Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 950, Visiting a Construction Site.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 950.
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, become a member of ESL Podcast, and download the Learning Guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between about someone going to visit a place where they are building a building.
Let's get started.
Ma'am.
Ma'am.
Yes?
Ma'am, you're not supposed to be here.
This is a construction site.
Oh, I just wanted a quick look to see how the building is coming along.
Look at all this lumber and brick.
The foundation is already done, and the beams and rafters are going up.
This is so exciting.
Ma'am, this is a dangerous area, especially for someone not wearing a hard hat.
I won't stay very long.
I just wanted to see the progress.
Watch out!
Oh, I almost tripped over these pickaxes and shovels and landed in the wheelbarrow.
Thank you for saving me.
You're welcome.
Now, let me escort you off the site. but I wanted to see that bulldozer and crane over there.
You can see them just fine from the street.
And from the street, you won't be my responsibility.
Bill begins our dialogue by shouting to Estelle...
Ma'am ma'am.
The expression ma'am M-A, apostrophe A-M, is a way of getting the attention of a woman, an adult woman.
It's not as common anymore, though you may still hear it in certain formal circumstances, especially when you don't know the woman very well.
Bill doesn't know Estelle at all, and that's why he is addressing her or referring to her as ma'am.
He's trying to get her attention in this case.
Estelle says yes.
Bill then says, ma'am, you're not supposed to be here.
This is a construction site and you're not allowed.
A construction site is a place where they are building a new building.
It could be a house.
It could be an office building.
It could be any kind of structure.
Bill says that...
Estelle is not allowed, meaning she is not supposed to be there.
He then says, Please don't step on or put your foot on that scaffolding.
Scaffolding, S-C-A-F-F-O-L-D-I-N-G, is...
A temporary structure that is made typically from metal and wood, that is used to help the people building the building get up to a higher level.
You can almost think of it as a ladder, but a ladder is something that just leans up against something.
It doesn't stand by itself.
Scaffolding stands by itself and is used to allow the workers to go up to a higher level, especially when they're building a building, or a building that is more than one level, more than one floor, we might say.
Estelle says, oh, I just wanted a quick look to see how the building is coming along.
To come along is a phrasal verb meaning to advance, to progress, to move forward.
How are you coming along on your homework?
A parent might ask a child.
That means, how are you progressing?
How are you doing?
How much progress have you made?
Estelle wanted to see how the building was coming along.
She then says, look at all this lumber and brick.
Look at all this means look at this.
Look at all of what I am pointing to.
In this case, Estelle is pointing to lumber, L-U-M-B-E-R, and brick, B-R-I-C-K.
Lumber is wood that has been cut to a specific size.
In order to use it to build something.
If you are building a house or a building and you are making it out of wood, at least in part, you will need lumber.
These pieces of wood are often referred to by their sizes, by the height and width of the wood.
You may hear someone talk about a 2x4.
That's a piece of wood in the shape of a rectangle, two inches by four inches.
Brick, B-R-I-C-K, are small rectangular blocks.
Often they are a dark red color.
They are typically made from clay and are used to build walls and other parts of the house.
In the old days, many years ago, in certain parts of the US you would see a lot of brick buildings.
Nowadays it's not as common, probably because wood is cheaper and easier to work with, but you will still see some parts of houses that use brick.
Estelle says the foundation is already done, is already finished or completed and the beams and rafters are going up.
This is so exciting, she says.
The foundation F-O-U-N-D-A-T-I-O-N is the part of the building that touches the ground.
It's the first thing you have to put in if you are going to build a building.
It's what you build the building on top of.
You don't just put the pieces of wood into the dirt.
You first especially if you are building a house or a large building have to lay a foundation.
Notice we use the verb to lay, L-A-Y.
To lay a on the ground, and usually underneath the ground, to support the house, to support the weight of the house.
Beams, B-E-A-M-S, are long, straight pieces of wood or metal that are used to support the wall or the roof of a building.
Rafters R-A-F-T-E-R-S refer to one of several long pieces of wood that are placed at an angle on top of the walls to support the roof above.
So the rafters help support the top of the house or the building, which we call the roof, R-O-O-F.
Bill says, Ma'am, this is a dangerous area, especially for someone not wearing a hard hat.
A hard hat is just what it sounds like a hat that you wear, that's large and heavy, that protects your head in case something heavy falls on your head.
Of course, if a 16-ton weight falls on you, Even a hard hat will not protect you, but it will protect you from smaller things falling on you.
Estelle says, I won't stay very long.
I won't remain here very long.
I just wanted to see the progress.
Bill then yells, watch out.
Watch out is a phrasal verb meaning be careful.
It's used to warn someone about some danger, something that might hurt them.
If you say watch out, you mean that that person might get hit with something within the next second or five seconds.
So it's a way of warning someone that there is some danger.
You could also say watch out.
If someone is walking and doesn't see a hole that is in front of them and might hurt themselves by falling down into the hole.
That would also be a case of saying watch out.
In general conversation, people say watch out because, as a way of saying, you need to be careful about this person or you need to be careful about this situation.
It's not necessarily a case of you being in physical danger, but you might have problems in other areas, and so we might use that expression watch out in that case as well.
Estelle says oh, I almost tripped over or fell over these pickaxes and shovels and landed in the wheelbarrow.
Thank you for saving me.
A pickaxe is a large, heavy tool with a wooden handle.
The handle is what you grab onto with your hands and a large piece of metal at the other end.
This large piece of metal has two sharp ends on it.
The tool is used to make a hole in something very heavy like a piece of rock or some part of the earth.
The ground,
A shovel.
S-H-O-V-E-L is a tool that also has a long wooden handle but at the end has a slightly curved piece of metal that is used to go into the ground, to dig into the ground and remove dirt or remove water, whatever you are trying to get out of the way.
A shovel is used very often in order to dig a hole.
A wheelbarrow, W-H-E-E-L-B-A-R-R-O-W, one word, is basically a little car or cart that It typically has just one wheel on the front.
On the back are two legs made of wood or metal that you can rest on, but basically you push it on one wheel.
It's used to carry heavy objects or a lot of stone or a lot of earth that needs to be moved from one place to another.
When I say it is used to move those things, I mean it's used to move them a short distance.
If you are going to move something a long distance, you wouldn't use a wheelbarrow.
You'd probably use a truck.
A wheelbarrow is small.
It Bill says, you're welcome, after Estelle thanks him for saving her.
He says, now let me escort you off the site.
To escort, E-S-C-O-R-T, someone means to take someone somewhere, to accompany someone to a place.
In this case, Bill wants to escort Estelle off the construction site.
He wants to take her away from the construction site so she doesn't get hurt.
Estelle says, but I wanted to see that bulldozer and crane over there.
A bulldozer.
B-U-L-L-D-O-Z-E-R is a large vehicle that has a piece of metal connected to it that can be raised and lowered down.
It's often used to push or move a large amount of dirt or rocks.
A crane, C-R-A-N-E, is also a large machine used to move heavy objects.
But a crane is a very tall machine that picks things up and moves them distances.
Cranes can often be very tall.
Cranes are used to move large parts of a building as it is being constructed or perhaps as it is being torn down, as it is being taken apart.
Bill says you can see the bulldozer and the crane just fine from the street view.
And from the street, you won't be my responsibility.
Bill means that if Estelle leaves the construction site, then he doesn't have to worry about her.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Ma'am?
Ma'am?
Yes?
Ma'am, you're not supposed to be here.
This is a construction site and you're not allowed.
Please don't step on that scaffolding.
It's dangerous.
Oh, I just wanted a quick look to see how the building is coming along.
Look at all this lumber and brick.
The foundation is already done and the beams and rafters are going up.
This is so exciting.
Ma'am, this is a dangerous area, especially for someone not wearing a hard hat.
I won't stay very long.
I just wanted to see the progress.
Watch out.
Oh, I almost tripped over these pickaxes and shovels and landed in the wheelbarrow.
Thank you for saving me.
You're welcome.
Now, let me escort you off the site.
But I wanted to see the bulldozer and crane over there.
You can see them just fine from the street.
And from the street, you won't be my responsibility.
You don't need a hard hat to be a scriptwriter.
You do need creativity.
And that's something that our scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, has a great deal of.
Thank you, Lucy.
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.
