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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

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1

GLOSSARY

woodworking – the art and skill of making objects from wood
* Jane wants to learn more about woodworking so that she can build simple
musical instruments.

to refinish – to give a new, more beautiful surface to a piece of furniture
* This furniture has been painted many times, but I bet the wood is beautiful
underneath. All we have to do is remove the paint and refinish it.

workshop – a large room where work is done, especially where things are built
* Bryan is a sculptor, so he converted his garage into a workshop where he can
keep all his materials.

grain – the lines and patterns on the surface of a cut piece of wood
* Because there are natural variations in the grain of the wood, each tabletop is
unique.

hardwood – heavy, compact (tight) wood from trees with broad (wide) leaves,
often used for construction
* Oak and ash are beautiful, but I think beech is my favorite hardwood.

plywood – an inexpensive, but strong board (a flat piece of wood) made by
gluing together layers of wood
* The children are making a tree house out of plywood.

saw – a tool with a handle and sharp teeth along one side of a piece of metal
used to cut wood
* In the past, it would take men hours to cut down a large tree with a handheld
saw, but now chainsaws can do the work in just minutes.

chisel – a long tool with a handle at one end and a sharp, angled metal piece at
the other end, used to shape wood or stone by cutting away small pieces
* Sometimes the best way to open a can of paint is to use a chisel against the
edge of the lid.

drill – an electric tool used to put a hole into a piece of wood or metal, or a wall
* Lyle used a drill to put a small hole in the wall before he tried to insert the
screw.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

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

2

metal – a solid, hard, and shiny material like steel, iron, silver, gold, copper,
brass, and more
* I prefer a metal water bottle over a plastic one.

grillwork – metal bars or wires that cross each other to make a flat surface,
either in a grid (lines crossing each other with regular spacing) pattern or in an
artistic design
* This neighborhood has a lot of crime, so many of the windows are covered with
grillwork to prevent people from breaking in.

metalwork – the art and skill of making objects from metal
* Did you notice all the metalwork on the car’s exterior?

to weld – to join two pieces of metal by making them very hot so that they begin
to melt and pushing them together
* The screwdriver broke into two pieces. Can you fix it by welding them back
together?

to solder – to join two pieces of metal by melting a soft metal and applying it
over the ends of the two pieces
* Soldering computer circuits is a very delicate job that requires steady hands.

when all is said and done – eventually; ultimately; in the end; to make a long
story short
* There are a lot of papers to sign, but when all is said and done, you’ll be the
owners of a new home.

to try (one’s) hand at (something) – to try to do something for the first time,
especially if it is difficult and challenging and one has little or no experience
related to it
* Have you ever tried your hand at sewing?

fond of – liking something; attracted to something; thinking that something is
good, worthwhile, interesting, and worth keeping or protecting
* The Carlsons asked us to watch their cat while they were out of town, but we
grew fond of it and now we don’t want to give it back to them.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

3

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. Which of these tools are used to cut wood?
a) Saws
b) Chisels
c) Drills

2. What does Shawna mean when she asks, “Want to try your hand at it?”
a) Do you want to buy some of the furniture?
b) Do you want to try to make some furniture?
c) Do you want to paint some of the furniture?

______________


WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

grain
The word “grain,” in this podcast, means the lines and patterns on the surface of
a cut piece of wood: “It’s impossible to know what the grain will look like before
you cut into a piece of wood.” The word “grain” also refers to many types of food
that are the seeds of grass-like crops: “The doctor recommended eating more
whole grains, like wheat, rye, and barley.” A “grain” can also be a very small
piece of something: “The lid fell off of the salt shaker, leaving grains of salt all
over the table.” Finally, “a grain of truth” is a very small amount of truth mixed in
with lies or fiction: “The book is fiction, but it has a few grains of truth.”

to try (one’s) hand at
In this podcast, the phrase “to try (one’s) hand at (something)” means to try to do
something for the first time, especially if it is difficult and challenging and one has
little or no experience related to it: “I’d like to try my hand at sailing, but I don’t
know anyone with a sailboat.” The phrase “in good hands” means cared for and
safe: “This is the best surgeon in the country, so you’ll be in good hands.” The
phrase “to have a hand in (something)” mean to be involved in something or to
participate in something: “Did you have a hand in planning this surprise party?”
Finally, the phrase “to have (one’s) hands full” means to be very busy: “Sheila
has her hands full taking care of her twins. I doubt she has time to volunteer for
our organization.”

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

4

CULTURE NOTE

Protecting the Biggest Trees

American Forests is a nonprofit organization that has a “National Big Tree
Program” that locates and protects the biggest trees in the United States. The
organization “keeps” (maintains) a “registry” (a list) of 786 of the largest
“specimens” (individuals; samples) for hundreds of species or types of trees
throughout the United States. The organization calculates a total number of
points for each tree as the “sum” (addition) of the tree’s “circumference” (distance
around the “trunk” (the vertical, wooden part of the tree)), the height, and one-
fourth of the “crown spread” (the distance from one edge of the leafy parts to the
other).

The “giant sequoias” of northern California are considered the biggest trees in
the United States. The General Sherman Tree is the largest known tree on Earth
by “volume” (total area occupied by the tree). It is 275 feet (83.8 meters) tall, with
a trunk “diameter” (the distance across a circle) of 25 feet (7.7 meters) and is
believed to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old.

The Hyperion Tree is the tallest tree in the world. It is a “coast redwood” that
“towers” (is much taller than other objects) over the forest at 379.3 feet (115.61
meters) tall and may be 700-800 years old.

But the size of a tree is not always “correlated with” (moving in the same direction
as) age. The oldest individual tree in the world is a Great Basin bristlecone pine
in the White Mountains of California, and is believed to be 5,062 years old. But
people have found “clonal trees” (trees that are connected and grow from a
single “ancestor” (an older individual in the same family) that are even older.

______________

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

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). 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 1,011 – Building
with Wood and Metal.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1,011. 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. Become a member of ESL Podcast. You can
also take a look on our website at our ESL Podcast Store, as well as our ESL
Podcast Blog, where we give you additional free English lessons every week.
Just visit our website.

This episode is a dialogue between Hugo and Shawna about building things with
wood and metal. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Hugo: Wow, when you said that you did some woodworking on the weekends, I
thought you meant refinishing furniture. But this! This is a real workshop and
you’re actually building furniture.

Shawna: Yeah, this is what I’m working on right now. I’m building a dining table
and chairs.

Hugo: The grain is beautiful on this piece of hardwood. It certainly looks better
than the plywood furniture I have in my house. What is all this?

Shawna: Just some basic tools: saws, chisels, and drills.

Hugo: And what is all this metal for?

Shawna: I’m adding some grillwork for the back of the chairs. I don’t usually do
metalwork, but I’m keeping it simple.

Hugo: This doesn’t look simple. These pieces have been welded together, and is
that used for soldering?

Shawna: You got it. When all is said and done, I’ll have a new dining room set
with a large table and eight chairs.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

6

Hugo: Wow, I’m impressed.

Shawna: Want to try your hand at it?

Hugo: No thanks. You see these 10 fingers? I’m rather fond of them.

[end of dialogue]

This episode is all about building things. We begin with Hugo saying to Shawna,
“Wow, when you said you did some woodworking on the weekends, I thought
you meant refinishing furniture.” “Wow” is an expression of surprise. Hugo is
surprised when he sees what Shawna is doing.

Shawna is doing some “woodworking.” “Woodworking” is making things out of
wood, the material. “Wood,” of course, comes from trees. You cut the tree down
in order to get the wood that you use to build things with. Shawna is interested in
woodworking, and she does it on the weekends – on Saturdays and Sundays.

Hugo thought that Shawna had been “refinishing furniture.” “To refinish” furniture
is just to make the surface or outside of the furniture look more beautiful – to do
something to the wood in order to make it look better. This is very different than
actually building something, of course. What Shawna has been doing is building
things, not just changing their appearance on the outside.

Hugo says, “But this! This is a real workshop and you’re actually building
furniture.” A “workshop” is a large room where people do work, especially
physical things like building furniture or repairing motors. The term “workshop” is
also now used in other situations where we’re talking about an area or a place
where everyone is working on the same thing.

Sometimes we use this word for a type of meeting, a type of educational meeting
where everyone gets together and learns something new or applies the
knowledge that they have to make something. It may not be something physical,
however. Here it is something physical. It’s furniture made out of wood.

Shawna says, “Yeah, this is what I’m working on right now. I’m building a dining
table and chairs.” A “dining (dining) table” is a table that you would put in a large
room in your house, and you would eat at that table. It’s the table you would use
for eating. “To dine” (dine) means to eat. Shawna is working on a dining table
and chairs.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

7

Hugo says, “The grain is beautiful on this piece of hardwood.” “Grain” (grain),
when we’re talking about wood, refers to the lines and the patterns on the
surface of a piece of wood. If you look at a piece of wood that has been cut from
a tree, you will see that there are lines in the wood. These lines are called the
“grain” of the wood.

“Hardwood” is a special kind of wood that is very heavy, that is typically used for
making houses, for example, or constructing things that you need to be very
solid, to be very stable. We use hardwood very commonly in houses for the floors
of the house. My house, for example, has “hardwood flooring,” meaning there are
pieces of wood that you walk on. Now of course most floors are made of some
kind of wood. “Hardwood” is a special kind of wood that is, well, very hard.

Hugo says, “It certainly looks better than the plywood furniture I have in my
house.” “Plywood” (plywood) is a cheap – that is to say, inexpensive – board that
is made from a flat piece of wood. Usually it’s used by gluing different wood
materials together. Plywood is not very strong. It’s not very hard. It’s used often
in order to save money because it’s inexpensive.

It was very popular in the 1960s and ’70s for people to put plywood on the walls
of their rooms inside of their houses so you wouldn’t be painting your walls – you
would have this wood. In my house where I grew up, in the basement (in the
bottom part of the house) we had plywood on the walls. That was very popular in
the 1970s. It’s not as popular anymore today.

Hugo says his furniture is made from this cheap wood. Then he asks, “What is all
this?” He’s obviously looking at or pointing to something. Shawna says, “Just
some basic tools: saws, chisels, and drills.” “Tools” are instruments you use in
order to make something. A “saw” (saw) is a tool that is used to cut wood. It has
little sharp points on it – what we call “teeth,” just like the teeth in your mouth.

A “chisel” (chisel) is a long tool that has a sharp end on it. Usually it’s made of
metal. We use a chisel to remove small sections of the wood. A sculptor, such as
Michelangelo, uses a chisel in order to remove pieces of marble or stone in order
to make the sculpture. Here, we’re talking about a wood chisel, not a chisel used
with a very hard rock such as marble.

A “drill” (drill) is a tool that puts a hole into something – in this case, into a piece
of wood. The verb “to drill” can mean to put a hole into something like wood. It
can also mean to practice something over and over again. If you play basketball,
or any sport, your coach probably has you do certain “drills” – certain exercises –
over and over again. We also use this verb sometimes in school when we give

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

8

students things to practice over and over again, often used with things that
teachers want students to memorize.

Hugo then asks Shawna, “And what is all this metal for?” “Metal” (metal) is
something like steel, iron, silver, gold, copper, brass – all of these are examples
of metals. Shawna then explains, “I’m adding some grillwork for the back of the
chairs.” “Grillwork” (grillwork) here refers to metal bars or wires that cross each
other in order to make a flat surface. So, the back of the chair is actually going to
have this grillwork on it. The grillwork will be used basically as the back of the
chair.

A chair has three parts. It has a seat, where you sit on – where you put your
behind on, or your “butt,” we would say informally, on. It has legs that are on the
ground, or that are placed on the ground, and it has a back, typically, where you
can lean back on. You can put the back of your body on the back of the chair.
This chair is going to have grillwork made of metal on it, which doesn’t sound
very comfortable to me, but it’s not my chair.

Shawna says, “I usually don’t do metalwork” – that is, she usually doesn’t work
with metal. Hugo says, “This doesn’t look simple.” It does not look simple. “These
pieces have been welded together, and is that used for soldering?” Hugo is
looking at the metal grillwork and saying that different pieces appear to have
been “welded (welded) together.”

“To weld” means to join two pieces of metal by making them very hot, so that
they are able to be connected so that when they are cool, they are then
permanently connected. “Solder” (solder) – the “L” is silent – is a material that
you use to connect two pieces of metal together that might be difficult to connect
directly using welding. Solder is a soft material that you heat up, and when you
heat it up, it melts, and then when it cools down, it stays solid, and that’s how you
connect the two pieces of metal.

Shawna says, “You got it,” meaning that’s correct. “When all is said and done, I’ll
have a new dining room set with a large table and eight chairs.” “When all is said
and done” means eventually – in the end. This expression is often used when we
are trying to give a summary, say, of a story, or when we are trying to tell
someone the final result of something without giving them all the details.

Hugo says, “Wow, I’m impressed.” “To be impressed” means that you really think
it’s wonderful. You are really surprised at something in a good way. Shawna
says, “Want to try your hand at it?” “To try your hand at” something means to try

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

9

to do something for the first time, especially if it is difficult and if you don’t have
very much experience doing it.

Hugo says, “No, thanks. You see these 10 fingers? I’m rather fond of them.” “To
say you are fond (fond) of” something means you like something. You think
something is good and interesting. It’s an expression that you still hear in
conversational English, although it isn’t as common now perhaps as it was 50
years ago.

Hugo says he’s “rather fond of” his fingers. “Rather” here means “very.” Why
does he say this? Well, because he is saying that if he tries to do what Shawna
does, he may cut off one of his fingers, and because he’s “fond of his fingers” –
that is, he likes his fingers – he doesn’t want to try his hand at woodworking or at
metalwork.

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

[start of dialogue]

Hugo: Wow, when you said that you did some woodworking on the weekends, I
thought you meant refinishing furniture. But this! This is a real workshop and
you’re actually building furniture.

Shawna: Yeah, this is what I’m working on right now. I’m building a dining table
and chairs.

Hugo: The grain is beautiful on this piece of hardwood. It certainly looks better
than the plywood furniture I have in my house. What is all this?

Shawna: Just some basic tools: saws, chisels, and drills.

Hugo: And what is all this metal for?

Shawna: I’m adding some grillwork for the back of the chairs. I don’t usually do
metalwork, but I’m keeping it simple.

Hugo: This doesn’t look simple. These pieces have been welded together, and is
that used for soldering?

Shawna: You got it. When all is said and done, I’ll have a new dining room set
with a large table and eight chairs.

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 1011 – Building with Wood and Metal

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2014). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

10

Hugo: Wow, I’m impressed.

Shawna: Want to try your hand at it?

Hugo: No thanks. You see these 10 fingers? I’m rather fond of them.

[end of dialogue]

We are very fond of the wonderful scripts here on ESL Podcast, written by our
wonderful scriptwriter, 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 2014 by the Center for Educational
Development.