Episode 0079
Summary
An antagonist, Lord Hager, is overseeing a search for a target on a ship. His subordinate reports finding a survivor. Hager demands to know the target's whereabouts and threatens destruction. A hero, Speaker 3, confronts Hager, declaring the target will not be a prisoner and challenges him. Hager boasts about his power. Another hero, Speaker 4, declares they will stop Hager. Subsequently, Speaker 2 reports an unidentified spacecraft escaping despite efforts to prevent it, ultimately losing the target.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
They're breaking through. Such a blast is the full power.
Excellent job.
Search the ship. She's got to be in here somewhere.
Bring her to me.
Lord Hager, we have a survivor here.
Where is she?
Don't make me destroy you.
Tell me where she is!
Not so fast. She will no longer be your prisoner.
It's time you and I settled this once and for all.
You are unwise to think you can defeat me.
You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.
We will stop you.
Lord Hager, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the Rairnok. They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam.
After them!
They're accelerating towards a speed of light.
We lost them, sir.
Summary
This audio is an English lesson focused on science fiction vocabulary and phrases. Hosts Marco and Erica introduce and explain terms like "unidentified spacecraft," "breaking through," "settle this," "tractor beam," "accelerate," "no longer be," "you know nothing of," and "once and for all." The lesson incorporates a dramatic, Star Wars-inspired dialogue featuring characters like Lord Hater and his crew to illustrate the use of these terms, followed by host commentary and further example sentences. The hosts also discuss the formality and common usage of these phrases in sci-fi contexts.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Hello English learners, welcome back to English Pod. My name is Marco.
And I'm Erica.
And today we have a special lesson for all our sci-fi or science fiction fans.
Yes, and actually one special user was the inspiration for this lesson. So Wolfgang.
Exactly. This one is for you.
Well, sci-fi is very popular. Star Trek, Star Wars. And well, there are some really interesting words that well, maybe you wouldn't use in real life or in in normal circumstances, but you do want to understand these movies or or why they say these words, right?
So we're going to look at some sci-fi language in this lesson. But we before we start, let's look at vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview.
And in vocabulary preview today we have one phrase only.
That's right. Unidentified spacecraft.
Unidentified spacecraft.
Unidentified spacecraft.
Okay, so unidentified, you don't know which one it is.
You don't know which one it is.
You don't know the name. You yeah, you don't know the identity.
Yes.
Okay. And a spacecraft?
A spacecraft is a vehicle that travels in space.
Okay. Also known as a spaceship.
That's right.
Actually, this is interesting because, you know, the word UFO.
Yes.
That's that comes from
Unidentified flying object.
Exactly.
So unidentified spacecraft and an unknown vehicle flying in space.
Right, a UFO. Have you ever seen a UFO?
Uh no.
Oh. That's too bad.
Have you?
Of course, hasn't everyone?
All right. Well, um I think the people in our dialogue may or may not have seen a UFO. So why don't we take a listen?
They are breaking through. Central blasters to full power.
Excellent job. Search the ship. She's got to be in here somewhere. Bring her to me.
Lord Hater, we have a survivor here.
Where is she? Don't make me destroy you. Tell me where she is!
Not so fast. She will no longer be your prisoner. It's time you and I settled this once and for all.
You are unwise to think you can defeat me. You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.
We will stop you!
Lord Hater, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the rear dock! They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam!
After them!
They're accelerating towards the speed of light! We lost them, sir!
Okay, so a really cool Lord Hater, huh? music and everything. Well, you may have noticed that it's similar to a certain movie out there.
I don't know. I mean, seems quite quite original to me.
But everything for educational purposes.
That's right.
Okay, so so we saw some words that were maybe a little bit difficult. So let's take a look at these now in language takeaway.
Language takeaway.
Well, I guess in the dialogue the bad guys were breaking through.
Breaking through.
Breaking through.
In the simple present, it would be
to break through.
Okay, break through. And what does that mean?
Well, let's listen to some examples to help us find out.
Example one.
After 15 minutes, the workers broke through the wall and rescued everyone from the fire.
Example two.
He's such a good player. He broke through the entire defense.
Example three.
They are breaking through our impenetrable wall! Run!
All right, so it's kind of like to enter by force somewhere.
Yeah, to maybe break some glass and come into a room or something like that.
Okay, break through. Yeah.
All right, so Lord Hater had a fight with his enemy and he said he wants to settle this.
To settle this. Settle.
So what do you what do you do when you settle something?
Well, when you settle something is you end a fight or a dispute.
Or an argument.
Or an argument or a problem. Yeah.
When you settle an argument, does everyone always agree?
No, not always, right?
Right.
Sometimes you are forced to agree.
Okay.
Not everyone agrees, but you have no other choice.
So it's a little bit different from reaching an agreement because there's usually a winner and a loser.
Right, exactly. Well, now, another very popular word and within sci-fi is this word tractor beam.
Tractor beam.
A tractor beam.
Tractor beam.
Now, I'm not sure if this really exists in real life.
Well, I've never heard of it.
But a tractor beam in sci-fi movies is like this invisible force that grabs an object and doesn't let it escape and brings it towards another spaceship.
So it's like almost like a rope that you can't see.
Right, and it brings it in. So the spaceship managed to escape their tractor beam.
Okay, I think that is definitely not true.
Well, maybe, I don't know, but in sci-fi you will always hear this tractor beam.
Okay. Now, let's move on to our final word. The spaceship was accelerating towards the speed of light.
Accelerating.
Accelerating. To accelerate.
To accelerate.
That's right.
So that means to increase speed, right?
Yeah, to to go faster.
To go faster. So if you are in your car,
You want to accelerate so you can pass another car.
Okay. Or even when you stop at a red light and it turns green,
You gotta accelerate.
Okay. To accelerate.
Let's listen to our dialogue again and then we'll come back and take a look at some of the phrases that came up in this dialogue.
They are breaking through. Central blasters to full power.
Excellent job. Search the ship. She's got to be in here somewhere. Bring her to me.
Lord Hater, we have a survivor here.
Where is she? Don't make me destroy you. Tell me where she is.
Not so fast. She will no longer be your prisoner. It's time you and I settled this once and for all.
You are unwise to think you can defeat me. You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.
We will stop you!
Lord Hater, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the rear dock! They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam!
After them!
They're accelerating towards the speed of light! We lost them, sir!
Well, great. Um, well, great. I think that's a little bit more clear this time. But like Marco said, I want to look at now some phrases that you might hear in a sci-fi context.
Fluency Builder.
The first phrase that we can take a look at and maybe it looks a little bit strange. He said, she will no longer be your prisoner.
No longer be.
No longer be. So what does he mean by no longer?
Um anymore.
Anymore, right?
Yeah. So you will not be my prisoner anymore.
Okay. So how would I use it in this form, no longer be?
You've always got to use it in the future tense.
Okay.
So she'll no longer be your prisoner. Um I will no longer be your employee.
Okay. Or or I can say I will no longer be your boyfriend.
Okay, so it's always will no longer be. It's always in the future.
Okay.
One more thing, Marco. Is this quite commonly used or maybe a little bit formal?
I think it's a little bit formal and it's very, I don't know, to a certain point poetic.
Yeah, which I think is why we hear it a little bit more often in sci-fi movies.
All right, so no longer be. What about our next phrase?
You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.
Okay, you know nothing of. You know nothing of.
You know nothing of.
So again, it's very poetic, I think.
Yeah. Basically meaning you don't know about.
You don't know about. Yeah.
So again, let's take a look at how you would use it. You know nothing of and then
Science fiction.
You know nothing of science fiction. Very good.
So you would use a noun afterwards.
Exactly.
Okay. So interesting phrases. Again, formal and probably quite often used in in science fiction movies.
Again, formal um and probably quite often used in in science fiction movies.
But now you can understand when they use some of these words that maybe are a little bit difficult and very common in these types of movies.
Now let's go to our last phrase. This one actually can be used in many different circumstances. Let's settle this once and for all.
Okay, so we saw the verb uh so we saw the word settle already. Now, let's settle this once and for all.
Mhm. Once and for all.
So what does that mean?
Finally. That's right, forever.
Okay, so once and for all, forever.
Mhm.
So why don't we listen to some other examples of how we can use this phrase once and for all in different contexts.
Example one.
I'm fed up with arguing about this. Let's just settle the argument once and for all.
Example two.
He claims his photographs prove once and for all that UFOs do exist.
Example three.
I told him once and for all that I don't want to be his girlfriend anymore.
Okay, so now I think it's clear. We've we've seen a lot of words, we've seen a lot of phrases. Let's listen to our dialogue one more time.
They are breaking through. Central blasters to full power.
Excellent job. Search the ship. She's got to be in here somewhere. Bring her to me.
Lord Hater, we have a survivor here.
Where is she? Don't make me destroy you. Tell me where she is!
Not so fast. She will no longer be your prisoner. It's time you and I settled this once and for all.
You are unwise to think you can defeat me. You know nothing of the power of the obscure side.
We will stop you!
Lord Hater, we have an unidentified spacecraft taking off from the rear dock! They somehow managed to escape our tractor beam!
After them!
They're accelerating towards the speed of light! We lost them, sir!
Okay, so are you a big sci-fi fan?
I mean, I think as you can tell, no.
Actually, I've seen some of the Star Wars movies, but everyone that I've watched, I've fallen asleep in the middle of.
Really? Yeah. Even in the movie theater. I fell asleep in the movie theater watching Star Wars.
Wow, was it too boring?
It was too boring.
Oh, you're not you're not really into the fantasy.
No, I just I'm the whole time I'm sitting there going, this cannot happen.
Well, that's why it's called science fiction, right? Yes.
But it is interesting to some people and well, behind Star Wars there is a huge culture. Even some people know some of the languages or symbols that that are used in it or the names of some of some of the robots and models of spacecraft.
Well, maybe we'll have to come up with um Star Wars pod.
Exactly. Well, that's all for today, guys. I hope you enjoyed our lesson and of course, if you have questions or comments,
you can leave them in a comment section on our website Englishpod.com.
Well, thanks for listening, you guys, and until next time, goodbye.
Summary
This audio is an English vocabulary practice session. It features two speakers: Speaker 1, who provides definitions, instructions, and example sentences, and Speaker 2, who repeats the vocabulary words. The session is divided into two phases. Initially, Speaker 1 gives a definition, and Speaker 2 states the corresponding word. Later, Speaker 1 presents example sentences, sometimes followed by Speaker 2 repeating the key vocabulary word. Words covered include "Breakthrough," "Blaster," "Settle," "Once and for all," "Unwise," "Manage," "Tractor beam," "Speed of light," "Android," "Galaxy," "Constellation," and "Light year." The emotions expressed vary, including neutral, slightly angry, sad, and happy tones depending on the sentence context.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
The English Pod audio review.
Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.
Get through by force.
Breakthrough.
The parts of a spaceship that are used for emitting bombs.
Blaster.
Finish, end.
Settle.
Forever.
Once and for all.
Not wise, silly.
Unwise.
Be able to do.
Manage.
A device used for attracting one project to another from a distance.
Tractor beam.
The 92,458 meters per second.
Speed of light.
A robot that looks like a person.
Android.
Anyone of the very large groups of stars that make up the universe.
Galaxy.
A group of celestial bodies, usually stars, that appear to form a pattern in the sky or appear visibly related to each other.
Constellation.
Is a unit of length equal to just under 31 trillion kilometers or about 3.26 light years.
Parsec.
The distance traveled in one year traveling at the speed of light.
Light year.
Let's try that faster.
The distance traveled in one year traveling at the speed of light.
Light year.
Forever.
Once and for all.
A group of celestial bodies, usually stars, that appear to form a pattern in the sky or appear visibly related to each other.
Constellation.
Finish, end.
Settle.
Be able to do.
Manage.
Not wise, silly.
Unwise.
A device used for attracting one project to another from a distance.
Tractor beam.
Anyone of the very large groups of stars that make up the universe.
Galaxy.
The 92,458 meters per second.
Speed of light.
Is a unit of length equal to just under 31 trillion kilometers or about 3.26 light years.
Parsec.
Get through by force.
Breakthrough.
The parts of a spaceship that are used for emitting bombs.
Blaster.
A robot that looks like a person.
Android.
Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.
Breakthrough.
After 15 minutes, the workers broke through the wall and rescued everyone from the fire.
Breakthrough.
He is such a good player. He broke through the entire defense.
Breakthrough.
They are breaking through our impenetrable wall. Run!
Don't make me have to ask you again. Clean your room!
Don't make me fire you. Finish those reports now!
Don't make me do something that I will regret later.
Once and for all.
I'm fed up with arguing about this. Let's just settle this argument once and for all.
Once and for all.
He claims his photographs prove once and for all that UFOs do exist.
Once and for all.
I told him once and for all that I don't want to be his girlfriend anymore.
They will no longer be in jail since they are innocent.
My dad told me he will no longer send me money each month. What am I going to do?
I started taking Chinese classes, but after a month, I no longer assisted.
He somehow managed to get into the concert for free.
Charles doesn't have a job or money, but he somehow managed to go on vacation.
We somehow managed to convince the mayor to rename the street.