Global Warming

Marco: Hello English learners! Welcome back to another podcast here with us at EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

Erica: And I’m Erica.

Marco: And today we have an advanced lesson for all of you and a very good one, because we’re going to be talking about a very serious topic – global warming.

Erica: That’s right, um, and, you know, even though most people agree that global warming is a big problem, there’s still this sort of fringe element of people who believe that actually global warming doesn’t exist.

Marco: Exactly, so, that’s what we’re gonna be looking at today, but before we tell you more or less what the dialogue is about, let’s take a look at some words in “vocabulary preview”.

Erica: We’re gonna look at two words here and you’ll hear both of these in the dialogue, so, the first one is polar ice caps.

Marco: Polar ice caps.

Erica: Polar ice caps.

Marco: So, when we talk about polar ice caps, polar is…

Erica: Like the poles, the…

Marco: The poles, right?

Erica: The North and South poles of the earth.

Marco: Okay, so, the extreme…

Erica: The top and bottom.

Marco: The top and bottom of the planet.

Erica: Yeah.

Marco: Okay, and what about ice caps?

Erica: So, the polar ice caps are masses of ice that, uh… that live or that exist on the top and the bottom of the world.

Marco: We have these big chunks of ice that are on the top and the bottom of the planet.

Erica: Yes, so, they’re there all year around.

Marco: Okay, so, these are the polar ice caps. What about our next word?

Erica: Well, next word is endangered species.

Marco: An endangered species.

Erica: An endangered species.

Marco: Okay, so, endangered species…

Erica: It’s a type of animal that is, um, at risk of completely dying out.

Marco: Okay, so, it’s not completely extinct.

Erica: Right.

Marco: So, it… there’s still…

Erica: It’s in danger.

Marco: Okay, in danger of.

Erica: Yeah.

Marco: So, an example of endangered species would be…

Erica: Uh, the Bengal tigers.

Marco: Okay, the tigers or…

Erica: Aha.

Marco: The pandas.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: Right?

Erica: Or maybe gorillas.

Marco: Right, so, all of these animals, that are very few of them left in the world, so, they are endangered species.

Erica: Okay, so, with that I think we’re just about ready to turn to our dialogue. Now, here we’re gonna learn a lot of language that you can use when you want to, uh, make an argument or express your point of view in a very sort of academic way. But, Marco, what are we arguing about here?

Marco: So, we’re gonna listen as a college professor is lecturing about global warming and well, one of the students doesn’t really agree with what he’s saying.

Marco: Alright, so, apparently this college professor is, uh, not very, uh, truthful in what he’s saying, right?

Erica: Well, yeah, maybe he believes it, but, uh, they certainly have very strong and differing opinions.

Marco: Uhu, so, that’s the interesting part is that we heard a lot of language that she used to argue her point of view, so, this is interesting and we can start now looking at some of this language in “language takeaway”.

Erica: So, the college professor was arguing against this idea of global warming and she said “look, it’s an indisputable fact”.

Marco: Okay, an indisputable fact.

Erica: An indisputable fact.

Marco: Okay, so, let’s break it down and let’s take a look at this word indisputable.

Erica: You can’t argue against it.

Marco: Okay, so, something indisputable is you can’t argue with it. And, well, a fact…

Erica: That’s something that’s true.

Marco: Okay, so, you can’t argue with this… truth.

Erica: This piece of information, yeah.

Marco: Alright, indisputable fact.

Erica: So, why don’t we give a few examples? Um, it’s an indisputable fact that China is the most populous nation on earth.

Marco: Okay, exactly, or it’s an indisputable fact that EnglishPod is the best podcast out there.

Erica: Indeed, it is indisputable.

Marco: Alright, so, indisputable fact. And what about our next word?

Erica: Well, the student accused the professor of scaremongering.

Marco: Scaremongering.

Erica: Scaremongering.

Marco: Scaremongering.

Erica: Scaremongering.

Marco: Okay, now, this is kind of a strange word scaremongering.

Erica: Yeah, and I think some examples will help us to understand the meaning a little bit better.

Man A: Software flaws are not the same as virus attacks and saying otherwise it’s just scaremongering.

男A: 软件漏洞和病毒攻击根本不是一回事，非要混为一谈纯粹是在危言耸听。

Woman B: There’s been a lot of scaremongering caused by the rumor that mobile phones cause cancer.

女B: 手机会导致癌症的谣言制造了相当大的恐慌。

Marco: Okay, so, basically we understand that it’s kind of putting fear in people’s minds.

Erica: Yeah, it’s sort of like selling fear for your own benefit.

Marco: Uhu. Okay, so, making people afraid for some objective or some purpose.

Erica: Yeah, and you know, this word reminds me of the word a fishmonger.

Marco: Okay, a fishmonger, what’s that?

Erica: Which is basically a seller of fish, so, a scaremongerer is a seller of fear.

Marco: Okay, interesting, so now, we have a way of remembering, ah…

Erica: Yes.

Marco: Scaremongering. Alright, and moving on to our next word we have autocratic.

Erica: Autocratic.

Marco: An autocratic country.

Erica: Uhu. So, an autocratic country is ruled by someone who holds total power.

Marco: Okay, so we have an autocratic country, so, basically we have, ah… a leader that… that rules everything, right?

Erica: Right.

Marco: But we can apply it not only to a country, we can say a person is autocratic.

Erica: Yeah, you could say “oh, I can’t stand my boss’s autocratic leadership style”.

Marco: Or maybe a company.

Erica: Uhu. Um, “this company is a very autocratic organization”.

Marco: Okay, very good. And what about our last word?

Erica: The student accused the professor of being duplicitous.

Marco: Okay, so she said he is duplicitous.

Erica: Yes, duplicitous.

Marco: Alright, what does that mean?

Erica: When you’re duplicitous, you, um… you have behavior that is dishonest and is designed to trick people.

Marco: Okay, so you’re not a very honest person, if you’re duplicitous.

Erica: Yeah, you’re telling lies as a means of… of making people do something or tricking them.

Marco: Okay, very good. So, a duplicitous person or a duplicitous idea, maybe?

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: Okay. Alright, so, these are all the words that we have on language takeaway today, but now let’s move on to some very interesting phrases that we can use to put forward some arguments in “fluency builder”.

Erica: Okay, and Marco, you actually just mentioned our first phrase which is I’m putting forth the argument that.

Marco: Okay, so, putting forth the argument that.

Erica: Uhu.

Marco: So, if you put forth an argument…

Erica: You present it.

Marco: You present it.

Erica: Yeah.

Marco: Or you push it towards somebody, right?

Erica: Yeah, you give it.

Marco: Aha. So, can we just put forth an argument?

Erica: Well, actually you can put forth a lot of things like put forth a suggestion.

Marco: Okay, I’m putting forth a suggestion that we should get a new computer.

Erica: Or an idea.

Marco: Tim put forth the idea that we should go on vacation to Hawaii.

Erica: Oh, good idea.

Marco: Alright, so, you can put forth many different things.

Erica: So, the professor obviously is putting forth the argument that global warming is a myth and the student obviously totally disagreed and she said you have to concede that.

Marco: Okay, you have to concede that.

Erica: You have to concede that.

Marco: Alright, so, this word concede or you have to concede. Why don’t we listen to some examples before we listen to the meaning?

Man A: I’m sorry, but I can’t concede with you on this point.

男A: 很抱歉，但在这点上我无法对你让步/无法认同你的观点。

Woman B: Julie conceded that she might have forgotten her sister’s birthday.

女B: 朱莉承认她可能确实把她姐姐/妹妹的生日给忘了。

Man C: All philosophers conceded that their philosophies have some errors.

男C: 所有哲学家都承认他们的哲学理论存在某些瑕疵。

Erica: Okay, so, you have to concede that, um, basically you have to agree that this one point in my argument is true.

Marco: Maybe you’re arguing many different points with somebody, but you tell them “well, you have to concede that the earth is round”.

Erica: Okay, so, that… that part I can’t… I can’t argue with. It’s really true.

Marco: Okay, very good. So, concede.

Erica: Uhu. Now, at the end of the dialogue the student accused the professor of being in the pocket of the oil lobby.

Marco: Okay, so, he is in the pocket of.

Erica: To be in the pocket of.

Marco: Alright, so, if I have somebody in my pocket, what does that mean?

Erica: It means basically you’re bribing them.

Marco: Okay, so, maybe I have the senator in my pocket.

Erica: Okay, so, obviously you’re paying the senator to do what you want.

Marco: Okay, very good, so, it’s another way… it’s a very informal way of saying “I’m bribing somebody” or that person is being bribed.

Erica: That’s right.

Marco: Alright.

Erica: So, why don’t we move to our final phrase? And the student s… was talking about the professor’s so-called findings.

Marco: Okay, so, your so-called findings.

Erica: So-called.

Marco: So, this word, so-called.

Erica: You use this word when you wanna take away from the importance of an idea.

Marco: Or… Alright, so, I use it before a noun, right?

Erica: Right. So, for example, “my so-called friends”.

Marco: Okay, so, these friends are not really your friends, maybe.

Erica: So, yeah, you… they are friends in name, but they don’t act like friends.

Marco: Okay, so, you can say “my so-called job”.

Erica: Okay, so, maybe you… you kind of go to work, but do nothing all day.

Marco: Right, or maybe you… you don’t even really like what you do.

Erica: Right.

Marco: Right, so, my so-called job, my so-called friends or maybe my so-called teacher.

Erica: Okay, so, this is a bad teacher.

Marco: Exactly, so, we use it a lot with many different nouns, right?

Erica: That’s right, so, that’s our last phrase for fluency builder. Now, I think it’ll help us to understand these words and phrases a little bit better to hear them again in context.

Marco: Alright, very good, so, interesting ways of putting forth, uh, arguments and, well, it’s an interesting topic and very controversial, right?

Erica: That’s right, but what I, um… what I noticed in this dialogue is that the… the student was pretty assertive in putting forth her argument and standing up to the teacher.

Marco: Right, she argued with the teacher a lot and this is interesting, because of a very cultural aspect, I think, right?

Erica: Yeah, ah… in… in North American universities, um, there’s this idea that, uh, it’s really important to, um, you know, think critically and to argue against different ideas, um, and… and to… you know, to really speak up when you don’t agree with something.

Marco: Right, so, basically, there’s this cultural… questioning…

Erica: Yeah, yeah.

Marco: Not only what you’re being taught, but you can also question the teacher. You don’t actually have to believe everything that the teacher is saying.

Erica: Exactly, and actually I think this situation is really interesting, you know, you always go to these lectures and there’s always a question and answer period at the end of the lectures.

Marco: Uhu.

Erica: And I think that there’s like this… this group of sort of academically minded people who, um… who feel like it’s really cool to ask these really difficult questions and engage in arguments…

Marco: Uhu.

Erica: With the profs.

Marco: Yeah, yeah, that’s really true, but actually she used a lot of polite language and a lot of polite ways of actually arguing with the professor…

Erica: Yeah.

Marco: Until the last point when she said you’re full of it.

Erica: Yeah, you’re full of it.

Marco: Right? You’re full of it.

Erica: So, what’s she saying here?

Marco: Alright, she’s basically saying that you’re full of shit.

Erica: Marco?

Marco: Hehe. So, yeah, you’re… you wouldn’t really say that. So, to be a little bit less rude you would just say “you’re full of it”.

Erica: Yeah, but that is one step too far I think… I think this would be considered a little bit rude in university.

Marco: Yeah, for a professor, yeah, but I guess if you don’t believe what your friend is telling you or maybe he’s exaggerating, you can say “oh, you’re full of it”.

Erica: Yeah, okay, so some great argumentative language here in this dialogue, but, uh, we wanna give you an opportunity to try out some of this language, so, come to our website at englishpod.com.

Marco: Right, we’re there to answer any questions or doubts and we’ll see you guys there.

Erica: Alright, guys, until next time… Good bye!

Marco: Bye!