EP088 Aliens! | Upper Intermediate

My name is Marco. And I'm Erica. And today we're gonna be looking at another kind of science fiction lesson related to aliens. That's right. Uh and I think in this lesson we'll actually have an alien sighting here at English Pod. Right, an alien encounter. So we're gonna be learning about the stars, we're gonna be learning about

aliens and UFOs today. That's right. And we're also going to learn some language that you can use to describe um negative results, uh things that happen that are bad. That's right. So let's start by looking at vocabulary preview. Vocabulary Preview Okay, we have two words for you that we're gonna hear in the dialogue. And the first one is constellation. Constellation. A constellation. Alright, so we've all looked up in the sky and seen shapes or figures.

that are formed by the stars. That's right. So a constellation is a group of stars that makes a shape and has a name. Right. There are a total of eighty eight known constellations, so The most popular ones I think maybe are the Little Dipper, the Big Dipper, etc. I never knew you were such a fan of uh astronomy, Marco. A little bit. Alright. What about the next one? The next one is Earthlings. Earthlings. Earthlings. So earthlings are people who live

On planet Earth. On Earth, exactly. And in the dialogue we're gonna hear greetings, Earthlings. This is the most typical phrase that you will hear in almost every single alien movie. Exactly. So it's like saying, hello people from Earth. Yes. Every single alien in the world says this phrase. So those are the two words that we are gonna find in this dialogue today. So why don't we start and listen to what happens with our UFO experience?

Oh honey, this is so romantic. I have never seen like so many stars before. It's beautiful. See that constellation there? That's Orion. And the very bright star, well it's not a star because it doesn't blink. That's actually Venus. What's that um big flashy one? I don't know. I think it's a UFO. I come from afar. Why are you here? Where did you come from?

In the thousand years, we have seen the amazing capacity that humans have to create such lawyers as the Taj Mahal, or masterpieces such as the Hafner Symphony. Unfortunately, your intelligence and creativity does not come without consequence. Your ambition and desire for more will be your downfall, and we are fit to save your planet from you. You think you have us figured out? What gives you the right to come and judge us? Who are you to play God with our fate? Silence,

Didn't work out so well for the Earthlings now did it. I think the aliens are a little bit belligerent themselves. Mm-hmm. Alright, so why don't we start by looking at some of those difficult words that we might have found in this dialogue in language takeaway?

Language takeaway. Okay, well the aliens are using a lot of language to describe some of the negative results that are happening because of the humans behavior on Earth, right? Right. And so one of the things they said was that your intelligence and creativity does not come without consequence. Consequence. Without consequence. Alright, so the consequence of an action are basically the results. Yes, exactly. And here the phrase without consequence suggests the negative result.

Alright. So the negative result from your actions. Mm-hmm. Very good. What about our next word? Well the aliens also talked about human ambition. Ambition. Ambition. So what is ambition exactly? So ambition is the desire or the want for for things to be better, to improve, to get rich, to be technologically advanced.

Okay, so to want more. Yep. You have ambitions in your life, in your professional life, and your personal life. So basically we have ambition and we have desires and these are the reasons for our downfall. Okay, so downfall. Downfall. Will be your downfall. So the downfall of something is something that causes failure. Okay, so the loss of wealth or the loss of reputation or that it

It gets ruined. Exactly. The downfall. We can say like for example, the downfall of the Roman Empire. Or you know what? This guy is um a great employee, but His lack of ambition was his downfall. Very good. All right, coming up to our next word. The alien described that humans have a belligerent attitude. Belligerent? Belligerent. Belligerent. Alright, this is a very nice word, so why don't we listen to some examples of how we can use it in context? Example one.

Don't take that belligerent tone with me. I don't want to argue with you. Example two. Thomas is always so belligerent. It is impossible to talk to him. Example three. Stacy was fired for her belligerent attitude. Okay, so I can understand that it means um sort of aggressive, having a strong willingness to fight. Exactly. A belligerent person, a belligerent attitude. Mm-hmm. A belligerent country. Okay. Very good. And our last word for today: Anguish. Anguish. Anguish. So to cause great anguish.

To cause a lot of terrible emotional or physical pain. Okay, so it is a synonym of pain, of of suffering. Yeah, but really intense suffering. Really intense. Why don't we give a few examples? Um The end of his marriage caused him great anguish. Or for example, the loss of his dog caused him great anguish. Okay, so anguish. Alright, so we've covered five great words on language takeaway today. Why don't we move on now to putting it together?

Putting it together. Okay, we're gonna look at three phrases that we heard in the dialogue and see how we can use them in different contexts. So the aliens um were praising some of the masterpieces that the humans have created, right? Right. He said, you humans. Create. Such wonders as the Taj Mahal, blah blah blah. Okay. So let's look at this phrase. Such wonders as. Alright, so we have a noun here, a wonder. Mm-hmm. Uh an amazing thing. An amazing structure. Yes.

So he says such wonders as now we can change this noun and replace it with another one, right? Yeah, we can um we can replace that noun with anything. So why don't we hear a few examples? Example one To finish this house, we need such materials as cement, wood, and steel. Example two I need to write a report on a social topic such as psychology, health, or marriage. Example three. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great marketing opportunities.

So this is a really useful structure to use when you want to give examples of a of many different things. Okay, and as the alien was criticizing the humans. The guy said, what gives you the right to come and judge us? So interesting phrase. What gives you the right? What gives you the right? What gives you the right? Alright, so if I tell you what gives you the right to and then a verb, what am I saying there? You're basically saying you don't have the right to do this. You shouldn't do this.

Why are you doing it? Or why do you want to have this control over me? Yep. So when would be when would you use this phrase? If somebody is trying to control you or maybe somebody is judging you or doing something to you against your will maybe, you would say what gives you the right to take my phone away? What gives you the right to tell me what to do?

All right. It's a good phrase to tell that other person that they shouldn't do that. They're doing something unfair. Unfair, okay. And our next phrase is very similar. Who are you to play God with our fate? Okay, so I wanna look at this. Um, to play God. Alright, so to play God is making these arbitrary decisions. Like he is the c master of everything. Right, controlling everything. Mm-hmm. But this phrase, who are you two? So basically saying

You don't have the power or authority to do this. Mm-hmm. And you can use it in exactly the same way. Who are you to tell me what to do? Who are you to take away my phone? Exactly. So you don't have the power to do this. Very good. So these phrases are are a little bit aggressive, almost uh belligerent, wouldn't you say? A little bit, but I guess if you are being treated unfair or if you are angry at a situation, it would be a good phrase to use, to put your point across.

And as we saw, these humans are pretty angry. So why don't we listen again as they're telling the aliens, who are you two?

Oh honey, this is so romantic. I have never seen like so many stars before. It's beautiful. See that constellation there? That's Orion. And the very bright star? Well it's not a star because it doesn't blink. That's actually Venus. What's that um big flashy one? I don't know. I think it's a UFO. From other sink out. Why are you here? Where did you come from?

last 3000 years, we have seen the amazing capacity that humans have to create such wonders as the Taj Mahal, or masterpieces such as the Hafner Symphony. Unfortunately, your intelligence and creativity does not come without consequence. Your ambition and desire for more will be your downfall, and we are good to save your planet from you. You think you have us figured out? What gives you the right to come and judge us? Who are you to play God with our fate? Silence means.

Okay, so UFOs and constellations and stars and planets. Um have you ever had an encounter with one of these? Well definitely not an encounter with a UFO, but um maybe with some of the wonders of the night sky. Mm-hmm. What happened? Well you know when I was small I used to uh have my vacations up in northern Canada And because it was so far away from the city it was really dark and and you could see um all of these shooting stars. So these stars moving across the sky.

um and lighting up the whole sky with with their brightness and it really is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. So shooting stars, those are like Like balls of fire that move across the sky, right? Yeah, exactly. And I saw once, actually, I was in an astronomy class. Um and

turned around and over the horizon, like at the end of the sky, where the sky meets the earth, I saw this huge ball of fire move across the sky. And it looked like it landed in the field next to us. It was so close. Wow, that's nice. Yeah, pretty amazing. Well, I imagine that it is really amazing and I guess Canada's the place to be when y when you want to see these things. I know. We've got like northern lights, we've got shooting stars, lots of stuff. All right, so

What about you guys? You should tell us if you've ever seen a shooting star or a meteor or something of this type of astronomy things, right? Or even a UFO. Alright, so come to our website, Englishpod.com. Be sure to leave your questions and your comments. And uh Erica and I are there to answer any questions or doubts. Well thanks for downloading you guys and until next time. Goodbye.