Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1142, A Boating Accident.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1142.
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 hear a dialogue between Lissette and Mark talking about being in the water on a boat and having unfortunately, an accident.
Let's get started.
I should never have gotten on this boat.
We're going to sink.
I know it.
Calm down.
The water is a little rough today, but there's nothing to worry about.
You have your life jacket on, right?
Oh, my God.
Water is splashing into the boat.
We need to start bailing right now.
Don't be ridiculous.
That's just a little sea spray.
Sit down and relax.
Look out!
There's another boat over there.
It's just passing by.
We might feel its wake, but we're not going to capsize.
I promise you that.
How long do you think we can survive adrift on the water?
We are not going to sink, I'm telling you.
I wonder how long we'll be marooned on an island.
I hope to see my family again someday.
Alright, we'll return to the shore.
It's clear that you're not enjoying this.
There's a gentle breeze today, that's all.
I'm sorry, I didn't wait for a completely calm day to take you out on your first boat ride, my first and last.
Lisette says to Mark, I should never have gotten on this boat.
Lisette is regretting getting on this boat.
She wishes she had not gotten on the boat.
A boat, B-O-A-T, is a form of transportation that floats in the water.
A big boat is called a ship, S-H-I-P.
Be careful how you pronounce that.
Lisette says we're going to sink.
To sink, S-I-N-K.
As a verb means for something that is floating on top of the water to go to the bottom of the water.
So if a boat sinks, the boat goes to the bottom of the water, maybe the bottom of the ocean or the bottom of the lake.
Of course, you don't want your boat to sink.
Lisette says, I know it, meaning I know it's going to sink.
Mark tells her, calm down, meaning don't get excited, don't get anxious.
The water is a little rough today, but there's nothing to worry about, he says.
To describe the water as a little rough, r-o-u-g-h means not calm with a lot of sudden movements.
The word rough as an adjective often means the opposite of smooth.
Here it means the opposite of calm.
The water is moving around a lot and of course, that would mean the boat is moving around a lot as well.
Mark says, you have your life jacket on, right?
A life jacket.
J-A-C-K-E-T is like a piece of clothing that you wear, except it allows you to float F-L-O-A-T in the water, meaning you won't sink.
To float is the opposite of to sink.
A life jacket usually looks like a vest and has a very bright color.
It goes around the upper part of your body, just as you would have a regular jacket that you might wear out when it's cold out.
Lisette doesn't seem to be paying attention to Mark, however.
She says, oh my God, water is splashing into the boat.
To splash S-P-L-A-S-H water means for liquid to rise up and hit against something, usually resulting in several small drops of liquid, in this case, drops of water.
What's happening is that the water is hitting the side of the boat, or the sides of the boat, and perhaps is coming inside of the boat a little bit.
Lisette is very afraid.
She says, we need to start bailing right now.
To bail B-A-I-L here means to use some container, such as a bucket or a pail, to scoop or to gather the water and throw it out of the boat so that the boat doesn't sink.
If water begins to come into the boat, you may have to bail the water out of the boat.
You may need to take something to get the water out of your boat so that your boat doesn't sink.
Mark says don't be ridiculous.
Don't be silly.
That's just a little sea spray.
Sea spray.
S-P-R-A-Y is when you get a little bit of ocean or seawater that comes into the boat after it splashes against the sides of the boat.
If you've ever taken a boat out onto the ocean or to the sea, you probably have experienced sea spray if you stand near the edge of the boat, close to the water.
Sea spray then, is just water that you may feel on your face or on your body that comes off of the sea or the ocean.
The two words mean the same thing, sea and ocean, while you are in a boat.
Mark tells Lissette to sit down and relax, but Lissette isn't going to relax.
She says, look out, there's another boat over there.
The expression look out is usually used to warn someone that something is going to hit him, or perhaps he is going to accidentally hit something or someone else.
Lisette is worried that the boat that she is in is going to hit another boat that is nearby or close.
Mark says, however, it's just passing by, meaning it's just traveling past us, traveling by us.
It's not going to hit us.
He continues, we might feel its wake, but we're not going to capsize.
When a boat travels through water, whether it's on a lake or on an ocean...
Often, especially if it's a big boat, there are waves that are produced by the boat itself.
Water that goes off either side of the boat that travels through the water, or looks like it's traveling through the water.
These are what we call waves, W-A-V-E-S.
Well, when you have a large boat...
The large boat could produce waves.
It could have a wake that might cause problems for the boats around it, the smaller boats around it.
That's what Lissette is worried about.
Mark says however, that the boat that they are in is not going to capsize because of the waves caused by the other boat.
To capsize C-A-P-S-I-Z-E means for a boat to turn over in the water so that the top of the boat is actually in the water and the bottom of the boat is out of the water.
Of course, that's not the way you want the boat to be.
What Mark is saying is that the wake of this larger boat will not capsize, will not turn the boat that they are in upside down.
He says, I promise you that.
Lisette says, how long do you think we can survive adrift in the water?
To be adrift.
A-D-R-I-F-T means that you are floating in the water.
Your boat is floating in the water, but you don't have any way of moving on your own.
You don't have a motor or any other way of controlling or powering your boat.
Mark doesn't answer the question directly.
He just says, we are not going to sink.
I'm telling you.
The phrase I'm telling you is when you are emphasizing something to someone who doesn't believe you.
The person doubts you, and so you are trying to make sure that the person understands that what you are saying is true.
Lisette continues To be marooned.
M-A-R-O-O-N-E-D means to be abandoned and trapped on an island without any way of leaving it.
This doesn't happen very often nowadays with modern communication and other ways of finding people, but it could still happen.
You saw that Tom Hanks movie perhaps a few years back, which I really hated.
I hated that movie.
I can't go into it right now, but I didn't like it.
I think it was called something like castaway.
In English it was called castaway.
A castaway, C-A-S-T-A-W-A-Y, is a person who is marooned on an island.
What I hated about the movie in case you're interested is that at the end of the movie.
Oh well, I better not tell you, in case you haven't seen it.
I hated the ending of the movie.
Let me be very clear about that.
Anyway, we're talking about a boating accident here, and Lisette is wondering how long they'll be marooned on an island.
She says, I hope to see my family again someday.
Mark says, all right, we'll return to the shore.
It's clear that Lissette and Mark are not going to be marooned on an island and that Lissette is just exaggerating imagining problems.
The shore S-H-O-R-E is the area of land that is directly next to an ocean, a lake or another what we would call large body of water.
We might also use the word coast, C-O-A-S-T, here.
The United States has two coasts.
It has the West Coast that's where I live, on the Pacific Ocean, and the East Coast, which is on the Atlantic Ocean.
I'm not counting Hawaii and Alaska here, which are also, of course, on the Pacific Ocean or have coasts on the Pacific Ocean.
The word shore usually refers to either a smaller section or part of the coast of an ocean, or to the area of land for a lake.
We don't normally talk about the coasts of a lake.
You could however, for a a very large lake, such as the Great Lakes of North America, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and so on.
I guess, when I hear the word coast, I usually think of an ocean, and when I hear the word shore, I think of a lake.
Although, as I say, we could use shore also to refer to perhaps a smaller part of the coast of an ocean or a sea.
Mark says they're going to return to the shore because it's clear Lisette isn't enjoying the boat ride.
Lisette says, I didn't know we'd be sailing, going out into the water, in the middle of a squall.
S-Q-U-A-L-L.
A squall is a very strong windstorm over the ocean that can be very dangerous.
Mark says there's a gentle breeze today, that's all.
A breeze, B-R-E-E-Z-E, is a gentle wind, a wind that is not very strong.
A squall would be a huge storm.
A breeze is usually something you consider very pleasant.
It's a small movement of air, a very light wind.
Mark says, A calm, C-A-L-M, day would be one in which there is no movement of the water or no wind.
Lisette, however, says that she doesn't really want to go on another boat ride.
She says, my first and last, meaning this will be the last time that she goes out on a boat.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
I should never have gotten on this boat.
We're going to sink.
I know it.
Calm down.
The water is a little rough today, but there's nothing to worry about.
You have your life jacket on, right?
Oh, my God.
Water is splashing into the boat.
We need to start bailing right now.
Don't be ridiculous.
That's just a little sea spray.
Sit down and relax.
Look out.
There's another boat over there.
It's just passing by.
We might feel its wake, but we're not going to capsize.
I promise you that.
How long do you think we can survive a drift on the water?
We are not going to sink, I'm telling you.
I wonder how long we'll be marooned on an island.
I hope to see my family again someday.
All right, we'll return to the shore.
It's clear that you're not enjoying this.
I didn't know we'd be sailing in the middle of a squall.
There's a gentle breeze today, that's all.
I'm sorry I didn't wait for a completely calm day to take you out on your first boat ride.
My first and last.
We'd like to thank our always calm script writer, Dr. Lucy Say, for 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 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
