EC084_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 84

TOPICS

Homelessness in the US; prenups and postnups; “Smith’s the name, oil’s the

game”; to weep versus to cry, to see someone smile

_____________

GLOSSARY

homeless – not having a home to live in; living on the streets or in a car

* Many families become homeless when one of the parents loses his or her job

and the family can’t pay rent.

shelter – a building where homeless people and families can live temporarily so

that they aren’t sleeping on the streets

* Homeless shelters are usually full on very cold and snowy nights.

substance abuse – the use of alcohol or other addictive drugs (narcotics) so

that it makes someone sick

* There are many special clinics that can help people with substance abuse

problems.

mental illness – psychological illness; the state of being sick or unwell mentally

or psychologically

* Many people with mental illness are homeless because they can’t get a regular

job and make enough money to have a place to live.

prenup / postnup – prenuptial / postnuptial agreement; a legal contract signed

before (prenup) or after (postnup) two people get married that says how their

money and the things they own will be divided if they later get divorced

* Very rich people often sign a prenup or postnup because they want to protect

their money if they get divorced later.

nuptials – a wedding or marriage

* The wedding invitation says that the nuptials will take place at the neighborhood

church in two months.

divorce – the legal end of a marriage; the process of ending a marriage because

the husband and wife no longer wish to be married to each other

* Did you know that the Graffs got a divorce last year?

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 84

division of property – the way in which property (the things that a married

couple own) are divided between a husband and wife during a divorce, so that he

gets certain things and she gets certain things

* In their division of property, the wife got the large house and the husband got

the small beach house and the car.

spousal support – payments made to an ex-wife or ex-husband after a divorce

* Miles receives spousal support of $750 each month from his ex-wife.

on the rocks – a relationship that is not doing well and will probably fail soon

* Their marriage has been on the rocks for years, so nobody was surprised when

they decided to get a divorce.

tears – the water that comes out of one’s eyes and falls down one’s cheeks

when one is crying

* Can you please give her a tissue to wipe away her tears?

to weep – to cry (have water come out of one’s eyes) a lot because one is very

sad

* Everyone was weeping at Uncle Geoffrey’s funeral.

to cry – to have water come out of one’s eyes because one is sad, injured, or

very emotional

* Did you cry when you broke your arm?

to shed tears – to cry very gently

* Melinda often sheds tears when she sees a dead dog lying in the road.

to want to see someone (do something) – to want someone else to do or feel

something; to want something for another person

* Please let me help you pay for college. I want to see you get a good education

and be successful.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 84

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

Sitcoms about Marriage:

Married with Children, Everybody Loves Raymond , & The Cosby Show

In the United States, there are many “sitcoms” on television. The word “sitcom”

is short for “situation comedy,” which is a 30-minute funny show that has the

same characters in each “episode” (weekly show). Many sitcoms are about

marriage, and some of these are very popular. The most popular sitcoms can

have many “seasons” and last for years, so viewers watch the characters grow

older over time.

One popular sitcom is Married with Children . The “protagonist” (main character)

is a shoe salesman named Al. He lives with his wife, son, and daughter and

none of them like each other very much. Al doesn’t like his wife Peg, and the

members of the family are often doing things to “irritate” (bother) Al. The show

has many funny “lines” (the things that the characters say to each other) and it

was very popular in the late 1987 and 1997.

Another popular sitcom is Everybody Loves Raymond . The protagonist is a

sports writer named Ray. He lives with his wife and young children, but his

parents live across the street and his brother often visits. Ray likes having his

parents nearby, but his wife doesn’t. Ray is generally happier than Al from

Married with Children, but he still has very frustrating experiences with his family

and in his marriage. Everybody Loves Raymond was on the air from 1996 to

2005.

The Cosby Show was a funny family sitcom created by comedian Bill Cosby.

The father in the family (Bill Cosby) was a doctor and his wife was a lawyer.

When this show first came “on the air” (began to be shown on TV) in 1984, it was

one of the first TV shows that showed a “wealthy” (rich) African American family.

Many people thought that this was a “breakthrough” (a major development or

improvement) in how African Americans were “portrayed” (shown) on television.

The show ran for eight years and went “off the air” (ended) in 1992.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 84

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to ESL Podcast's English Café number 84.

This is the English Café episode 84. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to

you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles,

California.

Visit our website at eslpod.com and download a Learning Guide for this episode.

You'll be able to look at the vocabulary, read the definitions, have additional

cultural information, get the complete transcript for this episode, and win a million

dollars – well, everything except the million dollars!

Our topics today are homelessness in the United States; what happens when

people don't have a place to live. We're also going to talk about something

called a “prenup” and a “postnup” for people who are going to get, or who have

gotten married. And finally, we'll answer a few of your questions. Let's get

started!

Our first topic today is a difficult one, called “homelessness.” To be “homeless”

(homeless) means that you do not have a permanent home – a place where you

can go. You may be living on the street, sleeping in a park. You may be

sleeping in your car. You may be staying at what we would call a “shelter”

(shelter). Homeless shelters are temporary residences – short-term places for

people who don't have a home to live.

Many people who come to the United States are surprised to see so many

people on the street who are homeless – who don't have a place to live. There

was recently a movie about this topic called Pursuit of Happyness that was made

with Will Smith, a famous Hollywood actor as the star, about a man and his son

who are homeless – who don't have a place to live – and all of the things they

have to do in order to survive.

There are many reasons why there are so many homeless people in the United

States. One study found there are about 750,000 people in the US who do not

have a permanent place to live, who sleep in their car or sleep in a park or some

other place.

There are lots of reasons why that is, one of them is that people don't have

money. In Hawaii, for example, there is a problem now that the price of the

houses have gone up so high that some who people live there don't have money

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 84

to pay for or rent an apartment, and so they have to sleep on the beach or in a

tent or somewhere else.

Sometimes the problem has to do with people not having a job; sometimes the

problem is that people have what we would call “substance abuse" problems.

“Substance” (substance) basically means drugs or alcohol. “To abuse” (abuse)

something means not to use it correctly. So, “substance abuse” is when

someone has a problem, usually they are an alcoholic or they are a drug addict.

They're someone who uses drugs or alcohol, and this causes them to have

problems.

Another problem, and a very big problem, are people who have some sort of

“mental illness.” “Mental” (mental) refers to how you think; how you behave, in

some way. “Mental illness” is when you have some psychological problem.

Unfortunately, one of the problems in the United States in the last thirty years is

that many of the government programs – the government institutions – to help

the mentally ill have been closed. Part of this was a change in the way the

medical community decided to look at mental illness. The doctors and the

government decided that there were too many people in the government

programs for people who were mentally ill, and so they let many of these people

out into the world.

Unfortunately, some of those people still needed help and many of them ended

up being homeless, and that is certainly a percentage of the people who you will

see here in Los Angeles or in New York. Not every one, however. Many people

are there because they are poor, and the government doesn't have a lot of

programs to help these people.

There are many organizations, however, that do try to help people who don't

have a home. Many church organizations, many community organizations have

homeless shelters; they also try to provide training for people so they can get a

job and have money to get into an apartment. But it's a very difficult problem – a

very sad problem that we have, and one that, I hope, we can change in the future

here in the US.

Our second topic today is very different; this is something called a “prenup” and a

“postnup.” A marriage “prenup” and a marriage “postnup,” what is this all about?

Well, this is something that, in some ways, is very American. It is an agreement

between two people who are going to get married, we would call that a “prenup”

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2007). Posting of

these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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