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Hello English, welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco

and my name is Catherine

So what are we talking about today, Marco?

Well, we’re talking about one of my favorite topics, which are computers.

Yes, your little bit of a nerd

a little bit. I love computers and technology and everything that’s related to it. So that’s what we’re going to be looking at today. Maybe we’re buying a new computer.

Well, I anticipate learning something from this because there are a lot of those fancy big words that I don’t know what have to do with, processors and giga—things. So, that’s gonna be coming up in a minute here. But first, let’s just jump right in and take a listen to this dialogue.

So can you fix it?

I’m sorry sir. This computer is not broken or damaged. It’s simply just too old! That’s why your programs and applications are running slow. There really isn’t much I can do.

What do you mean? I bought this computer just three years ago!

Yes, but technology is ever changing and technology is becoming obsolete faster and faster!

Ok, I know where this is going.

How much will it cost me to get a new computer?

Well, this desktop over here is our latest model. It has a four gigahertz processor with sixteen gigabytes in RAM and a hard disk with one terabyte.

Of course, it includes a mouse, keyboard and desk speakers.

I have no idea what you are talking about. I just want to know if it’s good and if I will be able to play solitaire without the computer crashing or freezing all the time!

This PC is top of the line and I guarantee it will never freeze! If it does, we’ll give you your money back!

All right, we’re back. I think it’s a very typical case. You going to get something fixed and they say we can’t fix it. You need a new one.

Yes. And not only a new one, but a bigger and better and faster one.

And more expensive obviously.

Obviously. It’s called the upsell.

The upsell, yeah.

all right, so there were some very difficult words, I think, because they’re very specific related to technology and computers. So why don’t we look at those now in language take away

Language take away

All right, so the first we have today is when something is no longer in use.

Okay so this part is obsolete.

It’s obsolete

And we’re not just talking about like, oh I haven’t touched that pen in like 10 years. We’re talking about a piece of technology that is no longer useful because there’s something else that can do a better job.

Right, and actually not only with technology. We also have words that are obsolete, right?

Exactly, like thy or thine. You or yours

Classical English. We don’t use thy anymore.

No thy art very summary today Marco.

We don’t use that any more. That’s obsolete English, right? Or obsolete words.

Exactly. So, obsolete means, it’s no longer of use. We have better and newer things in in its place.

All right. And now, moving on, when the salesman was describing the characteristics of the computer, he had used some prefixes that were a little bit strange, right? Like, for example, giga.

All right. So, these are actually prefixes that have to do with numbers and so this is not just a computer thing, it is a math thing or science thing. So, okay, we’ve got three different prefixes. A prefixes is something we tack on the beginning of a word so that we have hertz or bite, right? These are little bits of a computer, bite

Right, so we have like megabytes

Megabytes, you’ve all heard before. That’s the smallest here. We’ve got megabytes but bigger than mega, we’ve got gigabytes.

Yeah, so now for example, the hard drives are 250 GB.

You might even hear someone say, gigs. We’ve got a 50 Gig Hard Drive. But what’s bigger than giga?

Now it’s the terabyte.

Tera sound like—huge

Yeah, I actually wondered what would happen after gigabyte because so much information already and now it’s the terabyte. So it’s like 1000 GB.

So, that’s like 200 movies.

That’s probably more than that. It’s amazing the amount of storage you can have. And how small it actually is.

So, mega, giga, tera. Going from littlest to biggest.

all right and well, he described a 4 gigahertz processor.

Okay, so the processor is our next word and this is actually something that determines how fast your computer’s gonna run.

So, it comes from the word to process, right?

Right.

So, like calculate or to think

to do even

to do so, you have different examples like a word processor.

right so, it’s like Microsoft Word. It allows you to make Word documents. You can also say to process data. You try to calculate it.

But in this case a processor’s like a little brain that’s the center of the computer and that’s where all the information gets processed.

Yeah, so it’s the brain of the computer essentially and the bigger it is, the faster it can go.

Exactly. And well, if you don’t have a very good processor your computer is bound to freeze.

Okay, so freezing is another key word specially one time on my computer, this one drives me nuts. To freeze, it means to stop moving.

Right

Right? So, well it has a couple different meanings. You might’ve heard about ice before but to freeze. Here it’s stopping moving so we have a game called freeze tag. If I touch you, you have to stop running

right

but here we’re talking about computer freezing. I’m moving my mouth and I’m typing and all the sudden

it doesn’t work anymore

my mouth doesn’t move. I can’t close or open or to anything and it’s really frustrating.

especially if you’re doing something and you didn’t save your work. It’s gone. Right, so if your computer freezes then usually you have to restart it or turn it off.

So, that is about it for those words but let’s take another listen and slow the dialogue down this time so you can catch some of those big words.

So can you fix it?

I’m sorry sir. This computer is not broken or damaged. It’s simply just too old! That’s why your programs and applications are running slow. There really isn’t much I can do.

What do you mean? I bought this computer just three years ago!

Yes, but technology is ever changing and technology is becoming obsolete faster and faster!

Ok, I know where this is going.

How much will it cost me to get a new computer?

Well, this desktop over here is our latest model. It has a four gigahertz processor with sixteen gigabytes in RAM and a hard disk with one terabyte.

Of course, it includes a mouse, keyboard and desk speakers.

I have no idea what you are talking about. I just want to know if it’s good and if I will be able to play solitaire without the computer crashing or freezing all the time!

This PC is top of the line and I guarantee it will never freeze! If it does, we’ll give you your money back!

Okay, so we’re back. So, now, let’s jump into today’s fluency builder.

Fluency builder

All right, so on fluency builder we’ll gonna take a look at three different phrases. For example, the salesman was describing technology and said that it’s ever-changing.

Okay, so this is a sort of poetic line here so ever-changing means always changing.

always

always changing and so we can say that the ocean is ever-changing. You know the waves are always changing. But in this case, he’s saying the technology is always changing, it’s always progressing into something new and so—

exactly

that is a key selling point for this guy.

Right. So, this is actually very interesting word. We can use it like in your example, beyond technology, like the wave, like the sea is ever-changing. So, why don’t we listen to a couple of other examples.

Example 1

There’s always something new in this ever-changing world.

Example 2

Times are ever-changing and we must prepare ourselves better every day.

Example 3

The flu is an ever-changing virus that continues to claim many lives.

All right, we’re back. So, now we understand ever-changing.

So, the man who was trying to buy this computer or at least get his computer fixed, really starts to get frustrated with the salesman and he says, okay I know where this is going. So, he hears the sale’s pitches. He hears this guy’s trying to loosen him up a little bit. He says that I know where this is going. So what does this mean? This where something is going.

So, basically what direction a conversation or a topic or a situation is taking.

Okay, so he’s saying I know why you’re telling me these things.

right.

I know your motive.

Or I know what’s happening. I know what you’re going to say.

Okay, so he’s essentially saying, I know you’re going to try and sell me a computer.

Right. So, you can use it in another circumstances, right? For example, the relationship.

I don’t know where this is going.

Right. With what is going.

Classic break up line.

I just don’t think I know where this is going anymore.

So, in reference to the relationship, right?

Yeah.

we don’t know what’s happening. Are we serious, are we maybe gonna get married. I don’t know any more.

I can’t tell where this movie is going. It’s so like– here and there and boring.

Yeah, you don’t know the plot.

Yeah

all right, so it’s a very common phrase and it sounds very natural when you say it, right?

It does and that’s why our fluency builder really helps you sound like a more native English speaker when you use these kinds of phrases.

And the next one is also very very good. When he describes the condition of the computer, he says, it’s top of the line

top of the line. Now what line we’re talking about. I do not know

like above average line

right, so this is the best of the best. This is the top model or the top computer. And you can definitely imagine a car sales man using this. Yes, this BMW top of the line. That’s the best money can buy.

Yeah, that’s another good one. So, basically top of the line is the best of the best, the above average, right?

More than above average. It’s really is the best you can do. And so, the guy says, listen, this is our best computer, really. You should buy it. And obviously top of the line costs a lot of money.

Yeah, it’s usually for something that cost money, right? For things. You wouldn’t really use it for a person, right? He’s top of the line.

No. Top of the line, I think, generally, refer to electronics and cars

Yeah

or like motorcycles and so you often hear top of the line stere, top of the line TV, top of the line car, but you wouldn’t say this about food or people or art.

Yeah, you wouldn’t say, this painting is top of the line.

No, not about like very unique things. You say this about kind of manufactured things.

very good. So, we’ve taken a look at a lot of great phrases. Why don’t we listen to our dialogue for the last time. And then we’ll come back.

So can you fix it?

I’m sorry sir. This computer is not broken or damaged. It’s simply just too old! That’s why your programs and applications are running slow. There really isn’t much I can do.

What do you mean? I bought this computer just three years ago!

Yes, but technology is ever changing and technology is becoming obsolete faster and faster!

Ok, I know where this is going.

How much will it cost me to get a new computer?

Well, this desktop over here is our latest model. It has a four gigahertz processor with sixteen gigabytes in RAM and a hard disk with one terabyte.

Of course, it includes a mouse, keyboard and desk speakers.

I have no idea what you are talking about. I just want to know if it’s good and if I will be able to play solitaire without the computer crashing or freezing all the time!

This PC is top of the line and I guarantee it will never freeze! If it does, we’ll give you your money back!

All right, we’re back. So, computers, Catherine I know you recently got a nice Macintosh.

Yeah, yeah I did.

It’s one of those big screen ones, right?

Yeah, it is. It’s a desktop, right? So, it’s not a laptop and it’s got a very fast processor because Macs started using Intel processors a couple of years ago and that made them much faster.

And it has, this processor actually has two cores, right?

So, basically it has two different brains almost within one processor.

which gives a really bad headaches. She complains to me often.

Are you a big Mac fan or PC fan?

I’m a Mac fan. I’ve been converted my room in college. My sophomore year had a Mac and ever since then, I’m really gotten into them. So—

Really?

Yeah. I went Mac and didn’t turn back.

I still honestly cannot really use a Mac. I get confused. I’m looking for the start button and I’m looking for where my documents are.

It’s really hard to change over, right? But once you do, you don’t want to change back because everything is so much easier on a Mac.

Really?

but if you’re really into PC gaming, then you should probably stick with the PCs because the games just don’t really compare in Macs.

But I’ve heard that also Mac don’t really suffer from viruses, right?

No, they don’t which is great because I always used to get these viruses that is put on my computer. Cause you know, you open some email—There’s nastiness on your desktop. Well, now I don’t really have that problem and also there’s really wonderful photo editing software and video editing software

Right

so everything’s just really easy to find, and easy to use.

What about you listeners? Do you prefer the Mac? Do you prefer the PC? Or maybe some of our listeners don’t really even like computers.

Well, let us know either way. We are very curious to hear what you have to say. And of course, writing on our comment section is great practice for your English.

Right. So, we’ll see you guys there and until next time. Bye.