Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 930, Fearing Bioterrorism.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 930.
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 become a member of ESL Podcasts today.
This episode is a dialogue between Natalie and Anton about the unhappy topic of bioterrorism.
It sounds like a lot of fun.
Let's get started.
Why are you wearing that gas mask?
I'm getting used to it.
If we ever have a bioterrorist attack, I'll be ready.
Want to try one on?
No thanks.
If we get involved in biological warfare, I think we'll have some warning.
That's what you think.
Airborne toxins, bacteria or viruses could be in the air right now and you and I wouldn't be able to detect it.
It could infect you in the blink of an eye.
Then I'll be sick or dead anyway, so who cares?
I said we wouldn't be able to detect it, but there are agencies with early detection equipment that could.
As soon as they sound the alarm, we can put on our gas masks and take other precautions.
If we're really attacked by bioterrorists, what good is early detection?
It's not like you can really escape the toxins.
Don't poo-poo these preparations.
They could be the difference between life and death when the time comes.
Right.
In the meantime, I think I'll just get dressed without the stylish gas mask.
Today we talk about a popular topic in the history of the world, war.
We begin with Our dialogue with Natalie saying or asking Anton, why are you wearing that gas mask?
A mask, M-A-S-K, is something usually that goes over your face.
A gas mask is a special kind of mask that is supposed to help protect you from dangerous air that you might breathe.
Anton says, I'm getting used to it.
I'm getting used to the gas mask.
He says, if we ever have a bioterrorist attack, I'll be ready.
Bioterrorist B-I-O-T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T is an adjective referring to someone using biological weapons, that is, weapons that are made to usually make other people sick, physically sick.
The term bioterrorism refers to political groups or military groups that use these weapons in order to frighten other people, in order to get them to change their political policy.
Of course, terrorism is something that we live with in the modern world.
Terrorism is basically an attempt by a group of people to change the policies or politics of another group of people or another country by using violence.
Anton is worried about a bioterrorist attack.
An attack is when you try to hurt or kill another person.
A bioterrorist attack would be an attack that involved biological weapons.
Anton asks Natalie if she wants to try one on.
That is, if she wants to try the gas mask on.
If she wants to put it on her face.
Natalie says, no thanks.
If we get involved in biological warfare, I think we'll have some warning.
Warfare, W-A-R-F-A-R-E, just refers to actions in a war.
Natalie is saying that if we are involved in biological warfare, we'll have some warning.
Warning, W-A-R-N-I-N-G, is advance notification that something is going to happen.
When someone tells you in advance about something bad that is going to happen in the near future.
That's the definition of a warning.
Anton says that's what you think.
That expression.
That's what you think is used to show when you don't agree with what the other person has just said.
For example, someone says to you, if you don't study, you will fail your examination.
You will not pass your test.
And you say, well, that's what you think.
I never study for exams and I always pass them.
That never happened to me, but you could imagine someone saying that.
That's what you think is used when you disagree with what the person just said.
Anton disagrees with Natalie.
He does not think they will get any warning if they are involved in a biological war.
Anton then gives some examples of biological weapons, things that terrorists or others could use on people in order to make them sick or kill them.
He says, or viruses could be in the air right now, and you and I wouldn't be able to detect it.
Let's start with airborne toxins.
A toxin, T-O-X-I-N is something that is poisonous, something that will hurt living creatures, living beings like human beings.
Airborne A-I-R-B-O-R-N-E means something travels through the air.
Airborne toxins would be toxins that travel through the air and that, of course, you could breathe in accidentally.
Bacteria is the plural of bacterium, which is a single-celled organism, a very small living thing that can make you sick.
A virus, V-I-R-U-S, is also a very small thing that can reproduce itself.
It can get bigger inside of another living thing, such as a plant or an animal.
A virus can also make you sick.
Anton says airborne toxins, bacteria or viruses could be in the air right now and you and I wouldn't be able to detect it.
To detect, D-E-T-E-C-T, means to notice, to identify, to find something.
Anton says that these things could infect you in the blink of an eye.
To infect I-N-F-E-C-T means to make someone sick, usually by giving them some sort of bacteria or virus.
Anton says that these terrible biological weapons could infect you in the blink of an eye.
That expression in the blink, B-L-I-N-K, of an eye means very quickly, very rapidly.
To blink your eye is to move your eyelids up and down across your eyes.
That of course is something that happens very quickly.
That's why we have this expression, in the blink of an eye.
It means something happens very quickly, very rapidly.
Natalie, however, is not worried by what Anton says.
She says that if something infects me, I'll be dead or sick anyway.
So who cares?
In other words, there's nothing you can do about it.
Anton said, I said, we wouldn't be able to detect it.
But there are agencies with early detection equipment that could.
What Anton is saying is that, even though you and I cannot detect these poisonous toxins in the air, there are groups, government agencies, government organizations that have special equipment that could detect these poisonous bioterrorist weapons.
Anton says as soon as they, these agencies, sound the alarm, we can put on our gas masks and take other precautions.
To sound the alarm means to let other people know about some problem or some danger.
To let other people know about some dangerous situation.
That's the meaning of to sound the alarm.
Anton says, when the agencies sound the alarm, when they let people know, we can put on our gas masks and take other precautions.
A precaution.
P-R-E-C-A-U-T-I-O-N is is an action that you take to try to prevent something bad from happening to you, to try to protect yourself.
Natalie says.
Natalie is saying here It won't matter if someone is able to detect or figure out that we are being attacked.
She says it's not like you can really escape the toxins.
Natalie is saying that we can't get away from these biological weapons.
We can't escape the toxins to escape death. means usually to run away from something.
Here it means not to be affected by something.
Anton says, don't poo-poo these preparations.
That expression, poo-poo, is a weird expression.
To poo-poo something means to indicate that something is not important, or even that it's a little silly.
We also have another verb, to belittle, B-E-L-I-T-T-L-E.
To belittle an idea is to poo-poo something, to poo-poo an idea.
Anton is saying, don't poo-poo these preparations.
You should take them seriously, is what Anton is saying.
They could be the difference between life and death.
When we say something is the difference between life and death, or it's a matter of life and death, we mean that it's so important that you could actually die if you don't pay attention to it or if things don't turn out the way you'd like.
Anton is saying that being able to have early detection could save our lives and therefore it would be the difference between life and death.
I should mention here also that we say life and death, but the original expression back in the early 19th century was life or death.
However, in the last hundred years or so, people use both.
A matter of life or death and a matter of life and death.
You can use either one.
Natalie says, right.
She says this, however, in a way that indicates she doesn't really believe Anton.
She says, right.
In the meantime, I think I'll just get dressed without the stylish gas mask.
In the meantime means until this happens until there's a biological attack.
I think I'll just get dressed without the stylish gas mask.
Stylish, S-T-Y-L-I-S-H, means fashionable.
It is used to describe clothing or things you wear that make you look good that everybody else thinks looks good.
Natalie's making a joke here.
Gas masks, of course, would never be considered stylish.
They wouldn't be considered things that would make you look better.
That, of course, is not their function.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are you wearing that gas mask?
I'm getting used to it.
If we ever have a bioterrorist attack, I'll be ready.
Want to try one on?
No thanks.
If we get involved in biological warfare, I think we'll have some warning.
That's what you think.
Airborne toxins, bacteria or viruses could be in the air right now and you and I wouldn't be able to detect it.
It could infect you in the blink of an eye.
Then I'll be sick or dead anyway, so who cares?
I said we wouldn't be able to detect it, but there are agencies with early detection equipment that could.
As soon as they sound the alarm, we can put on our gas masks and take other precautions.
If we're really attacked by bioterrorists, what good is early detection?
It's not like we can really escape the toxins.
Don't poo-poo these preparations.
They could be the difference between life and death when the time comes.
Right.
In the meantime, I think I'll just get dressed.
Without the stylish gas mask.
We want to thank our script writer, the always stylish Dr Lucy Say, for today's wonderful, if somewhat depressing script.
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.
