Coffee Break English Season 4 Episode 5.
Hi everyone and welcome to Coffee Break English my name is Josie and my name is Mark and we are very pleased to be here again to help you build your English vocabulary and your understanding of grammar with our cultural texts from around the English -speaking world.
Yes and today's cultural text comes from Australia.
We are going to hand over to Matthew to find out more about the outback and Josie is there a language point that we need to listen out for?
There is. Today we're talking about negative prefixes.
Hmm, can you give us a little more information?
Yes I can. A prefix is basically some letters that you put on the beginning of a word to change the meaning slightly.
So we're looking at ways to make words negative basically.
Ok, it's over to Matthew then.
Hey Josie, hey Mark, I'm Matthew and I'm really pleased to be joining you again for another text about Australia.
Let's read our text now.
Australia. The bush refers to the empty areas just outside towns and cities and the outback refers to more remote areas than that though it is still more than 70 % of Australia.
While we often think that the outback is dry and sandy it is actually much more diverse than that.
The weather can be unpredictable and irregular and some of the northern areas even have monsoons at certain times of the year.
It has actually been inhabited by small Aboriginal communities for about 50 ,000 years.
These days 690 ,000 Australian people live all over the outback and 17 % of those are Aboriginal people.
They live in small farming communities peacefully taking care of crops and animals in the remote environment.
Living in the outback can be inconvenient but it's not impossible.
Although it's an many vicious hunting species such as dingoes hide themselves in bushes which as well as providing camouflage keeps them cool under the hot sun.
Camels, kangaroos, snakes, lizards and many bird species are also common.
Many of Australia's endangered animals live in the outback and they have protected status which means that it's illegal to disturb or harm them.
The outback is an important feature of the Australian landscape.
Most of it is untouched by humans and hasn't changed much in hundreds of years.
Because of its size it's a bit impractical to explore but it's definitely a unique experience to visit.
Okay Josie I know that you have travelled to Australia before, have you ever been to the outback?
Well I think I've been to the outback, I went to a very remote village to stay with a family that my parents knew.
I think it was in the outback.
Okay you'll need to find out from your parents if you've visited the outback.
I will, I was very young so I don't really remember.
Okay let's go through our text again.
Most people know that the outback is in Australia but what exactly is the outback and what makes it different from the rest of the country?
Yeah so this is the question that I have as well.
What exactly is the outback?
Let's find out. The huge empty areas of land that cover over 5 .6 million square kilometres have a lot more going on than you might think.
Wow so 5 .6 million square kilometres, the outback is very big.
Enormous. Yeah and these are huge empty areas of land.
Huge means enormous as you said, very big and empty, there is nothing there.
Almost nothing there.
And going back to this word huge, you and I Mark we say huge.
We can hear the h sound but many English speakers they say huge don't they?
That's right, with a silent h in there so huge or in Scotland we say huge.
Exactly. Okay the outback is a term for classifying land areas of Australia.
So this verb classify, the verb classify means divide things into groups or types so that means that the outback is one type of land in Australia.
And another type of land in Australia is the bush.
The bush refers to the empty areas just outside towns and cities and the outback refers to more remote areas than that.
Though this is still more than 70 % of Australia.
Wow more than 70 % is a lot.
Now that you talk about the bush I think maybe it was the bush that I've been to not the outback because it wasn't as remote as the outback and what does remote mean Mark?
Remote is something that is far from cities to a place, a town, a village that is far from cities and places with lots of people.
That's right. While we often think that the outback is dry and sandy it's actually much more diverse than that.
Yeah so we think it's dry and sandy, sandy means covered with sand, it's actually much more diverse.
There are many more different things happening in the outback.
Okay the weather can be unpredictable and irregular and some of the northern areas even have monsoons at certain times of the year.
Yeah so the weather can be unpredictable and irregular.
These two words are our first examples of words where we have a negative prefix.
First of all let's take unpredictable.
The negative prefix here is un, UN and we add this onto the adjective predictable.
What does predictable mean Mark?
If something is predictable it's easy to know that it's going to happen for example.
Exactly that's right.
So unpredictable that's just the opposite the negative version of predictable.
This negative prefix UN is one of the most common in English.
We can add this to lots of adjectives.
We can say unusual, unkind, unknown.
Those are just a few examples.
Okay then we have irregular so that's another negative form.
Regular is the positive form.
That's right so regular means something happens in a way that you expect and irregular it's the opposite obviously, the negative form.
The negative prefix here is IR and we use this prefix with words that start with R.
For example the adjective rational can become irrational and the adjective relevant can become irrelevant.
Okay it is incorrect to think that no one lives in the outback because it has actually been inhabited by small Aboriginal communities for about 50 ,000 years.
Yeah so here's another negative prefix it is incorrect to think that no one lives in the outback so we add IN onto the adjective correct to make it negative so instead of meaning right correct means right it means wrong incorrect.
And we can do the same with convenient, inconvenient, expensive, inexpensive or accurate which would become inaccurate.
That's right but later in this sentence we have the word inhabited.
The outback has been inhabited by small Aboriginal communities.
But inhabited is not a negative word is it?
No that is just part of this word.
That's right so sometimes IN is not negative it's just part of another word.
So the outback is inhabited by small Aboriginal communities.
And the verb inhabit it means to live in so these areas the outback is lived in by small Aboriginal communities.
And Aboriginal communities are groups of people who are indigenous to Australia.
That's right people who originated in Australia.
These days 690 ,000 Australian people live all over the outback and about 17 % of those are Aboriginal people.
They live in small farming communities peacefully taking care of crops and animals in the remote environment.
Yeah so they they farm they live in farming communities and they take care of animals and crops.
What is a crop mark?
Crops are plants which are grown for food.
Exactly. Living in the outback can be inconvenient but it's not impossible.
Yeah so here we have another example of IN to make a negative adjective.
Inconvenient. If something is convenient it is practical and easy to use.
If it's inconvenient it's not.
It's the opposite. And we also had impossible.
That's right so another negative prefix is IM.
We use this only for words beginning with either P or M.
So possible becomes impossible.
Moral becomes immoral.
Practical becomes impractical.
Okay well it's impossible to continue this text right now because we need to take a short break.
The Coffee Break English podcast is helping you to improve your understanding of English.
We also offer extra resources which include transcripts of our texts and conversations and vocabulary lists to help you learn even more.
To get these extra resources just visit coffeebreakenglish .com and sign up for free.
Welcome back to Coffee Break English we're talking about the outback and negative prefixes.
Who knew those two things could come together.
Although it is an unwelcoming environment the outback is full of wildlife.
Yeah so we're straight back in with another negative prefix.
Well we've seen this one before it's UN the most common one.
Unwelcoming. So welcoming we add UN it becomes unwelcoming.
Okay many vicious hunting species such as dingoes hide themselves in bushes which as well as providing camouflage keeps them cool under the hot sun.
This is quite a difficult sentence I think so we have many vicious hunting species.
Vicious means violent and cruel and what's a hunting species Mark?
This would be a group of animals which hunt for food.
That's right such as dingoes.
Dingoes are like wild dogs aren't they?
Yeah. So the dingoes hide themselves in bushes.
A bush is a big plant which is smaller than a tree and it has lots of branches and leaves and when the dingoes hide themselves in a bush this gives them camouflage.
So camouflage is when things like leaves or in some cases paint which make you difficult to see.
So a soldier could wear camouflage or an animal could have an ability to change color to camouflage itself.
That's right like a chameleon.
Exactly. Yeah. I don't know if there are chameleons in the outback but there are camels, kangaroos, snakes, lizards and many bird species.
They're also common.
Many of Australia's endangered animals live in the outback and they have protected status which means it is illegal to disturb or harm them.
Yeah so many of Australia's endangered animals, many animals which are in danger or close to becoming extinct, they live here in the outback and this protected status they are protected and this means it's illegal to disturb or harm them.
Illegal. So there's another negative adjective prefix.
The adjective is legal meaning you are allowed to do something.
It's legal to drive a car when you are 17 years old in the United Kingdom.
That's right but it's illegal to drive a car if you are younger than 17 in the UK.
Of course you need to have your driving license to be allowed to drive your car anyway.
Exactly and this negative prefix il we use this only with words beginning with l only with adjectives beginning with l such as logical.
Illogical. That's right.
The outback is an important feature of the Australian landscape.
Most of it is untouched by humans and hasn't changed much in hundreds of years.
So here's another example of un to make the adjective negative.
Untouched. It hasn't been touched the landscape.
Because of its size it's a bit impractical to explore but it's definitely a unique experience to visit.
And here we have our final example of a negative prefix.
We've seen this one before.
It's Im. Im practical.
Not practical. Good okay I think it's time to read through the text again.
Listen out for all of these negative prefixes with these adjectives as you listen to Matthew's text again.
Most people know that the outback is in Australia but what actually is the outback and what makes it different from the rest of the country?
The huge empty areas of land that cover over 5 .6 million square kilometres have a lot more going on than you might think.
The outback is a term for classifying land areas in Australia.
The bush refers to the empty areas just outside towns and cities and the outback refers to more remote areas than that though it is still more than 70 % of Australia.
While we often think that the outback is dry and sandy it is actually much more diverse than that.
The weather can be unpredictable and irregular and some of the northern areas even have monsoons at certain times of the year.
It is incorrect to think that no one lives in the outback because it has actually been inhabited by small Aboriginal communities for about 50 ,000 years.
These days 690 ,000 Australian people live all over the outback and 17 % of those are Aboriginal people.
They live in small farming communities peacefully taking care of crops and animals in the remote environment.
Living in the outback can be inconvenient but it's not impossible.
Although it's an unwelcoming environment the outback is full of wildlife.
Many vicious hunting species such as dingoes hide themselves in bushes which as well as providing camouflage keeps them cool under the hot sun.
Camels, kangaroos, snakes, lizards and many bird species are also common.
Many of Australia's endangered animals live in the outback and they have protected status which means that it's illegal to disturb or harm them.
The outback is an important feature of the Australian landscape.
Most of it is untouched by humans and hasn't changed much in hundreds of years.
Because of its size it's a bit impractical to explore but it's definitely a unique experience to visit.
Thank you Matthew and thanks everyone for listening.
We are halfway through our season and we hope you've been enjoying things so far.
Don't forget that you can leave a review of Coffee Break English on your favourite podcast app.
We would love to hear what you think and if Coffee Break English is helping you build your English vocabulary, grammar and understanding of culture from around the English -speaking world.
And also don't forget if you would like the lesson notes for this episode just go to coffeebreakenglish .com and sign up for free.
Thank you for joining us today and we'll be back soon next time we are heading to the Caribbean.
I can't wait. Me neither, see you soon.
Bye bye. Radiolingual Limited.
Recording copyright 2022, Radiolingual Limited.
All rights reserved.
