EC127_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 127

TOPICS

Topics: Ask an American: Starving Artist; as a matter of fact, process versus

procedure, to haggle

_____________

GLOSSARY

to make a living – to have a job or jobs to earn enough money to pay for your

daily needs, such as housing, food and clothing

* Joseph wanted to quit his bank job and be a musician, but he knew that he

couldn’t make a living playing music.

diversity – variety within a particular group of things or people

* There was great diversity among the students at the college who were from all

over the world and from many different backgrounds

stimulus – something that causes change or a reaction in something else

* My car breaking down on the highway was the stimulus for me to buy a new

car.

hard to beat – difficult to conquer or to do better than someone or something

* This store has prices that are hard to beat, so many people do a lot of their

shopping here.

to make it – to succeed in a particular situation or to get somewhere successfully

* The sailors wanted to make it to the dock before sunset.

to collaborate – to work together with others and to combine the good ideas of

more than one person

* Joachim and Sam decided to collaborate on a project that they thought would

impress their boss.

to interact – to act together or affect each other

* His parents wished that Nathan would interact more with children his own age.

gatekeepers – people who guard or control access to something, deciding who

is allowed access to that thing and who is not

* My uncle was the gatekeeper of our family’s history; he had all the

photographs, stories, and records neatly filed away, and we had to ask him for

permission to look through everything.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 127

density – the concentration or compactness (how close together) of a substance

* The density of this dish makes it much more filling than regular pasta.

dynamism – strength or activeness of the mind, body, or personality

* The professor’s dynamism made his lectures on normally boring topics

incredibly exciting to his students

to cease to exist – to die or to stop being

* The low prices at our local grocery store ceased to exist when the new owners

took over.

to push (someone) out – to make someone leave an area or a group

*Eric tried to push Dana out of the out of the street as the big truck came around

the corner.

as a matter of fact – expression meaning “yes, actually” or “in fact”

*As a matter of fact, I did eat lunch today, even though I am very hungry now.

process – the series of actions or steps that lead to a result one wants

*The process of applying to college is often long and difficult.

procedure – the way of making something happen or doing something

*Most large buildings have a procedure to follow in case there is a fire, so that

everybody will be able to get out of the building quickly and safely.

to haggle – to argue over the price of something; to bargain

*Some people enjoy haggling over prices in flea markets, while others think you

shouldn’t need to haggle to get a fair price.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 127

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts (also called the NEA) is a “federally funded”

(given money by the U.S. government) organization that supports works in the

“arts”. The NEA supports arts by giving “grants” (money for specific projects) to

organizations and some independent artists. While the NEA is funded by the

federal government, it is run independently, so its leaders are normally able to

make decisions about who and what to give money to.

The NEA was created in 1965 by an act of Congress, meaning the U.S.

Congress decided to create it as a part of the U.S. government. Its “budget” (the

amount of money it has to spend) has changed many times since 1965. At one

point, its budget was nearly 200 million dollars. Many “conservatives” (people

who usually vote for a Republican and have values very different from “liberals,”

people who usually vote for a Democrat) in the country were “opposed to”

(against) the way the NEA spent this money, however, and they “lobbied for” (put

pressure on Congress for) a “reduction” (lowering) in the NEA’s budget. In

particular, some conservative groups were opposed to the fact that the NEA

supported some very “controversial” (often argued about) artists whose art they

felt should not be supported by “tax dollars” (money from the federal government,

which comes from taxes that U.S. citizens pay). Thus, in 1996, Congress “cut”

(lowered) the NEA’s budget nearly in half. While the budget has increased in

recent years, many arts programs that were “funded by” (given money by) the

NEA have “gone by the wayside” (been forgotten about, or stopped happening).

If you go to plays, listen to certain radio shows, or go to museums in the U.S.,

you will often hear the phrase “funded by a grant from the National Endowment

for the Arts.” The NEA has been one of the most important organizations

supporting all kinds of creative work.

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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 – 127

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 127.

This is ESL Podcast’s English Café episode 127. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff

McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in

beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our website is eslpod.com. On it, you can visit our ESL Podcast Store, which

has some additional premium courses in business and daily English that you will

enjoy, I think. You can also download the Learning Guide for this episode, and

every episode. The Learning Guide contains lots of additional information,

including a complete transcript of this episode, vocabulary words, definitions,

sample sentences, cultural notes, and a comprehension quiz on what you’re

listening to now.

On this Café, we’re going to have another one of our Ask an American segments,

where we listen to other native speakers talking at a normal rate of speech – a

normal speed. We’re going to listen to them and explain what they are talking

about. Today we’re going to talk about art and artists, especially artists living in

big cities like New York City and Los Angeles. As always, we’ll answer a few of

your questions. Let’s get started.

Our topic on this Café’s Ask an American segment is the life – the difficult life of

being an artist. If you are a singer or an actor or a dancer or a painter or a

musician, it’s difficult to make a living in most places. “To make a living” means

to get enough money for you to eat and live. Many artists have to work other

jobs while they try to make more money doing what they want to do – singing or

dancing or whatever their art form is.

In the United States, the two places that most artists often go are New York City

and Los Angeles, California. Both of these places are what we would call

“entertainment capitals,” places where there are many artistic opportunities.

We’re going to listen to some people talking about the difficult life of trying to be

an artist in New York City. We’ll listen first to a man talking about why artists like

to come to big cities like New York – the reasons they want to go there. We’ll

listen first, try to understand as much as you can, then we’ll go back and explain

what he said. Let’s listen:

[recording]

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 127

Artists like to gather in communities, and they like big cities. Not because the

rent is cheap, because it’s not cheap, but because the diversity of experience

and the diversity of mankind is so great here, and the stimulus is hard to beat.

[end of recording]

He talks rather fast, but we’ll go back and explain what he said. You also hear a

piano playing in the background. The people we are listening to were

interviewed for a radio program on Voice of America.

He begins by saying, “Artists like to gather in communities.” “To gather” means

to come together. They “like to gather in communities (in groups), they like big

cities. Not because the rent is cheap, because it’s not cheap.” So, artists don’t

come to big cities like New York and LA because they are inexpensive – because

it doesn’t require a lot of money. As a matter of fact, it requires a lot of money.

However, they come to these cities because of “the diversity of experience.”

“Diversity” (diversity) means there is a variety of options, there are many different

possibilities, many different groups, many different kinds of experiences. He

says they want a “diversity of experience and the diversity of mankind is so great

here.” “Mankind” just refers to all human beings, not just men and women.

Some people don’t like the term “mankind,” and so they may say “humanity”; it’s

the same idea.

Finally he says that artists like big cities because “the stimulus is hard to beat.”

The “stimulus” (stimulus) means the intellectual or artistic opportunities that allow

you to become more creative. A stimulus is something that you receive –

something that you get that causes a reaction. In psychology, we talk about

“stimulus and response.” The stimulus is what provokes – what causes – the

response. So, many of the artists like the stimulus – all the different opportunities

– that they can experience. He says this “stimulus is hard to beat.” When you

say something is “hard to beat” (beat), you mean it’s difficult to find a better

situation. If you went to a restaurant and said “the food is hard to beat,” you

would mean it is very difficult to find better food at another restaurant.

Let’s listen again to this quote:

[recording]

Artists like to gather in communities, and they like big cities. Not because the

rent is cheap, because it’s not cheap, but because the diversity of experience

and the diversity of mankind is so great here, and the stimulus is hard to beat.

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2008). Posting of

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

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