لذت بردن در خارج از منزل

Enjoying the Outdoors

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast Number 187, “Enjoying the Outdoors.”

This is English as a Second Language Podcast Episode 187. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California. How are you today?

Remember, you can go to our website at eslpod.com and get the Learning Guide for this podcast, which has the complete transcript, all of the vocabulary, sample sentences, cultural notes, and much more.

Today’s podcast is called “Enjoying the Outdoors.” Let’s go.

[Start of story]

My favorite time of year is the summer. I like being outdoors, doing anything from hiking to going to the beach. One thing about working in an office all week is that I don’t get much fresh air. With summer here, I plan to take full advantage.

Last week, I went to the beach with some friends. I was glad I brought sunscreen since it was a really hot day, and I’m sure I would have gotten a sunburn within 15 minutes! We set up our beach umbrella and beach chairs, and played some volleyball. A few of us went into the ocean for a swim, but most of my friends just lounged around on the sand.

This weekend, I’m going hiking. I stopped by the store and got some insect repellent. The last time I hiked in the mountains, I came back with big mosquito bites all over my legs. This time, I’m going to be prepared. I was going to try a new trail and I wasn’t going to let a few mosquitoes get in the way.

[End of story]

In this podcast we are enjoying the outdoors. The “outdoors,” which is all one word, is the same as “out of doors,” and both of those expressions mean to be outside of your house or outside of the building. When people say the outdoors,they often are referring to, or talking about, going to the beach, or going to a park, or going camping. That’s all considered outdoors.

I say in the story here, which is definitely a fictional story, because I am not like the person in this story at all. I say my favorite time of year is summer. Well, that’s true for me. “The time of year” is the same as the season, in this case. “My favorite time of year is the fall,” my favorite season is the fall. You can also talk about this if you are referring to, for example, Christmas time. “My favorite time of year is Christmas,” the weeks around the Christmas holiday, for example. I say that I like being outdoors doing, anything from going hiking to going to the beach. The expression, “anything from to,” “anything from X to Y,” “anything from hiking to going to the beach” means that you are talking about a variety, or a range of possibilities. There are many things you could do outdoors, and so the person in this story is giving some examples - anything from hiking to going to the beach.

“Hiking,” it comes from the verb “to hike,” and to hike is to walk, usually to walk out in a park or in a desert, I suppose, or in the mountains, to walk somewhere, often, to walk up and down a hill or a mountain. So, the person in this story, not me, likes to hike; I don’t like to hike, but this person does. They also like going to the beach. I do like going to the “beach.” The beach is where the ocean or a lake meets the land, where you have area right by the lake, or right by an ocean, is the beach. I live about two miles from Santa Monica Beach, here in California.

The person in the story says, “One thing about working in an office all week is that I don’t get much fresh air.” The expression here, “all week,” is the same as the entire week. You’re trying to emphasize the length of time here. So one thing about working in an office during the week, or the entire week, or all week is that “I don’t get much fresh air.” “Fresh air,” two words, is being outside, is the…is going outside, and when we say something is fresh, we mean it’s either new or it is in a very original or pure state. In this case, the expression, fresh air, means being able to breathe the air outside.

Here, in Los Angeles, breathing the air outside is not always a good thing because there’s so much pollution, but we’ll go with the story here. He wants to go outside to get some fresh air. “With summer here,” he says, “I plan to take full advantage.” “To take advantage,” or “to take full advantage,” advantage is “advantage,” means to enjoy, to get the most that you can out of an experience. “I’m going to take advantage of the weekend to watch a lot of movies,” I’m going to use my time well, I’m going to use it so that I can get the most out of it, or the most, in this case, enjoyment out of it. There’s another expression, “to take advantage of (someone),” that has a negative meaning. When you say, “I’m going to take advantage of a person,” that can also mean that you are going to get something from them, more than what you should, something that isn’t fair, from that person. For example, “I’m going to take advantage of our friendship and ask you to give your car for this afternoon,” to let me use your car. To take advantage of means I’m going to use my friendship to get something more than I should, so it has a negative meaning. The positive meaning, in this story here, means to enjoy or make use of something, to make good use of something.

The story continues that, “Last week, I went to the beach with some friends. I was glad I brought sunscreen since it was a really hot day.” “Sunscreen,” one word, is the, usually, white liquid that you put on your arms and your legs, maybe your face, so that the sun doesn’t make your skin red. For people like me, who come originally from northern Europe where the skin is very white, this is important because if I don’t put sunscreen on when I go outside in the sun, after 15, 20 minutes, my skin becomes red and I look a little like a tomato. So I have to put on sunscreen when I go outside for a long period of time, and so does the person in this story. He was glad that he put on sunscreen since it was a really hot day, meaning that it was a sunny day; sun was out, you could see the sun. He says, “ I’m sure that I would have gotten a sunburn within 15 minutes,” means if he did not put on the sunscreen, he would have gotten a sunburn. “Sunburn,” is when your skin gets very red. Sometimes it gets so red that it begins to hurt you. That’s a sunburn, or to get a sunburn. That’s also a verb, to sunburn. Usually it’s an expression, we say, “I got sunburned,” or “I was sunburned,” with an “ed” at the end.

The story says that the person went to the beach and they set up, or put up, their beach umbrella. An “umbrella” is something you use to keep the rain from hitting you. That would be a rain umbrella. A beach umbrella is something you use to keep the sun from hitting you, or from getting to you, so you can have “shade.” “Shade” is when you have something that blocks the sun, like an umbrella, and it’s dark underneath. A beach chair is a kind of chair that you would use on a beach. Usually, these chairs are light and sometimes made of plastic. Usually, they are folding chairs. “Folding” means the chair collapses or becomes smaller, so you can carry it easily.

They also, in the story, “played some volleyball.” “Volleyball,” all one word, is when you have two teams, one on each side, and you have a “net” in between you, that’s called a “volleyball net,” and you hit a little white ball back and forth over the net. That is the game of volleyball. I’m not a very good volleyball player. “A few of us,” according to the story, “went into the ocean.” An “ocean” is the same as the sea. I live near the Pacific Ocean. “We went in for a swim,” Here, swim is a noun. “To go for a swim,” “we went in for a swim” - these both mean to go swimming or to swim, we went swimming. “But most of my friends just lounged around in the sand.” “To lounge,” is a verb which means to relax, to sit, usually in a chair and not move, just to relax. The “sand” is what the beach is usually made of. It’s, we hope, white or brown, and it’s soft, and it is what you usually find near a ocean or a lake.

Well, this weekend, the story says, the person is going hiking. He says he “stopped by the store,” meaning he went to the store, “and he got,” or he bought, “some insect repellent.” “Insect” is a word which means the same as a bug or a fly, things that…little animals that fly around and can sometimes bite you, or cause a mark on your skin. A “repellent” is something that stops the insects, or the flies, from biting you, from biting your skin. Well, the last time this person went hiking in the mountains, he says, he came back, or returned, “with big mosquito bites.” A “mosquito” is a type of bug, a type of fly, a type of animal that likes to bite you, and after it bites you, you have a little red spot, a little red area on your skin from the mosquito taking a little of bit of blood from you. That’s what they do when they bite you. When I lived in Minnesota, growing up, there were always lots of mosquitoes during the summertime, and I always had a lot of mosquito bites because the mosquitoes liked my blood, I think.

Well, in this story he says that he’s going to be prepared this time. He wants to try a new “trail.” A “trail” is the same as a path or a little road that you can walk on, usually in a park or in the mountains there’s a trail where other people have walked before, and that makes it easier for you to walk.

The story ends by the person saying that he “wasn’t going to let a few mosquitoes “get in the way.” “To get in the way” here means to prevent you from doing something, to stop you from doing something. “Don’t let that get in the way,” means don’t let that stop you, don’t let that prevent you from doing what you want to do.

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

[Start of story]

My favorite time of year is the summer. I like being outdoors, doing anything from hiking to going to the beach. One thing about working in an office all week is that I don’t get much fresh air. With summer here, I plan to take full advantage.

Last week, I went to the beach with some friends. I was glad I brought sunscreen since it was a really hot day, and I’m sure I would have gotten a sunburn within 15 minutes! We set up our beach umbrella and beach chairs, and played some volleyball. A few of us went into the ocean for a swim, but most of my friends just lounged around on the sand.

This weekend, I’m going hiking. I stopped by the store and got some insect repellent. The last time I hiked in the mountains, I came back with big mosquito bites all over my legs. This time, I’m going to be prepared. I was going to try a new trail and I wasn’t going to let a few mosquitoes get in the way.

[End of story]

Our script today was written by Dr. Lucy Tse. That’s all we have time for now on this edition of ESL Podcast. Remember to visit our website for more information about our podcast, at eslpod.com. 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.