Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 1095, Childhood Fitness.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 1095.
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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This episode is a dialogue between a mother and her son about keeping fit, about being healthy and having a healthy body.
Let's get started.
Hold it right there.
Put that candy bar down.
Mom, I just wanted a snack to tide me over.
Don't you remember what Dad said about this family's need to improve our level of fitness?
Only old people have to worry about getting fat.
It's not just about getting fat.
But I'm just a kid.
I'm in great shape.
Childhood obesity is a huge problem in this country.
Even if you're not overweight, people your age lead sedentary lives.
Whatever that means.
It means that you sit around all day as couch potatoes watching TV and playing video games.
In my day, kids went outside to ride their bikes, climb trees, and run around.
Precisely.
You and your brothers are lethargic because you don't get enough exercise.
That's because you're not fit.
You have no stamina or endurance.
I don't need endurance.
Stop grumbling.
It's Saturday and you boys should be outside getting some fresh air.
In Los Angeles?
Are you smart-mouthing me, young man?
Get outside or you'll all be helping me clean the house.
We're outta here.
Our dialogue begins with the mother saying to the son, whose name is Justin, hold it right there.
Hold it right there is a phrase we use when we want someone to stop doing what he or she is doing.
Usually it's a phrase used by someone in authority, such as a parent or perhaps a police officer.
If a police officer says to you, hold it right there, he or she means you should stop doing what you're doing and don't move.
Mom is telling Justin to hold it right there, to stop what he is doing.
She tells him, put that candy bar down.
To put something down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to take it and put it on a table or on the floor, to remove it from your hand.
A candy bar is, of course, a kind of sweet that is popular with children.
Justin says, Mom, I just wanted a snack to tide me over.
A snack, S-N-A-C-K, is a small piece of food in between your main meals.
To tide someone over.
Is is a phrasal verb meaning to give someone enough resources energy money, food in order to survive or last until some future point at which they will get more money, energy or food.
If you say to someone, I need 20 to tide me over until the end of the week when I get paid at my job, you are asking the person for money that you can use until some point in the future.
In this case, until the end of the week when you will get more money.
Mom, however, says to Justin...
Don't you remember what Dad said about this family's need to improve our level of fitness?
The mother is reminding Justin of something that his father said about the entire family needing to improve their level of fitness.
Fitness refers to your physical health, whether you can walk up the stairs without running out of breath, for example.
Fitness refers to the physical health, the bodily health of a person.
Justin says only old people have to worry about getting fat.
Justin associates fitness with whether you are fat, whether you weigh too much or thin, whether you don't weigh a lot.
Mom says it's not just about getting fat.
In other words, fitness is not just related to how much you weigh.
Justin says, but I'm a kid.
That is, I'm a child.
I'm in great shape.
Shape, S-H-A-P-E, here refers to your physical condition, your physical fitness.
If you're in good shape, or as Justin describes himself, great shape, you are very physically fit.
You are very healthy.
Your body is in good condition, we might say.
If you are in bad shape, your body is not in good condition, right?
We can describe physical objects as being in good shape or bad shape as well.
When we do that, we're not referring, of course, to the health of the object, but rather to whether the object is in good condition or in poor condition.
Mom, however, says that childhood obesity is a huge problem in this country.
Obesity, O-B-E-S-I-T-Y, relates to the condition of being seriously overweight.
Not just being a little heavier, weighing a little more than you should, but weighing a lot more than you should, such that it affects your health.
It could actually kill you or make you have a lot of physical problems.
It's sort of strange, because mom just finished saying that fitness is not about getting fat, and then she goes on to talk about getting fat.
Childhood obesity, that is, children being overweight.
Even if you're not overweight, mom says, people your age lead sedentary lives.
Sedentary, S-E-D-E-N-T-A-R-Y, here means not moving very much, sitting around.
When someone says they live a sedentary life...
He means he doesn't do a lot of exercise.
He watches a lot of television, perhaps.
He sits in his chair and reads or surfs the internet.
But he's not out doing physical activity.
Mom is saying that children nowadays lead sedentary lives.
They don't go out and move and are not as physically active as perhaps they once were.
Justin, however, says, whatever that means.
In other words, Justin doesn't understand what his mother just said.
He doesn't perhaps understand the word sedentary.
Mom explains it means that you sit around all day as couch potatoes watching TV and playing video games.
The term couch C-O-U-C-H refers to a sofa, something that you sit on a chair for two or more people.
We could also describe it as being.
A potato is a kind of vegetable, a white vegetable, at least when you cut it open, it's white.
A couch potato, however...
Mom explains.
Mom is comparing the situation when she was a child to today's situation, where children don't go around climbing trees and running around, at least not in this dialogue.
Justin says, I don't have that kind of energy.
Energy, E-N-E-R-G-Y, here means strength.
To have the energy to do something is to have the physical strength or the physical ability to do something.
Justin says he doesn't have energy to do the things his mother is talking about.
Mom responds precisely, P-R-E-C-I-S-E-L-Y.
The term precisely here means exactly.
That's exactly what I'm saying mom is indicating with this term precisely.
You and your brothers are lethargic because you don't get enough exercise.
To be lethargic L-E-T-H-A-R-G-I-C means to not have a lot of energy, to not move around, perhaps to be lazy.
Mom says that her children are lethargic because they don't get enough exercise.
E-X-E-R-C-I-S-E.
The term exercise here refers to physical activity.
Going out and playing a game or running or riding a bicycle.
All of these are forms of exercise.
Physical activity that's good for your body.
Mom says that's because you're not fit.
To be fit, F-I-T, means to be in good shape.
Mom says you have no stamina or endurance.
Stamina S-T-A-M-I-N-A is the ability to do something that is challenging, that requires a lot of energy for a long time.
If you run a marathon, a long race, you need a lot of stamina, you need a lot of energy.
A endurance E-N-D-U-R-A-N-C-E is the ability to do something that is very challenging, although it doesn't necessarily have to be something physically challenging.
When we talk about stamina, we're usually talking about your physical energy or strength.
Endurance could relate to that also, could refer to that also, but it may also be used in a wider context to refer to your ability and what we might call willpower not to give up when the situation is difficult.
Justin says, I don't need endurance.
Mom, however, responds, stop grumbling.
To grumble, G-R-U-M-B-L-E, means to complain, usually in a low, soft, or quiet voice.
If your wife tells you to do the dishes and you respond by saying, all right, I'll do the dishes.
Blah blah blah, You're not happy.
You're complaining, but you're not complaining very loudly.
At least I don't when my wife tells me to do the dishes.
Mom says it's Saturday and you boys should be outside getting some fresh air.
Justin says in Los Angeles, he's making fun of his mother in a way.
He's saying that Los Angeles, because it's so polluted, because the air is not very clean, is not a good place to get fresh air.
The mother, however, is not happy with Justin.
She says, are you smart-mouthing me, young man?
To smart S-M-A-R-T mouth M-O-U-T-H someone is to speak to someone disrespectfully, especially someone in authority, such as your mother or your boss.
Usually it's a term we use when children are talking back to their parents in a disrespectful way, trying to be funny when they shouldn't be.
Mom says, get outside or you'll all be helping me clean the house.
So mom is telling Justin that if he doesn't go outside right now, he and his brothers are going to be helping her clean inside the house.
Justin responds, we're out of here.
The expression to be out, O-U-T, of here means that we are leaving right now.
It's often used when you're in an unpleasant or uncomfortable situation that you want to leave right away.
It's an informal expression.
You might, for example, be having an argument with your girlfriend and your girlfriend says something or demands something of you, and you don't want to do it.
You might say, I'm out of here, meaning I'm leaving.
However, it's a very serious thing to say in that situation.
You might be saying I want to break up with you, or you might be saying that you want to end the relationship.
It normally is less serious than that, however.
It normally means that you are leaving.
Sometimes it could mean simply that you are going to leave without any sense that the current situation is a bad one.
Someone may end a meeting by saying, okay, well, I have another appointment, so I'm out of here.
I'm leaving here right now.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hold it right there.
Put that candy bar down.
Mom, I just wanted a snack to tide me over.
Don't you remember what Dad said about this family's need to improve our level of fitness?
Only old people have to worry about getting fat.
It's not just about getting fat.
But I'm just a kid.
I'm in great shape.
Childhood obesity is a huge problem in this country.
Even if you're not overweight, people your age lead sedentary lives.
Whatever that means.
It means that you sit around all day as couch potatoes watching TV and playing video games.
In my day, kids went outside to ride their bikes, climb trees, and run around.
I don't have that kind of energy.
Precisely.
You and your brothers are lethargic because you don't get enough exercise.
But exercise is tiring.
That's because you're not fit.
You have no stamina or endurance.
I don't need endurance.
Stop grumbling.
It's Saturday and you boys should be outside getting some fresh air.
In Los Angeles?
Are you smart-mouthing me, young man?
Get outside, or you'll all be helping me clean the house.
We're out of here.
It takes a lot of energy and endurance to write scripts every week the way our wonderful scriptwriter does.
So thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
I'm out of here.
But come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
