Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1041, Being Rescued.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1041.
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 eslpodcom Actually it's wwweslpodcom.
You can become a member of ESL Podcast if you go to our website.
You can also take a look at our ESL Podcast blog, where we have additional free English lessons every week.
Just go to our website and click on the blog link.
On this episode we're going to listen to a dialogue between Irma and Bert about being rescued, about people who get caught or trapped in some place and need to have someone else to come and save them.
Let's get started.
Do you really think we'll be rescued?
It's been six hours and I'm losing hope.
But what if they don't come in time?
We didn't bring any provisions and we're almost out of water.
You're afraid of starvation and dying of thirst?
I think we die from hypothermia or exposure to the elements first.
Thanks.
I hadn't thought of that until you mentioned it.
Hey, I think that's the sound of a helicopter.
I think I hear search and rescue dogs.
I think they're onto our scent.
I think you're starting to hallucinate.
I don't hear anything.
Can't you just humor me?
I'm trying to keep hope alive.
Oh, sure.
Hey, I think I hear something.
You do?
Yeah, it's Santa Claus on his sleigh.
Our dialogue begins with Irma saying to Bert, Do you really think we'll be rescued?
To be rescued means to be saved from a difficult or dangerous situation.
Irma says, To lose hope, H-O-P-E, means to no longer believe something is possible.
Irma doesn't think that she and Bert will be rescued.
Bert says, it's hard to say, meaning I'm not sure.
I'm sure, he says, search and rescue teams are looking for us as we speak.
Search and rescue teams are are groups of people that go out and try to find missing people, usually providing medical assistance and transportation so those people can get back to safety.
We might say
Irma says, but what if they don't come in time?
In time means, while it is still useful to before something bad happens or before some specific deadline, I need to get my application into the office in time before the deadline so that I'm able to apply for this job or whatever it is that I'm submitting an application for.
Irma is worried that the search and rescue teams will not arrive in time.
We're guessing.
That means before Irma and Bert die from this dangerous situation in which they find themselves.
Irma says, we didn't bring any provisions and we're almost out of water.
Provisions P-R-O-V-I-S-I-O-N-S usually refers to food that you eat on a long journey, on a long trip.
I suppose provisions could include other things as well, but usually it refers to food that you bring with you on a trip, especially when you are going somewhere where there isn't any food for you to buy or to get easily.
Bert says, you're afraid of starvation and dying from thirst?
Starvation, S-T-A-R-V-A-T-I-O-N, is when you die because you don't have enough food.
This is a pretty happy dialogue, isn't it?
Yeah.
We have starvation and dying of thirst.
To die of thirst, T-H-I-R-S-T, is to die because you don't have enough water.
Starvation then refers to not having enough food, and dying of thirst would mean to die because you don't have any liquid, any water.
Burt says, I think we'd die from hypothermia or exposure to the elements first.
Hypothermia, H-Y-P-O-T-H-E-R-M-I-A, is a medical condition of having a very low body temperature.
If you're out in the cold for a very long time and your body temperature begins to fall, begins to drop, begins to go down, that could eventually kill you.
Exposure E-X-P-O-S-U-R-E to the elements refers to being harmed by, and possibly even dying from, the conditions of the weather in a very hot or very cold or very wet or very dry place, when you don't have any clothing to protect you or you don't have the appropriate protection against those elements or parts of the weather.
So if it is a very hot area and you don't have anywhere to go to keep you cool, You could be hurt by that.
You could become sick or you could even die.
That's what exposure to the elements is referring to.
Irma says, thanks.
I hadn't thought of that until you mentioned it.
She's not really thanking Bert.
She's telling Bert that he has told her something even worse than what...
Irma had thought of in terms of what might happen if the search and rescue teams don't arrive in time.
Irma says, hey, I think that's the sound of a helicopter.
A helicopter H-E-L-I-C-O-P-T-E-R is like a plane in that it flies in the air, but unlike a plane, it can go up and down.
Straight up and straight down.
Helicopters have things on top called propellers that go around, that allow it to go up and down in the air.
Irma thinks she hears the sound of a helicopter, but Bert says, you're hearing things.
If you say I'm hearing things or you're hearing things, you mean that you think you hear a sound, but it's not actually real.
You're hearing things that aren't really there.
If you're a little crazy, you might hear things.
And that is sometimes used almost as a joke.
When someone says I hear something and the other person says oh, you're hearing things, meaning you're imagining it.
It's not really true.
That's not a helicopter, Bert says.
But Irma says, I think I hear search and rescue dogs.
These would be dogs that are sent out to find someone who has gone missing.
She says, I think they're on to our scent.
To be onto something means to be aware of something, to be following it, to be investigating it.
Scent, S-C-E-N-T, is the way that something or someone smells.
That is, of course, how dogs find things or people that are missing.
They have the scent of that person, and then they can use their power of smell to find the person.
Bert says To hallucinate, H-A-L-L-U-C-I-N-A-T-E means that you see or experience something that isn't really there.
This sometimes happens when people take certain kinds of drugs.
But it can also happen if you, for example, haven't had enough to drink.
Your mind can start to go a little crazy.
Bert thinks Irma is hallucinating.
He says, I don't hear anything.
Irma says, can't you just humor me?
To humor H-U-M-O-R someone is to go along with someone's idea, or perhaps even some joke that someone is telling, to pretend that you agree with this person even though you don't really agree with him or even though you don't really think that his idea is something that is a good one.
To humor someone would be to pretend that you agree or pretend that whatever they are saying is true.
Irma says, can't you just humor me?
I'm trying to keep hope alive.
To keep hope alive means to continue to be positive, to continue to be optimistic, even when...
Bad things are happening, even when perhaps there is no good reason for you to be hopeful about the future.
Bert says, oh, sure.
Hey, I think I hear something.
Now Bert thinks he hears something.
Irma says, you do?
Then Bert responds, yeah, it's Santa Claus on his sleigh.
He's actually joking.
He says he hears something and when Irma asks him what, he responds, Santa Claus on his sleigh.
Santa Claus is, of course, the symbol of Christmas and in the popular belief, at least among children, Santa Claus delivers presents, gifts to them every Christmas.
How does Santa Claus do this?
Well, he rides through the sky, not in a helicopter, though that would seem like a good idea, but in a sleigh S-L-E-I-G-H.
A sleigh is another word for a large sled, S-L-E-D.
What's a sled?
A sleigh or a sled is something that moves over the snow and ice and usually pulled by an animal such as a horse or perhaps even a reindeer.
Slays are large sleds that people travel in in cold places.
It's not something really that you see very much of anymore.
Usually it's just done for entertainment nowadays, although there are still, in some places of the world, people who travel by sleigh, because that's the most efficient way of getting across snow or ice when you don't have a helicopter.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Do you really think we'll be rescued?
It's been six hours and I'm losing hope.
It's hard to say.
I'm sure search and rescue teams are looking for us as we speak.
But what if they don't come in time?
We didn't bring any provisions and we're almost out of water.
You're afraid of starvation and dying of thirst?
I think we'd die from hypothermia or exposure to the elements first.
Thanks.
I hadn't thought of that until you mentioned it.
Hey, I think that's the sound of a helicopter.
You're hearing things.
That's not a helicopter.
I think I hear search and rescue dogs.
I think they're onto our scent.
I think you're starting to hallucinate.
I don't hear anything.
Can't you just humor me?
I'm trying to keep Hope alive.
Oh, sure.
Hey, I think I hear something.
You do?
Yeah, it's Santa Claus on his sleigh.
If you feel lost in English, our scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say, can rescue you with her wonderful 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.
