Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast
number 23. Hello and welcome to English as a
Second Language podcast number 23. My name is
Dr. Jeff McQuillen with the Center for Educational
development, we are coming to you from Los Angeles,
California. If this is your first time listening
please go to our website at www .eslpod .com
to find out more information about this podcast.
Today's topic is going to be spring cleaning
cleaning up the house making sure everything
is clean we're going to talk about the vocabulary
as always after we listen to our discussion let's
get started spring cleaning is supposed to take
place before summer not after it But as usual,
I procrastinated and now I have to finally get
rid of all of the junk I've accumulated over
the year. But now there are no ifs, ands, or
buts about it. The cleaning must be done. I start
in my bedroom. I have a king bed with a sheet
on the mattress and a top sheet with pillowcases
on the pillows. Atop all of that, I have a down
comforter. Well, they all need to be washed,
so into the machine they go. Next, I start in
on the closet. What a mess. I've got boxes and
bins full of stuff that needs sorting. Finally,
I have to vacuum the carpet and dust. Phew, quite
a job. Good thing I don't have any drapes, just
shades on the windows. But I'm not done yet.
It's time to move on to the kitchen. I have a
combination stove and oven, both of which I need
to clean. I start with the fridge, though which
needs the most work. I take out the shelves and
rinse them all off. Then I dump anything that
has passed its expiration date. Then it's back
to the stove which I need to scrub clean of the
grease and stains and the same for the oven.
Finally, I wash all the dirty dishes and put
them in a dish rack next to the sink. Spring
cleaning is always a mixed bag for me. It's a
lot of work, but I also find things I've been
missing for the past year. Maybe next time I'll
manage to do my spring cleaning in the spring.
Now let's talk about some of the vocabulary I
used. The topic of today's podcast is spring
cleaning. Spring, of course, is one of the four
seasons, fall, winter, spring, and summer. In
the United States, we usually talk about spring
cleaning, meaning cleaning up your house after
the winter to get ready for the summer. I, of
course, am a bit lazy, and so I procrastinated.
in doing my cleaning to procrastinate that's
a long word spelled p -r -o -c -r -a -s -t -i
-n -a -t -e -d procrastinate is the verb I said
I procrastinated meaning I waited for a very
long time some people when they have to do their
taxes their tax forms for the government they
wait until the very last day that's called procrastinating
waiting until the very last minute I procrastinated
I said and now I finally have to get rid of all
the junk I have to get rid of means to throw
away and we have several expressions today about
throwing away, putting in the trash, things that
we do not want. Junk, of course, is a common
term meaning anything that you do not want. Trash
and junk are basically the same idea. I used
a common expression, there are no ifs, ands,
or buts about it. This expression means that
there is no way to avoid the situation or That
something you are about to say is absolutely
true for example There are no ifs ands and buts
about it. I must do my homework today Meaning
I cannot avoid doing my homework Another expression
I used, several expressions, dealing with the
bedroom and things you find in a bedroom. First
of all, we have a mattress. And a mattress is
what you lie on in the bed. A bed is a mattress
on top of a frame, what we call the bed frame.
So the mattress is what you actually lie down
on. The sheet goes over the mattress. The sheet
is a piece of cotton or linen that you stretch
over the mattress so that you don't get the mattress
dirty. A top sheet is a second sheet that goes
on top of the mattress sheet in between your
blanket and you. A blanket, of course, is a thick
piece of material we put over us to keep us warm.
A special kind of blanket is called a comforter.
A comforter is a big blanket, a very big blanket.
A down comforter is a comforter made out of feathers.
When we say we have a down comforter we mean
it's a comforter made out of some sort of birds
feathers. You can also have a down jacket. These
are very warm for those who live in very cold
places. Also in the bedroom on top of the bed
is the pillow. The pillow is what we put our
head on and the piece of linen that we put over
the pillow to keep it from getting dirty is called
the pillow case the pillowcase I said after I
finished the bedroom I had to start in on the
closet to start in on means to begin with something
I need to start in on my homework means I need
to begin my homework This is one of those confusion
confusing English expressions where we use propositions
in addition to the verb start in on It all just
means to begin usually to begin something that's
somewhat difficult or Something you've been avoiding
doing You've been procrastinating to do I said
that in my closet I had boxes and bins full of
stuff. Bins are usually containers like a box
that doesn't, sometimes does not have a lid on
it, LID. A lid is a cover for a box. So a bin
is a type of box. I said things in my boxes needed
sorting. to sort means to put things in order
to separate things that need to be separated
I need to sort my socks and my underwear so that
all my socks are in one place and my underwear
is somewhere else I said also that I need to
vacuum the carpet To vacuum of course means to
use a machine what we call a vacuum cleaner To
get the dirt off of the carpet. I also said that
I need to dust Now dust here is a verb meaning
to take a piece of cloth to take a small rag
and Wipe the dust off of the furniture off of
the table off of the chairs and so forth. So
dust is both a noun and a verb. It means the
actual dirt that you find in your house on a
table or a chair and it also is a verb meaning
to get rid of that dirt. I said that I didn't
have any drapes. Drapes are long pieces of fabric
of material that you hang on your window. It's
like a big blanket on your window. We call those
drapes. You can have drapes and or you can have
shades. Shades are usually on a roll and you
pull the shade down or you can put the shade
up depending if you want light or darkness in
your room. After finishing my closet I went on
to clean my kitchen. In my kitchen I have a combination
stove and oven. A stove is the place where you
cook food in pans. Usually you can boil water
on a stove. You can fry eggs on a stove. and
so forth. An oven is like a box that is heated
where you can bake a cake or put in a big turkey
or chicken to cook. That's the oven. The fridge
is a slang term, a informal expression meaning
the refrigerator. that's the fridge where we
keep cold foods I mentioned that I needed to
rinse off the shelves to rinse off I actually
said to rinse them all off to rinse something
off means to clean it usually with water and
soap I said I was going to dump anything which
had passed its expiration date. To dump is another
one of those words meaning to get rid of, to
throw out, to put in the trash. The expiration
date is the date usually on a package of food,
on a carton of milk, etc. that says the last
day it is safe to eat that food. That's the expiration
date. I said that I needed to scrub clean the
grease and stains from the stove. To scrub means
to clean very hard to use a lot of muscle to
clean something. A stain is a spot caused by
dirt that is very difficult to remove. You can
have a stain on a piece of clothing You can have
a stain on the carpet Stain is both a noun and
a verb You can stain something meaning you can
cause a stain on that thing a Dish rack is a
place where you put Wet dishes to dry so after
you wash your dishes you put the plates and the
Bowls and the cups and the glasses into a dish
rack Finally I said that spring cleaning is always
a mixed bag for me a mixed bag is an expression
that means Good there are good things and there
are bad things There are positive things and
there are negative things. For me, going to the
park is a mixed bag. I like being outside with
the trees, but I don't like the flies, the mosquitoes.
It's a mixed bag. Well, that's going to Be the
end of our ESL podcast today as usual we encourage
you to email us at ESLPOD at ESLPOD .com ESLPOD
at ESLPOD .com Thank you again for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL podcast ESL Podcast
is produced by the Center for Educational Development
in Los Angeles, California. This podcast is copyright
2005.