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ESL Podcast English Café 151
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 151
TOPICS
D.B. Cooper; the Underground Railroad; extend versus expand; God forbid;
brown-bag lunch
_____________
GLOSSARY
to hijack – to take control of something, usually an airplane, using violence or
strong, threatening language
* The airplane was hijacked by a bank robber who was trying to run from the
police.
threat – telling people that one will hurt them or do something else bad to them if
they do not do what one tells them to do
* Carl threatened that he would take away his children’s toys if they didn’t clean
up the mess they made.
unsolved mystery – something that happened but no one can explain how or
why
* There is a popular TV show that features unsolved mysteries, in hopes of
getting new information from someone watching the show.
flight attendant – an airline employee who rides on the airplane, helping people
find their seats and bringing them food and drinks
* Is there a flight attendant here who can help me fit my suitcase in the overhead
compartment?
bomb – a weapon that explodes and damages buildings and hurts people
* Three booms exploded in the streets and injured more than 50 people.
parachute – a very large piece of fabric that is attached to one's body with ropes
so that one can jump from a high place or an airplane and stay alive
* Do airplanes still carry parachutes in case there is an emergency?
in exchange for – to give up something to get something else; to give something
to someone else to get something in return
* I like ice cream and you like cake. I’ll give you my cake in exchange for your
cake.
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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 151
frayed – with worn ends; with ends that are falling apart
* I wanted to wear these pants to my interview until I saw they were frayed on the
bottom.
unconvinced – not sure that something is true; not decided yet whether
something is real
* Paula told her boyfriend Dave that she was out with her girlfriends last night,
but he was unconvinced.
slave – a person who is forced to work for another person without being paid for
that work and often living in poor conditions
* The politician said that there were people working as slaves in his country and it
was his aim to put an end to it.
to escape – to get away from; to leave a place that one is put into that did not
allow one to come and go as one wants
* The pigs on this farm are kept in this locked area, but the pigs escaped last
night and now we can’t find them.
to be sympathetic toward – to feel what someone else feels even though one is
in a different situation; to understand someone else’s situation or feelings even
though one is not in that situation
* The teacher was sympathetic toward his students who were taking four exams
in two days, and canceled the test in his own class.
to extend – to stretch out something to its full length; to make something last a
longer period of time
* Let’s extend our one-day meeting to two days so we’ll have enough time to talk
about all of these important issues.
to expand – to spread out; to unfold; to grow in size, usually in many directions
* For our business to expand, we need to hire more people.
God forbid – a phrase that means that one hopes something will not happen or
that something is not the case
* Gerald lost a lot of money gambling. God forbid he keeps gambling and loses
everything he has!
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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.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 151
brown-bag lunch – to gather to eat together, usually for a meeting or to discuss
a topic, where each person brings his or her own lunch to eat while they talk
* The manager is having a brown-bag lunch for anyone who wants advice on
how to advance in the company.
_____________
WHAT INSIDERS KNOW
Terminology Used on the Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an important part of American history and one of
the factors in helping to end slavery in the United States. As we mentioned in the
podcast, the Underground Railroad was not really under the earth or ground and
it was not a real railroad. However, to help keep this system of freeing slaves a
secret, the people who were part of it used special terms or words so that others
would not know what they were talking about. Many of these terms related to the
railroad.
For example, the people who guided the slaves from one place to another, and
from one house to another, were called “conductors.” A conductor on a railroad
is the person who is “in charge of” (have responsibility and power over) the train.
The people whose houses the slaves stayed and hid in were called
“stationmasters.” A “stationmaster” on a railroad is, as you can probably guess,
the person in charge of the train station.
If you were a slave and you were going to try and escape with the help of the
Underground Railroad, you would receive a “ticket,” which is the information on
when and where you will start your journey. You, as a slave, would be called a
“passenger” (person who pays to travel on trains, buses, and other
transportation) or “cargo” (goods that travel from one place to another). If there
was a problem with the “route” or path that you took, then the “tracks” would
need to be fixed. The “tracks” are the metal rails or lines that the trains travel on.
Using these special terms to describe the parts and activities of the Underground
Railroad helped to keep it a secret, and allowed thousands of slaves to travel
from the South to the North.
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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.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 151
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 151.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 151. 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. Download this episode’s Learning Guide, an 8
to 10 page guide we provide for all of our current episodes that gives you some
additional help in improving your English. You can also take a look at our ESL
Podcast Store, with additional courses in English, as well as our ESL Podcast
Blog, where several times a week we comment on interesting things in the news
and other topics related to improving your English.
On this Café, we’re going to talk about a famous mystery in the United States.
The man that we are going to be talking about is D.B. Cooper. We’ll talk about
why there is a mystery about this man. We’ll also discuss something from
American history, the Underground Railroad, which was a system that helped
slaves escape their owners in the 19 th century. As always, we’ll also answer a
few of your questions. Let’s get started.
On November 24, 1971, there was an airplane hijacking. To “hijack” (hijack)
means to take control of something, usually an airplane, through violence or
through threats – telling someone you will hurt them if they don’t do what they are
told. Airplanes are often hijacked by people who want money; sometimes they
are hijacked for political reasons. In 1971, the airplane hijacking that took place
on November 24 th was for money, not for politics, but it was very unusual. The
hijacking is what we would call an “unsolved mystery,” something that happened
but no one can explain how or why. Let me explain the story to you, and I
remember this story from the 1970s. I was a young child, 9 or 10 years old, but I
liked to read the newspapers and I remember reading a story about this.
The hijacking happened on an airplane flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle,
Washington. Portland and Seattle are cities in the northwest part of the U.S.
Oregon is the state above California – north of California; Washington is a state
north of Oregon. The distance is not very much between the two cities, however;
probably in an airplane, no more than a half hour or 45 minutes.
There was a man on this airplane who called himself D.B. Cooper; D.B. were his
initials. He also called himself Dan Cooper. He gave a note, when he got on the
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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.
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 151
plane, to one of the flight attendants. The “flight attendants” are the employee
who ride on the airplane, helping you find your seat, bringing you food and drink.
The note that D.B. Cooper gave to this flight attendant said that he had a “bomb,”
something that could explode and kill everyone. Usually bombs are dropped out
of airplanes onto cities during a war. In this case, though, the man said he had a
bomb that he would use to make the airplane explode, and of course, kill
everyone on it. When the flight attendant heard that he had a bomb, she took his
threat seriously. To “take someone’s threat seriously” means she believed him,
she paid attention to what he was saying.
D.B. Cooper then asked for 200,000 dollars and four parachutes. A “parachute”
is a very large piece of fabric – of a material – that is attached to your body with
ropes. A person puts on a parachute and then jumps out of an airplane. When
this person is falling – not me – the parachute fills with air and slows down the fall
so you can land on the ground. That’s called a “parachute.” Jumping out of a
plane doesn’t sound like very much fun to me, but everybody has a different idea
of fun!
Well, the airplane pilots on this hijacked flight used their radios to get the money
and parachutes ready for D.B. Cooper. When the plane landed in Seattle, those
things were waiting for him. D.B. Cooper released, or let go, 36 passengers.
The people who are on the plane are called “passengers.” He let them go in
exchange for the money and the parachutes, so he got something for giving up
what we would call the “hostages,” someone who is taken against their will is
called a “hostage.” “In exchange for,” then, means that we use one thing to get
something else, in this case the money and the parachutes were used in
exchange for the passengers. D.B. Cooper, however, said that the pilot, the
person who flies the plane, and two other people had to stay on the airplane.
Well, once D.B. Cooper got the money and parachutes, he told the pilot to fly the
plane towards the State of Nevada. Nevada is just east of California, south of
Oregon and of Washington. Nevada is where Las Vegas is; Nevada is famous
mostly because it allows gambling.
The plane, then, left Seattle and started to fly toward Nevada, but long before it
got there, D.B. Cooper jumped out of the plane. He used one of the parachutes
for himself. You may wonder why he wanted four parachutes? Well, he was
thinking! He used the other three parachutes for the money.
The plane was flying through a “storm,” through very bad weather with very
strong winds. After D.B. Cooper jumped from the plane, the police started to
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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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