Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 978, Getting Access to Restricted Areas.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 978.
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.
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This episode is a dialogue between a security officer, someone who tries to guard things or prevent people from using things that they're not supposed to and Carl.
Let's get started.
Excuse me, sir, but this is a restricted area.
Only authorized personnel are permitted.
I just want to take a quick look.
Is this really where the president will be speaking?
I can neither confirm nor deny that, sir.
Please step aside.
What if I have press credentials?
Could I get in then?
Only if you've been screened by security.
Really, sir, I must ask you to leave this area.
It's off-limits to you.
Couldn't I just hang around and watch while people arrive?
No, and if you persist, I'll have to have you shown out.
I'm not causing any trouble.
I'm an American citizen, and this is a free country.
I can stand wherever I want to. not on private property.
Jim, could you please escort this gentleman off the premises?
Hey, this is a travesty.
I'm going to file a formal protest.
You do that.
Just do it off the premises.
Our dialogue begins with a security officer talking to a man named Carl.
Security S-E-C-U-R-I-T-Y refers to safety or keeping things safe, making sure that secret things remain or stay secret.
This is a security officer a person whose job it is to protect a certain area.
She says excuse me sir but this is a restricted area.
Notice the use of the word sir, S-I-R, here.
Sir is a polite, formal way of talking to or addressing, we might say, a man.
If it were a woman, we might say ma'am, as in excuse me, ma'am.
She says this is a restricted area.
Something that is restricted.
R-E-S-T-R-I-C-T-E-D is something or, in this case, an area that only certain people are allowed to use or go into.
Only authorized personnel are permitted, the security officer says.
To be authorized A-U-T-H-O-R-I-Z-E-D means to have permission to do something, to be able to do something because someone has told you you are able to do it.
Personnel.
P-E-R-S-O-N-N-E-L is another word for employees or people who work for a certain organization.
Authorized personnel would be people in this organization that have permission to in this.
Permitted here means allowed.
Only authorized personnel are permitted, the security officer says.
Carl says, I just want to take a quick look.
Is this really where the president will be speaking?
We're not sure which president Carl is referring to, perhaps the president of the United States.
The security officer says, I can neither confirm nor deny that, sir.
Please step aside.
This is a very formal expression.
To confirm or deny means to say yes, this is true, or no, this isn't true.
Government officials who are trying to keep something secret say, will sometimes use this expression.
I can neither confirm nor deny.
That means I cannot confirm and I cannot deny.
I can't say yes and I can't say no.
The security officer asks Carl to step aside, meaning move from where you are standing right now.
Usually step aside means to move to the left or to the right to get out of someone's way.
Carl says, what if I have press credentials?
Press P-R-E-S-S refers to newspapers magazines, radio and television stations, internet websites, anyone or any organization that reports the news, that provides information to other people about some event.
The word credentials C-R-E-D-E-N-T-I-A-L-S refers to badges or cards.
Perhaps that indicate in this case that you are a journalist.
Usually when you have a large public event where the media or the press want to report on the story, the members of the press the reporters they are sometimes called are given badges or pieces of paper that indicate that they have permission to be there.
Carl wants to know if he could get in, if he could enter into this area, if he had press credentials.
The security officer answers him by saying, only if you have been screened by security.
To be screened, S-C-R-E-E-N-E-D, means to be examined or checked for something.
When you go to an airport before you can go into the airport to get on your plane, you have to be screened.
They have to look at you.
Sometimes they put you through a special machine to make sure that you're not carrying anything dangerous.
The word security in this sentence is a noun, not an adjective as it is in the term security officer.
As a noun, security refers to the people who are responsible, in this case, for screening people, for checking or investigating on someone.
Carl is told that he would need to be screened by security.
Then the security officer says, Really, sir, I must ask you to leave this area.
The security officer is trying to be polite, but very insistent with Carl.
She says, I must ask you, I have to ask you now to leave this area.
She says, it's off limits to you.
If something is off limits, it is not allowed.
It is not permitted.
We often use that in talking about a physical area.
A parent may tell his or her child that a certain area in the house is off limits.
They're not allowed to go in there.
Carl, however, does not leave.
He says instead, couldn't I just hang around and watch while people arrive?
I won't say a word.
To hang around is a phrasal verb meaning to spend time in an area either relaxing or not doing anything very important.
It means to remain, however, in that area.
I'm going to hang around until my friend shows up, until my friend arrives.
I'm going to stay here until my friend arrives.
The security officer tells carl that he cannot hang around.
She says if you persist, i'll have to have you shown out to persist.
P-E-R-S-I-S-T means to continue to do something despite difficulties, even though it is hard to do it.
Another way of saying this would be to not give up, to not stop doing what you're doing.
The security officer says if you persist, meaning if you stay here, I'll have to have you shown out.
To be shown, S-H-O-W-N, out is a polite way of saying to be made to leave.
To have someone come and perhaps even physically remove you from an area where you are not supposed to be.
Carl says, I'm not causing any trouble.
I'm an American citizen, and this is a free country.
I can stand wherever I want to.
Carl says he's an American citizen.
A citizen is a person who is officially a member, if you will, of a country.
Carl says this is a free country.
A free country would be a nation where people are allowed to do what they want within certain limits.
We use this expression in the United States here often to simply refer to a situation where someone
Perhaps is trying to restrict our actions or tell us there are things that we cannot do, that we believe we have the legal right to do.
So if someone says, well, you can't criticize the government, you can say, well, yes, I can.
It's a free country.
Free here relates to freedom, not to the idea that something doesn't cost any money.
We sometimes use this expression jokingly or in a way that indicates to another person that he can do whatever he wants.
He doesn't need your permission or approval to do what he wants.
So if someone says well, I'm going to go down to the beach and sit in the sun all day, even though I may get burned,
You can say, well, it's a free country.
Go ahead.
There's a little bit of the idea there that you don't agree with that or you don't think that's a good idea.
You might even think it's a stupid idea, but you say it to the person as a way of saying well, if that's your choice, then go ahead and do that.
Here, Carl is using the phrase more to say that he has a right to do this.
The security officer says that he does not have a right.
She says not on private property.
Private property is land or a building that belongs to someone other than the government.
If it belongs to the government, it would be public property.
The security officer says that Carl has no right to stand on private property unless he has permission.
Then she turns to or looks at another security officer by the name of Jim and says Jim, could you please escort this gentleman off the premises?
To escort, E-S-C-O-R-T, means to go with someone, to escort.
Accompany someone, we might say.
Off the premises.
P-R-E-M-I-S-E-S means away from this particular area, away from this particular location.
Carl is not happy.
He says, hey, this is a travesty.
A travesty.
T-R-A-V-E-S-T-Y is something that is very bad, especially something that has not turned out how you expected it to turn out.
Carl says, I'm going to file a formal protest.
A protest, P-R-O-T-E-S-T, here refers to a complaint.
A formal protest would be an official complaint, where you write a letter or you go talk to someone complaining about the way someone acted or someone behaved.
The security officer says, you do that.
That expression you do, that said in that particular way, indicates to the person that you don't really care what they do.
You're not concerned.
Often we say this when someone threatens us or someone says they're going to get us in trouble.
I'm going to talk to your brother and I'm going to tell him all the things you've done.
You could say, well, you do that.
You're indicating that you don't care about this and that you're not frightened by this action.
The security officer says, just do it off the premises, meaning file your complaint somewhere else.
You have to leave this area, these premises.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Excuse me, sir, but this is a restricted area.
Only authorized personnel are permitted.
I just want to take a quick look.
Is this really where the president will be speaking?
I can neither confirm nor deny that, sir.
Please step aside.
What if I have press credentials?
Could I get in then?
Only if you've been screened by security.
Really, sir, I must ask you to leave this area.
It's off-limits to you.
Couldn't I just hang around and watch while people arrive?
I won't say a word.
No, and if you persist, I'll have to have you shown out.
I'm not causing any trouble.
I'm an American citizen, and this is a free country.
I can stand wherever I want to.
Not on private property.
Jim, could you please escort this gentleman off the premises?
Hey, this is a travesty.
I'm going to file a formal protest.
You do that.
Just do it off the premises.
I can confirm that our scriptwriter is in fact Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy, for your hard work.
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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
