EC050_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 50

TOPICS

Topics: Baseball and related expressions, “gangsta,” compromise versus

commitment

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GLOSSARY

pastime – hobby; something people do for fun

* I only want to play volleyball as a pastime. I don’t want to become a

professional player.

offensive – the players in a sports game who are trying to score points

* As soon as the offensive players got on the field, they scored two points.

defensive – the players in a sports game who are trying to prevent the other

team from scoring points

* The defensive players did everything they could but the other team was

unstoppable.

pitcher – in baseball, the player who throws the balls for other players to try to hit

* This pitcher throws the best fastballs in the league.

home base – in baseball, the place where players must reach to score a point;

your home or the headquarters of your business

* She travels to about five cities each month, but her home base is Chicago.

to swing – in baseball, to use a bat (a wooden or aluminum stick) to try to hit the

ball

* Keep your eye on the ball when you swing and the ball will be easier to hit.

runner – in baseball, the player who successfully hits the ball and who is running

around to all of the bases to try to score a point

* There were two runners on the field when it started to rain.

to strike out – to be unsuccessful

* At the club, I asked three different women to dance but I struck out each time.

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English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 50

to be out in left field – strange or mistaken; to be a little crazy or very

unexpected

* In the past, Dave has had some good ideas about improving business, but this

one was out in left field.

ballpark estimate – a rough guess, usually involving a number

* A ballpark estimate for fixing the damage to house is around $800.

to throw someone a curveball – to do something that is unexpected or that is

meant to trick someone

* Sinead threw her boyfriend a curveball when she finally told him that she had

been married twice before.

home run – a complete success

* We hit a home run with that advertising campaign and I’m sure the clients will

want to renew their contract with us.

gangsta – slang for gangster, someone who is a member of a gang; a culture or

lifestyle that uses gangster images and language

* You look great and so gangsta in those loose pants.

compromise – an agreement between two sides, where each side gives to the

other something the other side wants

* People say that every successful relationship requires a lot of compromise on

both sides.

commitment – a promise to do something

* I can’t make a commitment to buy your car right now because I don’t know if I’ll

have enough money by the end of the month.

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 – 50

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

David Letterman’s Top 10 List

The television show, “The Late Show with David Letterman,” is a popular show

that is shown every weekday, Monday through Friday, on U.S. TV. It is a “late

night show,” which means that it “airs,” or is shown, after the evening news,

usually at 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. This is a “talk show,” where the host—David

Letterman—talks to guests, usually famous celebrities, on the show.

Every night on the show, David Letterman reads a “top 10 list,” usually on a topic

that the people in the audience know something about. For example, topics of

his recent top 10 lists have been: “Top 10 Mistakes the President Made While

Visiting Europe” and “Top 10 Ways New Yorkers Stay Cool in the Heat.” The

answers are always “made up,” or not true, but they are usually very funny. The

list always begins at 10, and “counts down” or goes down by 1 until it gets to the

number 1 reason.

Here is a Top 10 list for ESL Podcast listeners.

Top 10 Reasons Dr. Lucy Tse Has Never Shown Her Face to Listeners

10. She has two heads.

9. There’s no need. She looks exactly like Dr. Jeff McQuillan.

8. She’s too busy getting Dr. McQuillan’s tea and washing his car.

7. The police are looking for her…again.

6. She’s not allowed to come out of her office until she finishes the scripts and

Learning Guides for the rest of the year.

5. She will be on a famous reality show soon using a fake (not true) name and

she doesn’t want anyone to know her real one.

4. No one is willing to take her picture. You’d understand if you’ve ever seen

her.

3. Her picture is all over the website. Haven’t you seen them? Keep looking.

2. If listeners see her picture, she won’t be able to tell them she looks like

Angelina Jolie anymore.

1. There is no such person as Dr. Lucy Tse. It’s what Dr. McQuillan likes other

people to call him sometimes.

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 – 50

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

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

number 50.

You're listening to English Café episode 50. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan,

coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful City

of Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com. There you can find a Learning

Guide for this episode of the English Café that will contain all of the vocabulary

and definitions of the words we're going to discuss and topics we are going to go

over in this Café. You will also find additional words and explanations that we

don't talk about that are related to today's Café, and a complete transcript of this

podcast is included in the Learning Guide.

Our topic today is going to be a big one, so we're actually going to spend the

entire first part talking about just one topic, and that's baseball, the sport of

baseball. But, we're not going to talk about just the sport, we're also going to talk

about some very common expressions that we use in everyday life that originally

come from the game of baseball. And, at the end, as always, we'll answer a few

questions. Now, let's play ball!

We're talking about baseball, which is sometimes called the national sport in the

United States. It's also called the national pastime. A pastime, “pastime,” is an

activity, something that you do when you have extra time; we might say in your

free time. It can be a hobby. It can be a sport. In this case, it's the sport of

baseball.

We're going to start talking a little bit about what the baseball game consists of.

What is a baseball game? Many of you have probably seen a game, but maybe

not have understood everything that goes on in the game, so we're going to talk

about the rules for the game. We're also going talk about some common

expressions that we use that originally come from the game of baseball.

Baseball is a game between two teams. There is a offensive team and a

defensive team. The term, offensive, “offensive,” in sports means the team that

is in a position to score, to get points. The defensive, “defensive,” team is the

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 – 50

team that prevents, or tries to prevent the offensive team from scoring, from

getting points. In baseball, the defensive teams stands out in what we would call

the playing field, “field,” that's the place where you play baseball. It's sometimes

called a baseball diamond, “diamond,” because the bases in a baseball game are

in the shape a diamond. I'll talk about that in a minute.

Baseball has nine people on the defensive team. The most important people are

the pitcher, “pitcher,” he's the person that throws the ball, and the catcher,

“catcher,” he's the person that catches the ball. There are also seven other

people on the playing field. Usually there's one person on the first base, one

person on the second base and one person on the third base: the first baseman,

the second baseman, the third baseman. There's a fourth player called the

shortstop, “shortstop,” all one word, that also plays near the second and third

bases, and there are three players that are in what's called the outfield, “outfield,”

all one word. The outfield is the space that's at the very end of the field, divided

into three sections: the left, center and right field. There's an expression, “to be

out in left field” means to be a little crazy, to have ideas that are not normal.

That's to be out in left field, and in baseball there are these three fields, or three

parts of the outfield.

Now, I talk about bases. A base, “base,” is a small square that you have to, as

the person who is hitting the ball and running, you have to go to each of the

bases, which are on this big diamond. You have to run to each of the bases

before you can score a point. So, there's the first base, the second base, the

third base, and then you go back to where you began, and that is called the

home base. And, that expression, “home base,” is often used by people to

describe their headquarters or the place where they have their main operations

or main business.

We've talked about the defensive team. These are the people who are out on

the field trying to prevent the offensive team from scoring. Well, the offensive

team has what we call batters. And a batter, “batter,” is someone who hits the

ball with a bat. A bat, “bat,” is the long piece of usually wood, or sometimes

aluminum, that the batter swings to hit the ball. And, the purpose of baseball is

to have the batter hit the ball and be able to run around the three bases and back

home to score a point. So, the batter has to hit the ball, and to hit the ball we

often use the verb to swing, “swing.” They take the bat and it goes from behind

them and they swing it very quickly to it's in front of them and, we hope, they hit

the ball, at least the offensive team does.

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.

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