Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,241.
Breaking an arm or a leg.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,241.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit ESLPOD.com and take a look at our ESL podcast store.
There you will find some more courses in business English, in daily English and in American culture.
This episode is a dialogue between Elizabeth and Sidney about breaking your arm or your leg.
Sounds painful.
Let's get started.
We need to get you to the hospital right now.
I took a tumble, that's all.
It's nothing.
Just a little pain in my elbow and leg.
Your arm is twisted in an odd angle.
And you're limping.
You could have broken bones.
In the past, I've had a compound fracture in my ankle and a stress fracture in my wrist.
And they both hurt a lot more than this.
I'm sure it's nothing serious.
Look how your arm is swelling up.
It almost looks deformed.
And you still can't put weight on your leg.
The last thing I need right now is to get a splint or a cast.
I have to get to work.
You can't work in the shape you're in.
Why don't you let me take you to the emergency room to get treated?
I'll take a couple of painkillers and walk it off.
You mean limp it off.
Well, in the end, it's your arm, it's your leg, and it's your funeral.
Elizabeth begins our dialogue with By shouting or yelling.
We need to get you to the hospital right now.
Sydney says, however, I took a tumble, that's all.
Elizabeth thinks that Sydney needs to go to the hospital immediately.
But Sidney doesn't agree.
He says he just took a tumble.
T-U-M-B-L-E.
To take a tumble is another way of saying to fall down.
To go from standing to being on the ground accidentally.
Sidney says it's nothing.
Just a little pain in my elbow and leg.
Your elbow.
E-L-B-O-W is that part of your arm that connects the top part of your arm to the bottom part of your arm.
Your upper arm, we would call it, to your lower arm.
Elizabeth says, your arm is twisted in an odd angle and you're limping.
To be twisted, T-W-I-S-T-E-D, means to have two parts of something turned in opposite directions.
In this case, I suppose it would mean that one part of your arm is not in the direction it should be.
It's twisted.
Elizabeth says the arm is twisted in an odd or unusual or strange angle.
A-N-G-L-E.
An angle is technically the number of degrees between two straight lines.
So the corner of a room is a, usually, 90 degree angle.
There are 360 degrees in a circle.
If you have a square room or a rectangular room, the corners of the room have 90 degree angles.
Elizabeth says the arm is twisted in an odd angle, an angle it should not be at.
And she says, you're limping.
To limp L-I-M-P means to walk in an uneven way, so that you are putting more of your weight on one leg versus the other.
Elizabeth says you could have broken bones, B-O-N-E-S.
Your bones, of course, are those hard bones. substances in your body that support your body.
All the bones in your body make up what's called your skeleton, S-K-E-L-E-T-O-N.
You have bones in your arms, you have bones in your legs, you have bones in your ears even.
Sidney says, in the past I've had a compound fracture in my ankle and a stress fracture in my wrist and they both hurt a lot more than this.
I'm sure it's nothing serious.
Sidney is saying that he has broken his bones before, and when that happened it caused a lot more pain than what he is experiencing right now.
And therefore, he thinks he has not broken any bones.
He mentions a compound, C-O-M-P-O-U-N-D, fracture, F-R-A-C-T-U-R-E.
A fracture is when there is a break in the bone, when the bone is broken.
A compound fracture is when the bone is broken into one or more pieces, and often the bone comes out through the skin.
I know, it sounds pretty awful, doesn't it?
Well, it is.
Apparently, Sidney had a compound fracture in his ankle.
Your ankle, ankle.
K-L-E is that part of your foot that connects the foot to the lower leg.
Sidney also had a stress, S-T-R-E-S-S, fracture in his wrist, W-R-I-S-T.
Your wrist connects your hand to your lower arm.
A stress fracture is less serious than a compound fracture.
It's basically a crack or a line in the bone that is often caused by using the bone in a certain way over time.
That causes it to form a small crack or line.
Elizabeth says, look how your arm is swelling up.
To swell, S-W-E-L-L, means to get bigger, to get larger.
The verb, the phrasal verb, to swell up means for a part of your body to become very large, usually because you have hurt it.
Your body naturally tries to protect parts that have been hurt, and one consequence, one result of say, breaking a bone may be that the parts around the bone swell up.
Elizabeth says that his arm, Sidney's arm, looks deformed.
Deformed D-E-F-O-R-M-E-D means not having a normal shape, especially when we're talking about some part of the human body.
Elizabeth says, and you still can't put weight on your leg.
To put weight W-E-I-G-H-T on your leg means to walk or stand as you would normally, so that part of the weight of your body is being supported by your leg or legs.
Sidney says the last thing I need right now, meaning something that I definitely do not want, is to get a splint or a cast.
When you hurt your arm, especially if you break your arm or your leg, you may get a splint S-P-L-I-N-T.
A splint is usually made with one or two hard objects that cannot bend, that are placed next to or around a broken bone so that you don't or can't move your arm and leg and damage or hurt your arm or leg even more.
A cast, C-A-S-T, has a similar function or purpose.
A cast is when the doctor puts an object that surrounds your arm or your leg.
Usually, it's made nowadays of a special material called fiberglass, though it used to be made more commonly with something called plaster.
P-L-A-S-T-E-R
If you break an arm or a leg, you will often have the arm or leg put in a cast so you don't move it to give your body time to heal.
H-E-A-L.
To heal means to get better, to recover.
Sidney doesn't want a splint or a cast because he has to get to work.
Elizabeth says, you can't work in the shape you're in.
Shape S-H-A-P-E here refers not to the form or look of something, but rather to the health or physical condition of the body.
Elizabeth says, why don't you let me take you to the emergency room to get treated?
The emergency room is a special place in a hospital where you go when there is something wrong with you that needs to be taken care of immediately.
So if you fall down and break your leg, the first place you will go to is the emergency room of a hospital so that the doctors can help you.
An emergency room is sometimes called by its initials the ER.
To get treated, T-R-E-A-T-E-D, means to get help from a doctor or a nurse.
Sydney says, I'll just take a couple of painkillers and walk it off.
Sidney doesn't want to go to the hospital.
He just wants to take or swallow a couple of painkillers.
Painkillers are pills, usually that you take, that you swallow, that help you with the pain that you are experiencing.
It's a pretty logical name for the drug. pain killer.
It kills or stops the pain.
Sidney says he just wants to walk it off.
To walk it off means to use your legs even though they are in pain.
We use this expression when you hurt your legs in some way, but it isn't serious.
Athletes, for example, will sometimes hurt their legs during a game, but they don't stop and go to a hospital.
They just walk around a little until it feels better, until the pain dies down or goes away.
Elizabeth then says to Sidney, you mean limp it off, meaning he isn't just going to walk it off.
He's going to have to limp it. because his leg is hurt so badly.
Well, she says in the end, meaning if we examine the situation and try to come to a conclusion it's your arm, it's your leg and it's your funeral.
Expression it's your funeral f-u-n-e-r-a-l.
Is used to tell someone that he or she is responsible for the bad things that will happen because of his or her bad decisions.
A funeral is a, a ceremony, an event you have when someone dies.
Elizabeth is making a joke here.
That expression it's your funeral is said somewhat jokingly to someone who we think is making a bad decision.
We're saying well, You're making this bad decision, but you are the one who is going to suffer the consequences.
You are the one who will be hurt by your bad decision, including perhaps even dying.
That's why Elizabeth says, it's your arm, it's your leg, and it's your funeral.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
We need to get you to the hospital right now.
I took a tumble, that's all.
It's nothing, just a little pain in my elbow and leg.
Your arm is twisted in an odd angle, and you're limping.
You could have broken bones.
In the past, I've had a compound fracture in my ankle and a stress fracture in my wrist.
And they both hurt a lot more than this.
I'm sure it's nothing serious.
Look how your arm is swelling up.
It almost looks deformed.
And you still can't put weight on your leg.
The last thing I need right now is to get a splint or a cast.
I have to get to work.
You can't work in the shape you're in.
Why don't you let me take you to the emergency room to get treated?
I'll just take a couple of painkillers and walk it off.
You mean limp it off.
Well, in the end, it's your arm, it's your leg, and it's your funeral.
If you want your English to be in better shape, listen to the dialogues written by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks 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.
