Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 37. You're listening to English as a Second Language podcast number 37. Visit our website at www .eslpod .com for more information about this podcast. I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillen from the Center for Educational Development coming to you today from Los Angeles, California. Today's topic is going to a pet store. I'm going to talk a little bit about my experience recently shopping
for a pet. Let's get started. My niece is turning eight next week, and I decided to buy her a new pet. She had been asking her parents for a pet for a long time, but they were worried about taking care of a pet. I told them I would go to the pet store and see if I could find a pet that wouldn't be too much of a bother. I walked into a big pet store and looked around. I saw cages with dogs and cats. There were also bird cages with birds of every color. I even saw I
saw a sales clerk and asked him for help. I told him that I was looking for a pet that was easy to take care of. He suggested a cat or a kitten. But I told him that my niece was allergic to cats. Then he suggested a puppy. I walked over to the rows of dog kennels and asked the clerk how often they needed to be walked. He said that usually dogs need to be taken out three to five
times a day. That was much too much work I told him he then showed me some birds including a parrot then I asked him how often the cages had to be cleaned and when he told me I nixed that idea finally he took me to the back of the store I have the perfect pet for you," he said. I looked around and saw aquariums full of fish. There were twenty different kinds. The clerk said that
they were very easy to take care of. With the right equipment, you don't have to clean the tank regularly, and all you have to do feed the fish. That was it. The perfect solution. The next time I visited my niece, she told me she loved her fish. She had named them all. She even named one after me. It was called Jeffish. Get it? Now she's happy, and so are her parents. Just before I left, my niece asked me, when can we go to Disneyland? Ah, the work of an uncle
is never done. I began talking about The fact that my niece is turning eight next week To say someone is turning a certain age means they're going to have a birthday I'm turning Well, I'm not going to tell you how old I am but to say I'm turning 29 means I am going to be 29. Usually we say, I am turning 29 next month. I wish I were turning 29 next month. I decided to buy my niece a new pet. A pet, of course, is some animal that you have in the house, a cat or a
dog often. My niece's parents, however, were worried about taking care of a pet. To take care of means to look after, to be the person who is responsible for. You can take care of a pet. You could take care of a child. You can take care of a situation. All of those are possible uses of that expression, to take care of. I went to a pet store, a store where they sell pets, of course, and I was looking for a pet that wasn't going to be too much of a bother, meaning it
wasn't going to be too much trouble. To say something is a bother means it causes you problems. I went into the pet store and one of the things that I saw was a bird cage. A cage is a usually made of metal, a place where we keep an animal, like a bird, sometimes other animals as well. A bird cage of course is a place where we keep birds. The clerk at the pet store suggested a cat or a kitten for my niece. A kitten is a baby cat.
I said my niece was allergic to cats. To be allergic or to have an allergy means that it causes you problems when you are around for example, a cat. You start to sneeze, your eyes start to water. This is what happens when you have an allergy. It's a medical condition that some people have, are born with, typically. The clerk also suggested
a puppy. A puppy is a baby dog. We don't say baby dog or baby Cat we say a puppy or a kitten When you have to go on vacation and You do not want to take your dog or cat with you you can bring them to a place where you can pay to have them kept and that place is called a kennel a Kennel is a place where you will find many dogs or many cats. I asked the clerk how often the dogs needed to be walked. To walk a dog means to take the dog out so the dog can do what dogs
have to do when they are outside. He said that the dog needed to be taken out three to five times a day. To be taken out means to go with the dog outside. But that expression, to be taken out, can refer to anything that you are moving, say, from the inside of the house to the outside of a house. It can also be used for people. When are you going to take me out? My wife asked me yesterday. Means when are we going to dinner or to a movie? When are you going to take me
somewhere else? but that's my problem I Said that taking the dog out three to five times a day was much too much work that expression much too much is Means it's it's way too much It's a lot. It means the same as too much, but it is even more dramatic, putting more emphasis on how much it is. Much too much work, much too much money. In going through the store, I considered the idea of buying a bird, but when I found out that the cages had to be cleaned, I nixed that
idea. To nix, N -I -X, in the past tense is to, is nixed. I nixed that idea means I decided that that idea was not good. I rejected that idea. Instead, I found some aquariums full of fish.
We keep dogs in a kennel we keep fish in a big usually square tank of water which we call an aquarium a tank is a big container usually something that you put liquid into a tank of water for example is a a Like a big box with water in it I said that after I gave the fish to my niece, she was very happy, and she named one after me. To name something after someone means to give
it that person's name. So when a father, if the father's name is Patrick, and my father's name is Patrick, and he has a son, and he names that son after himself, he calls or gives the son the name of Patrick. To name something after someone is a common expression, means you give that person that same name. My niece named her fish Jeff Fish, and after I said that, I said Get it? To get it means, of course, to understand it. I'm asking if you understood the joke. Jeff
is my name. The fish is Jeff fish. When we tell a joke, usually a bad joke like that one, and the person doesn't laugh or the person doesn't think it's funny, We will sometimes say get it meaning didn't you understand it? That wasn't the problem here of course My niece wanted to go some day to Disneyland and you probably know Disneyland is here in Southern, California. It's
a Amusement park. It's a big park where people go usually children to go on rides Rides are things like a ferris wheel or a merry -go -round that children like to ride on I ended my discussion of the pet store trip by saying that the work of an uncle is never done This is a old expression in English the work of a Aunt or an uncle or a father is never done. It's meant to be something
of a joke Meaning I work very hard. I'm always working That's going to do it for today's English as a second language podcast Email us tell us who you are and where you are listening from our email address is ESL pod From Los Angeles, California, I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillen. We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.