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At an Amusement Park

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 195, “At an Amusement Park.”

You’re listening to English as a Second Language Podcast episode 195. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com where you can find a complete Learning Guide for this podcast. It will give you all of the vocabulary, definitions, new vocabulary, cultural information and a complete transcript of this podcast.

Today’s podcast is about having fun at an amusement park. Let’s go!

[Start of story]

My brother, his wife, and their two daughters are in town and I had promised the girls that I would take them to an amusement park. I don’t really like roller coasters, but I knew the kids would like it.

On Saturday morning, we drove down to the theme park. We parked and took a shuttle to the park entrance. We looked at the ticket prices and decided to buy a day pass for each of us. Maria, the younger of the two kids, is only 2-years-old, and children under three get in free.

The first thing we did was stand in line for the biggest attraction in the park: a really big roller coaster. Actually, only Grace and I stood in line since Maria was too young to ride it. My brother and my sister-in-law took Maria to ride the Ferris wheel and carousel, and afterwards, we planned to meet near the concession stands so we could watch the parade at 2 o’clock. Grace and I finally made it to the head of the line and we got on the ride. I really don’t like roller coasters. When we got off, I felt queasy and had to sit down for a few minutes before I could walk again.

All in all, we had a good day at the amusement park. But, it will be long time before I go on a roller coaster again!

[End of story]

Today’s podcast is called, “At an Amusement Park.” An amusement park, “amusement,” park, “park,” is a place where they have lots of fun things to do, usually there are lots of rides. A ride, “ride,” in an amusement park means that these are machines that you can get on and they’ll take you up and down and all around, you can go in circles. There are lots of different machines that we call, in an amusement park, a ride. So, a ride is a fun thing that you do in an amusement park.

An example of a ride would be a roller coaster, “roller coaster.” A roller coaster is a ride where you usually sit in a little - looks like a little car; it’s a very small space where you sit. There are lots of these little cars that are connected, and you go on what looks to be a mountain or a hill that goes up and down, up and down, and you ride it like you would on a train, except it goes up and down and around. A roller coaster is an example of a ride at an amusement park.

In our story, I say that, “My brother, his wife, and their two daughters are in town,” meaning they are visiting us from another town. I live in Los Angeles; they live in St. Paul/Minneapolis area of the state of Minnesota, so when they visit and stay here, we say they are in town. Well, they’re “in town and I had promised the girls” - the two daughters, my - what we would call nieces, “nieces,” those are the daughters of my brother’s family. The boy would be called a nephew, “nephew.” Well, I took my two nieces to the amusement park. “I don’t really like roller coasters,” I said, “but I knew” that “the kids would like it.” So, “On Saturday morning we drove to the theme park.” A theme, “theme,” park is a type of amusement park. It’s usually an amusement park that has one special, or one particular idea - one main idea for the park. This could be, for example, Disneyland or Disney World. Disneyland is here in Southern California; Disney World is in Florida - the state of Florida, and there are other Disney theme parks in different cities. There’s one outside of Paris; there’s one in Hong Kong. And these are amusement parks where everything is based on, or comes from a Disney cartoon or a Disney movie that is famous and people will recognize. You can also have an amusement park that is not a theme park, that you’d go to and there are just lots of fun rides, but there isn’t any particular main idea. A main idea is also called a theme, and that’s why we have the word theme park.

We went to “the theme park. We parked and took a shuttle to the park entrance.” A shuttle, “shuttle,” is a small bus that takes people a very short distance, usually from one part the parking lot to the place where you go into the park, what we would call the entrance, “entrance.” So, a shuttle can take you from a parking lot to the airport, or it could take you from one side of a university campus to another side of a college or university campus. A shuttle can also be what we call a van, “van,” which is a big car that you can put, maybe, seven, eight, ten people in. If it’s bigger, it would probably be called a bus.

Well, we took the shuttle to the entrance, and that’s the place where you buy your ticket, usually, and walk into the park. We use that word, entrance, for a park, but you could also use it for a building or for anywhere where you have to go into something, that would have an entrance, the place where you enter.

We went into the park entrance and we looked at the price of the ticket, that would be the ticket that would get us into the park, and we “decided to buy a day pass for each of us.” A day pass, “pass,” is the same as a ticket for the whole day. You could also buy a month pass, or a monthly pass, and that would get you into the park every day for one month. My brother’s youngest daughter was only two-years-old, so she got in for free, or she got in free. To get in free means you do not have to pay any money, and for many parks and other places, children under five, or under three, sometimes even under 12-years-old - they are less than 12-years-old - don’t have to pay in order to enter into the park and use it. The same is true in a theater, for example. Some movie theaters, you get in free if you are less than a certain age.

Well, “The first thing we did” is “stand in line for the biggest attraction in the park.” To stand in line means that you wait with other people in a line. In Great Britain this is called queuing; to queue means to stand in line. The attraction is one of the interesting things about the park, so a theme park like Disneyland has many attractions. There are the rides, but there are also shows and other things that happen in the theme park that could be called attractions. Well, the biggest attraction was the roller coaster, and so one of my nieces, Grace and I, we “stood in line, and my brother and sister-in-law took Maria,” my younger niece, “to ride the Ferris wheel and the carousel.” I said that it was “my brother and my sisterin-law;” my sister-in-law is my brother’s wife. So, my sister-in-law and my brother took Maria to the Ferris wheel. Ferris wheel, “Ferris wheel,” two words, is a ride that you sit in a little car, but the whole thing is like a big circle. The circle goes around, and you go to the very top, so you’re very high off the ground, and then the circle comes back around and you’re at the bottom. So, it’s a round wheel that goes up into the air.

A carousel is also a wheel, but it’s a wheel that is completely on the ground. You don’t go up; you just go around in a circle. Carousels, which are also sometimes called merry-go-rounds, “merry-go-round,” a carousel or a merry-go-round is a wheel that goes around. Usually, there are fake horses - plastic horses that the little children can sit on, and the horses go up and down, just one or two feet, as the wheel goes around. That’s a carousel.

After, we had decided that we would go to “the concession stands so we could watch the parade at two o’clock.” A concession stand, “concession,” stand, “stand,” is a place in a amusement park, or at a baseball or football stadium where you can buy food and something to drink. A parade, “parade,” is when you have people who walk down the street; usually they are dressed to look like someone. Sometimes you have musical bands, in a parade, that are playing music, and you sit on the side of the street and you watch them walk down the street in front of you.

Well, Grace and I - my niece and I - were waiting in the line and we “finally made it to the head of the line.” To make it to the head of the line means you are in the front or you are the person that is now able to buy their ticket - you are at the front of the line. Well, “we got on the roller coaster,” and I said, “I don’t like roller coasters. When we got off” the roller coaster - when we exited the roller coaster, “I felt queasy.” To feel queasy, “queasy,” means that you feel sick, like you might vomit, “vomit,” or throw up, which means that what’s in your stomach comes out of your mouth. Not a very nice thing! But, that’s if you feel queasy, you feel that you might have to vomit, or you might have to throw up, so your stomach doesn’t feel very good. If you eat 25 hot dogs at one dinner, you might feel a little queasy, for example.

I end the story by saying, “All in all, we had a good day.” All in all means considering everything. If we think about the whole day, or the whole situation, we had a good time.

Now, let’s listen to the story, this time at a native rate of speech.

[Start of story]

My brother, his wife, and their two daughters are in town and I had promised the girls that I would take them to an amusement park. I don’t really like roller coasters, but I knew the kids would like it.

On Saturday morning, we drove down to the theme park. We parked and took a shuttle to the park entrance. We looked at the ticket prices and decided to buy a day pass for each of us. Maria, the younger of the two kids, is only 2-years-old, and children under three get in free.

The first thing we did was stand in line for the biggest attraction in the park: a really big roller coaster. Actually, only Grace and I stood in line since Maria was too young to ride it. My brother and my sister-in-law took Maria to ride the Ferris wheel and carousel, and afterwards, we planned to meet near the concession stands so we could watch the parade at 2 o’clock. Grace and I finally made it to the head of the line and we got on the ride. I really don’t like roller coasters. When we got off, I felt queasy and had to sit down for a few minutes before I could walk again.

All in all, we had a good day at the amusement park. But, it will be long time before I go on a roller coaster again!

[End of story]

The script for today’s podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2006.