Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number one thousand and ten.
Using GPS when driving.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode one thousand ten or we could say ten ten.
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
I'm coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue between Justin and Fay about using something called GPS, a navigation system, when you are driving.
Let's get started.
Okay, we're ready.
Let's get on the road.
Wait!
We don't know where we're going.
We're strangers in a strange land.
Where's our guide?
We don't need a guide.
See this?
It's GPS, and it'll help us navigate to where we want to go.
I'm not sure it's reliable.
We're in a pretty remote location.
Relax and let me explain how this works.
GPS systems use satellites to locate your current location.
Information is transmitted to this receiver. so it always knows exactly where we are.
We input the address of our destination, and presto!
It gives us on-screen or voice directions.
I know how a GPS system works.
I'm worried that there aren't reliable maps to where we want to go.
I've read that many printed maps of this region are outdated and unreliable.
Don't worry.
This GPS is the state of the art.
I'm sure it'll be accurate.
A fool with a tool is still a fool.
What did you say?
Nothing.
Our dialogue begins with Justin saying to Faye Okay, we're ready, let's get on the road.
Let's get on the road means let's get moving, let's get into the car and leave.
Faye says wait, we don't know where we're going.
We're strangers in a strange land.
A stranger is someone you don't know.
A stranger can also be someone from a different country or city or state who is visiting or who has moved to a new place and is unfamiliar with that place.
The phrase stranger in a strange land is familiar to us.
Where's Our Guide?
A guide G-U-I-D-E is normally a person who leads a group of people on a tour or who helps someone get to the place where they want to go.
Justin says, we don't need a guide.
See this?
He's asking Faye to look at something he's pointing to or holding.
See this?
It's GPS, and it'll help us navigate to where we want to go.
GPS, which stands for Global Positioning System, is an electronic device or part of an electronic device that helps you identify where you are right now and gives you directions about how to get somewhere you want to go.
Many cars now have GPS devices in them, so you can put the information about where you are going into this small computer and it will tell you how to get to where you want to go from where you are now.
Many smartphones have this feature.
For example, my phone has a feature on it that I use as basically a GPS device.
I open my map application and enter the address where I am going, and it will tell me how to get there.
Justin says the GPS will help them navigate to where they want to go.
To navigate N-A-V-I-G-A-T-E means to figure out the best way to get to your destination, to the place where you're going.
If you are navigating in your car, you are deciding which route to take, which way to go, in order to arrive at the place you want to go.
Faye says, I'm not sure it's reliable.
Something that is reliable is something that is trustworthy, something that you can count on, something you can depend on.
Faye is not sure the GPS is something they can depend on.
She says, we're in a pretty remote location.
Remote, R-E-M-O-T-E, means far from safe.
Areas where people live and work to be a great distance from where most people are.
If you are in the middle of a desert, you are in a remote location.
You are not close to any city or town or perhaps even other people.
Justin says, relax and let me explain how this works.
GPS systems use satellites to locate your current location.
A satellite.
S-A-T-E-L-L-I-T-E is a machine that is located many miles above the Earth, that goes around the Earth and is used to communicate information, radio signals or other electronic signals from one part of the earth to another.
Satellites are used for other things as well, of course.
A GPS satellite is used to help locate where a person is or a certain thing is.
In the dialogue, the GPS satellites are used to locate Your current location.
Current means where you are right now.
Location means where you are.
So your current location would be where you are right now as we are speaking.
Justin continues.
Information is transmitted to this receiver, so it always knows exactly where we are.
To transmit, T-R-A-N-S-M-I-T, means to send, specifically to send electronic information.
A receiver is something that receives an electronic signal.
Your television... is a receiver.
It receives electronic signals.
It doesn't send, typically, electronic signals.
That would be called a transmitter from the verb to transmit.
A receiver receives the signals that are transmitted.
Justin says we input the address of our destination And presto, it gives us on-screen or voice directions.
To input, I-N-P-U-T, means to enter information into a machine, such as a computer.
Your destination, D-E-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N, is the place where you're going.
Justin says we input the address of our destination and presto.
Presto P-R-E-S-T-O is an informal word used to announce that something has been done and is now finished, especially when it was done very quickly and easily, without a lot of work or effort.
Justin says if they put the address of their destination into the GPS computer, it will give them on-screen or voice directions.
On-screen means that it appears on a small electronic screen, sort of like what you have on your smartphone or your computer.
Voice directions are words spoken by the computer, the GPS computer that tell you where you should go.
So typically, you would hear things like, turn left at the next intersection.
An intersection is a place where two roads or streets cross.
Or the GPS system may say something like I think I should try to get a job as the voice of the GPS system.
I think that would be kind of fun.
They could record me and then...
People could listen to me as they were driving and I would tell them where to go.
That would be a little weird, I think.
But back to our dialogue.
Faye says, I know how a GPS system works.
I'm worried that there aren't reliable maps to where we want to go.
Faye is saying that she understands the technology of GPS.
She's just worried that there aren't good maps of the areas where they're going to travel and therefore the GPS system won't be able to help them.
She says, I read that many printed maps of this region are outdated and unreliable.
When something is outdated O-U-T-D-A-T-E-D one word we mean that it has old information that is no longer accurate, perhaps because things have changed.
We also use the word outdated to describe something that is no longer fashionable or modern.
We might talk about a certain style of clothing as being outdated or certain ideas as being outdated.
Justin says, don't worry.
This GPS system is the state of the art.
That expression, state of the art, A-R-T, refers to the most modern, most current technology.
Something that is the latest in some particular technology or process.
State of the art, computers would be computers that are new, that have the best and newest technology.
Justin says, I'm sure it'll be accurate.
To be accurate means to have the correct information.
Faye says, a fool with a tool is still a fool.
This is actually an expression that my sister taught me.
A fool with a tool is still a fool.
A fool, F-O-O-L, is a stupid person or a person who isn't very intelligent.
A tool, T-O-O-L, is something you use to get something done.
It's an instrument.
The expression means that just because you have a tool, just because you have, in this case technology, doesn't mean that you aren't stupid.
You need to know how to use the technology.
The technology doesn't make you smart.
You have to know how to use it.
So a fool with a tool is still a fool.
The tool doesn't take away, if you will, his stupidity.
A machine doesn't make you smart.
If you're not smart, having the machine won't help.
That's the idea behind that expression.
Justin says, what did you say?
Sometimes when we don't hear what another person says, says to us, we may say, what did you say?
If you say it in a certain way however, you're sort of implying that you heard what the person said and you weren't very happy with what he or she said.
The way Justin says, what did you say, implies that he understood what Faye said.
And he understood that Faye was insulting him.
Faye however, simply says nothing, meaning what I said to you isn't very important and I'm not going to say it again.
I'm not going to repeat it for you.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Okay, we're ready.
Let's get on the road.
Wait, we don't know where we're going.
We're strangers in a strange land.
Where's our guide?
We don't need a guide.
See this?
It's GPS, and it'll help us navigate to where we want to go.
I'm not sure it's reliable.
We're in a pretty remote location.
Relax, and let me explain how this works.
GPS systems use satellites to locate your current location.
Information is transmitted to this receiver, so it always knows exactly where we are.
We input the address of our destination and presto, it gives us on-screen or voice directions.
I know how a GPS system works.
I'm worried that there aren't reliable maps to where we want to go.
I read that many printed maps of this region are outdated and unreliable.
Don't worry.
This GPS is the state of the art.
I'm sure it'll be accurate.
A fool with a tool is still a fool.
What did you say?
Nothing.
Our scriptwriter is our guide to English.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
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 Podcasts.
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.
