Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 23. Hello and welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 23. My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillen with the Center for Educational development, we are coming to you from Los Angeles, California. If this is your first time listening please go to our website at www .eslpod .com to find out more information about this podcast.
Today's topic is going to be spring cleaning cleaning up the house making sure everything is clean we're going to talk about the vocabulary as always after we listen to our discussion let's get started spring cleaning is supposed to take place before summer not after it But as usual, I procrastinated and now I have to finally get rid of all of the junk I've accumulated over the year. But now there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The cleaning must be done. I start
in my bedroom. I have a king bed with a sheet on the mattress and a top sheet with pillowcases on the pillows. Atop all of that, I have a down comforter. Well, they all need to be washed, so into the machine they go. Next, I start in on the closet. What a mess. I've got boxes and bins full of stuff that needs sorting. Finally, I have to vacuum the carpet and dust. Phew, quite a job. Good thing I don't have any drapes, just shades on the windows. But I'm not done yet.
It's time to move on to the kitchen. I have a combination stove and oven, both of which I need to clean. I start with the fridge, though which needs the most work. I take out the shelves and rinse them all off. Then I dump anything that has passed its expiration date. Then it's back to the stove which I need to scrub clean of the grease and stains and the same for the oven. Finally, I wash all the dirty dishes and put them in a dish rack next to the sink. Spring
cleaning is always a mixed bag for me. It's a lot of work, but I also find things I've been missing for the past year. Maybe next time I'll manage to do my spring cleaning in the spring. Now let's talk about some of the vocabulary I used. The topic of today's podcast is spring cleaning. Spring, of course, is one of the four seasons, fall, winter, spring, and summer. In the United States, we usually talk about spring cleaning, meaning cleaning up your house after
the winter to get ready for the summer. I, of course, am a bit lazy, and so I procrastinated.
in doing my cleaning to procrastinate that's a long word spelled p -r -o -c -r -a -s -t -i -n -a -t -e -d procrastinate is the verb I said I procrastinated meaning I waited for a very long time some people when they have to do their taxes their tax forms for the government they wait until the very last day that's called procrastinating waiting until the very last minute I procrastinated I said and now I finally have to get rid of all the junk I have to get rid of means to throw
away and we have several expressions today about throwing away, putting in the trash, things that we do not want. Junk, of course, is a common term meaning anything that you do not want. Trash and junk are basically the same idea. I used a common expression, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This expression means that there is no way to avoid the situation or That something you are about to say is absolutely true for example There are no ifs ands and buts
about it. I must do my homework today Meaning I cannot avoid doing my homework Another expression I used, several expressions, dealing with the bedroom and things you find in a bedroom. First of all, we have a mattress. And a mattress is what you lie on in the bed. A bed is a mattress on top of a frame, what we call the bed frame. So the mattress is what you actually lie down
on. The sheet goes over the mattress. The sheet is a piece of cotton or linen that you stretch over the mattress so that you don't get the mattress dirty. A top sheet is a second sheet that goes on top of the mattress sheet in between your blanket and you. A blanket, of course, is a thick piece of material we put over us to keep us warm. A special kind of blanket is called a comforter. A comforter is a big blanket, a very big blanket. A down comforter is a comforter made out of feathers.
When we say we have a down comforter we mean it's a comforter made out of some sort of birds feathers. You can also have a down jacket. These are very warm for those who live in very cold places. Also in the bedroom on top of the bed
is the pillow. The pillow is what we put our head on and the piece of linen that we put over the pillow to keep it from getting dirty is called the pillow case the pillowcase I said after I finished the bedroom I had to start in on the closet to start in on means to begin with something I need to start in on my homework means I need to begin my homework This is one of those confusion confusing English expressions where we use propositions in addition to the verb start in on It all just
means to begin usually to begin something that's somewhat difficult or Something you've been avoiding doing You've been procrastinating to do I said that in my closet I had boxes and bins full of stuff. Bins are usually containers like a box that doesn't, sometimes does not have a lid on it, LID. A lid is a cover for a box. So a bin is a type of box. I said things in my boxes needed
sorting. to sort means to put things in order to separate things that need to be separated I need to sort my socks and my underwear so that all my socks are in one place and my underwear is somewhere else I said also that I need to vacuum the carpet To vacuum of course means to use a machine what we call a vacuum cleaner To
get the dirt off of the carpet. I also said that I need to dust Now dust here is a verb meaning to take a piece of cloth to take a small rag and Wipe the dust off of the furniture off of the table off of the chairs and so forth. So dust is both a noun and a verb. It means the actual dirt that you find in your house on a table or a chair and it also is a verb meaning to get rid of that dirt. I said that I didn't have any drapes. Drapes are long pieces of fabric
of material that you hang on your window. It's like a big blanket on your window. We call those drapes. You can have drapes and or you can have shades. Shades are usually on a roll and you pull the shade down or you can put the shade up depending if you want light or darkness in your room. After finishing my closet I went on to clean my kitchen. In my kitchen I have a combination stove and oven. A stove is the place where you cook food in pans. Usually you can boil water
on a stove. You can fry eggs on a stove. and so forth. An oven is like a box that is heated where you can bake a cake or put in a big turkey or chicken to cook. That's the oven. The fridge is a slang term, a informal expression meaning
the refrigerator. that's the fridge where we keep cold foods I mentioned that I needed to rinse off the shelves to rinse off I actually said to rinse them all off to rinse something off means to clean it usually with water and soap I said I was going to dump anything which had passed its expiration date. To dump is another one of those words meaning to get rid of, to
throw out, to put in the trash. The expiration date is the date usually on a package of food, on a carton of milk, etc. that says the last day it is safe to eat that food. That's the expiration date. I said that I needed to scrub clean the grease and stains from the stove. To scrub means to clean very hard to use a lot of muscle to clean something. A stain is a spot caused by
dirt that is very difficult to remove. You can have a stain on a piece of clothing You can have a stain on the carpet Stain is both a noun and a verb You can stain something meaning you can cause a stain on that thing a Dish rack is a place where you put Wet dishes to dry so after you wash your dishes you put the plates and the Bowls and the cups and the glasses into a dish rack Finally I said that spring cleaning is always a mixed bag for me a mixed bag is an expression
that means Good there are good things and there are bad things There are positive things and there are negative things. For me, going to the park is a mixed bag. I like being outside with the trees, but I don't like the flies, the mosquitoes. It's a mixed bag. Well, that's going to Be the end of our ESL podcast today as usual we encourage you to email us at ESLPOD at ESLPOD .com ESLPOD at ESLPOD .com Thank you again for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL podcast ESL Podcast is produced by the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles, California. This podcast is copyright 2005.