welcome to english
as a second language podcast number 18.
from los angeles california you
are listening to the english as a second language podcast
my name is doctor jeff
macquillion your host from the center of educational development before we
begin podcast today i want to thank one of our listeners yohanus from Germany
who gave us very useful technical help over the weekend for our podcast so
thank you youhnaus and thank everyone for writing in and emailing us if this is
your first time listening to this podcast please got our website www.eslpod.com
for more information. today's topic is going to be about transportation. and
getting around particularly here in united states. as usual we will discuss the
topic and come back and look at some vocabulary. now let's get started.
Getting around in the United
States is sometimes not very easy. Most people own their own cars, but not
everyone can foot the bill for the
car, plus the insurance, gas, and maintenance. Most big cities have buses, but they are much slower
than a car. Several cities in the U.S. have subway systems, but many do not.
There are even fewer trains that transport daily commuters. In cities such as Los Angeles, public transportation is much more limited than in other countries.
If you take some form of public
transportation, you need to pay a certain fare.
In most big cities the fare is anywhere from 1 to 2 dollars. But don't expect
the bus driver to change a bill for
you. You usually need exact change if
you're going to ride a bus, train, or subway. Whatever you take, you always
have to pay for it!
My friends here in Los Angeles
all have different ways of getting to work. One friend, who lives out in the boonies, rides the train everyday. He takes
the train because it's easier for him than driving or taking a bus. Another
friend I know who works close to where he lives rides a bike everyday. Still
another friend drives his car. I
don't know anyone who rides the bus, but I've taken it once or twice when my
car was in the shop. Worse comes to worst, you can always hop in a taxi. Taking a taxi is
expensive here, though, so be prepared for a big fare—not including the tip!
Script by Dr. Jeff McQuillan
we are talking about today ways
of getting around in there united statas to get around means to go from one
place t another i started talking about how limited public transportation is
united states public transpiration is a thing that runs the government such as
buses trains and subways. i mentioned that people who own their own cars have
to put the bill put the bill means to pay for the bill it is a n informal expression who is
going to put the bill for this dinner means who is going to pay for this
dinner. and talking about cars we often associated words like insurance
insurance is what you buy in case you have an accident insurance company pay for your repays gas is of course gasoline
the patrol feel for your car maintenance is anything you need to do to your car
fix it or to keep it running well changing the oil for example checing the air
pressure in tires this is all part of maintenance. i mentioned that there are
many trains in united states that transport daily commuters a commuter who has
a travel usualy long distance between her home and where they are work. public
transportation i mentiond is limited public
transpiration of course we have already covered in any sort of
transportation other than your car aayou have to pay what is called the fare
fare what's we called the pay for buses it is the term we use airplayne subways
all of the places we using fare. i said that bus driver in united states will
not change the bill for you to change a
bill means here simply to give you change with the fare fifty cent you only
have one dollar you would have to change a bill/. bill is of course any paper
denomination any paper money so changing a bill we sometimes also use the
expression to break a bill it means the same to break a bill 20 dollar to ten
dollar bills that is breaking 10 dollars. exact change is of course you have
the exact amount that is necessary talking about my friend here in los agngeles
one of my friend lives in boonies the boonies is a informal expression it means
way far away from the main part of the city the suburbs place outside of the
central city central part of the city sometimes be called the boonies it is a
somewhat negative term you don't want to tell someone they live in the boonies
because it means they live in a far away from civilization in talking about
trains and cars bicycles and buses we often use similar verbs to express what i
means to go on that transportation train we say we ride the train we use the
ride for trains for subways for buses we don't use the term ride for the taxi
cub and for your own car or planes. you can drive your own car we only use the
term if you are the person driving the actual car i drive to work but i go to
someone else they drive me for a plane we use the verb fly i flied to san
francisco. we can also use the verb to take almost all of the transportation he
takes train he takes the bus he takes the subways we don't say he takes the
plane lane we only use the fly for car we can also say take i am going to take
my car meaning i am going to drive my car so drive is just sued for cars rides
is just take can be used for buses trains subways takes can be used for taxi
cub for example i am going to taxi or i am going to cub and for planes we use
fly for bicycle we usually say ride a bicycle he rides his bicycle to work
everyday but it is possible to say he takes his bycyle to work but that is not
very common, much more common to say he rides his bicycle. a couple of more
expressions i said that if my car is in the shop to be in the shop for the car
to be in the mechanics the person who fixes my car when we car breaks down you
sometimes shop sometimes we will say mechanic sometimes we say shop shop is the
short for mechanic shop notice nothing with verb to shop which means buy shop
is anywhere we something is fixed usually cars i used another common expression
at the end of the discussion worse comes to worst this is a very old but very
common expression worse comes to the worst mean int he very worst case possible
we sometimes say worst comes scenario meaning the worst situation when we say trying to say what the
most negative worst situaten would be but usually followed by the expression of
how we can get out of that situation i said that worse comes to worst you can
always take a taxi even in the worst situation you have an alternative another
term to use the expression go to the doctor's office i need to pay fora visit i need to pay the doctor and i forget my
credit card or my check book worse comes to worst i can ask the doctor to send
me a bill which i will pay it later. so worse comes to worst it always follows
by solution to that worst problem for that worst situation finally i scan say i
can huber in a taxi this is a verb a little informal we say hub in this case
mean the take it gets little confusing we usually just say hub for taxi cub you
can also say for a bus train or a subway i ama going to hub a subway to
downtown means i am going to take a subway we don't use hub for car we don't
use hub for bike we do not use huge for plane but you can say hub for the other
part of transpiration. that is going to do it for today's english as a second
language podacast as always we would love to hear from you please email us and
tell us where you are and if you have suggestion for topics for future podcast
please email them we had many people email us we are going to use most of your
suggestions it will take sometime for get everyone's suggestion but we will try
to do as many as possible. our email address is in our website or you can
simply email us eslpod@eslpod.com. my name is doctor jeff macquillion i wanna
thank you for listening we will see you next time on eslpodcast.
eslpodcastis produced by the
center of educational development in los angles california this podcast is
copyright 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment