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English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 54

TOPICS

Houston, who Americans trust, to get off one’s soapbox, layover vs. transfer,

blond vs. blonde

_____________

GLOSSARY

gulf – a body of water that has land on all sides except a narrow, small section

* We have to be very careful if we plan to sail into that small gulf.

oil well – a deep hole made in the ground for oil to come out

* Some people are worried about the oil wells in Alaska and the effects they are

having on the environment.

metropolitan area – a large city with smaller cities and neighborhoods around it

* If you want to see the countryside, you’ll need to drive outside of the

metropolitan area.

port – a place on land on the coast where ships and boats can stop

* On our trip, the ship will stop at four different ports and we’ll get a chance to see

each city.

cargo – things that are carried on a ship, airplane, train, or car/truck

* The truck driver drove across six states to delivery her cargo.

to unload – to remove things from a ship, airplane, train, car/truck, or container

* When we arrived home after the long road trip, we unloaded all of our things

from the car.

mission – an exploration into space

* Which country will attempt the next mission to the moon?

dome – a round-shaped roof

* The dome on that church is at least 200 years old.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 54

occupation – job; profession

* What was your occupation before you decided to stay home to raise your

children?

clergy – the people allowed to perform religious duties; the people who are the

head of a religious organization

* The mayor called a meeting of the most influential clergy in the city to try and

stop the street violence.

to get off one’s soapbox – to stop telling other people what to do and how to

think

* If you’ll get off your soapbox for a minute we can talk seriously about finding a

solution.

to hog the floor – not to allow other people to speak or get attention

* I don’t want to hog the floor so I’ll hand it over to Jessica, who has a few words

to say.

layover – when traveling by airplane, a city where you must stop and wait or

change airplanes before going on

* She couldn’t get a direct flight from Austin to Pittsburg and had two layovers on

the way.

transfer – traveling to or returning from the airport

* This vacation package includes your airfares and all of your airport transfers in

each city.

blond/blonde – a man or woman (blond) or woman (blonde) with light yellow

color hair

* I don’t think you know Diana. She’s the blonde standing over there by the door.

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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 – 54

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

“___________ is a four-letter word.”

When someone in the U.S. uses the term “four-letter word,” they mean those

words in English that are “obscene” or “vulgar,” that is, foul language that you

would not say in front of your mother or your teacher. We call these “four-letter

words” even though some of them have more or less than four letters because

many of the obscene words in English are one syllable, and many of them have

four letters. Some of the less vulgar ones are “hell,” the very unpleasant place

that some people believe bad people will go when they die, or “damn,” something

you would say to curse someone or if something bad happens to you.

A popular expression that people use is: “(Something) is a four-letter word.” This

means that this thing, whatever it is, is unpleasant, very bad, or causes you

terrible problems. Some popular phrases are:

- “Love is a four-letter word.”

- “Work is a four-letter word.”

In these two examples, “love” and “work” actually have four letters.

But, we can also use this expressions with longer or shorter words, such as:

- “Trust is a four-letter word.”

- “Rejection is a four-letter word.”

Of course, “trust” and “rejection” have more than four-letters, but the idea and the

joke is that these things have the same meaning as four-letter words: They are

bad; they cause a lot of problems. So, some people may say: “English is four-

letter word.”

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 – 54

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

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

number 54.

This is the English Café episode 54. 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 be talking about the City of Houston, Texas.

We're also going to talk about a recent survey that asked Americans who they

trusted, and as usual, we'll answer a few of your questions. Let's get started.

If you haven't visited our website recently, be sure to go to eslpod.com. You'll

find some interesting things, we hope, that you'll enjoy. You'll also find a copy of

the Learning Guide for this episode of English Café. It contains all of the words

we're going to talk about, additional vocabulary that we don't talk about in the

podcast and additional notes about the topics for today.

Our first topic today is the City of Houston, Texas. Now Texas, the State of

Texas, is in the middle of the United States at the very southern border. So, it's

the state that is in the middle between the two coasts, between the two oceans,

and Texas is located right on the border of Mexico. Texas, as a state, is very

large; it was the largest state, I believe, until we got Alaska as a state.

The City of Houston is located in the southern part of the State of Texas. It's

actually on the Gulf of Mexico. A gulf, “gulf,” is a type of what we would call a

part of the ocean, and it is, in this case, part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf of

Mexico is that area of the water that is between Mexico and the United States,

basically.

Houston is known for a couple of things. If you ask the average American what

is Houston famous for, the first thing is probably oil. Houston and other parts of

Texas are famous because there are lots of oil wells. A well, “well,” is a hole that

goes into the ground that you can get oil from. You can also have a water well,

where you get water. But in Texas, they have these oil wells, and so there are

many companies that are related to the oil business.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 54

Dallas is another city in Texas that you may know about. It's a little more famous

because there was a famous television program on American television in the

1980’s called “Dallas,” maybe you saw it. That's another city in Texas that's

north of Houston. But, Houston is actually the third largest area, the third largest

city in the United States. In the area of Houston there are about five million

people. The City of Houston has about two million people. We usually talk about

both a city like Houston as well as the areas around it, the suburbs, we would call

them, or cities that are close to it, and we refer to that whole area as the

metropolitan area, “metropolitan.” The metropolitan area is the big city plus all of

the little cities that are close to it.

Well, as I say, Houston has about five million people in the metropolitan area. It's

famous for oil. It's also famous because it is a large port. A port, “port,” is a

place, usually on a ocean, where ships come and they can unload their cargo.

Cargo, “cargo,” are things that a ship or a plane carries, usually things that

people are going to buy. To unload, “unload,” means to take them off of the ship

and put them onto a truck or a train where they'll be transported. They'll be

moved to another part of the country. Well, Houston has one of the largest ports,

just like Los Angeles has a very large port. That is another reason why Houston

is famous.

The third most famous thing about Houston is that it is the place where the

Space Center, the home of our space program, is located. It's now called the

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Lyndon Johnson was a president of the

United States in the 1960;s. We sometimes just call him “LBJ” because those

are his initials, the first letters of his names. His was from the State of Texas.

The more common name that people call it, especially when we are talking about

rockets and ships going up into space, is Mission Control - Mission, “Mission,”

Control. A mission is a trip that a spaceship makes. We say the spaceship has

a mission, we mean that they are going on a trip. They're going to go up into

space.

During the 1960’s and 70’s, every time there was a spaceship that went up,

especially the Apollo Program - the Apollo Program was the name of the program

that sent rockets, sent these spaceships up into space, and including to the

moon. People would watch television and they would listen to Mission Control.

And, the astronauts - the people who fly the spacecraft - they would talk to

Mission Control, and usually they would just say the word “Houston.” So, when

they said, “Houston,” you knew they were talking to the Space Center 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.

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