WEBVTT

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Hello and welcome to English as a Second Language

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podcast number 26. Hello again and welcome to

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English as a Second Language podcast. My name

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is Dr. Jeff McQuillen coming to you from Los

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Angeles, California and the Center for Educational

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Development. If this is the first time listening

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to our podcast, please go to our website at www

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.eslpod .com for more information and for the

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text or script of the first part of our podcast.

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Today's podcast is going to be about daily errands.

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we need to do usually personal things that require

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us to go outside of our house. I'm going to talk

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about some of my daily errands. Let's get started.

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I've had a really busy day today. I rolled out

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of bed at around 7am, like every morning, and

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jumped in the shower. After brushing my teeth

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and shaving, I picked up my morning paper from

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the front sidewalk and started reading it. I

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like to eat breakfast when I read the paper,

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so I poured myself a bowl of cereal. At around

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7 .30, I went into my office and sat down to

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review my to -do list. First, it was off to the

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post office to check my P .O. box. Then, I went

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to the public library down the street to check

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out some books I've been meaning to read. Next

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stop, the supermarket. My wife had given me a

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grocery list as long as your arm of things to

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pick up. I grabbed a shopping cart and got down

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to business. After I checked off everything on

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my list, I headed to the checkout stand to pay

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for my items. But I wasn't done yet. I zipped

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over to the bank where I had to make a deposit

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and withdraw some money from the ATM. Fortunately,

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the line wasn't too long and I was able to get

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in and out quickly. My next stop was the pharmacy,

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where I needed to pick up my prescriptions. Finally,

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I headed home. Now I have to go to my real job.

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Now let's talk about some of the expressions

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that I used. I started off by saying that I rolled

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out of bed at around 7 a .m. To roll out of bed

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is an informal expression. It means to get out

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of bed, but somewhat reluctantly. When you're

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very tired, when you're very sleepy, and you

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don't want to get up out of bed, but you have

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to. We sometimes use that expression. I rolled

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out of bed. After getting out of bed, I said

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I jumped. in the shower we use this expression

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sometimes to indicate how we quickly we do something

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I jumped in the shower usually means I went there

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very quickly it's also used for example with

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your car I jumped in my car to drive to the gas

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station so to get in to go in Here is expressed

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by jumped in We don't literally jump of course

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up and down. It just is one of those idiomatic

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expressions After I got my newspaper I sat down

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to read and Because I like to eat my breakfast

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when I read my morning newspaper I poured myself

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a bowl of cereal The verb here to pour is what

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we use for Usually any sort of liquid I poured

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some milk. I poured some orange juice into a

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glass but we occasionally use it also for Something

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like cereal that goes with the liquid so I poured

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myself means I took the box I Tipped it over

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and I put some of the cereal into a bowl I also

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mentioned that I went into my office, sat down,

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to go over my to -do list. To go over something

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is to review something, to look at it. I need

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to go over my schedule for tomorrow. Means I

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need to look at my schedule for tomorrow. We

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can go over information in a classroom. For example,

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a professor may say, today we are going to go

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over what we talked about last week. It can be

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any way of presenting or looking at information

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to go over. The to -do list is, as the word implies,

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things that I need to do. We sometimes use that

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expression my to -do list. After looking at my

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to -do list, I said that it was off to the post

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office. To be off to somewhere means to be going

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to somewhere, to be headed in the direction of

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somewhere. Where are you off to? Well, I'm off

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to the supermarket. I'm off to school. I'm off

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to work. All of those mean I am going to. I used

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the expression after when I went to the post

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office. I checked my P .O. box. P .O. stands

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for post office. But we sometimes use that. Your

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P .O. box means you have a box at the post office

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where you can pick up your mail. Many businesses

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and some individuals have PO boxes. In the United

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States it's also very common to have private

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PO boxes, companies that set up a place where

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you can get your mail. I went to the public library

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down the street. To be down the street usually

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means to be close to something. The post office

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is one block from the library. So we could say

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the post office is down the street from the library.

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It implies a short distance. In going to the

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library, I needed to check out some books. To

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check out books is the word we use particularly

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for libraries. I need to check out a book means

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I need to take out a book. I give the librarian

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my library card and she or she gives me my book.

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To check out also can mean to investigate. I

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need to check out that movie. Means I need to

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look into it or I need to go see it. So to check

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out has a broader meaning. But here it just means

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to get, to get a book. I said that the books

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that I was checking out were ones that I've been

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meaning to read. I've been meaning to here means

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I've been wanting to but I haven't done yet.

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I've been meaning to call my mother means I've

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been wanting to call my mother but I haven't

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done it yet. Usually we use this expression when

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it's something that we should have done or that

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we are late in doing. When we procrastinate,

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when we wait too long for something, we often

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use this expression. I've been meaning to call

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my friend. After going to the post office, I

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said that next stop, the supermarket. Next stop

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means next place that I'm going to go. Like a

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train, when a train goes from one city to another,

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it sometimes has more stops in between. So if

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I were to take a train from New York City to

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Washington DC, The train might make a stop in

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Philadelphia. Philadelphia is one of its stops.

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So we talk about stops for trains, for buses.

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The bus, in fact, the term we use where a bus

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stops in the street is called the bus stop. That's

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where you wait for the bus. But we also use this

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expression stop to be more general. My next stop

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is the grocery store. Means the next place I'm

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going to go is the grocery store. I said that

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my wife had given me a grocery list. A grocery

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list is a list of course of things of food to

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buy at the supermarket. I said the list was as

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long as your arm. This is a colloquial or slang

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expression. For something to be as long as your

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arm means very long. We often use this expression

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when we are talking about a list. It's a list

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as long as my arm. I went into the grocery store,

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grabbed a shopping cart, what we use to push

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around in the grocery store to put our groceries

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in, and I got down to business. To get down to

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business means to get started at your work, to

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start doing what you are supposed to do. I went

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to the cafe yesterday and I was reading the paper.

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Finally, I decided to get down to business and

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work on my homework. That would be an example

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of getting down to business. After I went to

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the post office, I went to the bank and at the

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bank I made a deposit, meaning I put money into

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my bank account and I also made a withdraw. I

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said I had to withdraw some money. To withdraw

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means to take out. We usually nowadays go to

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a machine a bank machine which we call an ATM,

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which stands for automatic teller machine. A

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teller is the person who works in the bank, but

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now everyone has a ATM card where they can go

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to a machine and get their money or deposit their

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money. The line wasn't too long and so I was

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able to get in and out quickly. To get in and

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out of somewhere is to be able to go Do what

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you need to do and then leave I was able to get

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in and out of the grocery store in under or Less

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than ten minutes means I was able to go do what

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I needed to do and then come out very quickly

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That's going to do it for today's English is

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a second language podcast Many of you are new

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listeners and we want to thank all of you who

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are new listeners. Please email us and tell us

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who you are and where you are listening from.

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Our email address is eslpod at eslpod .com That's

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eslpod at eslpod .com or visit our website to

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get more information and to listen to some of

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our previous podcasts. That's all for today.

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Thank you for listening. This is Jeff McQuillan

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from Los Angeles, California. We'll see you next

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time on ESL Podcast. ESL Podcast is produced

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by the Center for Educational Development in

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Los Angeles, California. This podcast is copyright

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2005.