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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 409
TOPICS
American Authors – Rachel Carson; the board game Monopoly; gas guzzler and
other car descriptors; money order; way to establish or way to establishing
_____________
GLOSSARY
conservationist
– a person who tries to protect the national environment from
the damaging influence of humans
* Benoit works as a conservationist, trying to save forests and wetlands.
environmental movement
– efforts to protect the planet and all living things and
beings
* Getting people to recycle is one of the goals of the environmental movement.
pesticide
– chemicals used to kill insects that destroy plants and crops (plants
that farmers grow to sell for food or clothing)
* If you don’t want to eat fruits and vegetables with pesticides, buy organic
products.
to eradicate
– to kill, destroy, and get rid of completely; to put an end to
something
* These researchers are trying to find ways to eradicating diseases of the eye.
compelling
– causing people to become interested and to give their full
attention; making people want to pay attention and listen
* The movie was so compelling that no one heard the doorbell.
indiscriminate
– done at random, without carefully thinking
* You can’t fire all of the workers in this department indiscriminately! Some have
worked here for over 25 years.
bioaccumulation
– the idea that insects that eat a small amount of chemicals
have a certain amount of it in their body, which is found in increasing amounts in
the next level of animals that eat those insects
* By the time food reaches our tables, we may be eating foods with a lot of
chemicals due to bioaccumulation.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 409
board game
– a game played by two or more people, with a flat piece that
unfolds into a large square or rectangle placed on a table and the players move
small pieces or cards across that surface as they play the game
* We can’t play this board game unless we have four or more players.
to dominate the market
– to become the business that has control of most of
the products of a certain type being bought and sold, or services being provided
* Big grocery stores try to dominate the market in each city, causing small,
family-owned stores to close.
property
– buildings or land owned by people or companies
* When I die, all of my property will go to my children.
dice
– a small block with a different number of dots on each side, from one to six
* Roll the dice to see who gets the highest number and will be the player to start
the game.
to go bankrupt
– to not have enough money to pay one’s bills; to make a legal
declaration (statement) that one cannot pay one’s debts
* Workers demanded higher salaries, which the company couldn’t pay, causing
the company to go bankrupt.
gas guzzler
– a car that uses a lot of gasoline; a vehicle that uses a lot of fuel
* Jerome traded in his gas guzzler and got an economy car that uses very little
gas.
money order
– a printed statement of payment issued by a bank, post office, or
other authorized business to be paid in a specific amount
* Lorenzo paid all of his bills using money orders because he didn’t have a
checking account.
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). 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 – 409
WHAT INSIDERS KNOW
The Sims
“The Sims” is a “life simulation” video game that allows players to select a
character to represent them in the game, putting their own personality into that
character. A “Sim” refers to a “simulation,” which is a representation of someone
or something, making it look and/or act like that thing. The game was first
“released” (made available for sale) in 2000 and it became a very popular video
game.
In this game, players live a life just like they would in real life, “interacting”
(seeing, speaking to, and doing things with) other players in the game. The
game begins when a player creates a Sim and has their Sim select a house to
live in. The player can even build a house for their Sim and buy things for them
in a “build” and “buy” “mode” (option). How Sims interact with each other also
depends on the users themselves. They can do everything a person would do in
real life, such as eat and sleep. They can meet other Sims, go on “dates”
(romantic meetings), get married, and have children. They can even die in the
game.
The Sims was so popular that it was named the top-selling video game in history,
selling 16 million “units” (items). The game released seven “expansion packs.”
Each expansion pack was not a “sequel” (continuing story with the same
characters) but improved the quality and content of the game.
There have been two Sims sequels and several “spin-offs” (new products or
stories using only one or a few of the characters from the original). As of 2011,
the entire Sims “franchise” (line or group of products sold under the same or
similar name) has sold over 125 million units, earning $2.5 billion.
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). 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 – 409
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
You're listening to ESL Podcast English Café number 409.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 409. I'm
your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational
Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to our website at ESLPod.com. Download a Learning Guide for this episode –
an 8- to 10-page guide we provide for all of our current episodes that gives you
additional help in improving your English.
On this Café, we’re going to continue our ongoing series on American authors,
American writers, focusing on Rachel Carson, who wrote an important book
called
Silent Spring.
We’re also going to talk about one of the most popular board
games of the past 50 or 75 years – “Monopoly.” And as always, we’ll answer a
few of your questions. Let's get started.
We begin this Café with a continuation of our series on American authors. We’re
going to talk today about Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist –
a scientist who studies life in the oceans, in the seas. Rachel Carson was also a
conservationist. A “conservationist” is a person who tries to conserve or protect
the natural environment, usually protect it from humans that might damage the
environment. Rachel Carson wrote several books that were important in what
became known as the environmental movement. The environmental movement
attempted to and still attempts to protect the environment, to protect nature, to
protect our oceans, and our forests, and our other what we might call natural
resources.
Rachel Carson was born in 1907 in Pennsylvania, which is in the northeastern
part of the United States. Carson grew up on a farm, and as a child she enjoyed
writing stories about animals. In college she studied English and biology, and
then in graduate school she studied zoology – the study of animals. She also
studied genetics. So, she was a very bright, very intelligent young woman.
Later, she accepted a position. She went to work for a U.S. government agency,
or organization, called the Bureau of Fisheries. A “bureau” (bureau) is a word we
use to describe typically a government organization. We have, for example, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the FBI. This was the Bureau of Fisheries.
The Bureau of Fisheries was, as you might guess, the organization in the
government responsible for laws related to fishing – commercial fishing, fishing
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
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 – 409
for business purposes. There is no longer a Bureau of Fisheries, I believe. It
changed its name to something else now, but at the time it was called the Bureau
of Fisheries, and Rachel Carson worked there as a writer. She wrote what we
would call “copy,” which is another word for text that's used for some sort of
publication. In this case, the text was for radio programs that talked about fish
and plants and animals that live in the water.
Her copy was so successful that she began to write materials for other agencies,
and soon she had a full-time job as an aquatic biologist. Remember, she studied
zoology and biology when she was in college. Now she got a job as an aquatic
biologist. The word “aquatic” (aquatic) relates to water. It comes from the Latin
word “aqua” (aqua). Rachel Carson worked as an aquatic biologist, and
combined that position with her talent as a writer to write a number of essays and
articles about “underwater life,” we could call it. Over the next few years, she
wrote at least three books:
Under the Sea Wind, The Sea Around Us,
and
The
Edge of the Sea.
“Sea” (sea) here means the same as ocean. One of these
books,
The Sea Around Us,
was actually made into a film, a movie. It won the
Academy Award – what we more typically call the Oscar – for best documentary,
but Carson wasn't very happy with it, and she decided not to have her other
books made into movies.
Over time, she became increasingly interested in conservation, and she became
involved in organizations such as the Nature Conservancy. Specifically, she got
very interested in the use of “pesticides.” “Pesticides” (pesticides) are chemicals
that are used to kill insects, usually because the insects are going to eat or harm
the food that were growing. When we are growing food, we use the word “crops”
(crops). “Crops” refers to food that you grow to eat, not just pretty flowers, for
example. Those wouldn’t be crops. Crops refers to things that you grow that you
are planning on eating: corn, wheat, tomatoes, broccoli – all of these could be
considered crops. Usually the word is used, also, when we're talking about a
large farm. Normally, if you just have a little garden in the back of your house, we
wouldn’t refer to the food you grow as crops. “Crops” is usually used in a more
commercial setting.
In any case, Rachel Carson became very interested in these pesticides,
especially in the pesticide called “DDT.” “DDT” stands for a very long scientific
term, which I am not going to attempt to pronounce, but basically DDT was used
as a pesticide beginning in the late 1950s. People started using DDT to eradicate
or kill, destroy, get rid of, a certain kind of ant. Carson began conducting a lot of
research and talking to other scientists, trying to see what effect these chemicals,
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2013). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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