Episode 0146

Hello everyone and welcome back to another edition here at English Pod. My name is Marco.

And my name is Catherine and today we've got a great upper intermediate level lesson for you all about animal and human rights.

Right. So it's a very debatable topic. People want to protect animals, mistreatment of animals. And this is what we're going to talk about today, protecting animals and giving them rights. Do you think animals have rights?

Eh, well, you know, I think we can leave that for the end. I don't want to, you know, influence the argument here in today's dialogue, but uh yeah, as you've said, I think it's very much a topic that people can go both ways on.

So why don't we listen to our dialogue as two people discuss animal rights and let's get their opinions on things.

You should have seen the TV show that was on last night. The topic it covered was really interesting. Animal rights.

Do you really believe in that? If they're going to focus on something, they should do it on civil rights.

Yes, but we can't deny that animals are vulnerable, defenseless and are completely at the mercy of human beings.

I understand your point, but we continue to have transgressions against human rights. If so much attention weren't devoted to the topic of animals, we would then concentrate more on saving a human being instead of protecting a koala.

You can't compare apples and oranges. I believe that both topics are important and that we can't ignore them. The mistreatment of animals can cause a great environmental imbalance. I believe that governments should prohibit activities like poaching.

Well, you are right on that point. This is the reason that I don't buy leather and I try to buy synthetic products.

At least you're doing your part. My contribution is to have a pet in the house that I treat like a member of the family.

All right, we're back and both of them had have good points, right? In favor and against and as you said, they also talk about human rights, which is also a very important topic.

But before we discuss this topic, why don't we take a look at the language that was used now in language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

All right, so in language takeaway, our first word today is vulnerable.

Okay, vulnerable is a great word, it's a way to describe something and so uh something is vulnerable if it can't really protect itself.

So you are in danger of being hurt.

Exactly.

Right? So you're you're vulnerable. Now, uh this isn't only used for animals, right? It can be like an army is vulnerable if they don't have strong defenses on the on the border or something.

Right. Or my emotions. I'm feeling vulnerable because I just had a really horrible week and I'm really depressed and I'm emotionally vulnerable.

Okay, very good. So vulnerable.

And they also talked about transgressions against human rights.

All right, so a transgression is a thing, it's a noun. And uh transgression is like doing something harmful to or um

Against someone.

Against someone or something.

So a transgression, it's a noun. So it is it doing something in a bad way or

Exactly, it's a bad thing.

It's always negative. You can't it's not positive, right?

Right. And so in many prayers, for example, in the Christian faith, you say, you know, Lord, forgive me for my transgressions, for having uh kind of crossed the line from doing good things to bad things. So you're doing bad things.

Very good. So that's a good way of putting it to cross the line to kind of go beyond where you should.

All right.

So transgressions. And now another very serious problem in the world is poaching. That's one of the things that they said they should control, poaching.

You might have heard this word in a different context because it does have another meaning, but I'm just going to explain the one meaning here that we're talking about, which is uh killing animals, especially for sport or for selling their skins and their fur's.

Right.

So that's poaching. Um what's the difference between poaching and hunting?

Uh hunting can be legal, poaching is illegal.

Okay, so that's the main difference. Hunting is usually for sport, you hunt either for food or for sport, right? Legal hunting. But poaching is usually you you want to sell like you said the fur or the skins or something like that.

Or the tusks on uh rhinos or something like that.

Exactly. All right, so poaching. And then they talked about synthetic products. So what is what is a synthetic product?

Well, a synthetic product is something that is man-made. So it's not natural in that it doesn't come from the earth. Uh cotton is a natural product and plastic for example is synthetic or um

Can you another example?

Nylon. Nylon is a really good synthetic product. And so people who don't want to use animal products like wool or leather, they prefer to use synthetic products.

And I think maybe you've heard this in clothing it's called synthetic fibers, right? Like nylon or polyester.

Exactly.

These are all the words that we have for language takeaway today. So, why don't we move on now to a couple of very interesting phrases that we saw in the dialogue, now in fluency builder.

Fluency builder.

Okay, this first phrase is uh well, it's a common one, but uh it's definitely not used in very happy circumstances. We say that something or someone is at the mercy of someone else.

Okay, so animals are at the mercy of human beings.

What does this mean exactly? Mercy.

So basically, it means that the animals in this case are don't have control of what's going on. So human beings are the ones that control everything. So if I decide to to to kill them, then they are at my mercy, at my will, at my whim.

Exactly.

And so you could say, I'm at your mercy, Marco, please, just like help me out with this. It's like you're the one in control, you're the one who can help the situation. Will you help?

Exactly. I'm at the mercy of someone.

And then uh they were talking and debating this thing and and an interesting comparison came up. You can't compare apples and oranges.

All right, you're going to hear this all the time in English. It's it's not just a a funny little phrase that the person uses, it's a very common idiom.

And so we say, it's like apples and oranges or you can't compare apples and oranges. And this is essentially saying, these are two different things.

Completely different.

Completely different. So, uh I can't compare him and her because it's apples and oranges. They're two different things, two different people.

Right. Cuz that's what in the movie you said they were like peas and carrots.

So they go together. Is does that make sense?

Not really. Forrest Gump was a little bit strange like that. But I I I think the meaning is that if I say that's a big apple and I say, that's a small apple. They're all apples, so I can can compare them. But I say this is a really big orange and that's a really big apple. Well, they're they're different. You just you just can't compare them.

All right. And um and towards the end, the person said that uh you're doing your part.

Mm-hmm. You're doing your part.

Yeah. So, uh this is this is a hard one to understand sometimes because it's not like a part in a play. It's more like a part in society. You're helping make society or culture or civilization better.

So you're contributing.

Exactly.

So, for example, what so what would be an example of a person doing their part towards society?

Well, for example, I don't own a car, I ride my bike, and it's my way of doing my part to help the environment.

Okay, very good.

Because I can't, obviously, I can't buy a factory that's, you know, very green or I can't do all these things to change the world. So I'm going to do small things that's that those are my way of doing my part.

Okay. So like another example would be recycling, that's doing your part. Or in this case, the person bought only synthetic uh products, nothing made from nature.

Mm-hmm.

All right, very good. So very interesting phrases. Um why don't we listen to our dialogue for the last time and then we'll be right back.

You should have seen the TV show that was on last night. The topic it covered was really interesting. Animal rights.

Do you really believe in that? If they're going to focus on something, they should do it on civil rights.

Yes, but we can't deny that animals are vulnerable, defenseless and are completely at the mercy of human beings.

I understand your point, but we continue to have transgressions against human rights. If so much attention weren't devoted to the topic of animals, we would then concentrate more on saving a human being instead of protecting a koala.

You can't compare apples and oranges. I believe that both topics are important and that we can't ignore them. The mistreatment of animals can cause a great environmental imbalance. I believe that governments should prohibit activities like poaching.

Well, you are right on that point. This is the reason that I don't buy leather and I try to buy synthetic products.

At least you're doing your part. My contribution is to have a pet in the house that I treat like a member of the family.

All right, so a debatable topic, animals and animal rights. Um what do you think?

Well, I'll say this. I would be a hypocrite if I said that it's bad to hurt animals because I'm meat I'm a meat eater. I like to eat meat and I like to wear leather. Uh but I do think it's bad to mistreat animals. So I really I try to buy um, you know, free-range chicken or um meat from places I know that treat the animals well. And I definitely disagree with poaching and with using animals uh especially endangered animals um for money and cash purposes. And so that's my position. But uh what's yours? I mean, I know you eat eat meat too.

No, yeah, of course. And uh I think even though protection of animals is a very important topic and you don't want um the mistreatment of of these little creatures that are very vulnerable to to us because we're we're smarter than them in the end. Um but I think also it has to do a lot with uh superstition sometimes and kind of mystical and magical things. For example, people killing rhinos because they believe that the rhino horn has a amazing curing properties or you know, or the same thing with elephant tusks and stuff like that. So it also it involves this certain aspect that people almost don't know any better. They just they truly believe that these things actually work or that what they will help them. So they don't consider the the like in the dialogue said the imbalance that they create in in the environment or the the consequences.

Or there might be some very serious evolutionary consequences that we cannot even imagine. And so, you know, things things change kind of over time, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. But if we force change really quickly, uh who knows what the results are going to be. It might be really negative for us.

Exactly. And that's what we want to know now, what do you think um about these topics because in the end, the environment, animals, they're all connected. If you wipe out all the foxes and in in a forest and you're going to have like uh you're going to have too many snakes running around, right? So uh what do you think? Come to englishpod.com and you can where you can leave all your questions, comments or suggestions and we're always there to help out.

So we hope to see you there and until next time everyone. Goodbye.

The English Pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

The rights people have.

Civil rights.

Capable of being decomposed by natural means.

Biodegradable.

Easily hurt or harmed.

Vulnerable.

A prolonged period of time during which no rain falls.

Drought.

Defenseless.

Defenseless.

A severe shortage of food.

Famine.

In a position where you can be harmed.

At the mercy of.

The part of the Earth's surface and atmosphere inhabited by living things.

Biosphere.

Something that is not allowed.

Transgression.

A general term for the research activity that creates a copy of some biological entity.

Cloning.

An unfair comparison of two different things.

Apples and oranges.

To illegally hunt protected animals.

Poach.

Not natural.

Synthetic.

To help accomplish a goal.

Do your part.

Let's try that faster.

The rights people have.

Civil rights.

The part of the Earth's surface and atmosphere inhabited by living things.

Biosphere.

Something that is not allowed.

Transgression.

Easily hurt or harmed.

Vulnerable.

An unfair comparison of two different things.

Apples and oranges.

In a position where you can be harmed.

At the mercy of.

To illegally hunt protected animals.

Poach.

Defenseless.

Defenseless.

A severe shortage of food.

Famine.

Capable of being decomposed by natural means.

Biodegradable.

Not natural.

Synthetic.

A general term for the research activity that creates a copy of some biological entity.

Cloning.

To help accomplish a goal.

Do your part.

A prolonged period of time during which no rain falls.

Drought.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Vulnerable.

The wound is vulnerable to infection.

Vulnerable.

A dry forest is vulnerable to fires.

Vulnerable.

The spawning salmon is vulnerable to predators.

At the mercy of.

The city is at the mercy of the forest fire.

At the mercy of.

The lost sailors were at the mercy of the vast ocean that lay ahead of them.

At the mercy of.

Our city is at the mercy of criminals and gangsters. Something must be done.

Transgression.

All transgressions of the law will be severely punished.

Transgression.

She was guilty of the worst moral transgression.

Transgression.

There are legal consequences for those that transgress the law.

Apples and oranges.

You can't compare Batman and Superman. It's like apples and oranges.

Apples and oranges.

The two operating systems are so different. They're like apples and oranges.

Apples and oranges.

You can't compare those two authors. It's like comparing apples to oranges.

Do your part.

Do your part. Don't litter.

Do your part.

Your wife looks so tired. You haven't been doing your part around the house.

Do your part.

Do your part to prevent climate change and try riding your bike to work.