Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1033.
Discussing a victory or loss.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1033.
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.
You know what to do.
Become a member and download a learning guide.
You can also take a look at our ESL podcast Store, which has some additional courses in English.
I think you might enjoy.
This episode is a dialogue between Yolanda and Bob about winning and losing, victory or loss.
Let's get started.
Did you see the game last night?
That's not how I would characterize it.
We fell short in the final seconds, but we played a good game up until then.
In your dreams...
My team dominated from beginning to end.
You're just lucky that it wasn't a complete blowout.
We would have won if the coach hadn't decided to throw in the towel early.
I think he just melted down under the pressure.
It's easy for you to play Monday morning quarterback, but I don't think anything would have saved your team from going down in flames.
And my team will whoop your team again, no questions.
Our dialogue begins with Yolanda asking Bob, Did you see The Game last night?
Some sort of sports game, we guess.
Bob says, you mean the crushing victory of my team over yours?
A victory, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, is a win when you beat another person in some competition or race.
The word crushing, C-R-U-S-H-I-N-G, means very difficult to deal with.
We usually talk about a crushing defeat, D-E-F-E-A-T.
A crushing defeat would be a case where you lose, but you lose very badly and it's very difficult for you to deal with it.
You are having a lot of problems understanding it.
You perhaps even lose hope that you will be able to do better in the future.
Anything that is crushing is difficult to deal with.
Bob uses the term to describe the victory of his favorite team over Yolanda's favorite team.
So he's really saying that the victory was very convincing, that they really beat the other team badly.
We might say.
Yolanda says, that's not how I would characterize it.
To characterize C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R-I-Z-E is to describe something, to select certain words, to talk about something.
Yolanda is saying that she would not characterize, she would not describe the game last night as being one of a crushing victory for Bob's team.
She says we meaning her team fell short in the final seconds but we played a good game up until then.
To fall short means is a two-word phrasal verb, meaning not to do as well as you had hoped or had expected.
Not to meet expectations, we might say.
I need $100, but I was only able to get $90.
I fell short of my goal.
I didn't do as well as I thought I would.
Yolanda says that her team played a good game.
They were playing well up until then, meaning the end of the game.
Up until means leading up to that point, before this point.
Bob says, in your dreams.
This is a somewhat insulting thing to say to someone.
In your dreams is a phrase used to show that you don't believe what the other person has just said.
You're saying that the other person's belief or opinion is not realistic.
It's not true.
It's not even close, perhaps.
Bob says my team dominated from beginning to end.
To dominate D-O-M-I-N-A-T-E means to control someone or something, to have complete power over another person or another thing or a situation.
In this case, a game.
Bob says his team dominated from the beginning of the game to the end of the game.
He says, you're just lucky that it wasn't a complete blowout.
A blowout, B-L-O-W-O-U-T, is a very easy win or victory for a team.
If you're playing I don't know soccer and your team wins 25 to nothing, that would definitely be a blowout.
In other words, it was a very easy, easy victory.
I'm not the world's biggest soccer fan, but I think if I saw that score I would describe the game as a complete blowout.
Yolanda says The expression to throw in the towel means to give up, to no longer try to do something because it's too difficult or too challenging or perhaps impossible.
To throw in the towel means to say, okay, I lose.
I don't want to continue playing anymore, basically.
That's what Yolanda thinks the coach of her team did early, or at least too early in the game.
Yolanda says, The verb to melt, M-E-L-T, means for something to go from a solid state to a liquid state.
So if you have... a ball of ice and you put it in the oven it will melt the ice a solid will turn into water a liquid to melt down means to take something that is solid and convert it into liquid you might talk about for example melting down your gold wedding ring in order to sell it and make money you shouldn't do that however unless perhaps you're no longer married or you really need the money when we describe a person as melting down we mean that this person was not able to perform because of the stress because of the pressure of the situation Someone who melts down under pressure is someone who, in a difficult situation, is not able to perform the way he or she would normally perform without that stress.
Bob says it's easy for you to play Monday morning quarterback, but I don't think anything would have saved your team from going down in flames.
The expression Monday morning quarterback is popular in American English.
It refers to American football.
The quarterback on a football team, an American football team, is the person who is sort of the leader of the team, the person who gets the ball first and either gives it to someone or throws it to someone.
The quarterback is often making the important decisions in terms of what the next play is going to be in the game.
Now you have to understand that in the US, professional football teams almost always play on Sunday afternoon.
Monday is the day after Sunday.
You probably knew that already.
If you are playing monday morning quarterback, you are making decisions after the fact.
You are criticizing someone else, saying that you could have done it better, even though, of course, you probably couldn't have done it better.
It's often used when someone takes information from a situation that the person who was making the decision didn't have and saying, oh well, I would have done something differently.
During the football season.
People often talk about the game on Monday morning during their coffee break or perhaps before work.
If you criticize your team after the game is over, you're playing Monday morning quarterback.
You are saying you could have done a better job, which usually is not the case.
Bob says that he doesn't think anything would have saved Yolanda's team from going down in flames.
The phrasal verb to go down here means to lose, to be defeated.
Flames, F-L-A-M-E-S, refers to fire.
To go down in flames refers probably originally to a plane, for example, crashing to the ground.
What will happen if a plane hits the ground?
If it crashes, it will probably go up in flames.
It will...
Explode.
The gasoline will catch fire.
To go down in flames means to fail very badly and often very quickly.
Yolanda says there's a rematch in three weeks, you know.
A rematch is another game between the same two teams.
So if you play against one team and you lose, you say well, we'll have a rematch three weeks from now, or we'll have a rematch next week.
We will play again.
The same two teams will play again.
Bob says however, and my team will whoop your team again, no question.
To whoop.
W-H-U-P is an informal verb meaning to defeat another person or another team very badly, to have a very clear victory.
Yolanda says, you can trash talk all you like.
We'll see if you're still smiling after my team wipes the floor with yours.
The phrasal verb to trash T-R-A-S-H talk is used when you are playing sports, for example, and you are telling the other team how bad they are, how horrible they are, how they're terrible players.
If you say oh, your team is going to lose so badly, you're going to wish you hadn't even decided to play us.
To trash talk is to insult the other team.
You could also trash talk about one person that you are playing.
If you are playing a game against another person, you could say, oh, you're terrible.
You're never going to win.
You say insulting things about that person to make yourself seem better perhaps, than you really are.
The expression to wipe the floor with means to defeat another person very badly.
Once again, to have a very clear win.
Yolanda is talking about her team wiping the floor with Bob's team.
She means that her team is going to defeat Bob's team and defeat them very decisively by a big score.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Did you see the game last night?
You mean the crushing victory of my team over yours?
That's not how I would characterize it.
We fell short in the final seconds, but we played a good game up until then.
In your dreams?
My team dominated from beginning to end.
You're just lucky that it wasn't a complete blowout.
We would have won if the coach hadn't decided to throw in the towel early.
I think he just melted down under the pressure.
It's easy for you to play Monday morning quarterback, but I don't think anything would have saved your team from going down in flames.
There's a rematch in three weeks, you know.
And my team will whoop your team again, no question.
You can trash talk all you like.
We'll see if you're still smiling after my team wipes the floor with yours.
I'm pretty sure our script writer could whoop me in almost any game we played.
That's because she's so smart.
She's the wonderful, creative 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.
