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ESL Podcast English Café 147
English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 147
TOPICS
Ask an American: Drive-in Theaters; to wind someone up, you don’t say, how
about you versus what about you
_____________
GLOSSARY
to wedge – to fit into a thin and tall space; to put something into a thin and tall
space that is too small
* Can you wedge a piece of wood under the door so that the dust doesn’t come
into the house?
talkative – someone who likes to talk a lot; someone who often talks a lot
* On the bus, Russ sat next to a talkative man who told him all about his life.
to block (someone’s) view – to be in the way of someone trying to see; to have
something in a place or position that prevents someone from seeing
* I didn’t enjoy the theater last night because there was a man with a tall hat who
sat in front of me who blocked my view of the stage.
to be in the comfort of – to be comfortable in; to be in a situation where one
feels comfortable and relaxed
* Many people like to watch the ballgame in the comfort of their own homes,
rather than to go to the sports park.
sprawling – spread out over a large area in an unplanned way
* In the past 10 years, this has turned into a sprawling city with homes in every
direction.
cranky – irritable; someone who is easy to make angry
* Leona is cranky in the morning before her first cup of coffee.
to disrupt – to interrupt something by causing a problem; to stop something that
is happen by causing a problem
* The baby disrupted the concert by crying loudly and without stopping.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 147
passion – feeling a strong emotion; feeling a strong emotion that is difficult to
control
* Del has a passion for fishing and talks about his fishing trips to anyone who will
listen.
family fare – something intended for children and adults; something that does
not have a lot of violence or sexual content
* Let’s make sure there is a lot of family fare at the company picnic this year,
since both employees and their families will be attending.
second-rate – poor quality; not very good
* We thought we hired a good company to paint our house, but their work was
second-rate.
tinny – having an unpleasant sound; having a thin, poor-quality sound
* The speakers on your computer are very tinny!
concession stand – a place within a movie theater, community gathering, or
sports event where people can buy food and drinks
* Do you think they’ll have hot dogs and hamburgers at that concession stand?
fattening – able to make you fat; something one drinks or eats that can make
one fatter
* Harold avoided fattening foods after losing more than 50 pounds.
risqué – with sexual content; something that surprises or shocks because it has
something to do with sex
* The words in this song are so risqué that the radio station decided not to play it.
to wind (someone) up – to tease or irritate someone; to make someone angry;
to make someone feel nervous or anxious
* Watching the scary movie got Belinda so wound up that she decided to sleep in
her sister’s room that night.
You don’t say! – a phrase used to express surprise, similar to phrases such as
“really?” and “you’re kidding!”
* - We got a letter today telling us that we won a new car!
* - You don’t say!
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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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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 147
WHAT INSIDERS KNOW
B Movies
The term “B movie” is used for any movie made on a “low budget” (with little
money) and very little advertising. Originally, B movies were used as the second
half of a “double feature,” which is when you buy one ticket to see two movies.
The second movie was usually considered “inferior” (not as good) in quality as
the “feature” (main movie). They normally “ran” (time that it lasted) for about 70
minutes, which was shorter than the feature. From about the 1950s, there were
fewer and fewer double features. However, low budget movies continued to be
made.
Today, we use the term “B movie” to mean any movie that is made with little
money. It is also used to refer to a particular “genre” (type; category) of film.
Very popular B movies included “westerns,” which were movies about cowboys
and American Indians (Native Americans) in the old days in the western parts of
the United States.
Also popular genres among B movie makers were “science-fiction” and “horror”
movies. “Science fiction” is a type of movie or book that is about an imagined
future, usually involving new and interesting scientific subjects and technology.
For example, a movie about “aliens,” people who live on other planets coming to
Earth, would be science fiction.
“Horror” movies are made to scare or frighten the audience. Many B movies had
low “production value,” which meant that their costumes, sets, and other
materials were not high quality and may not be very convincing. However, even
today, B movies have a large “cult” (not mainstream; small) following, and in
some cities, you will find movie theaters that show B movies on the weekends,
usually later at night.
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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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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 147
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 147.
This is ESL Podcast’s English Café episode 147. 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
that will help you improve your English even faster. You can also take a look at
our ESL Podcast Store, which has additional business and daily English courses,
and our ESL Podcast Blog, where several times a week we help improve your
English by writing on our blog.
This Café is going to be an Ask an American edition, but we’re going to do
something a little different. We’re going to listen to someone explain a very
important cultural institution in the United States, at least it was during the 20 th
century, and that’s called the “drive-in theater.” We’ll listen to a news reporter
talk about the drive-in theater at a native rate of speech and we’ll stop and
explain some of the more difficult vocabulary. As always, we’ll answer a few of
your questions as well. Let’s get started.
Our topic this episode is drive-in theaters. As you might guess, a drive-in theater
is a theater where you watch the movie from your car. A drive-in theater has a
large parking lot, and in front there is a huge, very large screen where you can
see the movie. Next to each car there is a little box that has the sound for the
movie, so each car has its own speaker that you can use to listen to the movie.
Drive-in theaters began in the early 1930s in the United States, but really
became very popular in the 1950s. It was especially popular in areas like
Southern California, which had, and still do have, what we might call a “car
culture,” everybody drives everywhere. Drive-in theaters were popular in all parts
of the country, however. I remember growing up we had a couple of drive-in
theaters that were not too far from us. There used to be about 4,000 drive-in
theaters in the 1950s; now there are only a couple of hundred left. Drive-in
theaters were an important part of American culture, however, in the 20 th century,
especially in the 1950s and 60s.
We’re going to start by listening to a description of the theater – what you would
find if you went there, what some of the benefits were to being in a drive-in
theater, and what people did when they went to the movie theater – besides
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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 147
watching the movie! We’ll listen to this description first, then we’ll go back and
explain the more difficult vocabulary. Here we go.
[recording]
At the drive-in, instead of wedging into a theater next to talkative strangers,
crying babies, and large people blocking your view, you watched a movie in the
comfort of your car, side by side with hundreds of other cars in a sprawling
parking lot. You could bring your cranky baby along without disrupting anyone.
Teenagers adored the romantic privacy of a dark automobile, to the point that
some media referred to drive-ins as passion pits.
[end of recording]
The description, here, of drive-ins is read by one of reporters for Voice of
America . He begins by saying that at the drive-in, instead of wedging into a
theater seat next to talkative strangers – let’s start with that first expression,
“instead of wedging” (wedging). “Wedging” means to go into a very small space,
to wedge something in a space means that there really isn’t enough room so you
have to sort of force it in there. As a noun, a wedge is something that you often
use, for example, to keep a door open; it’s a small piece of wood or plastic that
you put underneath the door. That could be also called a wedge. As a verb,
though, to wedge means to fit into a small space. So, the description here is that
instead of wedging into a theater – into a theater seat, really – next to talkative
strangers, crying babies, and large people blocking your view, you watched a
movie in the comfort of your car. “Talkative” is somebody who talks a lot. When
you say “he’s very talkative,” you mean he’s talking a lot, maybe too much. Of
course, if you are in a movie theater, you don’t really want other people talking
around you while the movie is going on. In fact, I don’t go to movie theaters very
often anymore, because I – maybe getting older – I just don’t like and enjoy
watching a moving when there are all these people that are talking around me.
And, another problem now is, of course, people on their stupid cell phones
talking while the movie is going on!
Anyway, in our story it says that instead of wedging into a theater next to
talkative strangers, crying babies, and large people blocking your view, you
watched a movie in the comfort of your car. To “block” means to prevent you
from seeing – to “block your view,” that is, would mean to prevent you from
seeing. So, somebody sits down in front of you with a big head or lots of hair, or
like me, a big head but no hair, then you can’t see the movie screen. So, instead
of doing this, you can watch a movie in the comfort of your car. “In the comfort
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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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