EC137_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 137

TOPICS

Ask an American: Bluegrass music; resume versus curriculum vitae, the number

0 versus the letter O, one over the other

_____________

GLOSSARY

to bring over – to take from one place to another; to carry from one location to

another location as one moves to a new place

* Would you please call Cecil and ask him to bring over some extra chairs when

he comes over for dinner?

to pass down (something) – to teach something to the next generation; to give

information, skills, traditions, and other things to one’s children or grandchildren

* I made this cake from a recipe that was passed down to me by my

grandmother.

to flatten – to make flat; to make something wide, but not high or deep

* Tim wasn’t watching where he was going. He drove over the girl’s ball and

flattened it.

bridge – a small piece of wood on a musical instrument over which the strings

are stretched; a small piece of curved wood that keeps the strings off the

instrument so it can be played

* The bridge on this violin is broken so we need to replace it before the concert

tonight.

basically – essentially; fundamentally; simply

* You’re giving us a lot of facts, but basically you’re saying that we don’t have

enough money for this year’s events. Is that right?

roots – relating or connected to something, usually in the past; the place

situation, or traditions from which something comes

* Alesia tried for many years, but couldn’t figure out the roots of her fear of dogs.

origin – the place, situation, or tradition from which something comes; the place

where something started or was founded

* The professor gave a lecture about the origins of humans on Earth.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 137

melody – a series of single musical notes; the main musical notes in a song

* It’s difficult to hear the melody in this song because the drummer in the group is

playing too loudly.

acoustic – music produced without electronic equipment to make it louder or to

change its sound

* You can better hear the rock singer’s good voice when he performs the

acoustic version of his hit song.

fiddle – informal term for violin, a musical instrument with strings that is played

with a bow (long stick with horse-hair stretched between its ends)

* Will you play your fiddle at the country dance this year?

banjo – a musical instrument with strings, a long neck, and a round body, played

by plucking (using the fingertips to move) the strings, often used for American

folk music

* She is the best banjo player in this state. She plays so fast that it’s hard to

follow her fingers!

bass – a large musical instrument with strings that looks like a very large violin,

played with a bow (long stick with horse-hair stretched between its ends)

* At the concert, the first song began with the deep notes of the bass.

resume – a short, usually one-page, summary of one’s education, past

experience, accomplishments, and other things, often used to apply for jobs

* If you want to apply for the job, submit your resume before five p.m. today.

curriculum vitae (CV) – a summary of one’s education, past experience,

accomplishments, and other things, usually used to apply for jobs, especially in

the academic and technical fields

* Don’t forget to list the awards you’ve won on your CV.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 137

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Soggy Bottom Boys

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a comedy film released in 2000. The movie is set

in the state of Mississippi during the “Great Depression,” a period of great

economic problems, which began in the U.S. in 1929. “Where art thou?” is an

example of English spoken long ago and means “Where are you?” The film is

“loosely” (not closely) based on the story of Homer’s Odyssey, a very old Greek

book about one man’s very long journey to return home after a great war.

The movie includes a “quartet” (group of four musicians) called the “Soggy

Bottom Boys.” “Soggy” means wet, and “bottom,” in this case, refers to the part

of the body above the legs and below the waist used for sitting down.

A lot of the music in the film is American folk and bluegrass music. After the film

was released, the “fictional” (not real) band became so popular that the well-

known bluegrass musicians who played and sang the music won a Grammy

Award for their “collaboration” (cooperation on a project) and went on “tour”

(traveling to different cities to perform). The “soundtrack,” the recorded music

used in the movie, won a Grammy Award, the most prestigious and respected

music award in the U.S., for Album of the Year in 2001.

In the movie, the “lead” (main) guitarist character of the Soggy Bottom Boys was

“supposedly” (believed to be) based on the famous and well-respected blues

musician Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson claimed that he sold his “soul” (spirit)

to the devil in return for being able to play the guitar.

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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 – 137

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 137.

This is ESL Podcast’s English Café number 137. 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 to download a Learning Guide for this episode.

This is an 8 to 10 page guide that gives you all of the vocabulary, definitions,

sample sentences, cultural notes, and a complete transcript of this episode.

This episode is going to be an “Ask an American” episode, where we listen to

other native speakers talking about a topic, and then explain what it is that they

are saying. This gives you a chance to hear someone’s voice other than mine,

as well as people speaking at a native rate of speech.

Today’s topic is a very popular form of music in the United States called

“bluegrass.” We’ll talk about what bluegrass music is and listen to some

descriptions, and even some samples of it. As always, we’ll answer a few of your

questions as well. Let’s get started.

Our “Ask an American” segment today is about bluegrass music. Bluegrass is a

very interesting American style of music. It started, or we might say it “had its

roots” – it had its beginnings – in traditional music from Ireland, Scotland, and

England. What happened was these immigrants came can they settled in the

United States, many of them in an area called Appalachia. Appalachia is an area

that includes the Appalachian Mountains, which are on the eastern side of the

United States. Appalachia has been, and still is in some ways, a poor, rural,

mountainous area. The states of Kentucky and Tennessee, for example, have

poor areas still in this Appalachian Mountain chain.

The immigrants came and they brought with them their traditional music, and

they combined it with some other American music forms such as blues and jazz,

and you get this combination coming together in this particular style of – I guess

we could call it country music; it’s a type of country music called bluegrass. Let’s

first listen to a small sample of bluegrass music, and then we’ll talk more about it.

[music]

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 137

In bluegrass music, just as in jazz, one instrument – one musical instrument –

plays the melody and the other instruments provide backing, or

“accompaniment,” they go along with that main melody. The “melody” is the

main notes of a particular piece of music or song. Bluegrass music has all of the

instruments playing the melody at some time, but unlike traditional music, they

don’t all play it together. So first the banjo will play it, and then the fiddle will play

it, and then a different instrument will play the melody, and the melody gets, we

might say, “passed around.” It gets moved from one instrument to the other as

you are listening to it.

We’ll listen now to a description of the origins, or beginnings, of bluegrass music,

from someone who is a teacher. Let’s listen, and then we’ll go back and talk

about what he said,

[recording]

It was brought over from the old country, but then it was developed in the Blue

Ridges and that, and developed father-son, and as it – each time it’s passed

down to another generation, it gets a new personality. So, it is truly American

music.

[recording ends]

This gentleman describes bluegrass music, saying it was brought over from the

old country. It was “brought over,” meaning it was taken from one place and

brought here, in this case, to the United States. The “old country” is a traditional

expression, at least in American English, to refer to Europe, the countries where

most of the white immigrants to this nation came from. We talk about the “old

country,” meaning the countries where the first European immigrants came from.

Now it could be used to describe any country – original country where someone

came from, but traditionally it referred to European countries. This, of course,

would be in contrast to the United States, which is a new country. In fact, the

Americas are sometimes called the “New World.”

Well, this gentleman says that bluegrass was brought over from the old country,

but then it was developed in the Blue Ridges. The Blue Ridges is a part of the

Appalachian Mountains; sometimes we refer to a part of them as the Blue Ridge

Mountains. The “ridge” is like the edge or the top of a mountain. If you travel to

the Blue Ridge Mountain area, you can actually see why it is called the Blue

Ridge Mountains, because there is a certain bluish color when you look at them

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of

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

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