The Christmases that I remember most were those that I spent with my family when I was still at home.
I was lucky enough to have to be part of a large family.
I have two brothers and two sisters and there was a time when we all lived at home and Christmas was a big family affair.
And there was a time during christmas, which was on christmas day itself after lunch, when my father used to read from a christmas carol, the christmas book by charles dickens, which you may have read, may have heard of, you may have also seen the films there are more than one film or film version of A Christmas Carol with the famous Ebenezer Scrooge, who is a very rich man and he lends money to people and they have to pay him back with a lot of interest.
That means they have to pay him back the money they borrow from him with extra money as well.
Everybody hates him and he's a lonely man who lives in his house with all his money, spending his evenings counting his coins and notes.
And then one day he's visited by three ghosts the ghosts of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas future.
And they show him his life as it was, as it is.
And the life of those people around him like, for example, his only employee, Bob Cratchit, who works for him and earns very little and works long hours.
And also he sees the future when he's visited by the ghost of Christmas future and he sees the terrible things that are going to happen to him and that he will die and nobody will miss him because nobody loves him.
So after this, after these visits from the three ghosts, he wakes up one morning and this little story, or this part of the book, just very brief really, a dialogue.
This is what happens when he wakes up that morning.
So this is a b1 recording with some b1 language in there.
I'll read the story to you first of all, and then we'll unpack it and look at some of the language in there.
Okay, here we go.
Hello and welcome to Practicing English.
My name is Mike Bilbre and these are podcasts for students of English at B1 or B2 levels.
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The story is called Scrooge and the Turkey.
Scrooge ran to the window, opened it, and put his head outside.
There was no fog or mist.
The air was clear, bright and cold.
The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and the bells were ringing happily.
"'Oh, how absolutely wonderful!' cried Scrooge in a cheerful voice."
What day is it?
He shouted down to a boy wearing his Sunday clothes who was standing in the street.
Eh? said the boy, very surprised.
What day is it, my boy?
Scrooge repeated, expecting to be disappointed.
Why, it's Christmas Day, replied the boy.
It's Christmas Day. said Scrooge to himself, delighted.
I haven't missed it.
The ghosts did everything in one night.
They can do anything.
Hello, my boy, Scrooge called.
Hello, said the boy.
Do you know the shop on the corner in the next street where they sell turkeys? asked Scrooge.
Of course I do, said the boy.
Good boy, said Scrooge.
Do you know if they have sold the big prized turkey?
Not the small one, the huge one.
The one as big as me? asked the boy.
Yes, laughed Scrooge.
That one, it's still there, said the boy.
Good, said Scrooge.
Go and buy it.
You must be joking, said the boy, amazed.
Definitely not, my boy, said Scrooge.
Go and tell them Ebenezer Scrooge will buy it, and then tell them to bring it here.
Come back with the man and I'll give you a shilling.
If you don't hang about and come back in less than five minutes, I'll give you two shillings.
The boy ran off as fast as he could go.
I'll send the turkey to Bob Cratchit, Scrooge said quietly, laughing to himself.
He won't know who sent it.
It's much bigger than his son, Tiny Tim.
I'll wrap it up and send it as a Christmas gift.
This will be a wonderful surprise for him.
Okay, so that's it.
Quite brief.
As you can see, what happens to Scrooge is that he becomes a new man, a different man.
And he is no longer a horrid, cruel person, but becomes a very generous person.
And the first thing he does is to buy this huge turkey for his employee, Bob Cratchit.
I'll go over the story then quickly and just look at some B1 vocabulary in there.
So the weather then, he said the air was clear, bright and cold.
This word bright we use with perhaps more than one meaning at B1.
Bright meaning a lot of light.
So a bright day is usually a sunny day.
It's also bright for a colour.
Colors like maybe yellow or pink or white are very bright.
And the other meaning, of course, of bright is clever.
A bright person is somebody who is very clever.
So that's like another meaning.
Smart is another B1 meaning of clever, bright.
The sun was shining.
And we've had that before.
To shine is the light that comes from the sun.
And the bells were ringing happily.
So presumably these are the bells of the church, of the local church.
The bells go dong, dong, dong at the top of the church tower.
And to ring is the verb of what bells do, that sound they make as they move from one side to the other.
Oh, how absolutely wonderful, cried Scrooge.
So absolutely, we can put that in front of lots of different adjectives.
Just to put more emphasis on the adjective.
Absolutely wonderful.
That's much stronger than just wonderful.
Cried Scrooge.
So to cry has this meaning of when you're sad.
And tears come down your face, the water that comes down from your eyes.
That's a B1 word too.
But here to cry is to shout loudly.
So he shouts to himself.
Oh, how absolutely wonderful, cried Scrooge in a cheerful voice.
Cheerful is another word for happy, and we had that recently as well, i think, because it's a word which is used a lot at christmas and christmas language.
What day is it?
He shouted down to the boy who is in the street, and the boy is very surprised because he's asking this question.
And when it's a very special day, it's Christmas day.
And Scrooge doesn't know, because he's been with these ghosts seeing different things about his past, his present and his future.
And he doesn't even know what day it is when he gets up in the morning.
But what day is it, my boy?
Scrooge repeated.
Expecting to be disappointed.
So to repeat is to say something again.
Expecting to be disappointed.
So these are all B1 words.
If you're expecting something, then you believe something is going to happen.
You could say, I'm expecting the bus to come along any moment now.
I've been waiting about 10 minutes.
Expecting, you think it's going to happen.
So here he was expecting to be disappointed.
And disappointed is a negative sort of word, which means you are upset because something that you would like to happen doesn't happen.
So you are disappointed, which is a B1 adjective.
Why, it's Christmas Day, replied the boy.
So to reply is to answer.
You ask and somebody else answers or replies.
It's Christmas Day, said Scrooge to himself, delighted.
So if you are delighted, you are very happy.
Scrooge asks the boy, do you know the shop on the corner in the next street where they sell turkeys?
Now, Turkey is actually a B1 word.
There are not a lot of animal words in the B1 glossary or in any of the glossaries really, because I suppose animal words are quite technical.
But here, Turkey is quite a famous word because in many countries, England, Britain, United States.
Turkey is the meal that we have for Christmas Day.
It's a large bird and it lives actually in the United States.
It's wild in the United States.
And it is typical to have turkey for Christmas Day dinner.
OK, it's the main course with vegetables and other things as well.
But the turkey is the main thing that we have.
I can actually do an impersonation of a turkey.
You ready for this?
I've never done that before in a podcast.
Now you should know what the bird is.
If you've heard of a turkey before, that's the sound they make.
OK, so he says, not the small one, the huge one.
Huge meaning very big.
And that's the B1 word that you want to use rather than just saying very big.
Scrooge says to the boy, he says, go and buy it.
And that's in the original as well.
Obviously, this is a B1 version of the Christmas Carol.
But he does say go and buy it, which obviously is rather strange to ask a poor boy in the street to go and buy a huge turkey.
So that's why the boy says, you must be joking.
So to joke is to say something funny or not serious.
So the boy thinks that he can't be serious asking him to go and buy the turkey.
You must be joking, we say.
You cannot be serious.
Said the boy amazed.
Amazed meaning very surprised.
Another be one word.
Definitely not, my boy, said Scrooge.
So definitely not means what I'm saying is true.
You say this in a negative, as a negative.
Definitely not.
I am not joking.
And the word definitely is more emphatic, gives more emphasis, makes that word stronger, makes the negative stronger.
Definitely not.
And then Scrooge says to the boy I'll give you a shilling if you don't hang about and come back in less than five minutes.
So to hang about is to do something very slowly.
If you hang about, you don't go anywhere particularly very fast at all.
To hang about.
But he says, don't hang about.
And that's a B1 phrasal verb.
If you don't hang about and come back in less than five minutes, I'll give you two shillings.
So a shilling is the old currency, the old money that the UK used to have before decimalisation.
In the year 2000, I think it was.
Before then, we had pounds and shillings.
I'll go on.
I'll send the turkey to Bob Cratchit, Scrooge said quietly.
And he says, I'll wrap it up and send it as a Christmas gift.
So to wrap up something is a nice Christmas word.
It's to put paper around something, as we do at Christmas, to a present which we want to give to somebody else.
I'll wrap it up and send it as a Christmas gift.
OK, so that's the unpacking of the story.
Now I'm going to read the story and what I'll do.
When I come to some of the B1 words, I will stop and you'll hear a beep.
And you have to say what the word was.
OK, I'll usually stop.
There'll be a break.
And at that moment, you can say the word in the space.
There'll be time to say the word missing.
OK, so here we go then with the test.
Scrooge and the Turkey Scrooge ran to the window, opened it, and put his head outside.
There was no fog or mist.
The air was clear and cold.
Bright.
The sun was...
Shining.
The sky was blue and the bells were happily ringing.
Oh, how wonderful!
Absolutely, cried Scrooge in a voice.
Cheerful.
What day is it?
He shouted down to a boy wearing his Sunday clothes who was standing in the street.
Eh? said the boy, very surprised.
What day is it, my boy?
Scrooge repeated, expecting to be disappointed.
Why, it's Christmas Day! the boy exclaimed. replied.
It's Christmas Day, said Scrooge to himself.
Delighted.
I haven't missed it.
The ghosts did everything in one night.
They can do anything.
Hello, my boy, Scrooge called.
Hello, said the boy.
Do you know the shop on the corner in the next street where they sell turkeys?
Asked Scrooge.
Of course I do, said the boy.
Good boy, said Scrooge.
Do you know if they have sold the big prize turkey?
Not the small one, the one.
Huge.
The one as big as me?
Asks the boy.
Yes, laughs Scrooge.
That one.
It's still there, said the boy.
Good, says Scrooge.
Go and buy it.
You must be... Joking, said the boy.
Amazed.
Definitely...
Not.
My boy, said Scrooge.
Go and tell them Ebenezer Scrooge will buy it.
And then tell them to bring it here.
Come back with the man and I'll give you a shilling.
If you don't... And come back in less than five minutes... Hang about.
I'll give you two shillings.
The boy ran off as fast as he could go.
I'll send the... to Bob Cratchit.
Turkey, said Scrooge quietly, laughing to himself.
He won't know who sent it.
It's much bigger than his son, Tiny Tim.
I'll... and send it as a Christmas gift.
Wrap up.
This will be a wonderful surprise for him.
Right, that's the end of the story.
I hope you learned a few new words there and you enjoyed the story as well.
It's a lovely book to read if you can, maybe even in your own language.
You can read this text remember, at practicingenglishcom or at your show notes in your podcast app.
Okay, until tomorrow when I'll be back with another podcast for B2 learners.
Until tomorrow, goodbye for now.
