EC162_Guide.pdf

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 162

TOPICS

Ask an American: cults; can versus could; will versus would; freedom versus

liberty

_____________

GLOSSARY

cult – a religious group, usually with extreme beliefs that are different from those

of other religions

* While he was in a cult, Dan gave up all of his money and possessions.

imaginary – not real; existing only in one’s mind

* Many young children have imaginary friends that no one else can see.

satanic – evil; very bad; related to Satan and a love of Satan

* Some people think she’s in a satanic group because she only wears black and

acts strangely.

to spread – to disseminate; to move across an area; to move over a large area;

to grow

* The news of the closing of the city’s only college spread across the city.

to brainwash (someone) – to change what someone thinks and make someone

believe something that isn't true, usually by repeating something many times

* Do you think the men who fought for the ruthless dictator were brainwashed?

megalomaniacal – wanting to control other people's lives and liking the feeling

of having power over other people

* I hated my last job because I had a megalomaniacal boss who wanted to

control everything I did.

deluded – tricked into believing something that isn’t true

* Many investors were deluded by the excitement of making money and didn’t

realize how much risk was involved in the stock market.

to impose (something) on (someone) – to force someone to do something, or

to force someone to believe or accept something

* They wanted to impose their way of living on Shannon, so she decided to move

out on her own.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 162

connotation – something that one thinks about something else, usually beyond

its basic definition

* For most Americans who live in cities, an old pickup truck has connotations of

someone who lives in a rural area.

sect – one part of a religious group

* How many sects are in the Church of Christ?

at a crossroads – at a point in one’s life where many things are changing and

where one has to make an important decision that will affect the rest of one’s life

* She felt like she was at a crossroads when they offered her a good job that

would have required moving across the country.

structure – routine; predictability; a fixed way of doing something that doesn’t

change over time

* Some doctors think that babies need a lot of structure, waking up and going to

sleep at the same time each day.

unpaid bill – a piece of paper that you get from a company, asking you for

money for some product or service that you’ve used

* We pay our unpaid bills on the last day of each month.

mainstream – common and normal; used or believed in by many people

* Are you going to buy a really expensive car, or something more mainstream?

predominant – very common; the most common and powerful or important

* The predominant major for young people at this university is biology.

wide open – very open-minded; willing to accept new ideas that might seem

unusual or uncommon; without restrictions or limitations

* You’re so smart and talented that your career choices are wide open. You can

become whatever you want to be.

constraint – limitation; restriction

* They’d like to have a nice, long vacation, but right now they have too many

financial constraints.

innovation – the process of inventing or creating new things that didn’t exist

before, or that people hadn’t even thought of before

* A lot of technological innovation comes from Silicon Valley in California.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 162

freedom – the condition of being free; the condition of being allowed to do, say,

and think what a person wants

* The idea of freedom of the press means that no one should be able to tell U.S.

newspapers what they can or cannot write about.

liberty – the condition of being free; the condition of being allowed to do, say,

and think what a person wants

* They moved to the United States because they wanted to have more liberty

than they had in their own country.

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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 – 162

WHAT INSIDERS KNOW

Charles Manson and the Manson Family

Most people would agree that Charles Manson is the most well known and most

feared megalomaniacal, deluded cult leader in the United States. He was born in

Ohio and had a “troubled childhood” (many problems while he was a child). By

1967, when he was 32 years old, he had spent more than half of his life in “jail”

(prison).

In 1967, he moved to California and began creating what would be known as the

Manson Family. The people in the Manson Family weren’t actually relatives, but

instead were friends and other people who wanted to be around Charles Manson

and believed the things that he told them. The Manson Family became a

dangerous, frightening cult.

Charles Manson had many strange ideas and was “obsessed with” (thought often

about) the music of The Beatles. He thought that The Beatles’ songs had

“coded” (hidden, where certain words or symbols mean other ideas) messages

that would help “bring an end to” (finish) “racial tensions” (problems between

blacks and whites and other races or skin colors) in the United States.

Charles Manson “instructed” (taught; told someone what to do) the members of

the Manson Family to “commit” (do something against the law) nine murders,

including that of a famous American actress, Sharon Tate, who was more than

eight months pregnant at the time. People were “horrified” (shocked, angered,

and saddened) when they learned the details of these murders.

Charles Manson himself never killed anyone; he made other people do it.

However, when the murders “came to trial” (were discussed in a legal court),

Manson was found responsible for the killings as an “accomplice” (someone who

helps a crime be committed). He and some of the members of the Manson

Family were put in jail “for life” (until they die) and the cult ended.

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

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 162

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 162.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast number 162. 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 courses in business and daily English that you will enjoy, I

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

current episode. The Learning Guide contains a lot of additional information,

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

sample sentences, cultural notes, and a short comprehension quiz on what

you’re listening to right now.

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

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 saying – what they are talking about. Today we’re going to talk about cults,

what a cult is, and what some of the more famous cults in the United States have

been in recent years. And 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 cults. A “cult” (cult) is a

religious group, usually one with extreme beliefs that are very different from

those of other religions. Many Americans are “fearful,” or afraid, even scared of

cults and most Americans think that they are wrong. Cult is definitely a negative

way of describing a religious group. This is, in part, because there have been

some very bad and dangerous cults in the U.S. in the past 34 or 40 years.

Most Americans became fearful of cults in the 1960s and 1970s, when I was

growing up. There was a man named Charles Manson who started a cult and

got his “followers,” or people who were members of his cult (people who followed

him, who did what he said), he got these people to murder (or kill) other people.

That happened right here in Los Angeles. Also, around this time, in 1978, a cult

that was in Jamestown, Guyana, which called itself the People’s Temple

committed mass suicide, meaning that all of the members killed themselves.

After reading these stories in the news, Americans became fearful that cults

would influence their children, or take power over their children, and change what

their children believe.

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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