EC040_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 40

TOPICS

Topics: John McCain, Little League sports, how to pronounce years and hours,

using “some” plus a number, to hock, larger than life, to cheat on someone, I

might say vs. I can say

_____________

GLOSSARY

navy – a part a country’s military responsible for war at sea

* After she graduated from high school, she joined the U.S. Navy because she

liked being on a ship.

liberal – in the U.S., a political view that favors more government spending on

social programs

* The last liberal president of the United States was Bill Clinton.

conservative – in the U.S., a political view that favors less government spending

on social programs and (usually) more money for the military

* Many people think our economic policy is too conservative.

term of office – the time period a government official is expected to serve;

usually two or four years for many elected officials

* How long is the term of office for a state representative?

league – an association of sports teams that organizes games for its members

* I played in a soccer league until I hurt my leg.

World Series – championship games of Major League Baseball in the United

States

* It’s very difficult to get good tickets to any of the World Series games.

1800s – the years from 1800 to 1899

* That university was founded in the 1800s.

military time – using a 24-hour clock instead of AM and PM

* - What is 3:00 PM in military time?

- It’s 1500 hours.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 40

to hock – to give something to a pawnbroker for money; to sell something

because you need the money

* I didn’t have any money to pay my rent, so I hocked my CD collection.

pawnbroker – a person who offers loans to people who can give him something

valuable to hold until the loan is repaid

* He took his guitar to the pawnbroker and got enough money to pay his car loan.

larger than life – very impressive; someone or something that people admire

* We want to get someone great to perform at this show, someone larger than

life.

to cheat on someone – to have a secret romantic relationship with someone

who is not your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend

* I know they got a divorce, but did Brad cheat on Jennifer or did Jennifer cheat

on Brad?

reality – being real or true; actual

* The reality is that we don’t have enough time to finish this report.

hypothetical – something we say is true even if it may not be real; a situation,

person, or thing we create only for discussion

* During the interview, he asked me this hypothetical question: What would you

change about our company if you were in charge?

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 40

ENGLISH LEARNING TIPS

Most American television shows and movies on DVD have closed captioning.

Closed captioning means that you can read the words that are spoken as you

watch the program or movie. The “captions” or words can be seen on the

screen. This is an excellent way to increase your comprehension if the speakers

are speaking too fast or not clearly enough for you to understand them.

There are a few ways to use closed captioning. Some people like to watch a

program or part of a movie without the captions, to see how much they can

understand. Then they watch it again with the captions. Or you can watch the

program first with the captions and then without. Other people prefer just to

watch it once, with the captions. Any of these ways is okay – pick one that you

think works best for you.

Some additional ideas on using closed captioning:

• It is usually best to make sure that you have the English captions or

words, not a translation in another language. If you can’t understand the

video with the captioning on, it is probably too hard for you and you should

find something easier to watch.

• If necessary, you can stop the program on a DVD to be able to read what

the person is saying more easily.

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2006). Posting of

these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 40

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café

Number 40.

This is the English Café, Episode 40. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to

you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles,

California. On today's Café, we're going to talk about a famous American, who

may not be famous outside the United States, but is very famous in the United

States - a politician, by the name of John McCain. We're also going to talk about

an American institution - little league baseball - and little league sports in general.

And as always, we'll answer some of your questions. Let's get started.

As always, we remind you that there is a Learning Guide that goes with this

podcast, that has all the definitions of the words that we use, the complete

transcript of this podcast, tips on learning English. It also has additional sample

sentences that we don't talk about in the podcast. So go to our website at

eslpod.com for more information on that.

We're going to start today by talking about a famous American politician. His

name is John McCain, which is spelled McCain. And you probably know that the

“Mc” in front of a word in English usually means that the person is either from

Ireland - like McQuillan, I'm from…my ancestors, my relatives from many years

ago were from Ireland. They could also be from Scotland, although in Scotland

they usually say, or often say, “Mac.” “Mc” in front of a name often indicates

someone who's Irish or Scottish. It means “son,” “son of.” So, McCain would be

“son of Cain,” I guess, and McQuillan would be “son of Quillan.” I don't know who

Quillan was, but I guess I'm his son. Well, John McCain was…became famous in

the United States before he was a politician. And one of the reasons was, is that

he was in the military. He was a pilot in the U.S. military, in the United States

Navy, actually. The Navy is usually the part of the military that has, takes care of

the ships, and the boats. But, he was a pilot in the navy. And he became well

known because his plane was shot down. They shot down his plane during the

Vietnam War. And when the Americans were in, fighting in Vietnam, and he was

captured by the North Vietnamese, and he experienced a very difficult situation

during the war, and was in fact, tortured.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 40

And he, however, returned to the United States as a hero, and he got involved in

politics. And in 1987, I think, he was elected as a senator from the state of

Arizona. Arizona is located right next to California, but unlike California, different

from California, Arizona is a very politically conservative state, a very Republican

state. And John McCain is a Republican, just like President Bush. He became

well-known after he became a senator, because he also tried to become

president himself. He tried to get the Republican party to support him in the year

2000, but he lost his effort to do that, to our current president, George Bush.

Well, John McCain is very well-respected because of his war background, his

military background. And he's considered a hero. He's also well-known because

he's a little less conservative in some things than other people in the Republican

party.

Now, we should probably talk a little bit about what we mean by the word

“conservative” in American politics, and “liberal” in American politics, because

these words mean different things in different countries. In the United States,

when we say someone is “liberal” we usually mean these are people who are on

the political left. They tend to be people who believe that the government should

be involved in the economy, and that they should take care of people, give more

money to certain programs - what we would call “social programs” - to help

people. They also tend to be believers that there should be a very strong

separation between religion, between the church, and the churches and religious

organizations, and the government. So this is someone who you would call a

liberal. In other countries the word “liberal” means someone who supports a

economic policy that supports something like free trade. But liberal in the United

States does not mean that. In fact, the word “conservative” in the United States,

that word is used to describe people who believe in a very limited government,

lower taxes. Conservatives don't want the government to be involved in the

economy here in the U.S. And so, those words get used differently in different

countries. Well, John McCain, like our current president, is a conservative. Of

course, there are other differences between liberals and conservatives, not just

economics, but that's one important difference.

And John McCain, many people believe that John McCain will try to become

president again, or he will try again to become president, I should say, in 2008,

because 2008 is when President Bush's term ends. His “term” is how long he can

be in as president. In the United States, you can only be president twice. So, you

have eight years that you can be president; that's the most you can be president.

Some countries it's different. In Mexico, you can only be president once, for six

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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