EC053_Guide.pdf

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 53

TOPICS

Elections in the U.S., to prove someone wrong, effect vs. affect, to wait on

someone vs. to wait for someone, big vs. large, I’m fine vs. I’m good vs. I’m well

_____________

GLOSSARY

primary election – an election where voters decide which candidate (the person

who wants the position) from each party will run in a future election against the

other parties

* The primary election will cut down the number of candidates for governor from

eight to two.

to take office – to begin work in a specific job, usually used for important

government positions

* Do you think that the new mayor will keep his promises after he takes office?

legislative – related to making laws or policies

* The legislative council voted to pass the new budget before the deadline.

midterm elections – elections where members of the U.S. Congress are elected

but the U.S. president is not; elections in the middle of the U.S. president’s term

of office

* There were fewer people who voted in the 2002 and 2006 midterm elections

than in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

term of office – the number of years someone can hold an office or a

government position

* Some people think that the president of the United States should have a longer

term of office than four years.

to cast a ballot – to vote; to indicate who you want to hold a public office or a

government position

* If you cast a ballot for me, you’re casting a ballot for a cleaner environment and

better schools.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 53

candidate – someone who wants to hold an office or a job, or be the winner of a

prize

* Did you know that Dr. Jeff McQuillan is a candidate for the Nobel prize this

year?

polling place – the place where people go to vote

* Right before the polls closed at 8 p.m. last night, we saw a lot of people

standing in line at the polling place.

voter turnout – the percentage of people who vote in an election of all those

who are allowed to vote

* The voter turnout for the election this year was the highest in 10 years.

to prove (someone) wrong – to show, usually with evidence, that someone is

wrong or has made a mistake

* His teacher told him that he wouldn’t do well in college. To prove her wrong, he

studied hard and was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley.

effect – result or outcome

* Even though she’s very beautiful, she has no idea of the effect she has on men

when she walks into a room.

to affect – to influence or to change

* The team didn’t allow their early losses in the season to affect their playing.

to wait on (someone) – to give someone service; to be a servant for someone

* When you get married, don’t expect your husband or wife to wait on you.

to wait for someone – to expect someone; to stay in a place where you expect

someone to arrive

* We’ve been waiting for Brianna for an hour. I don’t think she’s coming.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 53

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

“And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you –

ask what you can do for your country.” – President John F. Kennedy (1961)

For many Americans, President John F. Kennedy is one of the presidents the

country has ever had. This quote is from President Kennedy’s “inaugural

address.” The word “inaugural” means the beginning of a period of time, usually

the beginning of a time when someone serves in a governmental office or job.

An “address” is a formal speech, usually given by an important person. This

quote is well known to most Americans, and in it, President Kennedy is asking

his “fellow” Americans, or other Americans like him, to stop waiting for the

government to do something good for them. Instead, he wants Americans to

start thinking about how to do things that will benefit their own country.

John F. Kennedy was president for less than three years when he was

“assassinated,” or killed. (The verb “to assassinate” is used instead of “to

murder” when we talk about an important person, usually someone who is a

political or religious leader.) President Kennedy was killed by a gunshot while he

was riding in a “convertible,” or a car with a folding or removable roof, in a

“parade,” or a public celebration, in Texas. There have been many “conspiracy

theories” about how he was killed. A conspiracy theory is a belief that a powerful

organization is controlling others and is responsible for something that happened.

Even though the police “arrested,” or took to jail, the man who they believed shot

the president, some people still believe that someone else shot him or that his

assassination was arranged by powerful people who didn’t like him politically.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 53

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

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

number 53.

This is English Café episode 53. 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 elections in the United States. This is

the time of year when we have our elections, some of our elections, for our

representatives in government. So, I’m going to talk a little bit about how that

works here in the U.S., and as always, we’re going to answer several of your

questions. Let’s get started.

Be sure to visit our website at eslpod.com, where you can find the Learning

Guide for this podcast. You can get a list of all the words that we use and their

definitions, as well as additional words and definitions, culture notes and a

complete transcript of this episode.

Our topic today is elections in the United States. This is how we select, or pick,

people who lead the government, or don’t lead the government, depends on your

opinion of them.

We have two kinds of elections. The first kind of election is what we would call a

primary election, “primary.” A primary election is an election to vote for the

person who’s going to represent a particular political party. In the United States,

we have two major political parties, two large political parties: the Democratic

Party and the Republican Party. Someone who is in the Democratic Party is

called a Democrat and someone in the Republican Party is called a Republican.

And each of these parties gets to select, or choose, who is going to represent

them for the second kind of election, which is called the general election. So, the

primary election is when you choose the representative from each party, and the

general election decides who will actually win that particular office. We call the

positions in the government, like the president, the vice president, the governor –

these are called offices, and when you win an election, usually a couple of

months later, you take office, meaning you start your job as that elected official,

that elected person.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 53

We have a primary election in the United States, and usually these are in the

spring or the summer, and then we have general elections that are usually in

November. The traditional day for the general election is the first Tuesday in

November. Now, this is not a holiday. This is not a day you get off work. In

some countries, elections are on Sunday or people get off work for the election.

That is not true in the United States. The day of our national elections, or our

state elections, or our city elections are not holidays. The general election, I

said, usually is the first Tuesday of November.

We have, as you know, three parts of our national government and three parts of

our state government. The executive part of our government is the president for

the national government or the governor for the state government. We also have

representatives, individuals that come from different parts of each state, or form

different states, and this is the legislative branch of government. Legislative,

“legislative,” means that they are the ones that decide on what the laws are going

to be. In the U.S., in most states and nationally there are two parts of our

legislative branch: there’s the Senate, “senate,” and there’s the House of

Representatives. The senators are smaller in number; there are fewer senators.

On the national level, there are two senators for every state, so we have 50

states, which means we have…that’s right, 100 senators. In the U.S. House of

Representatives, we have 435 voting representatives, and these come from

different parts of the state, in different states. The bigger states, like California,

Texas, New York, the larger population states have more representatives; the

small population states have fewer representatives.

The national elections are held every four years for the president. So, our last

election was in 2004, our next election will be in 2008. But, we also have

elections, what we call midterm elections, “midterm,” all one word. A midterm

election is an election in the middle of the four year period for the president, so

2006, 2010 – those would be midterm elections. And, in the midterm elections,

we have two kinds of elections: We have elections for the House of

Representatives. All of the House of Representatives have to be elected every

two years, so your term of office, that is, the length that you can stay in your

office after you are elected, is two years for the House of Representatives. For

the Senate, it’s six years. So, every two years, all of the 435 national House of

Representative members have to be elected. For the senators – we have 100

senators; we break them up into three groups. So, a third of the senators are

elected every two years, and they have six years in their term of office. So, this

year, about 33 or 34 senators will be elected.

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

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