Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1195.
Types of allergies.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1195.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to ESLPOD.com and download a learning guide for this episode.
The learning guide contains a complete transcript of everything we say.
This episode is a dialogue about types of allergies, a medical condition that you don't want to have.
Let's get started.
Doctor, give it to me straight.
Is my medical condition serious?
I suspect that your rashes and other symptoms are the result of allergies.
Allergies?
I thought I had some kind of serious disease.
Allergies can be serious.
I'm going to give you tests to see what you're allergic to.
You mean I might have allergies to more than one thing?
There are many kinds of allergies.
Some people have food allergies and have adverse reactions when they ingest or even come near some types of food.
That sounds terrible.
I hope I don't have food allergies.
I would have to restrict my diet.
That would mean I couldn't do some types of outdoor activities.
Many people are allergic to pets, most commonly cat or dog dander.
Oh no, I'd have to get rid of my three cats or dog.
You might also be allergic to dust mites, insect bites, or even mold spores in your home.
If mold is detected in your home, you might need to move out temporarily while the mold is removed.
Are you sure I don't have some kind of disease?
I think I'd prefer that to allergies.
Bert begins by saying to his doctor, Doctor, give it to me straight.
The expression give it to me straight.
S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T means tell me directly, without trying to make something sound better than it is, without hesitating.
Usually we use this expression when you think the person is going to tell you something bad or is going to give you bad news, especially bad news about you, in this case about your health.
So when Bert says, give it to me straight, he means tell me whatever the bad news is right away.
Don't try to make me feel good about it or change it in some way to make it seem less serious than it really is.
He then asks, is my medical condition serious?
Your medical condition is something that is causing you to be in poor health, something that is making you sick or ill.
The doctor says I suspect that your rashes and other symptoms are the result of allergies.
A rash R-A-S-H is a red, bumpy area on your skin that is often itchy, one that causes you to want to take your fingers and move your fingers over that area of your skin.
We would use the verb to scratch S-C-R-A-T-C-H.
To scratch your skin is to take your fingers, the end of your fingers, your fingernails specifically, and move them back and forth over an area of your skin.
Bert has rashes on his skin.
The doctor thinks these are a result of allergies.
A-L-L-E-R-G-I-E-S.
An allergy is a condition that causes you to react badly when you are in the presence of some substance.
For example, if you have an allergy to, say, dust, small little pieces of dirt.
You might sneeze or your eyes might begin to water.
If you have an allergy to a certain kind of food, you may have difficulty breathing after you eat that food or you might get rashes on your skin.
People have allergies to all sorts of substances.
Some people have allergies to peanuts or other kinds of food.
Some people have allergies to cats and dogs and other animals.
The adjective that comes from allergy is allergic, A-L-L-E-R-G-I-C.
Someone may say, I am allergic to cats.
That means that person has an allergy to cats.
Or, I am allergic to my mother-in-law.
Whenever my mother-in-law is here, I start to feel sick.
Bert says, allergies?
I thought I had some kind of serious disease.
A disease, D-I-S-E-A-S-E, is an illness, something that makes you sick.
Clearly, Bert doesn't think that having an allergy to something is very serious.
But the doctor says allergies can be serious.
I'm going to give you tests to see what you're allergic to.
Notice again that expression, allergic to.
Bert says, you mean I might have allergies to more than one thing?
The doctor says there are many kinds of allergies.
Some people have food allergies and have adverse reactions when they ingest or even come near some types of food.
A food allergy is obviously an allergy that causes you to have a bad reaction, an adverse reaction to certain kinds of food.
Adverse, A-D-V-E-R-S-E, means the same here as bad or harmful.
When some people eat shrimp or other kinds of shellfish, They may have difficulty breathing or they may get rashes on their skin.
I have an allergy to seafood, to shrimp in particular, and if I eat shrimp I get red patches on my skin, rashes.
The verb to ingest, I-N-G-E-S-T, means to eat or drink something.
Bert says that sounds terrible.
I hope I don't have food allergies.
I would have to restrict my diet.
To restrict, R-E-S-T-R-I-C-T, your diet, D-I-E-T, means to avoid certain kinds of food or to limit how much food you eat, especially in response to some sort of medical condition.
If you are gaining too much weight and that is causing physical or health problems, you may have to restrict your diet.
Avoid, say, bread and pasta and candies and cookies.
Or change how much you eat at every meal.
The doctor says other people have seasonal allergies to pollen.
Seasonal, S-E-A-S-O-N-A-L, refers to the four seasons of the year, winter, spring, summer, and fall.
Seasonal allergies are allergies that bother you only during certain times of the year.
These are often related to pollen, P-O-L-L-E-N.
Pollen is a small substance a powder, we would call it that is produced within the flower of a plant.
Pollen is part of a plant's reproductive cycle.
It's how the plant spreads, how you get new plants from that same plant.
Well, pollen when you breathe it in can cause problems for some people if you have an allergy to that pollen.
Pollen can come from trees.
It can come from grasses, things that grow out of the ground that are tall and thin.
Or it can come from weeds, W-E-E-D-S.
The word weed refers to a plant that you don't want.
It isn't so much a scientific classification as it is one that we use to refer to certain kinds of plants that we don't want versus the ones that we do.
Weeds are almost always what we would call wild, W-I-L-D plants.
They're not plants that you put there.
They are plants that are just in the area where you live and happen to grow up, on your property, or where you have other plants growing.
We refer to these in the plural as weeds.
One of them would be a weed.
Don't confuse this with another kind of plant which is weed without the article definite or indefinite in front of it.
If you talk about weed without saying a weed or the weeds or weeds plural, you're referring to marijuana.
It's an informal term for marijuana.
Someone says you want to smoke some weed, that person is asking you if you want to smoke some marijuana.
And if it's not legal to, you should probably say no.
But weeds, plural, or a weed or the weed, refers to a wild plant.
Bert says, that would mean I couldn't do some types of outdoor activities.
That is, if he were allergic to certain kinds of pollen.
The doctor says, many people are allergic to pets, most commonly cat or dog dander.
Dander, D-A-N-D-E-R, are small pieces of skin that come off of the skin of a cat or a dog.
Bert says, oh no, I'd have to get rid of my three cats or dog.
Bert apparently has three cats and a dog.
If he's allergic to cats or dogs, he may have to get rid of the cats or dogs.
Let's hope it's the cats.
The doctor says you might also be allergic to dust mites, insect bites or even mold spores in your home.
The doctor lists three other things that people are commonly allergic to.
The first is dust, D-U-S-T, mites, M-I-T-E-S.
Dust is small pieces of dirt.
A mite M-I-T-E is a small little bug that can live in your house, and some people are allergic to those bugs.
An insect, I-N-S-E-C-T, is a small bug that often has wings on it.
An insect bite, B-I-T-E, is when that insect lands on your skin and tries to get into your skin.
It bites your skin.
Mold, M-O-L-D, here refers to a kind of fungus.
Mold can grow on cheese, for example.
Mold can grow on the outside of a tree.
Mold usually requires oil, a warm, wet area.
A mold spore spore is similar to pollen from a tree.
It's the part of a mold organism that can be used to spread to other areas and produce more mold Again.
Some people have an allergy to mold or mold spores and that can cause a problem.
Bird says, you mean I might have to move out of my house?
Mold is sometimes found in people's houses, especially in warm, damp areas such as a bathroom.
The doctor says if mold is detected in your home, You might need to move out temporarily while the mold is removed.
Detected comes from the verb to detect, which means to find.
So if mold is detected in your home, mold has been found in your home.
It's present in your house.
You need to remove the mold, and that sometimes requires you to leave your house temporarily for a short time while they come in and get rid of the mold.
Bert says, are you sure I don't have some other kind of disease?
I think I'd prefer that to allergies.
Bird is saying that he would prefer to have another kind of disease other than allergies.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Doctor, give it to me straight.
Is my medical condition serious?
I suspect that your rashes and other symptoms are the result of allergies.
Allergies?
I thought I had some kind of serious disease.
Allergies can be serious.
I'm going to give you tests to see what you're allergic to.
You mean I might have allergies to more than one thing?
There are many kinds of allergies.
Some people have food allergies and have adverse reactions when they ingest or even come near some types of food.
That sounds terrible.
I hope I don't have food allergies.
I would have to restrict my diet.
Other people have seasonal allergies to pollen from trees, grasses and weeds.
That would mean I couldn't do some types of outdoor activities.
Many people are allergic to pets, most commonly cat or dog dander.
Oh no, I'd have to get rid of my three cats or dog.
You might also be allergic to dust mites, insect bites, or even mold spores in your home.
You mean I might have to move out of my house?
If mold is detected in your home, you might need to move out temporarily while the mold is removed.
Are you sure I don't have some kind of disease?
I think I'd prefer that to allergies.
There's no need to restrict your diet of English.
You should get as much as you can of our wonderful dialogues from our wonderful dialogue writer, Dr Lucy Say.
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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
