Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1039.
Taking a test drive.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1039.
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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On this episode, we're going to listen to a dialogue between Mario and Leah. about buying a new car.
Let's get started.
I'd like to test drive the new Racer.
Sure.
All prospective buyers can take one of our cars for a test drive.
May I see your driver's license?
Here it is.
Okay, come with me.
Why don't you get into the driver's seat and I'll get into the passenger's seat.
All right, please buckle up and you can drive it around the block.
I think I may need to drive it a little farther to get a feel for the car.
That's fine, but you'll need to slow down.
Slow down?
How will I know if this car is right for my driving style if I don't put the pedal to the metal and put it through its paces?
I understand you want to get a complete driving experience, but unless you stop driving recklessly, we'll need to return to the car lot.
You call this reckless?
This isn't reckless.
It's how I always drive.
Well, an interesting way of looking at it.
Uh, I think we'd better head back to the car lot.
I'm feeling a little nauseous.
Let me guess.
You've never ridden in a car driven by a race car driver before.
That's right.
Then this is your lucky day.
Mario says to Leah, I'd like to test drive the new racer.
The racer is a name of a car, an imaginary car.
Mario wants to test drive the car.
To test drive is to drive a car that you're thinking of buying, a car that someone is selling.
You want to see if you like the car before you buy it.
So you take it for a test drive, or to use the verb, you test drive the car.
The word test in English in this case means to try something, to do something in preparation often for something else.
We also use the word test when we are talking about giving someone an examination in school, for example.
Leah says, sure, all prospective buyers can take one of our cars for a test drive.
Leah works for the place that sells these cars.
We call that place a car lot.
Or if they sell new cars, we call it a dealership.
Leah says that all prospective buyers can take one of our cars for a test drive.
A prospective PROSPECTIVE buyer is a possible or potential buyer.
We can talk about a prospective student, someone who isn't a student yet but might be a student in the future.
It's possible.
Leah then asks Mario, may I see your driver's license?
Your driver's license L-I-C-E-N-S-E is a small card given by, in the United States, the state government that gives you permission to drive a car.
Here in the U.S., we don't have a national driver's license.
Each state or territory issues or gives you a driver's license.
Now.
Normally, the driver's license allows you to drive anywhere in the United States, even outside of your own state.
However, if you move from one state to another, you often have to take another driving test in order to get driver's license from a different state.
The reason for that is that states have slightly different rules about driving, although most of the rules are the same.
Mario says, here it is.
He's giving Leah his driver's license.
Leah says, OK, come with me.
Why don't you get into the driver's seat and I'll get into the passenger seat?
The seat, S-E-A-T, is where you sit in a car.
The driver's seat is in an American car on the left-hand side of the car.
That's where the driver sits who controls the car.
All the other seats in the car are called passenger seats.
A passenger, P-A-S-S-E-N-G-E-R, is any person who is riding in the car who is not the driver.
You can also be a passenger on a train or a passenger on a boat.
You could be a passenger on an airplane.
As long as you're not the one controlling the vehicle, you are a passenger.
Although on an airplane there are other people on the airplane who are not controlling the airplane, we would not call them passengers.
Typically they would be members of the airline staff.
But back to our story.
Leah is telling Mario to get into the driver's seat.
Notice we use that phrasal verb to get into for getting into a seat, for sitting down in the seat.
Leah says, all right, please buckle up and you can drive it around the block.
To buckle, B-U-C-K-L-E, up. means to put your seatbelt on.
A seatbelt is a strap, a piece of material that holds your body into the seat of the car in case there's an accident in the United States.
I believe in every state I could be wrong there are laws that require you to wear a seatbelt, especially if you are in the front of the car.
In California.
You are required to wear a seatbelt in any of the seats in the car the driver's seat or a passenger seat.
If you don't wear your seatbelt, you can get fined.
You can get what we would call a ticket from the police.
You'll have to pay money and maybe even go to jail, although you probably won't go to jail if you don't buckle up.
But you'll definitely get a ticket from the police.
Leah tells Mario he can drive around the block.
A block, B-L-O-C-K, is a square or rectangular area that is surrounded by four streets.
Mario says, I think I may need to drive it a little farther to get a feel for the car.
Farther, F-A-R-T-H-E-R, means at a great distance or involving a large distance.
Farther is used for physical distances.
Mario is saying that he may need to drive the car more than just around the block in order to get a feel for the car.
To get a feel F-E-E-L for something means to become familiar with something, to understand what something is like.
Mario's saying that he needs to drive the car for a longer period of time or for a longer distance in order to really see if he likes the car or not.
That's what he means here.
Leah says, that's fine, but you'll need to slow down.
She's telling Mario not to drive so fast.
Mario says, slow down.
He's confused.
How will I know if this car is right for my driving style if I don't put the pedal to the metal and put it through its paces?
Mario is asking how he can know if this is the right car for him, if this is the right car for his driving style, if he doesn't put the pedal to the metal.
Your driving style is the way that you like to drive.
Some people drive fast.
Some people drive slow.
Some people drive like idiots, such as here in Los Angeles.
The driving style of Mario is to go fast.
That's what he means by the expression, put the pedal, P-E-D-A-L, to the metal, M-E-T-A-L.
To put the pedal to the metal is an old expression meaning to drive a car really fast.
The pedal is the thing that your foot steps on in order to make the car go faster.
The metal would be the car itself, the metal of the car, I suppose.
To put the pedal to the metal means to drive really fast.
Mario wants to do this in order to put the car through its paces, P-A-C-E-S.
To put something through its paces means to use the machine, or whatever it is that you're testing, at the maximum capacity to determine the limits of what it can do.
So if you are putting a car through its paces, you would want to drive the car very fast, or perhaps you would want to go around in circles to see how well the car handles, how well it drives going around in circles.
In general.
To put something through its paces means to test it to see how much it can do of whatever it is the thing is supposed to do.
If I was going to put my computer through its paces I might, for example, run a bunch of different programs at the same time and see how quickly or how slowly the programs operated.
Leah is a little worried here.
She says I understand you want to get a complete driving experience, But unless you stop driving recklessly we'll need to return to the car lot.
To drive recklessly R-E-C-K-L-E-S-S-L-Y means to drive without being careful carelessly, dangerously.
The car lot is the place where the cars are kept, where they are parked.
Mario says, you call this reckless?
You call is an expression we use to mean, are you saying that this is something?
Mario is asking Leah if she considers the way he is driving to be reckless.
Obviously, Mario doesn't.
In fact, he says, this isn't reckless.
It's how I always drive.
If you don't hear the tires screeching, you're not driving a car the way it should be driven.
Tires T-I-R-E-S are the pieces of rubber that go around the wheel on the car.
The verb to screech S-C-R-E-E-C-H means to make a very loud, high pitched sound.
This would be an example of a tire screeching.
Mario says if you don't hear the tire screeching, you're not driving a car correctly.
Of course, most people would say just the opposite.
That you're driving the car too fast.
Leah says, She's trying to be polite because, of course, Mario is a prospective buyer of this car.
She doesn't want to make him angry, but she also doesn't want to die.
She says, She says, I think we'd better head back, meaning return, to the car lot.
I'm feeling a little nauseous.
If you feel nauseous, N-A-U-S-E-O-U-S, you feel as though you might vomit or throw up.
Your stomach is not right and you feel sick.
Mario says, let me guess, you've never ridden in a car driven by a race car driver before.
A race car driver is someone who drives cars very quickly in a competition such as the Indianapolis 500 or other car competitions where people drive cars very fast.
Leah says, that's right.
Mario says, then this is your lucky day.
Mario thinks it's a good thing for Leah to be driving with him, and Leah does not agree.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I'd like to test drive the new racer.
Sure.
All prospective buyers can take one of our cars for a test drive.
May I see your driver's license?
Here it is.
Okay, come with me.
Why don't you get into the driver's seat, and I'll get into the passenger's seat.
All right, please buckle up, and you can drive it around the block.
I think I may need to drive it a little farther to get a feel for the car.
That's fine, but you'll need to slow down.
Slow down?
How will I know if this car is right for my driving style if I don't put the pedal to the metal and put it through its paces?
I understand you want to get a complete driving experience, but unless you stop driving recklessly, we'll need to return to the car lot.
You call this reckless?
This isn't reckless.
It's how I always drive.
If you don't hear the tire screeching, you're not driving a car the way it should be driven.
Well, an interesting way of looking at it.
Um, I think we'd better head back to the car lot.
I'm feeling a little nauseous.
Let me guess.
You've never ridden in a car driven by a race car driver before.
That's right.
Then this is your lucky day.
When it comes to scripts, Lucy Say is in the driver's seat here at ESL Podcast.
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 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.
