EC114_Guide.pdf

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 114

TOPICS

American cities: Boston; vanity license plates, to make a difference versus to

make the difference, lame, devil’s advocate

_____________

GLOSSARY

New England – the northeastern part of the United States; the states of

Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and

Vermont

* New England is beautiful in the fall, when the leaves on the trees are changing

color.

founded – established; created; begun; initiated

* Willamette University was founded in 1842 and is the oldest university in the

western United States.

massacre – the way that many people are killed in a violent way

* What do you think other countries should do about the massacre in that

country?

East/West Coast – the eastern and western parts of the United States, next to

the Pacific (West Coast) and Atlantic (East Coast) Oceans

* She grew up in California on the West Coast, but then she moved to Maryland

to work on the East Coast.

accent – a person’s way of pronouncing words, often showing where he or she is

from

* Some people from other countries think it is difficult to understand the U.S.

southern accent.

ancestor – the relatives who came before oneself; the family members who lived

earlier

* My ancestors include my grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great

grandparents.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 114

license plate – a flat, rectangular piece of metal with letters and/or numbers,

placed on the front and back of one’s car as identification

* The man was driving very dangerously, so we wrote down his license plate

number and called the police.

vanity – too much pride in oneself; having too high an opinion of one’s beauty,

accomplishments, or wealth

* Do you think it’s vanity that makes him think that every woman he meets is in

love with him?

to register (a car) – to officially let the government know the type of car that one

owns; to officially record with the government one’s ownership of a car

* How much do you have to pay to register your car in Wisconsin?

motto – a phrase that guides a person or organization through life; a phrase that

indicates how people in an organization should behave and what they believe in

* The University’s motto is, “not unto ourselves alone are we born,” meaning that

people should help others.

to make a difference – to do something that is important and has a positive

impact on other people’s lives or on the outcome of something

* Crystal joined the Peace Corps because she wanted to make a difference and

help people in other countries.

to make the difference – to do something that influences something else; to do

something that is the deciding factor in how another thing will happen

* His hard work made the difference in our being able to finish the project on

time.

lame – socially inept; unable to understand what is happening in a social

situation; not socially acceptable; not able to participate in a social situation

* His idea was so lame that everyone started laughing when he suggested it.

devil’s advocate – a person who expresses an unpopular opinion just to get the

group to discuss an issue

* If all of the members of a team agree quickly, then it’s a good idea for one

person to be the devil’s advocate and propose the opposite idea, so that

everyone discusses it thoroughly.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 114

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

The Bostonians by Henry James

Henry James was a famous American “author” (writer). In 1886, he published

one of his most famous novels, The Bostonians . A “Bostonian” is a person who

lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

The novel begins when a woman named Olive takes her cousin, Basil, to a

political meeting in Boston. There they hear a woman named Verena giving a

“feminist” (relating to women’s rights) speech. Olive is “fascinated” (very

interested) by Verena and her ideas. Basil is very “conservative” (traditional, with

old-fashioned ideas) and doesn’t like Verena’s ideas, but he, too, is fascinated by

the woman.

After the meeting, Olive “convinces” (persuades, or gets someone to do or

believe something) Verena to live in her home where they can study feminism

together. Basil returns to his home in New York, but he often returns to Boston,

trying to “win the affections” (get someone to fall in love with oneself) of Verena.

Will Basil win Verena’s heart? Will Olive, Verena, and Basil be happy? You’ll

have to read the book to find out.

The Bostonians is interesting because it “illustrates” (shows through art) the

“feminist movement” (the period of the time when women fought for more rights

and greater freedoms) in America in the late 19 th century. “Critics” (people who

share their opinions about whether books are good or bad) of the time didn’t

“receive” (respond to) the book well, but later critics are more “appreciative of”

(willing to say something nice about) James’ novel. This book was the last one in

which James made politics such an important topic.

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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 – 114

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 114.

This is English Café episode one-one-four (114). I’m your host, Dr. Jeff

McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in

beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Visit our website at eslpod.com. There you can download a Learning Guide to

this episode. Take a look at our ESL Podcast Store, which has additional

business and daily English courses, and you can read our new ESL Pod Blog; all

of that on our website.

Our topics for this Café are the City of Boston – we’ve been talking about

different cities and states here on the Café; we’re going to talk about one of the

oldest and most famous cities in the U.S., Boston, Massachusetts. We’re also

going to talk about vanity license plates, what they are and why people have

them. As always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get started.

We begin this Café talking about the City of Boston. Boston is in the state of

Massachusetts; Massachusetts is in an area of the country we call New England.

New England is in the northeast part of the U.S. Boston is the largest city in New

England; it’s also one of the oldest cities and most historic cities in the U.S.

Many important events in American history, especially in our early history, took

place in the City of Boston.

Boston has a population of about six million people. If you live in Boston, you’re

called a “Bostonian.” If you live in St. Paul, where I’m from, you’re called a “St.

Paulite.” If you live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, you’re called a “Minneapolitan.”

Every city has its own way of indicating what you call the person or people who

live there. In Los Angeles, we’re called “Angelenos.”

Boston is a very popular tourist site, especially for American visitors. Boston was

founded in 1630. When we say something was “founded,” we mean it was

started. The “colonists,” the people who were coming over from England,

founded the city. It was an extremely important city during the American

Revolution – the revolution against Great Britain when America separated itself

and became the United States of America. You may know that happened in the

late 18 th century; our Declaration of Independence was in 1776, and there was a

war that followed that.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 114

Two events that all Americans schoolchildren learn about when the study the

American Revolution are the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. A

“massacre” (massacre) is when many people are killed. This was an event – the

Boston Massacre – that took place where some British soldiers had killed some

of the colonists who didn’t want them there. The Boston Tea Party was a protest

against British taxation of tea. The British needed to raise money, that is they

needed to get more money from the American colonies in the 18 th century so

they increased the taxes including putting a tax on tea, and as a protest some of

the Bostonians took tea and dumped it into the harbor. When we say they

“dumped” it, we mean they threw it out – they threw it into. And this was called

the Boston Tea Party, sort of a comical, humorous description of what happened,

but a very serious one. Boston was also the “site,” or the location, of some

famous battles during the American Revolution, including the Battle of Bunker

Hill.

Boston’s very rich history includes first public school in the United States. It is

also the home – or at least, very close to Boston – of the first college, Harvard

College, which was started in 1636. We now call it Harvard University. It’s

actually not in Boston; it’s in a city next to Boston called Cambridge. Boston had

the first subway system in the United States, and had the first big public park in

the United States: the Boston Common and Public Garden.

When you ask Americans what they associate with Boston, they will, of course,

say the history of Boston. The American Revolution is something that most

Americans know about, they study about it in school. If you visit Boston, you can

see some of the famous buildings. There’s a little trail, it’s called – a route, a

path – that you can take that connects some of the most important historical sites

in Boston; it’s called the Freedom Trail. It includes the old government building,

what’s called the State House, and other famous buildings from the American

Revolution.

When you ask Americans about Boston, they will probably also think about the

particular accent that people have in Boston. Especially in the eastern United

States the accents can be very different from place to place – from city to city.

This is less true in the western United States. But in the eastern part of our

country, the oldest part, where people were often separated because of the lack

of transportation – easy transportation between cities and towns – you will hear

some very distinct accents. The New York accent, for example, is very different

than the Boston accent, and even in Boston, there are different parts of the city

where you will hear different accents. Part of this is because, as I say, of the

separation historically. The famous river that goes through Boston, the Charles

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