Mechanic

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

Catherine: And my name is Catherine and today we’re talking about being on the road.

Marco: Yeah, we’re gonna be on the road, but we’re gonna encounter a little bit of a… car problems.

Catherine: Uh, my favorite kind.

Marco: Oh, yeah, I think it’s happened to everyone. You’re on the road or maybe you’re coming back from work, you get a flat tire or something happens to your car, right?

Catherine: And it’s always when you’re in a rush.

Marco: And most of the time it’s raining.

Catherine: Yeah.

Marco: Hehe.

Catherine: Or snowing, so all the circumstances definitely… well, they don’t help, let’s just say.

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: Right, so before we listen to this dialogue, let’s take a look at some of the… the words on today’s “vocabulary preview”.

Voice: Vocabulary preview.

Marco: Alright, so we’re gonna take a look at two words. Um, they’re kind of strange, I don’t know, kind of difficult to understand, so that’s why we’re gonna explain them. Um, the first one is spew, to spew.

Catherine: It’s a verb, okay, to spew. Um, well, what can spew? Volcano can spew.

Marco: Exactly.

Catherine: An engine can spew.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: A person can spew.

Marco: Yeah, that’s not very nice.

Catherine: No.

Marco: Hehe. So basically, it’s to like expel or to…

Catherine: Shoot out.

Marco: Shoot out from, uh, your mouth or something… liquid, so in the case of a person, right?

Catherine: So if a person spews, it means a person throws up.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: But it’s usually very forceful.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Alright, it’s very messy. Uh, a volcano can spew lava.

Marco: Exactly, so a volcano is spewing lava. Now, uh, for the next word that we have it’s, um… it’s an informal way of saying that something is broken.

Catherine: You could say it’s busted.

Marco: It’s busted. My DVD-player is busted.

Catherine: Man, my phone is busted.

Marco: Uhu, so it’s an informal way, very popular, very common, I would say, uh, to describe that something is not working. I don’t think many people actually say, well, “it’s broken” or “it’s damaged”.

Catherine: Yeah, they’re pretty… pretty much mixed I think, but you’ve…

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: You will definitely hear busted if you’re talking to native English speakers.

Marco: Or even like, for example, your arm: “Oh, he’s got a busted arm”.

Catherine: Exactly, so busted.

Marco: Uhu. Alright, so let’s listen to our dialogue for the first time. Let’s see what’s going on with, uh, this car trouble and then we’ll come back and explain some things.

Mechanic: Pop the hood for me, let’s see what’s going on under here.

帮我把引擎盖打开，咱们看看引擎盖下面出了什么状况。

Driver: I have no idea. I was driving on the highway and suddenly the engine died, steam started spewing out from the radiator!

我完全不知情。我当时正开在高速公路上，发动机突然就熄火了，蒸气开始从散热器里狂喷出来！

Mechanic: Hmm, well, looks like you’ve got some busted pistons and your transmission is shot.

嗯，看来你的活塞崩坏了几个，而且变速箱也彻底废了。

Driver: Is it serious? I just got this car brand new!

很严重吗？这车可是我刚买的全新新车啊！

Mechanic: Well, I’ll have to take apart the engine and order you some spare parts, including a new fuel pump.

额，我得把发动机拆开，帮你订一些备用零配件，包括一个新的燃油泵。

Catherine: So if I were the mechanic, I would not be very happy to be dealing with someone like this girl.

Marco: Hehe. I think it’s, uh… well, maybe it’s a little bit stereotypical that we put it as a… as a girl, because guys and girls, so many people don’t know anything about cars or mechanics, right?

Catherine: And in the States there’s a lot of female mechanics too, so it’s…

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: You know, it’s mixed.

Marco: Yeah, yeah. Uh, but definitely it’s a… it’s something that happens all the time and probably the mechanic will overcharge her as well, because apparently she doesn’t know what she’s doing.

Catherine: And that’s one of the reasons we wanna give you the vocabulary to deal with this situation, so let’s look at some of those car words in today’s “language takeaway”.

Voice: Language takeaway.

Marco: Alright, so we’re gonna take a look at very specific words related to cars and… and the engines and everything, so, um, let’s start with the first one.

Catherine: Radiator.

Marco: Radiator. Alright, so the radiator of the car.

Catherine: So radiator is something that you normally find in a front of the car, near the engine. It usually gets very, very hot, right?

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: So one of the big issues is radiators getting too hot, because there’s no way to cool them down.

Marco: Uhu. So if you live in a place that’s very hot, the radiator keeps your engine cool, because it has water in it. So if it overheats or maybe you didn’t put enough water in there, then it’ll start spewing, steam like in this dialogue.

Catherine: And if you have a problem with your radiator, you could actually do a lot of damage to your engine, which is why this is important.

Marco: Exactly, and that’s what happened in this dialogue. So a radiator. Now, because the radiator wasn’t working well, it overheated the engine and he said they had some busted pistons.

Catherine: So broken pistons. Pistons are important, because they’re kind of like valves that go up and down.

Marco: Right, so inside your engine you have mini explosions and the pistons move up and down and that’s what actually moves your car.

Catherine: Right, and so pistons, in general, are things in mechanics, so like atrumpet has pistons…

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Things that go up and down and allow for the flow of…

Marco: Air…

Catherine: Air.

Marco: Or something like that.

Catherine: Uhu.

Marco: Very good, so that’s a piston. And, well, another very common mechanic term is the transmission.

Catherine: Alright, so the transmission. What happens if your transmission dies? Can you still drive?

Marco: You basically can’t move or maybe you only have one gear or two gears.

Catherine: Alright, so think about transmission as coming from the word to transmit, it means “to transfer”.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Right.

Marco: So this is the part of the car that transfers energy or the power to actually move the car.

Catherine: Uhu.

Marco: So the transmission.

Catherine: And we’ve got the mechanic who says “Well, we’ve got to order you some spare parts”.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: So first, let’s look at the word spare.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: What’s another word for spare?

Marco: Uh, additional, maybe…

Catherine: Extra.

Marco: Extra.

Catherine: Right, so spare means extra parts or… well, pieces.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: So, he’s talking about ordering a new transmission, new pistons – the things to replace the broken things.

Marco: Uhu, spare parts. So this is why you go to the mechanic to get some spare parts…

Catherine: Cause…

Marco: And get them installed.

Catherine: You probably don’t have many spare parts at home, right?

Marco: Hehe. You probably…

Catherine: You’ve gotta… transmission lying around.

Marco: Well, yeah, so spare parts. And the last word that we’re gonna take a look at is a fuel pump.

Catherine: Okay, so a pump is, uh… you could have a bike pump…

Marco: A water pump.

Catherine: Water pump, so these are something… these are some things that we use very, very often, but a fuel pump is something that allows f… gas, gasoline to get into your engine.

Marco: Uhu. So it’s basically a device that pushes gasoline into the engine, so you can start. And that’s the same thing with a water pump. It… it’s a device that pushes water.

Catherine: Or an air pump is something that pushes air into your tires in your bicycle.

Marco: Uhu. Exactly, so a fuel pump, water pump, et cetera.

Catherine: Wow! I feel like we know a lot about cars.

Marco: Yeah, apparently we do, see? Alright, so, uh, now that we’ve taken a look at all of these, uh, great words, uh, let’s move on to a couple of phrases in “fluency builder”.

Voice: Fluency builder.

Catherine: Alright, these are phrases that you hear sometimes when you’re talking about electronics, but in today’s lesson we’re also talking about specific car phrases, you hear these all the time at mechanics.

Marco: Right, and the first one is the car suddenly died on me.

Catherine: Alright, to die on. So we keep these two words together – die, on.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: Oh, man, so while you were driving your car died, it’s stopped moving.

Marco: Uhu. So that means that it… it doesn’t work anymore. And it’s not only for cars, right? You can say “My mp3-player died on me today”.

Catherine: Exactly, and what it means is it’s not like you left it and you forgot about it and you tried it again and it didn’t work. It means, while you’re using it, it dies.

Marco: Exactly.

Catherine: Doesn’t work.

Marco: Uhu. So I think this phrase is a… is a good one to give some other examples, so let’s listen.

Voice: Example one.

例句一。

Person A: My CD-player died on me and I had to listen to the radio.

我的 CD 播放机突然坏掉了，我只好听收音机。

Voice: Example two.

例句二。

Person B: Get that medicine over here faster, this guy is gonna die on me.

快把那药拿过来，这个人快在我手里没命了！

Voice: Example three.

例句三。

Person C: I forgot to charge my mobile phone; it’s gonna die on me soon.

我忘了给手机充电，它很快就要没电关机了。

Catherine: So this next one is a phrase you hear, the first thing you hear maybe when you tell someone you have a car problem.

Marco: Right, you tell them to pop the hood.

Catherine: Or let’s pop the hood.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: So, this means let’s open the front part of the car, the hood to look at the engine, transmission - all those parts.

Marco: Exactly. So you can say “open the hood”, but… but the most common one is pop the hood.

Catherine: So the reason is because there is a little spring.

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: And you have to pull inside the car and it goes “pop”.

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: And the… there’s a little… there’s a little jump.

Marco: Yeah, exactly.

Catherine: There’s a little jump. So it’s… it’s literally popping.

Marco: Right, or you can also say the trunk, right? The back part of the car.

Catherine: Hey, can you pop the trunk for me? I’ve got to put some stuff inside.

Marco: Exactly, so pop the hood, pop the trunk.

Catherine: And, uh, next, we’ve got this… this girl, actually, who’s talking about her car, because she just got this car, so it’s another way to say “it’s a new car”.

Marco: It’s brand new.

Catherine: Is there more new than new?

Marco: It’s like newer, newer than new.

Catherine: Alright, so brand you think about brands like Ford or, uh, Gucci, these are brands.

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: But brand new means she maybe got it like today.

Marco: Uhu, so it’s brand new; it’s very, very new.

Catherine: Did you see my brand new watch?

Marco: Wow, it is nice. Where did you get it?

Catherine: Hehe.

Marco: Alright, so brand new. And, well, the last phrase that we have for you today is to take apart something.

Catherine: Alright, so this is very popular with young children like they like to take things apart, so they can find out how they work, but…

Marco: Uhu.

Catherine: To take apart means to take all the pieces and to pull them out.

Marco: Uhu. Yeah, I used to do that a lot. When I was a kid I used to take apart any… any electronic device to kind of see how it works and then I would try to put it back together again and…

Catherine: That’s why you’re so smart.

Marco: Well, uh, it never really worked.

Catherine: Hehe.

Marco: It worked half the time.

Catherine: So the problem is always putting them back together again, right?

Marco: Exactly, so you can take it apart, but then you put it back together and there’s always a screw missing or a screw that’s extra or two or three parts left over.

Catherine: Hehe. Not a good sign.

Marco: Alright, so, um, we’ve taken a look at a lot of great words and phrases, so let’s listen to this dialogue for the last time.

Mechanic: Pop the hood for me, let’s see what’s going on under here.

帮我把引擎盖打开，咱们看看引擎盖下面出了什么状况。

Driver: I have no idea. I was driving on the highway and suddenly the engine died, steam started spewing out from the radiator!

我完全不知情。我当时正开在高速公路上，发动机突然就熄火了，蒸气开始从散热器里狂喷出来！

Mechanic: Hmm, well, looks like you’ve got some busted pistons and your transmission is shot.

嗯，看来你的活塞崩坏了几个，而且变速箱也彻底废了。

Driver: Is it serious? I just got this car brand new!

很严重吗？这车可是我刚买的全新新车啊！

Mechanic: Well, I’ll have to take apart the engine and order you some spare parts, including a new fuel pump.

额，我得把发动机拆开，帮你订一些备用零配件，包括一个新的燃油泵。

Marco: Alright, so car travel. Have you ever had like any very serious car travel or, um, like something weird happened to your car?

Catherine: Actually, uh, the week before I decided to leave Chicago. I had this 1991 Honda Civic hatchback.

Marco: Mm.

Catherine: So only two doors.

Marco: Nice.

Catherine: And I was driving home from work, I was on a highway, I had the radio on and windows open and then, tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh, puh.

Marco: It died.

Catherine: It died in the middle of the highway during rush hour.

Marco: Wow.

Catherine: Right, so that’s when there’s tons of cars and I don’t know what to do, so I’m calling people and then all of a sudden I see someone tapping on my window and there’s cars everywhere. And it’s this guy and I… and he’s like “Listen, do you need a hand?” I sad “Yes”, so I put the car in neutral, so that there’s… there’s no brake.

Marco: Aha.

Catherine: And, uh, he pushed it to… a side road and gave me a ride home.

Marco: No way.

Catherine: He was the coolest guy, it was so nice, um… And he was just there with his truck, he’s a gardener and just gave me a ride home. It was super, super cool.

Marco: Wow.

Catherine: And so, it turns out my… my, uh… my engine died… I mean, no the engine was new, it was… the transmission was shot.

Marco: Oh.

Catherine: It was totally broken.

Marco: Wow.

Catherine: But I was very lucky to have such a kind person.

Marco: Yeah, that’s… that’s a good story, because usually people are too afraid or maybe a little bit reluctant to… to stop and see if you’re okay or if you need a ride or something, because, you know, you can’t really trust people these days. So, uh… but it’s good, I… once I saw somebody on the side of a road, they had a flat tire, it was two girls and they didn’t know what to do, so I was like passing by. It was actually raining.

Catherine: Oh, of course.

Marco: And I was like “Hey, do you guys need a hand” and they’re like “Yeah, please, we can’t… we can’t, uh, locate my dad” or whatever. So I was like changing the tires. It’s not a big deal, right?

Catherine: Right.

Marco: And they were like “Oh” and they wanted to tip me, they wanted to give me some money.

Catherine: Are you serious?

Marco: And I they were like “Oh, please, take this, it’s just so kind, your time, and you’re all wet” and I’m like “No, don’t worry about it”.

Catherine: No, it’s just a nice thing to do.

Marco: Yeah.

Catherine: If you… if you know anything about cars, I mean…

Marco: Yeah, yeah.

Catherine: Or you can offer someone a lift. I know it’s not terribly safe to ride with strangers, but, uh, this guy totally helped me out, so…

Marco: Nice.

Catherine: Yeah.

Marco: Alright, well, maybe you guys have some cool or maybe some interesting stories of what’s happened with your cars or maybe you’ve helped somebody out, so come to our website at englishpod.com and let us know.

Catherine: And, of course, if you have any questions about the vocabulary or phrases that you heard today, please ask away, don’t hesitate and, uh, well, again we hope to see you on the website.

Marco: Alright, we’ll see you guys there.

Catherine: Bye!

Marco: Bye!