EC035_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ENGLISH CAFÉ – 35

TOPICS

The Da Vinci Code, how Americans pay for retirement, I could use one, to hang

out, care for vs. care about, tag vs. label, allow vs. permit vs. let, to take the Fifth

_____________

GLOSSARY

hoax – something someone invents or makes up to fool or trick other people; a

lie or deception that you get someone to believe is true

* I heard that the government planned to make Jeff McQuillan’s birthday a

national holiday, but it was a hoax.

semi-retire – to work part-time, to work less so you can take more time to relax

when you are older

* She worked hard and saved her money for 30 years. Now, she can semi-retire

at the age of 50.

IRA/401K – types of financial (money) accounts that U.S. workers can have to

save money for retirement; investments that will give you money when you retire

* I need to open an IRA or 401K account so I can save money for retirement.

to draw a pension – to get money from a company or the government to live on

when you retire

* At the age of 65, she began drawing a pension from her company.

fixed income – when you are no longer working (retired) and have only the

money from your pension or retirement accounts to live on; “fixed” means it will

not change

* If you get seriously ill and are on a fixed income, you may need to sell your

house to pay the medical bills.

to hang out – to spend time relaxing or enjoying yourself with friends or family

* Do you want to come over after work and hang out at my house?

spy – a person who gathers or gets information secretly; usually someone who

works for a government

* A spy needs to keep a lot of secrets.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 35

to care for – to like, to find pleasing

* This tastes terrible. I really don’t care for this kind of dessert.

to care about – to be concerned about, to be interested in

* You could ask them to donate but I don’t think they care about animals very

much.

tag – something used to give you more information about a product, such as a

piece of clothing

* There isn’t a price tag on this shirt. How much is it?

label – something used to give you more information about a product, such as a

piece of clothing or anything that you buy; often a piece of paper that is on the

box or container of the product

* Read the label on the can and tell me how to prepare this soup.

to incriminate – to show that someone is guilty of a crime; to provide evidence

that someone did something wrong

* You don’t expect me to incriminate myself by answering that question, do you?

to take the Fifth – to refuse to answer questions about what you did because

you don’t want to tell anyone what you did wrong; comes originally from the Fifth

Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

* When I asked my son if he knew which of his friends ruined my garden, he said

he was taking the Fifth.

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

www.eslpod.com

ENGLISH CAFÉ – 35

ENGLISH LEARNING TIPS

Most people know that reading is a good way of improving your vocabulary. But

did you also know that reading can help you with your grammar, your spelling,

and your writing? When we read, we “acquire” or pick up a lot of information,

even information that we are not consciously aware of. Doing a lot of reading in

English will also improve your listening comprehension, because you will know

more about the language and be able to recognize more words when you hear

them.

What sort of things should you read? First, you should be sure to read

something that you can mostly understand, a book or article where you

understand 90 to 95% of the words. This is important because you need to be

able to know enough words in the reading to be able to figure out the new words.

If too many of the words are new to you, you won’t be able to guess or figure out

as many of those new words. Second, you should start by reading about

something you already know a lot about or learned a lot about in your native

language. For example, if you’ve read a lot about cars in your native language,

you may want to read some articles about cars in English. You will be more

familiar with the topics (we’d say you’ll have more “background knowledge”) and

that will make the reading easier to understand.

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 – 35

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 35.

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

number 35. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for

Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

On today's Cafe, we're going to talk about the most popular movie in the United

States, “The Da Vinci Code.” We're also going to talk about how Americans

retire and what they do for money after they leave their work. And, as always,

we'll answer a few questions. Let's get started.

Before we get started today, just a quick announcement. If you have not seen

our new website at eslpod.com, please go and visit. We have an all-new website

and of course, an all new service called the “Podcast Learning Guides.” This is

8-10 pages of additional material for each podcast. So, go to our website for

more information about that.

One of the most popular books in the United States in the last couple of years is

something called “The Da Vinci Code.” “Da Vinci,” of course, the name of the

great artist, Leonardo Da Vinci from Italy; a “code” is usually a bunch of numbers

or letters that have some sort of secret that you are trying to hide from someone

else. So, in a war, for example, you might have a secret code that you use to

communicate with your generals, your army, and your navy.

Well, “The Da Vinci Code” is a novel about a secret organization, a secret part of

Christian history. The author is Dan Brown, who's an American author. And the

book has been very, very popular. I have not read the book, a friend of mine

tried reading it and didn't like the writing very much, didn't think it was very well-

written, but of course, to be popular does not necessarily mean to be well-written.

Well, The Da Vinci Code has become very famous and controversial in the

United States. One of the reasons is that the author, Dan Brown, says that it is a

novel, it is fiction, but he also says that there are some things that are true about

it, that the basic idea of the novel is based on something that is true.

Now, I don't want to tell you too much about the novel or the movie because

there is now a new movie about the book that you can see. It is now available in

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 – 35

the United States. This movie stars Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is a famous

American actor who has been in many big movies. His co-star, the other big star

in the movie is a French actress whose name is Audrey Tautou. She is a famous

actor in France and in the United States. Well, this movie is now in the theaters

here in the United States and it's been controversial; many people have been

upset by the movie because it says that some of the things in the Christian faith,

in the Catholic religion, are not true and that there is a secret organization that

has this secret information. Well, this is, as I say, have been very popular here in

the U.S. and many people like the story. Although, there has been a lot of

criticism of Dan Brown because he says that this story is based on something

that is true—that there was a secret organization in Europe for many hundreds of

years that has been hiding the truth behind what really happened to Jesus, the

founder, the person who began the Christian religion.

And Dan Brown is not a historian and there was a very interesting television

report, news report, about the book a couple of weeks ago, on a very famous

news program here called “60 Minutes.” The “60 Minutes” show is a one-hour

show about different news topics. They did a story about “The Da Vinci Code”

and they interviewed several historians from Oxford and some of the best

universities. And what they discovered is that what Dan Brown based his book on

was actually a hoax. A “hoax” is something that is invented, something that

someone makes up and gets other people to believe. The historians all said that

the book is completely false, there isn't any historical basis in the main idea in the

book. But, of course, people like to go see movies not because they are true but

because they are entertaining. I have not yet seen “The Da Vinci Code,” the

movie, and when I do, I'll let you know. It might be a good movie even if it's not

true. But many religious people in the United States have been mad, had been

upset about the movie because Dan Brown continues to say that it is based on

something that is true, when the historians are saying that it isn't.

Our next topic today is about retirement in the United States. “Retirement”

comes from the verb “to retire.” To retire means to stop working, usually for

good; that is, stop working for the rest of your life. So, when you get older, you

can leave your job and retire. You won't have to work anymore. “Retirement” is

the noun and it is something that, of course, all of us want to do. Some people in

the United States retire early. Early usually means before the age of 62 or 65.

Traditionally, in the United States, people retired or stopped working at age 62 or

65; however people are living longer now and many people don't retire until

they're 70 or 75. But, the average age is still probably 62 to 65 years old. Some

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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