English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

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

1

GLOSSARY

talk radio – radio programs where a host speaks with invited guests and
listeners who call into the show to discuss certain topics
* What’s the best station for conservative talk radio in this area?

doomsday – the end of the world; Armageddon; a future time when everyone
will die
* Thirty years ago, people thought nuclear weapons would cause doomsday, but
now climate change seems more likely.

garbage – something that is worthless; something that has no value
* All of those ideas are garbage! Can’t you guys come up with any more
interesting proposals?

impending – happening soon and bringing negative consequences
* Everyone is nervous about the impending storm.

to cry wolf – to say that something bad is going to happen when it is not true,
often to play a joke or trick another person, based on a traditional story about a
boy who was protecting sheep and told people in the village that a wolf was
coming, just to laugh at their reaction, but then when the wolf actually came
nobody believed him
* Are we really in danger of losing the client, or are you just crying wolf?

proof – evidence; something that shows the truth of something
* Do you have any proof that the housecleaner stole your jewelry?

to sound the alarm – to warn people about some danger or problem, especially
before most other people are aware of it
* If you suspect fraud, you have a responsibility to sound the alarm and let
management know about it.

canary in the coal mine – an early indicator of a problem or a dangerous
situation, based on how people used to lower canaries (small birds) into
underground areas to test for dangerous air, so that if the bird died, they knew
the area was not safe for humans
* The company decided to open one small office in southeast Asia as a canary in
the coal mine to determine whether further international expansion would be a
good idea.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

2

disaster – a bad, dangerous, and uncontrollable situation, especially caused by
natural forces like hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods
* The Carlsons have a suitcase filled with flashlights, a radio, batteries, canned
food, and water, just so they can be prepared for any disasters.

voice of reason – a person who is calm, logical, and rational while speaking to
other people who are panicked and not able to think clearly
* Whenever Trent becomes stressed out from school and work, he calls his
father, who can always offer him a voice of reason.

for real – actually happening; not imaginary or pretend; reality
* Was that offer for real, or were they just teasing us?

disruption – an interruption; a temporary stop in some service; a brief stop in
something
* When the tree fell, it knocked down a power line and caused a disruption in
electric service to homes and businesses.

a run on – a situation where many people want to buy or have the same thing,
more than the amount available
* Right before the storm, there was a run on flashlights, batteries, and bottled
water.

chaos – disorder; an extreme lack or order and organization; a situation where
things are very unpredictable and nobody is in control
* There’s so much chaos in this office, I don’t understand how you can get
anything done.

underground bunker – a safe room below the earth’s surface, made with very
strong walls and a locking door, that allows a person to live safely through any
situation for a certain period of time
* Kevin built an underground bunker to protect his family in case there’s a major
earthquake or a war.

to dig – to excavate; to use tools to move earth away from an area to create a
hole in the ground
* How long did it take you to dig that hole and to plant that tree?

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

3

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What would happen during “a run on food and water”?
a) People wouldn’t have enough money to buy food and water.
b) People would buy all the food and water so stores wouldn’t have enough.
c) The price of food and water would increase very quickly.

2. When Lilly says, “Start digging,” what does she want Paul to do?
a) She wants him to help her create a safe place to stay during a disaster.
b) She wants him to stop arguing and start believing her.
c) She wants him to go away and stop questioning her beliefs.

______________


WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

for real
The phrase “for real,” in this podcast, means actually happening, not imaginary or
pretend: “When Jeremiah asked Bekka to marry him, she didn’t think it was for
real.” The phrase “real life” means reality: “Falling in love is so beautiful in the
movies, but it’s never like that in real life.” The phrase “get real” is used to tell
another person to stop acting silly and take something seriously: “Do you really
think anyone will buy your car for that much money? Get real!” Finally, the phrase
“keep in real” means to behave honestly, not pretending to be different from how
one really is: “High school students face a lot of peer pressure that makes it hard
to keep it real.”

to dig
In this podcast, the verb “to dig” means to excavate, or to use tools to move earth
away from an area to create a hole in the ground: “Ahmed spent last weekend
digging holes for the fence posts.” The phrase “to dig it” is an older term that
means to understand something and find it acceptable: “So that’s our plan. Can
you dig it?” The phrase “to dig (one’s) heels in” means to be very stubborn and
not do what other people want one to do: “The more her parents tried to get her
to change her mind, the more she dug her heels in.” Finally, the phrase “to dig a
hole for (oneself)” means to do or say the wrong thing and end up in a difficult
situation: “Anyone who complains about a previous boss during a job interview is
just digging a hole for himself.”

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

4

CULTURE NOTE

The Emergency Broadcast System

The Emergency Broadcast System (now officially known as the Emergency Alert
System) is a system for “issuing” (sending) “warnings” (statements of bad things
that might happen) to the “general public” (ordinary people; all people) in the
United States during an emergency. The system was designed to be used in
times of war, but it is more often used for “natural disasters” like “severe”
(extreme; very strong) weather.

Most people are familiar with the Emergency Broadcast System because they
have heard the “alerts” (notifications designed to get people’s attention) on the
radio or seen them on TV. There is usually an unpleasant, “high-pitched” (with a
high voice, like a soprano) “tone” (musical note). Then a voice makes the
following announcement, or something similar:

This is a “test” (an attempt to try something and see if it is working correctly) of
the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. If this had been an “actual”
(real) emergency, you would have been instructed “where to tune in” (which radio
station or TV channel to visit) in your area for news and official information."

“Critics” (people who do not like something) sometimes argued that the
Emergency Broadcast System was “ineffective” (not good at doing something)
because it gave people a “false sense of security” (the incorrect belief that one is
safe). They said that radio and television “broadcasters” (the people responsible
for sharing radio and TV shows with the public) wouldn’t know what to do in an
actual emergency, and instead needed greater training and more detailed
instructions.

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – b; 2 – a

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

5

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 918 – Preparing for
a Disaster.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 918. I'm your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in
beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Go to our website at ESLPod.com. If you do, you can become a member of ESL
Podcast and help support us.

This episode is a dialogue between Lilly and Paul about getting ready for
something disastrous, something very bad that might happen in the future. Let’s
get started.

[start of dialogue]

Lilly: Quick, we need to go get some supplies. I was listening to talk radio on my
way home from work, and this guy was on talking about how doomsday is
coming and we need to prepare.

Paul: Oh no, not this again. You have to stop listening to that garbage on the
radio. Listen, there is no impending doom, and this guy was just crying wolf.

Lilly: No, he wasn’t. He had proof that the world is going to end soon and he was
sounding the alarm. Those people killed in the storm last week? They were the
canaries in the coal mine. Disaster is coming!

Paul: Let me be the voice of reason for a minute. How many times have you
believed that the world was ending in the past few years?

Lilly: A few times, but this is for real. There’ll be a disruption of services, a run on
food and water, and chaos!

Paul: Let me ask you this: if the world is ending, aren’t we all just going to die?

Lilly: Not if you have an underground bunker. Start digging!

[end of dialogue]

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

6

Lilly begins our dialogue by saying to Paul, “Quick” – meaning do this quickly –
“we need to go get some supplies.” “Supplies” are materials you use to do
something else. Lilly says, “I was listening to talk radio on my way home from
work and this guy” – this man – “was on” – was on the radio – “talking about how
doomsday is coming and we need to prepare.” So, Lilly was driving home from
work, and she was listening to “talk radio.” “Talk radio” refers to radio programs
that don't have music but have people who are being interviewed or people who
are talking, usually giving their opinions about something. In the United States, in
the last 30 years or so, talk radio has become very popular, especially for political
people – people who have strong political opinions, whether they're conservative
or liberal. You can find a talk radio station that has mostly people who are on
there talking about their political views. Many people associate talk radio, also,
with not being very reliable, with having people on there who have very extreme
views – views or opinions about things that are not ones that the majority of
people would have.

This is what has happened to Lilly. She was listening to talk radio and some man,
some guy, was on the radio – was on the radio program – talking about
“doomsday.” “Doomsday” (doomsday) is the word we give for the day that the
world will end. At some point in our future, something bad will happen and we will
all die – the entire human race will die. That will be the “doomsday.” “Doom”
(doom) is something bad – death, destruction.

Paul says, “Oh no, not this again.” That expression, “not this again,” means or
implies that this is not the first time that Lilly has had this idea or has had a
strange idea. Paul says, “You have to stop listening to that garbage on the radio.”
“Garbage” (garbage) normally refers to something that is worthless, something
that has no value. We might also use the word “trash.” In other English-speaking
countries, they use the term “rubbish” (rubbish). In the U.S., we use more
commonly the word “garbage.” Paul is referring here to things that are not worth
listening to. He's talking about the garbage on the radio. He means that the
people who are on there are idiots, that they're saying stupid things. Paul says,
“Listen, there is no impending doom, and this guy was just crying wolf.”
“Impending” (impending) is something that will happen soon, usually something
negative that will happen soon. Paul is saying that there is no impending doom.
There is nothing bad that is about to happen.

He says, “This guy was just crying wolf.” The expression “to cry (cry) wolf (wolf)”
refers to an old story about the boy who cried wolf. This might even be one of the
stories from Aesop, from the ancient world, from ancient Greece. “To cry wolf”
means to refer to or to say that something bad is going to happen as a joke, as a

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

7

trick. If you cry wolf, you are saying something bad is going to happen even when
you know that it's not true.

In the original story, the boy was out to protect the sheep and other animals. If
the boy saw a wolf, he was supposed to yell very loudly – to cry, which means
here to yell very loudly – “Wolf!” so that all of the other adults would come and kill
the wolf and protect the sheep. Well, the boy was lonely and wanted some
attention. So, he cried wolf even though there was no wolf, and of course all the
people came running. Well, he did this once. He did it twice. The third time he did
it, there really was a wolf, but no one believed him – no one came running –
because he had already cried wolf twice and it was just a joke. It was something
that wasn't true.

The general idea, then, of this expression is that if you say something is true and
it’s not, and you keep doing that, eventually people will not believe you. That's
what Paul is saying that the guy on talk radio is doing. He's crying wolf. He's
saying something bad will happen when he knows that there is nothing bad that
will happen.

Lilly says, “No, he wasn't. He had proof that the world is going to end soon.”
“Proof” (proof) is evidence. It's something that tells you something is true. Lilly
says the man “was sounding the alarm.” “To sound the alarm” means to warn
people about some danger, about some problem. Lilly says, “Those people killed
in the storm last week? They were the canaries in the coal mine.”

This is another expression that refers to an old concept. A “canary” is a kind of
bird. “Coal” (coal) is a very hard, black substance that you dig out of the ground
to use as fuel, to use for energy. A “mine” (mine) is when you dig holes in the
ground to get coal or some other object that is inside of the earth. In the old days,
they used to put a canary inside of a coal mine, because if the canary smelled
gas the canary would die, and that would be an early indicator that there was a
problem – that there was gas and that the men who were working in the coal
mine should leave. So, the canary was like a warning sign, a warning system that
told you that there was a problem.

Lilly is saying that the people who were killed in this storm in the story last week
were canaries in the coal mine. They were indicating that there was a greater
danger to the rest of us. She says, “Disaster is coming.” “Disaster” is something
horrible, something very bad that is going to hurt or kill many people. Sometimes,
we use disaster to refer to something that's really bad – a very bad situation or
even a very bad movie. If you say, “That movie was a disaster,” you mean it was
a very poorly made movie, not a good movie at all.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

8

Paul says, “Let me be the voice of reason for a minute.” “The voice of reason” is
the person who is calm, the person who is logical. Paul says, “How many times
have you believed that the world was ending in the past few years?” Paul is
asking Lilly how many times she has had this idea that the world was going to
end soon. Lilly says, “A few times, but this is for real.” This is actually going to
happen, she says.

Lilly says that there will be “a disruption of services, a run on food and water, and
chaos.” A “disruption” (disruption) is an interruption in something, a temporary
stop of something. In this case, it will be a disruption of services, which might
refer to electricity, or water, or transportation – anything required for us to
survive. The expression “a run on something” refers to a situation where
everyone goes out and tries to buy the same kind of thing. So, if there's going to
be a lot of rain, there might be a run on umbrellas. “Umbrellas” are things we use
to protect ourselves from the rain. Everyone is going to go out and try to buy
umbrellas. There's going to be a run on umbrellas. “Chaos” (chaos) is a general
word referring to lack of order. We might even use the word “disorder,” a situation
where no one is in control, where the world is without any sort of authority,
everything is going wrong, and there is no one there to take care of it.

Paul says, “Let me ask you this: if the world is ending, aren't we all just going to
die?” Paul is asking why they should do anything if the world is going to end.
There's nothing we can do to stop it. Lilly, however, doesn't agree. She says,
“Not if you have an underground bunker.” Lilly is saying that we won't die if we
dig a big hole in the ground and hide under the ground in a protected room.
That's what an “underground bunker” (bunker) is. Lilly ends by saying, “Start
digging!” “To dig” (dig) means to use usually a tool called a “shovel” that removes
dirt and allows you to create a hole in the ground. Lilly is telling Paul to start
digging into the ground so they can create this underground bunker. There are
actually people in the United States who believe that they have to have that kind
of protection, and they make their own bunkers. I don't know anyone personally
who's done that, but I have read stories about it and heard about it on talk radio.

Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialogue]

Lilly: Quick, we need to go get some supplies. I was listening to talk radio on my
way home from work, and this guy was on talking about how doomsday is
coming and we need to prepare.

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 918 – Preparing for a Disaster

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

9

Paul: Oh no, not this again. You have to stop listening to that garbage on the
radio. Listen, there is no impending doom, and this guy was just crying wolf.

Lilly: No, he wasn’t. He had proof that the world is going to end soon and he was
sounding the alarm. Those people killed in the storm last week? They were the
canaries in the coal mine. Disaster is coming!

Paul: Let me be the voice of reason for a minute. How many times have you
believed that the world was ending in the past few years?

Lilly: A few times, but this is for real. There’ll be a disruption of services, a run on
food and water, and chaos!

Paul: Let me ask you this: if the world is ending, aren’t we all just going to die?

Lilly: Not if you have an underground bunker. Start digging!

[end of dialogue]

I am the voice of ESL Podcast, but our scriptwriter is the voice of reason here at
the Center for Educational Development. That is the wonderful Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come
back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast was written and produced by Dr. Lucy
Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational
Development.