Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, Episode 1003, Describing Duration.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, Episode 1003.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Catherine and Martin about describing how long things are.
Let's get started.
Are you still watching that movie?
It's been over three hours.
Yeah, it's a little long for a feature film.
A little long?
It's interminable.
How can you continue to watch it?
Well, the first half was interesting and moved at a clip.
The middle section did drag a little, but it's picked up again.
It's nearly over.
I would have turned it off long before this.
I like movies that are short and sweet.
After about 90 minutes, my mind starts to wander and after two hours, I check out.
It depends on the movie.
Sometimes I watch a movie and it's so engrossing that time zips by.
With other movies, though, time moves at a snail's pace.
This movie is somewhere in between.
Hey, the credits are rolling.
You missed the ending.
No big loss.
I knew how it was going to end after the first hour.
Then why did you stick it out and watch the rest of the movie?
One word, procrastination.
Ah, enough said.
Catherine begins the dialogue by asking Martin, are you still watching that movie?
It's been over three hours.
Martin says, yeah, it's a little long for a feature film.
A feature.
F-E-A-T-U-R-E film is a regular movie, the kind of movie you would go to a movie theater to see.
Feature films are normally between 90 minutes and perhaps 200 minutes.
It depends on the movie.
But somewhere between an hour and a half and two and a half hours, though sometimes movies are longer than that.
Catherine says a little long.
It's interminable.
Catherine thinks this movie, which has been going for more than three hours now, is not just a little long, it's really long.
In fact, she calls it interminable.
I-N-T-E-R-M-I-N-I-B-L-E.
Something that is interminable goes on forever, or it seems to never end.
I've been on some dates like that, where you go out with someone romantically and the evening isn't going very well.
And then it seems interminable like it's never going to end.
It does end eventually, however.
Catherine says, how can you continue to watch it?
How can you continue to watch this long movie?
Martin says well, the first half, meaning the first 50 of the movie, was interesting and moved at a clip.
To move at a clip CLIP, or to move along at a clip, means to advance very quickly, to move very rapidly.
If a movie is moving quickly, a lot of things are happening in the movie.
The middle section of the movie, according to Martin, did drag a little, but it's picked up again.
To drag D-R-A-G means to go very slowly, too slowly, so slow that it is a little boring.
Martin says the movie has picked up again.
To pick, P-I-C-K, up is a phrasal verb meaning to increase in speed, to start to go faster.
Martin says the movie is nearly over, meaning it's almost over.
It's nearly, N-E-A-R-L-Y, over.
Catherine says, I would have turned it off long before this.
Catherine means that if she had been watching the movie, she would have turned the movie off a long time ago.
She would not have continued watching it for this long.
She says I like movies that are short and sweet.
The expression to be short and sweet means to not take very long and to be pleasant.
Usually, we use this expression short and sweet when we want someone to get to the point right away or to not go on for very long.
Let's keep this short and sweet, meaning let's do this very quickly and not waste a lot of time.
Catherine says, after about 90 minutes...
My mind starts to wander and after two hours, I check out.
If you say your mind starts to wander W-A-N-D-E-R, you mean that you cannot concentrate or focus on something.
Your mind begins to think of other things.
If you are sitting in a meeting at work and the person who's speaking is very boring or is going on for a very long time, your mind might start to wander.
You might start thinking about what you're going to have for dinner that night or where you're going to go on vacation next summer.
You're not focusing or concentrating on what you are supposed to be focusing on.
Catherine says after two hours of watching a movie, she checks out.
To check C-H-E-C-K out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to stop paying attention to something, to no longer focus on what you're supposed to focus on.
Martin says, for him, it depends on the movie.
Sometimes I watch a movie and it's so engrossing that time zips by.
To be engrossing means to be very interesting, to be so interesting that you can't focus on anything else.
If you're reading an engrossing novel, you don't want to put it down.
Often, when you are really interested in something, you go into what psychologists sometimes describe as a state of flow F-L-O-W.
To be in flow means to be so completely focused and concentrated on something that you don't realize how much time you're spending on it.
That's why Martin says that if the movie is engrossing, time zips by.
To zip, Z-I-P, by means to go very quickly.
A more common expression would be time flies.
There's an expression time flies when you're having fun.
And that's exactly what we're talking about here.
Martin says with other movies, though, time moves at a snail's pace.
The opposite of time flying by or zipping by is for it to move at a snail's S-N-A-I-L apostrophe S pace, P-A-C-E.
The pace of something is how fast or slow it's going.
A snail is a small animal that moves very, very slowly.
If you say something is moving at a snail's pace, you mean it is moving very slowly.
Martin says this movie, the movie he's watching now, is somewhere in between.
If something is somewhere in between, it is... in the middle.
It is not at one end or the other.
In this case, it isn't moving very quickly, but it isn't moving very slowly either.
Catherine says, hey, the credits are rolling.
At the end of a movie there are typically a few minutes where they tell you who participated in the movie, who the actors were, who the director was and so forth.
These are called the credits c-r-e-d-i-t-s.
To say the credits are rolling means the credits are showing on the screen.
Catherine says you missed the ending.
The ending is the very end of the movie.
Martin doesn't seem too concerned.
He says, That expression, no big loss, is an informal one that means that it isn't very important.
You don't need to worry about it.
Martin says, Catherine asks, then why did you stick it out and watch the rest of the movie?
To stick something out is a phrasal verb meaning to not give up, to continue doing something even though it might be difficult.
Catherine wants to know why, if Martin knew the end of the movie after the first hour, he continued to watch it.
Martin says one word, procrastination.
Procrastination.
P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N says We might also use the phrasal verb to put off something.
Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
That means don't do anything today that you can wait and do tomorrow.
To wait to do things, usually because you're lazy or you don't want to work very hard is called procrastination.
Catherine understands completely what Martin is saying here.
She says, ah, enough said.
When you say enough said, you're indicating that you understand completely what the other person is telling you.
So much so that the other person doesn't have to finish explaining it.
You already understand what they're saying.
You're saying to the person, you don't need to say any more.
You don't need to explain anything else.
I understand it.
I get it.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Are you still watching that movie?
It's been over three hours.
Yeah, it's a little long for a feature film.
A little long?
It's interminable.
How can you continue to watch it?
Well, the first half was interesting and moved at a clip.
The middle section did drag a little, but it's picked up again.
It's nearly over.
I would have turned it off long before this.
I like movies that are short and sweet.
After about 90 minutes, my mind starts to wander, and after two hours, I check out.
It depends on the movie.
Sometimes I watch a movie and it's so engrossing that time zips by.
With other movies, though, time moves at a snail's pace.
This movie is somewhere in between.
Hey, the credits are rolling.
You missed the ending.
No big loss.
I knew how it was going to end after the first hour.
Then why did you stick it out and watch the rest of the movie?
One word, procrastination.
Ah, enough said.
We'd like to thank Dr. Lucy Say for her always engrossing scripts.
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.
