Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1030, Adopting a Pet.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1030.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
Become a member of ESL Podcast and download the Learning Guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Renee and Gabe about doing something very strange adopting a pet.
Let's get started.
Why are we here?
I thought we decided to put off getting a dog.
I know that's what you'd like to do, but I thought a trip to the pound might convince you that this is the right time to adopt a dog.
Look at this cute little dog.
This card lists his breed and says that he was neglected and abandoned.
How could you turn down a face like that?
I don't think he's right for us.
Let's move on.
Look at this one.
It says on his card that when they found him, he showed signs of abuse.
Poor baby.
How can you not be moved to take this little guy home?
Let's keep moving.
How about this little dog?
I'd hate to see this little guy be put down.
Here, pet her and look at her little face.
This animal shelter isn't going to put down these dogs.
It's a humane place.
Maybe.
What did you say?
I said maybe we could take one home.
Maybe two.
Really?
Two would be great, but three would be better.
Don't push your luck.
Our dialogue begins with Gabe asking Renee, why are we here?
The phrasal verb to put off here means to delay, to decide to do something later than you had originally planned.
I'm going to put off today.
There's a very similar phrasal verb here.
To be put off.
To be put off is when you are discouraged by something or have a negative reaction to something in such a way that you decide not to do it.
That's different from this use of put off, which means simply to delay, to do something later than you had originally planned.
Gabe thought that he and Renee had decided to put off getting a dog.
Renee says, Renee is saying that She doesn't want to put off getting a dog.
She says that's Gabe's idea, and a good idea it is, if you ask me.
Renee says, A pound P-O-U-N-D here means an animal shelter, a place where animals are kept until they can be put in another home, or sometimes until they put them to sleep.
To put a dog to sleep means to kill a dog.
So a dog pound would be a place where lost dogs, for example, would be taken.
The police.
Just don't walk around and shoot dogs who appear to be lost, although that might be a quick way of getting rid of them.
Instead, the dogs are taken to a pound an animal shelter, as it's also called until either someone comes and gets the dog or, as I say, until they run out of room at the pound, in which case the dogs will eventually be put to sleep, as we like to say nicely.
Renee wants to adopt a dog.
The verb to adopt, A-D-O-P-T, means to officially make, in this case, the dog part of your family.
We use the same verb when we're talking about babies.
If you adopt a baby, you make that baby or that child part of your family.
We also use that same verb when we're talking about an organization such as the government deciding to follow some new rule or to establish some new law.
We talk about a government adopting certain laws.
They approve them and they put them into use.
Rene then says, look at this cute little dog.
This card lists his breed and says he was neglected and abandoned.
The card is a little piece of paper.
We're guessing that is attached to the dog's cage where they keep the dog.
The card lists his breed, B-R-E-E-D.
The breed of a dog is the specific type of dog that it is.
We actually use this word for a lot of different kinds of animals when we're talking about a specific breed kind of, in this case, dog or cat or horse.
We don't talk about breeds when we're talking about human beings however, at least not in this same way.
Rene says this particular dog has been neglected and abandoned.
To neglect, N-E-G-L-E-C-T, means to ignore or not take care of something or someone.
So if the dog has been neglected, the dog has not been taken care of properly.
Perhaps he's sick or doesn't have enough food.
Abandoned comes from the verb to abandon, which means to leave something or someone and basically walk away from it.
Decide you're not going to bother with it anymore.
You don't sell it.
You don't give it to someone.
You just leave it somewhere and hope that someone else finds it and takes it.
Or not.
You may not care.
If a dog has been abandoned, the owner of the dog decides he doesn't want the dog anymore and I don't know, puts him in a park and then drives away.
I guess.
Renee says, how could you turn down a face like that?
To turn down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to say no to something or to someone.
To reject or to deny are also possible definitions of this phrasal verb, to turn down.
I asked the beautiful girl out on a date and she turned me down.
She turned down my invitation.
She said no.
That used to happen a lot to me.
Doesn't happen anymore, of course, because I'm married.
Renee is trying to get Gabe, of course, to adopt a cute-looking dog.
Gabe says, I don't think he's right for us.
Let's move on.
Let's keep looking.
Gabe doesn't like this particular dog.
Renee then says look at this one.
It says on his card that when they found him he showed signs of abuse.
Abuse, A-B-U-S-E, is when someone treats you badly, or in this case, treats a dog badly.
They may hit them, they may hurt them, they may do other things that harm them emotionally or physically.
Notice that the verb is to abuse and the noun is abuse.
The S is unvoiced in the noun form for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.
Renee says poor baby.
Poor baby is something you might say when you feel sorry for a young child or in this case a dog.
You might also say it to an adult.
Oh, poor baby.
But when we do that, we are often being sarcastic.
We're making a joke.
Renee says, how can you not be moved to take this little guy home?
How can you not be moved to take the dog home?
To be moved to do something means to feel a very strong emotion that makes you want to act or behave in a certain way.
In this case, Renee is trying to get Gabe to bring the dog, the little guy as she calls him, home.
Gabe again says, let's keep moving.
Rene then says, how about this little dog?
I'd hate to see this little guy be put down.
To put down an animal means the same as to put an animal to sleep.
It means to kill the animal.
Once again, Renee refers to the animal by saying this little guy.
Guy is normally a word we use for human beings, and perhaps that's why Renee uses it here.
She's trying to get Gabe to feel sorry for this dog.
She then says, here, pet her and look at her little face.
Now, she talks about her as a her.
The word guy is usually used to refer to a boy or a man, unless it's plural.
If you say guys, you could be referring to a group of men or boys, or a group of both men and women, or boys and girls.
But in any case, Renee is inviting Gabe to pet the dog.
To pet, P-E-T, as a verb, means to gently touch the dog with your hand, usually on the top.
That's petting.
Notice that as a noun, the word pet P-E-T refers to an actual animal that you keep, usually in your house, like a dog and a cat.
Here it's used as a verb and it means to caress or to gently touch an animal with your hand, usually touching its fur F-U-R, which is its hair.
Gabe says this animal shelter isn't going to put down these dogs.
He's saying that the pound, the animal shelter, will not kill the dogs.
It's a humane place.
The word humane, h-u-m-a-n-e, means not harming other people or in this case dogs.
The word obviously comes from the word human, but we use it in talking not just about humans and being nice to humans, being kind to humans, but also when talking about animals.
In fact, There is something called, I think, the humane society.
This is a group of people who are not interested in humans but interested in animals and making sure people are not cruel or mean to animals.
People like me.
Rene says they have no choice, meaning the animal shelter will not have a choice about putting the dogs down.
They find so many strays that there's no room to keep them.
A stray S-T-R-A-Y as a noun is an animal like a dog or a cat that has been abandoned and doesn't have a place to stay or a place to live.
Renee says, it's so sad.
It's tragic, really.
The word tragic, tragic.
T-R-A-G-I-C means very sad, something that is very distressful, we might say.
Once again, Renee is trying to convince Gabe that they should adopt a dog.
Gabe says, maybe.
Renee says, what did you say?
Gabe replies, I said, maybe we could take one home.
Maybe two.
So he's saying it's possible for us to adopt one or even two dogs.
Renee says, really?
She's very surprised.
Two would be great, but three would be better.
Rene is saying that adopting two dogs would be wonderful.
But what would be even better, what would be even more wonderful is if they adopted three dogs.
Remember, Gabe didn't even want to adopt one dog when the dialogue began.
Gabe says to Rene, don't push your luck.
To push P-U-S-H.
Your luck means to try very hard to make something happen after you've already achieved something good.
It means to take things too far.
So when your son or daughter asks to use the car, perhaps because they don't own their own car.
You say, okay, you can use it, but you have to return it by 10 o'clock tonight.
Your son or daughter might say, oh, can I stay out until midnight?
Can I return it at midnight?
You might say to them, don't push your luck, meaning don't You've already been lucky.
You've already gotten something you want.
Don't try to get more than that because you might lose both things.
You might have the favor that was granted or given you taken away.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Why are we here?
I thought we decided to put off getting a dog.
I know that's what you'd like to do, but I thought a trip to the palm might convince you that this is the right time to adopt a dog.
Look at this cute little dog.
This card lists his breed and says that he was neglected and abandoned.
How could you turn down a face like that?
I don't think he's right for us.
Let's move on.
Look at this one.
It says on his card that when they found him, he showed signs of abuse.
Poor baby.
How can you not be moved to take this little guy home?
Let's keep moving.
How about this little dog?
I hate to see this little guy be put down.
Here, pet her and look at her little face.
Maybe.
What did you say?
I said maybe we could take one home.
Maybe two.
Really?
Two would be great, but three would be better.
Don't push your luck.
Don't put off becoming a member of ESL Podcast and downloading our learning guide.
If you do, you can not only listen to but read the wonderful scripts by our wonderful script writer, Dr Lucy Say.
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.
