ESL Podcast 634 – Resembling One’s Parents

Khaled: Hi, what are you looking at?

Susanna: Your photo albums. Your roommate let me in and said I could make myself comfortable while I waited for you.

Khaled: There are some really incriminating pictures in there. You’d better give those back to me.

Susanna: Not yet! I’m looking at your baby pictures and your family portraits. You’re the spitting image of your mother.

Khaled: That’s not my mother. That was our neighbor.

Susanna: Oh, now that I look a little closer, I can see that you resemble your father. You’re a chip off the old block.

Khaled: That’s not my father. That’s my father’s friend. Now, why don’t I take those...

Susanna: Wait! These candids of your birthday parties are so cute! You were so adorable!

Khaled: Right. When I was a kid, I had a face only a mother could love.

Susanna: That’s not true! You have a great profile. I’d expect to see your likeness in paintings and on statues.

Khaled: Okay, enough with the brown- nosing. What do you really want?

Susanna: I don’t want anything...okay, just one little thing. My cousin is in town. I want to go out with Rick tonight and I thought we could double date. Me, Rick, my cousin...and you. What do you say?

Khaled: I knew it had to be something. Does she look like you?

Susanna: We are like two peas in a pod.

Khaled: Then, forget it!

Susanna: Hmph!


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

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incriminate 使負罪；連累

portrait 肖像；半身畫像；半身照

resemble 看起來像；顯得像；像

a chip off the old block（相貌或性格）酷似父親或母親的人

candid 搶拍的，偷拍的（照片）

adorable 可愛的；討人喜愛的

profile 面部的側影；側面輪廓

likeness 相像；相似

statue 雕像,塑像

brown- nosing 討好,奉承

What do you say? 你同意…嗎；你看…好不好

pod 莢；莢果

two peas in a pod 一模一樣

ESL Podcast 633 – Moving Out of a Home

[A knock on door.]

Andre: Hello. Is anyone here?

Ellie: Yes, can I help you?

Andre: I saw your door open and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. Did you just move in?

Ellie: No, I’m moving out. As you can see, I’m doing last-minute packing. I think I’ve used up 10 rolls of packing tape!

Andre: This looks like a major undertaking. Are you moving yourself?

Ellie: No, the movers are coming with the moving van tomorrow morning. I’m moving a few things into storage, and I’ll take a few of the perishables and essentials in my car, but they’ll be doing the heavy lifting. No loading for me. Before they come, though, I need to disassemble this desk and this bookcase. It’ll be a long afternoon.

Andre: I can see that. Are you moving far?

Ellie: No, I’m only moving about a mile from here to another apartment.

Andre: Oh, so you’re not moving out of the area.

Ellie: No, I’m not.

Andre: I’m glad to hear that. Let’s make a deal: I’ll help you disassemble your furniture if you’ll promise to invite me over to your new place sometime.

Ellie: Really? Are you sure you’re willing to do that?

Andre: Sure. Hand me those tools and I’ll have it done in no time.

Ellie: Boy, am I glad I left my door open.

Andre: Yeah, so am I.


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

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undertaking （重大或艱巨的）任務，項目，事業；企業

perishables 易腐食物

lift 提,吊,升,舉

disassemble 拆開,拆卸

make a deal 做交易

to invite someone over 邀請某人到家中

in no time 很快;立即

ESL Podcast 632 – Negotiating a Business Deal

Gia: Why are the negotiations on this deal taking so long? I thought we would be putting the finishing touches on it by now.

Logan: The other side is holding out for more concessions. I don’t know what they’re thinking. They made some pretty big demands at the start and I think we’ve given in to most of them. Now they’re countering with even more demands.

Gia: They probably know that they have us over a barrel. After all of the time and money we’ve put into this deal, they know that we don’t want to walk away.

Logan: That’s true and that’s why we’re still at the table, but they may be pushing too hard. In the end, I don’t think we’ll cave on those additional concessions.

Gia: So the entire thing is touch-and- go right now?

Logan: That’s how I would characterize it. If I were you, I wouldn’t make any long-term plans.

Gia: Duly noted. I won’t run out and buy that new house and those three new cars.


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

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negotiation 談判,協商

put the finishing touches on it 進入最後階段

hold out for（為得到利益）拖延達成協議;維持；堅持

concession 讓步;讓步行為

give in 讓步

have somebody over a barrel（使某人）聽從擺佈，處於被動地位

walk away 轉身離開

cave 讓步；屈服；屈從

touch-and- go 不確定；無把握；很難說；吉凶未卜;草率從事的行動;一觸即發的形勢

characterize 是…的特徵；以…為典型

Duly 適當地；恰當地

English Café 261

Topics: Yelp; Book Review: The Road; advocate versus lawyer versus attorney; any; salmon and count/mass nouns

Words:
yelp （因疼痛等）尖叫
social networking
profile
review
recourse 依靠；依賴；求助
escapism 逃避現實；解脫方法
spare 不用的；閑置的
apocalypse /ə'pɑkəˈlɪps/ 世界毀滅
deserted 無人居住的；空寂無人的
dog-eat-dog 狗咬狗的;無情的;自相殘殺的
to grip 緊握；緊抓
quotation mark 引號
advocate 擁護；支持；提倡
lawyer
attorney
any
salmon 鮭；大麻哈魚

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ESL Podcast 631 – Customizing a Personal Webpage

Keiko: The layout of your webpage is so lame. Why don’t you customize it?

Al: Why bother? I don’t want to spend the time or the energy.

Keiko: Let me show you my page. Check out this background. Don’t you think it’s great?

Al: Yeah, it’s great. Can I get back to my book now?

Keiko: You haven’t even looked at my page. Look at this. You can add all kinds of graphics and you can use the profile editor to list information about yourself: your hometown, your likes and dislikes, your relationship status, your mood, everything! You can link to or upload photos and videos, too. I even have a custom cursor and this scrolling text across the top

Al: Yeah, it’s all great, but kind of dizzying.

Keiko: You haven’t even seen my animated gifs. This funny baby will dance across the page, look!

Al: Thanks for the suggestions, but I think I’ll stick to a simple, uncluttered page. How long did it take you to do all of that?

Keiko: How long? Maybe a few hours.

Al: I’d rather spend a few hours reading a good book.

Keiko: Suit yourself. Maybe that’s why you have 22 “friends” and I have 200.

Al: Clearly your time has been better spent.


Script by Dr. Lucy Tse

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lame 瘸的；跛的；差勁的

customize 訂製，訂做，改製（以滿足顧主的需要）

bother 花費時間精力（做某事）

Why bother 何必

cursor 游標

dizzying 使人眩暈的；使人頭昏眼花的

animated 動畫的

uncluttered 簡潔的；整潔的；利落的

clutter 凌亂地塞滿；亂堆放

stick to 堅持（做某事）

English Café 259

Topics: The Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Famous Songs: Oh! Susanna; whichever versus whatever; tar-and-feather; mutually exclusive

Words:
smoke
old-growth forest = climax forest 已經達到其最後生長或穩定生長時期的森林
salamander 蠑螈（兩棲動物，形似蜥蜴）
settler 移民；殖民者

log /lɑg/ 原木

cabin （通常為木製的）小屋，小棚屋

log cabin 原木小屋
banjo 卓，班卓琴（撥弦樂器，長頸、圓身）
true love
still 靜止的；平靜的；安靜的；寂靜的
nonsensical 荒謬的；無意義的
dialect 地方話；土話；方言
from memory 根據記憶
whichever 無論哪個；無論哪些
whatever （表示做什麼或發生什麼都沒關係，因結果都一樣）無論什麼，不管什麼

tar 焦油；焦油瀝青；柏油

feather 羽毛

tar-and-feather 嚴厲懲罰

mutually 相互地；彼此；共同地

exclusive 排斥的；排他的
mutually exclusive

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cliff （常指海洋邊的）懸崖，峭壁

chorus 副歌

buckwheat 蕎麥