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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

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1

GLOSSARY

funny – strange or unusual, often in a bad way
* There’s something funny about the way he told us to be careful, almost as if he
knew something bad would happen.

tainted – contaminated; spoiled or unsafe because a food or drink contains
something harmful or poisonous
* The air was tainted by the fumes from the tire factory.

to detect – to be able to sense something; to identify the presence of something
* Bacteria are too small to detect just by using our eyes, so we have to use a
microscope.

metallic – tasting like a piece of metal, with a sharp, bitter taste
* This medicine might leave a metallic taste in your mouth, but it should go away
within a few hours.

off – wrong; incorrect; not quite right, but difficult to define or identify
* When Tariq came home, the door was unlocked and even though nothing had
been stolen, he felt that something was off.

adulterated – made impure or contaminated by adding something else, often to
make something less expensive
* The infant formula was adulterated, so people were actually giving their babies
powdered formula mixed with chalk!

poison – a substance that can hurt or kill when eaten, drunken, or touched
* If the mouse traps aren’t working, it’s time to buy some poison.

a terrible death – a horrible way to die; a very slow and painful death
* Taisha suffered from the disease for months and died a terrible death.

toxic – poisonous; containing substances that can cause harm or death,
especially chemical substances
* What does the factory do with all that toxic waste?

sour – spoiled; a food or drink that was not eaten early enough and has an
unpleasant taste
* Pease finish the milk before it becomes sour.

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

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2

ingredient – one of the foods or substances used to make another food or drink
* This recipe calls for just four ingredients: oatmeal, raisins, milk, and brown
sugar.

spoiled – damaged through decay; no longer good to eat
* The food is spoiled because she forgot to put it in the refrigerator last night.

botulism – a type of food poisoning, often deadly, caused by bacteria in food,
especially in damaged cans
* Food safety experts warn that people should never buy dented cans of food,
because they might cause botulism.

to pass – to forego; to decide not to have or do something
* A: Are you going to go to the party tonight?
B: No, I’ll pass. I have to study.

to hand (something) over – to give something to another person
* If you aren’t going to finish that cake, hand it over!

hypochondriac – a person who believes he or she has many diseases, even
though he or she is actually healthy
* Nancy complains about her health all the time. Is she really sick, or is she just a
hypochondriac?

paranoid – very worried and anxious, believing that other people are trying to
hurt oneself in some way
* Kyle is really paranoid. He thinks the FBI and the CIA are listening to his phone
calls and reading his emails.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

3

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. Which of these words could be used to describe bread that should no longer
be eaten?
a) Toxic.
b) Sour.
c) Spoiled.

2. Why doesn’t Rachel want to eat the food?
a) She thinks it doesn’t look nice.
b) She thinks it has a strange smell.
c) She thinks it might kill her.

______________


WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

off
The word “off,” in this podcast, means wrong, incorrect, or not quite right, but
difficult to define or identify: “The kids were playing with the radio dials, and now
the sound is a little off.” The phrase “the off season” refers to a time of year when
a business is not very busy: “Toy manufacturers work really hard in the months
before Christmas, but the rest of the year is the off season.” The phrase “an off
day” refers to a day when things are not going well and when a person is not
behaving or performing as well as usual: “Normally, Norma-Jean is a sweet little
girl, but today she’s having an off day.” Finally, the phrase “off-limits” describes
something that is forbidden and not allowed: “Sugar is off-limits while you’re on
this diet.”

sour
In this podcast, the word “sour” means spoiled, referring to a food or drink that
was not eaten soon enough and has an unpleasant taste: “How can you eat your
cereal with sour milk? It smells terrible!” The phrase “a sour face” refers to
someone with an unpleasant, unfriendly facial expression: “Dmitriy is really nice
and friendly, but the has such a sour face that people don’t want to talk to him.”
Finally, the phrase “sour grapes” refers to someone who cannot have something,
so pretends not to like or want it even though that isn’t true: “Helena was very
critical of their new home, but it was really just a case of sour grapes. She’d love
to buy a home like that if she had more money.”

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

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4

CULTURE NOTE

Major Food Poisoning Incidents

There have been many “outbreaks” (occurrences of a disease in many people) of
“food-borne illnesses” or “food poisoning” (sickness caused by food) in the United
States in recent years. The “deadliest” (causing the most deaths) one “occurred”
(happened) in 1985 in California, when approximately 50 people died from eating
cheese contaminated with Listeria (a type of bacteria). The second-deadliest
U.S. food poisoning incident occurred in 2011 throughout the United States when
29 people died from eating “cantaloupes” (an orange-colored melon) from
Colorado, also contaminated with Listeria.

In 2010, more than 500 million eggs were “recalled” (taken back from stores so
they cannot be sold) after almost 2,000 people became ill. The eggs were
contaminated with Salmonella (another type of bacteria). Salmonella was also
the “culprit” (the thing or person responsible for some problem or crime) in the
food illnesses caused by peanut butter in 2009. The peanut butter was used as
an ingredient in many products sold by many different manufacturers across the
country. “Altogether” (in total), the foods containing the peanut butter made more
than 22,000 people sick and killed nine people.

The E. coli bacteria have been the source of many other instances of food
poisoning. E. coli is normally found in meats like “poultry” (chicken and turkey)
and ground beef, but it has been found in other products, too. For example, in
2009 more than 65 people became ill after eating “raw” (not cooked) cookie
“dough” (the mixture of ingredients used to make bread, cookies, or muffins)
“presumably” (probably, but not proven) contaminated with E. coli.

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – c; 2 – c

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). 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 821: Eating
Contaminated Food.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 821. I’m your host, Dr.
Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our dialogue is on our website. You can also download a Learning Guide from
that same website, eslpod.com. Go there today and become a member.

How are you doing today? Are you happy? Are you sad? Let's hope you're
happy. If not, let's listen to this dialogue and maybe that will make you happy. It's
about eating contaminated food, food that has something wrong with it, and
there's nothing happier than the subject of contaminated food. Let’s get started!

[start of dialogue]

Rachel: This tastes funny.

Sergey: It’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Rachel: It tastes like it’s tainted or something. Don’t you detect a funny metallic
taste?

Sergey: No, it’s perfectly fine. Just eat it.

Rachel: I swear there’s something off about this food. I’m not eating adulterated
food. There’s probably poison in here and we’re both going to die a terrible
death.

Sergey: There is nothing poisonous or toxic in this food. I made it myself.

Rachel: Did you make sure that the milk wasn’t sour and that none of the
ingredients were spoiled? I’ll probably die from botulism.

Sergey: There’s nothing spoiled, tainted, toxic, or poisonous in this food. Are you
going to eat that or not?

Rachel: I think I’ll pass.

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

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6

Sergey: Then hand it over. I’m hungry. I’ve never met such a hypochondriac
before!

Rachel: I’m not a hypochondriac. I’m just a little paranoid...

[end of dialogue]

Our happy dialogue begins with Rachel saying, “This tastes funny.” You see?
“Funny” – it’s already a happy dialogue. We have the word “funny.” Well, in some
cases, it can mean something that makes you laugh. He’s very funny – ha, ha,
ha, ha. But “funny” here, when we're talking about the ways something tastes in
your mouth, means strange or unusual, usually in a bad way, meaning there's
something wrong with it. It might make you sick. It might kill you. It's a weird
phrase, but we use the word funny with the verb taste when we mean food has
some unusual, usually bad taste. Sergey says, “It's fine. There's nothing wrong
with it.” There's nothing wrong with the food, Sergey says.

Rachel, however, says, “It tastes like it's tainted or something.” It tastes like it has
the taste in my mouth of something that is “tainted” (tainted). “Tainted” is another
word for contaminated. It means something – some food or drink – contains
something that is harmful or poisonous. It's not safe to eat or drink it. Rachel
says, “Don’t you detect a funny metallic taste?” To “detect” (detect) means to be
able to identify the presence or existence of something, to be able to tell, if you
will, that it's there. Don’t you detect, can't you taste, a funny metallic taste?
“Metallic” (metallic) comes from the word metal, so something that tastes like
metal, which of course is not a very nice taste.

Sergey says, “No, it's perfectly fine.” “Perfectly” here means completely, no
problem. “Just eat it,” he says to Rachel. Rachel says, “I swear,” meaning I
believe, I really believe, “there's something off about this food.” When we say the
food is “off” (off), we mean it's not quite right. We can use this expression,
“there's something off about this television program” or “there's something off
about the way I'm feeling.” It's not quite right. It's wrong, but it's difficult to say
exactly what the problem is. If you say there's something off about this food, you
mean it doesn’t taste good. You're not sure what the problem is, but you know
there's something wrong with it.

Rachel says, “I'm not eating adulterated food.” “Adulterated” (adulterated) means
the same as tainted or contaminated. Usually, however, adulterated means that
something was actually added to the product, to the food or the drink. Someone
actually put something in there that was contaminated. Sometimes it is done on
purpose, and that’s the idea here, that someone put something in there that

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

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

7

makes it not the food you think it is. Rachel says, “There's probably poison in
here and we're both going to die a terrible death.” Didn’t I tell you this was going
to be a happy dialogue? There's probably “poison” (poison) means there's
probably a substance here that will kill us or hurt us if we eat it or drink it or
perhaps even touch it. Poison is something, some substance, some chemical
substance often, that kills you. “A terrible death” would be a horrible way to die, a
very slow and painful death might be a terrible death. Well, Rachel is probably
not serious, but you don’t really know. Maybe there is poison and they will die a
terrible death.

Sergey says, “There is nothing poisonous or toxic in this food. “Toxic” (toxic) is
the same as poisonous. It contains some substance that will kill you or that will
hurt you. It has something that will injure you or perhaps kill you. Sergey insists
that there's nothing wrong with the food. He says, “I made it myself.” I made this
food.

Rachel said, “Did you make sure that the milk wasn’t sour and that none of the
ingredients were spoiled?” “Sour” (sour) here means gone bad. When you have a
food or a drink that is not eaten quickly enough, sometimes it will go sour. It will
go bad. It will “spoil” (spoil). Well, if you put milk out in the sun, eventually the
milk will sour. It will change so that you can't eat it, or drink it, rather, anymore.
That’s what Rachel is asking Sergey, if he used milk that was not sour and that
none of the ingredients were spoiled. “Ingredients” are the things you use to
make a certain kind of food. So if you're making lasagna, an Italian food, you
would have pasta and perhaps tomato sauce and vegetables and meat and
cheese. These are ingredients for that particular dish, that particular kind of food.
Rachel is asking Sergey if he made sure that none of the ingredients were
spoiled. Remember “spoiled” means they’ve gone bad. We might say they're
“rotten” (rotten). When you wait too long to eat a certain kind of food, it could
spoil. It would no longer be able to be eaten. That’s the idea.

Rachel then says, “I'll probably die from botulism.” “Botulism” (botulism) is a kind
of food poisoning that can often kill you. It's caused by certain bacteria being in
the food, things that shouldn’t be there, especially if you put them in a certain
kind of can, or if something happens and the food somehow gets this bacteria in
it. It could kill you. It's a kind of food poisoning. Well, that’s what Rachel says
here, “I'll probably die from botulism.”

Rachel – come on, Rachel! I mean, she’s sort of what we would call a drama
queen. A “drama queen” is someone who is always very dramatic about
something, who always exaggerates things: “Oh, it's so hot in here, I think I will
die!” That would be kind of someone who’s a drama queen, someone who thinks

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

8

that something bad is going to happen to her, or someone who – a woman – who
exaggerates problems that she has, who always is making things worse than
they actually are.

Sergey says, “There's nothing spoiled, tainted, toxic, or poisonous in this food.
Are you going to eat that or not?” Rachel says, “I think I'll pass.” “To pass” means
I'm not going to do it. To decide not to do something is to pass. Sergey says,
“Then hand it over.” “Hand it over” is a somewhat rude way of saying “Give me
that!” Give that thing to me. If you are being robbed by a thief, someone has a
gun and comes up to you and wants your money, he may say, “Hand it over!”
meaning give it to me right now. That’s what Sergey says. “Hand it over. I'm
hungry. I've never met such a hypochondriac before!” A “hypochondriac”
(hypochondriac) is a person who believes that he or she has many diseases
even when they don’t have any diseases. This is the kind of person who reads
about something in the newspaper and says, “Oh, I have that. I have that
sickness. That’s me.” And they start to feel sick even when there's nothing wrong
with them. That’s a hypochondriac.

Rachel says, “I'm not a hypochondriac. I'm just a little paranoid.” “Paranoid”
(paranoid) is when you're very worried and anxious about something because
you think someone else is trying to hurt you. You think someone else is trying to
kill you or maybe just follow you around, someone who’s paranoid thinks
everyone is trying to get him. And that’s what Rachel is, in addition to being a
drama queen.

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

[start of dialogue]

Rachel: This tastes funny.

Sergey: It’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Rachel: It tastes like it’s tainted or something. Don’t you detect a funny metallic
taste?

Sergey: No, it’s perfectly fine. Just eat it.

Rachel: I swear there’s something off about this food. I’m not eating adulterated
food. There’s probably poison in here and we’re both going to die a terrible
death.

English as a Second Language Podcast

www.eslpod.com

ESL Podcast 821 – Eating Contaminated Food

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2012). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

9

Sergey: There is nothing poisonous or toxic in this food. I made it myself.

Rachel: Did you make sure that the milk wasn’t sour and that none of the
ingredients were spoiled? I’ll probably die from botulism.

Sergey: There’s nothing spoiled, tainted, toxic, or poisonous in this food. Are you
going to eat that or not?

Rachel: I think I’ll pass.

Sergey: Then hand it over. I’m hungry. I’ve never met such a hypochondriac
before!

Rachel: I’m not a hypochondriac. I’m just a little paranoid...

[end of dialogue]

There's nothing off about our dialogues. That’s because they're written by the
wonderful Dr. Lucy Tse.

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

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse,
hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan, copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational
Development.