Funky Galaxy Battles

Marco: Hello English learners. Welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

Erica: And I'm Erica.

Marco: And today we have a special lesson for all our sci-fi or science fiction fans.

Erica: Yes, and actually one special user was the inspiration for this lesson. Wolfgang.

Marco: Exactly. This one is for you.

Erica: Well, sci-fi is very popular, Star Trek, Star Wars.

Marco: Yep. And well, there are some really interesting words that maybe you wouldn't use in real life or in normal circumstances. But you do want to understand these movies or why they say these words, right? So we're going to look at some sci-fi language in this lesson. But before we start, let's look at Vocabulary Preview.

Both: Vocabulary Preview.

Marco: And in Vocabulary Preview today, we have one phrase only.

Erica: That's right. Unidentified spacecraft.

Marco: Unidentified spacecraft. Unidentified spacecraft.

Erica: Okay. So unidentified. You don't know which one it is. You don't know the name.

Marco: Yeah. You don't know the identity.

Erica: Yes. Okay. And a spacecraft. A spacecraft is a vehicle that travels in space.

Marco: Okay. Also known as a spaceship.

Erica: That's right. Actually, this is interesting because you know the word UFO.

Marco: Yes. That comes from...

Erica: Unidentified flying object.

Marco: Exactly. So unidentified spacecraft, an unknown vehicle flying in space.

Erica: Right. A UFO.

Marco: Have you ever seen a UFO?

Erica: No.

Marco: Oh. That's too bad. Have you?

Erica: Of course. Hasn't anyone?

Marco: All right. Well, I think the people in our dialogue may or may not have seen a UFO. So why don't we take a listen?

Soldier: They are breaking through. Set your blasters to full power.

他们正在突破！把你们的爆能枪调到最大功率！

Soldier: Good job. Search the ship. She's got to be in here somewhere. Bring her to me.

干得好。搜查整艘船。她一定在这儿某个地方。把她带到我面前。

Soldier: Lord Hater, we have a survivor here.

Hater 大人，我们抓到一个幸存者。

Lord Hater: Where is she? Don't make me destroy you. Tell me where she is.

她在哪儿？别逼我毁了你。告诉我她在哪儿。

Hero: Not so fast. She will no longer be your prisoner. It's time you and I settled this once and for all.

先别急。她不会再当你的囚犯了。是时候你我来彻底了结这件事了。

Lord Hater: You are unwise to think you can defeat me. You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.

你以为能打败我，真是不智。你对黑暗面的力量一无所知。

Hero: We will stop you.

我们会阻止你的。

Soldier: Lord Hater, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the rear dock. They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam.

Hater 大人，有一艘不明航天器从后部船坞起飞了。他们不知怎么逃脱了我们的牵引光束。

Lord Hater: After them.

追上去！

Soldier: They're accelerating towards the speed of light. We lost them, sir.

他们正在加速接近光速。我们跟丢了，长官。

Marco: Okay, so a really cool Lord Hater, huh? The music and everything.

Erica: Well, you may have noticed that it's similar to a certain movie out there.

Marco: I don't know. I mean, it seems quite original to me. But everything for educational purposes.

Erica: That's right. Okay, so we saw some words that were maybe a little bit difficult. So let's take a look at these now in Language Takeaway.

Both: Language Takeaway.

Marco: Well, I guess in the dialogue, the bad guys were breaking through. Breaking through. Breaking through.

Erica: In the simple present, it would be? To break through.

Marco: Okay, break through. And what does that mean?

Erica: Well, let's listen to some examples to help us find out.

Example 1: After 15 minutes, the workers broke through the wall and rescued everyone from the fire.

Example 2: He is such a good player. He broke through the entire defense.

Example 3: They are breaking through our impenetrable wall. Run!

Marco: All right, so it's kind of like to enter by force somewhere.

Erica: Yeah, to maybe break some glass and come into a room or something like that. Break through.

Marco: Yeah. All right, so Lord Hater had a fight with his enemy and he said he wants to settle this. To settle this. Settle.

Erica: So what do you do when you settle something?

Marco: Well, when you settle something is you end a fight or a dispute. Or an argument.

Erica: Or an argument or a problem.

Marco: Yeah, when you settle an argument, does everyone always agree?

Erica: No, not always, right?

Marco: Right. Sometimes you are forced to agree.

Erica: Okay. Not everyone agrees, but you have no other choice. So it's a little bit different from reaching an agreement because there's usually a winner and a loser.

Marco: Right, exactly. Well, now another very popular word and within sci-fi is this word tractor beam. Tractor beam. A tractor beam. Tractor beam.

Erica: Now, I'm not sure if this really exists in real life.

Marco: Well, I've never heard of it. But a tractor beam in sci-fi movies is like this invisible force that grabs an object and doesn't let it escape and brings it towards another spaceship.

Erica: So it's like almost like a rope that you can't see.

Marco: Right, and it brings it in. So the spaceship managed to escape their tractor beam.

Erica: Okay, I think that is definitely not true.

Marco: Well, maybe, I don't know. But in sci-fi you will always hear this tractor beam.

Erica: Okay. Now, let's move on to our final word. The spaceship was accelerating towards the speed of light. Accelerating. Accelerating. To accelerate.

Marco: That's right. So that means to increase speed, right?

Erica: Yeah, to go faster.

Marco: To go faster. So if you are in your car.

Erica: You want to accelerate so you can pass another car.

Marco: Okay. Or even when you stop at a red light and it turns green.

Erica: You got to accelerate.

Marco: Okay, to accelerate. Let's listen to our dialogue again and then we'll come back and take a look at some of the phrases that came up in this dialogue.

Soldier: Lord Hater, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the rear dock. They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam.

Hater 大人，有一艘不明航天器从后部船坞起飞了。他们不知怎么逃脱了我们的牵引光束。

Lord Hater: After them.

追上去！

Soldier: They're accelerating towards the speed of light. We lost them, sir.

他们正在加速接近光速。我们跟丢了，长官。

Erica: Well, great. Well, great. I think that's a little bit more clear this time. But like Marco said, I want to look at now some phrases that you might hear in a sci-fi context.

Marco: The first phrase that we can take a look at and maybe it looks a little bit strange. He said she will no longer be your prisoner. No longer be. No longer be.

Erica: So what does he mean by no longer?

Marco: Anymore.

Erica: Anymore, right?

Marco: Yeah, so you will not be my prisoner anymore.

Erica: Okay, so how would I use it in this form? No longer be.

Marco: You've always got to use it in the future tense.

Erica: Okay, so she'll no longer be your prisoner.

Marco: I will no longer be your employee.

Erica: Okay, or I can say I will no longer be your boyfriend.

Marco: Okay, so it's always will no longer be. It's always in the future.

Erica: Okay. One more thing, Marco. Is this quite commonly used or maybe a little bit formal?

Marco: I think it's a little bit formal and it's very, I don't know, to a certain point poetic.

Erica: Yeah, which I think is why we hear it a little bit more often in sci-fi movies.

Marco: All right, so no longer be. What about our next phrase? You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.

Erica: Okay, you know nothing of. You know nothing of.

Marco: So again, it's very poetic.

Erica: Yeah, basically meaning you don't know about.

Marco: You don't know about. Yeah.

Erica: So again, let's take a look at how you would use it. You know nothing of and then.

Marco: Science fiction.

Erica: You know nothing of science fiction.

Marco: Yeah. Very good. So you would use a noun afterwards.

Erica: Exactly. Okay, so interesting phrases. Again, formal and probably quite often used in science fiction movies. But now you can understand when they use some of these words that maybe are a little bit difficult and very common in these types of movies.

Marco: Now let's go to our last phrase. And this one actually can be used in many different circumstances. Let's settle this once and for all.

Erica: Okay, so we saw the word settle already. Now let's settle this once and for all. Once and for all.

Marco: So what does that mean?

Erica: Finally.

Marco: That's right, forever.

Erica: Okay, so once and for all, forever. So why don't we listen to some other examples of how we can use this phrase once and for all in different contexts.

Example 1: I'm fed up with arguing about this. Let's just settle the argument once and for all.

Example 2: He claims his photographs prove once and for all that UFOs do exist.

Example 3: I told him once and for all that I don't want to be his girlfriend anymore.

Marco: Okay, so now I think it's clear. We've seen a lot of words. We've seen a lot of phrases. Let's listen to our dialogue one more time.

Soldier: They are breaking through. Set your blasters to full power.

他们正在突破！把你们的爆能枪调到最大功率！

Soldier: Excellent job. Search the ship. She's got to be in here somewhere. Bring her to me.

干得漂亮。搜查整艘船。她一定在这儿某个地方。把她带到我面前。

Soldier: Lord Hager, we have a survivor here.

Hater 大人，我们抓到一个幸存者。

Lord Hater: Where is she? Don't make me destroy you. Tell me where she is.

她在哪儿？别逼我毁了你。告诉我她在哪儿。

Hero: Not so fast. She will no longer be your prisoner. I'm sure you and I settled this once and for all.

先别急。她不会再当你的囚犯了。是时候你我来彻底了结这件事了。

Lord Hater: You are unwise to think you can defeat me. You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.

你以为能打败我，真是不智。你对黑暗面的力量一无所知。

Hero: We will stop you.

我们会阻止你的。

Soldier: Lord Hager, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the rear dock. They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam.

Hater 大人，有一艘不明航天器从后部船坞起飞了。他们不知怎么逃脱了我们的牵引光束。

Lord Hater: After them.

追上去！

Soldier: They're accelerating towards the speed of light. We lost them, sir.

他们正在加速接近光速。我们跟丢了，长官。

Marco: Okay, so are you a big sci-fi fan?

Erica: I think as you can tell, no. Actually, I've seen some of the Star Wars movies, but everyone that I've watched, I've fallen asleep in the middle of.

Marco: Really?

Erica: Yeah, even in the movie theater. I fell asleep in the movie theater watching Star Wars.

Marco: Wow, was it too boring?

Erica: It was too boring. You're not really into the fantasy side?

Marco: No, the whole time I'm sitting there going, this cannot happen.

Erica: Well, that's why it's called science fiction, right?

Marco: Yes. But it is interesting to some people, and well, behind Star Wars, there is a huge culture. Even some people know some of the languages or symbols that are used in it, or the names of some of the robots and models of spacecraft.

Erica: Well, maybe we'll have to come up with Star Wars pods.

Marco: Exactly. Well, that's all for today, guys. I hope you enjoyed our lesson. And of course, if you have questions or comments, you can leave them in the comments section on our website, EnglishPod.com.

Erica: Well, thanks for listening, you guys, and until next time, goodbye.