all of these other problems that were caused by playing in your sports game three weeks ago.
What are these problems?
The first is a sprained ankle.
Your ankle, A-N-K-L-E, is the part that connects your leg to your foot.
To sprain, S-P-R-A-I-N, means to injure, to hurt.
A sprained ankle then, is when someone hurts their foot or that part of their foot, usually the muscles or some other part of the body that is around the ankle.
A concussion.
C-O-N-C-U-S-S-I-O-N is a temporary period, a short time, when you are unconscious, when you are not aware of what is happening to you.
Why does this happen?
Well, because usually you are hit, hit in the head.
If you get hit in the head hard, you might lose consciousness.
It's almost like falling asleep.
It can, however, be a very serious problem.
You might have damaged or hurt something when you were hit in the head.
That would be to have a concussion.
It happens a lot in certain sports where the players get hit in the head.
That's why...
Grace talks about Paul's injuries and includes a neck strain in her list.
A neck strain is when you hurt a muscle in your neck.
This can happen.
If you are sitting at your computer all day and you keep putting your head in a certain position, you could eventually get neck strain.
You could hurt your neck.
This is why I always advise people, never sit in front of a computer.
Grace continues by saying, don't you think you should sit out of the game for the next few weeks?
To sit out.
Is is a two-word phrasal verb meaning not to participate in something, not to be involved in something, usually a game of some sort.
I'm going to sit out this inning of baseball.
I'm not going to play.
I'm going to sit it out.
I'm I might have to, meaning I might have to sit out the next game.
But these aren't serious injuries.
An injury, I-N-G-U-R-Y, is when you hurt part of your body.
Paul says these are not serious injuries.
They're just part of playing sports.
Grace says, I hate to bring this up again.
I hate to mention this again, but you're not a 20 year old anymore.
You're not 20 years old and you don't have a body that will be able to do the kinds of physical activities that you have been doing.
That's what Grace is saying.
She says maybe your ligaments, tendons and joints aren't what they used to be, meaning these parts of your body are not as strong as they were when you were younger.
What parts of the body?
Well, she begins with ligaments.
Ligaments, L-I-G-A-M-E-N-T-S.
Are things in your body that connect bones or bones in other, what are called tissues, other substances in your body.
A tendon, T-E-N-D-O-N, is something in your body that connects a muscle to a bone.
So tendons connect muscles to bones.
The most famous tendon you have is called your Achilles tendon.
That's the tendon that connects your lower leg muscle to your foot.
The third thing that Grace mentions is joints.
A joint, J-O-I-N-T, is is when two parts of the body come together.
For example, the top of your arm and the bottom of your arm.
Your upper arm and lower arm are connected together at your elbow.
That's an example of a joint.
So we have ligaments, tendons, and joints.
Paul says, don't start with me.
This is an expression that means you don't want to hear what the other person is saying, because they've said it to you before, over and over again, many times.
Don't start with me, meaning don't start criticizing me the way you usually do.
It's something that a husband might say to a wife, for example.
Just an example, not not me.
Paul says, I'm in the prime of my life.
The prime, P-R-I-M-E, of your life are the best years of your life.
Some people consider their younger years to be the prime of their life.
Other people consider their middle years to be the prime of their life.
Some people consider their older years as the prime of their life.
I think of whatever age I am right now as the prime of my life.
Paul says, don't try to tell me I'm over the hill.
To be over the hill means to be old, to be too old, to be more than halfway through your life.
So if you expect to live until you're 85, I think I'm over the hill right now.
I think I'm beyond the halfway point in my life.
Maybe.
Paul says, I'm over the hill just because I get an injury or two now and then every once in a while.
Grace says, I'm not saying you're over the hill.
I just worry that you can't sit, stand or lie down comfortably.
Paul says, who says I can't?
This is an expression you use when you are trying to tell the other person they're wrong.
Paul says, who says I can't?
And then he says, ow, meaning he obviously can't sit, stand, or lie down without being in pain.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What happened to you?
I had a little accident at the game today.
Little accident?
You're limping and obviously in pain.
I just pulled a muscle in my back and aggravated my runner's knee, that's all.
It's nothing to worry about.
And you're still recovering from the sprained ankle, concussion and neck strain from three weeks ago.
Don't you think you should sit out of the game for the next few weeks?
I might have to, but these aren't serious injuries.
They're just part of playing sports.
I hate to bring this up again, but you're not a 20-year-old anymore.
Maybe your ligaments, tendons and joints aren't what they used to be.
Don't start with me.
I'm in the prime of my life and in perfect physical condition.
Don't try to tell me I'm over the hill just because I get an injury or two now and then.
I'm not saying you're over the hill.
I just worry that you can't sit, stand, or lie down comfortably.
Who says I can't?
Ow!
She's in the prime of her scriptwriting life.
I speak of our wonderful 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 Podcast.
