Episode 0157
Summary
Two individuals discuss trick-or-treating. One speaker, Tom, is enthusiastic about trick-or-treating, while the other questions his age for the activity and expresses concerns about how he might be perceived by others. Tom dismisses the concerns and expresses excitement about receiving M&M's from a neighbor.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Trigger treat!
Tom, aren't you a little too old to be trick-or-treating?
What are you talking about? Where's your Halloween spirit? Didn't you ever dress up in a costume and go around the neighborhood trick-or-treating with your friends?
Of course I did, but when I was ten. Trick or treating is for kids. Plus, I'm sure people will think you're a kidnapper or something, running around with kids at night.
Whatever. I'm going next door. I heard Mrs. Robinson is giving out big bags of M&M's.
Summary
This audio is an EnglishPod lesson where Marco and Catherine discuss Halloween. They explain 'trick-or-treating' as a tradition where children dress up in costumes and ask for candy. They also delve into related vocabulary like 'kidnapper' and 'M&M's'. The hosts share personal anecdotes about Halloween, including dressing up as an injured soldier and the tradition of finding houses that give out full-sized candy bars. They highlight the importance and unique traditions of Halloween in the United States, such as pumpkin carving and decorating.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
Hello everyone and welcome back to another lesson at English Pod. My name is Marco.
And my name is Catherine and in the spirit of Halloween we have a Halloween lesson for you.
Happy Halloween. It's Halloween.
It's Halloween. And this is an elementary level lesson. So we're talking about some basic but important things today.
Exactly. So, um, we're not going to preview anything because the dialogue is pretty simple. So why don't we listen to it for the first time and we'll be right back.
Trick or Treat!
Tom, aren't you a little too old to be trick or treating?
What are you talking about? Where's your Halloween spirit? Didn't you ever dress up in a costume and go around the neighborhood trick or treating with your friends?
Of course I did, but when I was 10. Trick or treating is for kids, plus I'm sure people will think you're a kidnapper or something, running around with kids at night.
Whatever. I'm going next door. I heard Mrs. Robinson is giving out big bags of M&M's.
All right, we're back. So, trick or treating.
Ding dong.
Ding dong, trick or treat. All right, so, um, we're going to explain what trick or treating is, just in a little bit. But before we get into it, why don't we take a look at four important words in language take away?
Language Takeaway.
Well the first one, Marco, is very important because it's the name of this special holiday that isn't celebrated everywhere. It's only celebrated in some places and Americans, I think, love it above all else.
Right, yeah, Halloween. Now, it this actually comes from All Hallow's Eve, right?
That's right. So it's the it's the night of the spirits of the dead.
Right, exactly. So the day of the dead. Uh and as Catherine mentions, it's celebrated in different ways in different countries, but I think probably the United States is one of the few that where people dress up and go trick or treating and things like this.
That's right. And Halloween is the last day of October, so October 31st. And it's a really fun holiday where mostly children dress up in costumes and they ask for candy.
All right, so to dress up means to get in a costume.
Right, well, you could say dress up to mean a couple of different things, but in this case, you dress up in a costume. So that means you you change your clothes so that you're wearing a costume, which is maybe a witch's costume or a vampire or something scary.
So you would say, uh he dressed up as a vampire.
He dressed up as a vampire or uh they got dressed up for the for the wedding.
Okay, very good. So, dress up. And then we have the word kidnapper.
Mm. So the friend is afraid that his friend will look like a kidnapper if he goes out trick or treating with the kids.
Right. And so a kidnapper comes from the word to take or to grab.
So kid grabber. And that means that you're going to take children from from the streets and steal them.
Right. But uh you can kidnap an adult, right? So it's not only for kids.
That's right. It's for any kind of person who you take without them wanting you to, so against their will.
Okay, kidnapper. And finally, we have M&M's. What are what are M&M's? Not the singer, right?
No, M&M's is spelled differently, the singer. This is a delicious chocolate treat. It's a candy. And it comes in big brown bags. And if you want them with peanuts, they come in a yellow bag. And it's And you know your M&M's.
And you know your M&M's.
Oh man, I could tell you all the colors. But uh M&M's are really delicious. Uh and it's actually a brand, M&M's.
It's a brand. Right, so many people will probably know it, but um just in case, they're called M&M's, very good candy.
All right. So uh these words were relatively easy and simple. So why don't we listen to our dialogue again. Let's slow it down just a little bit and we'll be right back to take a look at fluency builder.
Fluency builder.
All right, we're back. So on fluency builder, we promised that we were going to look at this word trick or treating. So let's look at it now.
Trick or treat, it's a verb, right? To trick or treat.
To trick or treat. And it comes from the words that we say when we're children to the person whose door we knock on. So for example, I say.
And then I open the door?
Mhm. I say trick or treat.
Okay. So what are you supposed to do in this when somebody says trick or treat?
Well, I'm hold I'm a child. I'm holding my bag and you're supposed to say, happy Halloween and give me some candy.
Okay.
All right, so trick or treat means you could either trick someone. You could play a trick on them like, um scare them or put some toilet paper on their house or you can give them a treat.
Uh huh.
Um or accept a treat. And so the idea is if you don't give me a treat, I will do something bad to you.
Oh, I see. But this doesn't really happen, right? Like when kids go to people's houses, they say trick or treat and then they get candy automatically.
Almost automatically, yeah. Sometimes people avoid the holiday and they they close their doors and lock them and they don't answer the door.
Yeah.
And that's when someone maybe throws an egg at the house or does something.
Or puts toilet paper on their trees.
Yeah, yeah. So trick or treat is what we say but it's also something we can do. So we can go trick or treating.
Go trick or treating. Right. Okay. Very good. Trick or treat.
And now we have another phrase here that's a little bit complicated. But when the friend answered the door, he said, aren't you a little too old to be trick or treating?
All right, I like this phrase because it's sarcastic. The person is not asking a real question. He's saying, listen, you are too old to be trick or treating. And so in this case, aren't you is a way to introduce something that we know is true, that we think is true. It's it's kind of rude and sarcastic.
So if I say, aren't you supposed to be at work?
Oh, right.
So it's isn't that form? You're not really asking a question, you're more demanding a an explanation.
Right, it's a suggestion. It's like, you're probably supposed to be at work right now. So Marco, aren't you supposed to be at school right now?
So do we always uh but we always use it in that sense, right? Aren't you and then
Yeah, aren't you? Aren't you a little old for that kind of uh an outfit?
All right. So aren't you? All right, very good. So those are the two phrases for fluency builder today. Let's listen quickly to our dialogue one more time and we'll be right back.
Trick or Treat!
Tom, aren't you a little too old to be trick or treating?
What are you talking about? Where's your Halloween spirit? Didn't you ever dress up in a costume and go around the neighborhood trick or treating with your friends?
Of course I did, but when I was 10. Trick or treating is for kids, plus I'm sure people will think you're a kidnapper or something, running around with kids at night.
Whatever. I'm going next door. I heard Mrs. Robinson is giving out big bags of M&M's.
All right, so Marco, have you ever trick or treated?
I did. I did. I used to go trick or treating when I was um little and it was actually really fun.
We used to have competitions about who had the most candy.
I've heard about this.
Right, because you don't necessarily bring a bag, you bring a pillow case and you fill your pillow case with candy.
Now, the interesting thing is that um sometimes you wouldn't necessarily only get candy from people.
Right, sometimes you got weird things like pennies or toothbrushes or apples.
Yeah. So you would go to someone's house and they would give you an apple. You'd be like, okay.
But there was always an old lady who lived near uh well, she lived in the neighborhood and every neighborhood had one, you know? All my friends had a a lady they would go to and she gave the full-sized candy bars.
Wow.
Right, because normally stores sell small candy bars for the Halloween holiday because they're smaller, they're cheaper, it's easier to give them to many people, but there's always one person who has the big full-sized candy bars and everyone goes to her.
Right, exactly. And actually it's amazing how um Halloween is such an important event in the states because everyone dresses up, everyone puts out decorations or pumpkins outside of their homes. They have pumpkin carving contests, which are really cool how they carve out pumpkins.
They make faces in the pumpkins and then we can put a candle inside to light it up. It's really fun.
So that's called a jack-o'-lantern, right?
That's right.
Why why is it called a jack-o'-lantern, do you know?
I have no idea. Maybe it's like a jack like a person looks like a person's face. Maybe a jack. 'Cause a lantern is a light, you know, it's like a light with a candle in it, so.
Yeah. It's actually very, it's a very fun um holiday. It's it's it's really interesting and it's kind of strange when people really oppose it because they say that it's um, you know, it has to do with the devil or it has to do it's a pagan ritual and things like this. But you know, it's just good fun.
It's fun, it's silly. Everyone likes to dress up in a costume.
What was the weirdest costume that you've uh dressed up as as an adult or a child? 'Cause I know you've dressed up as an adult as well.
I dress up every year. I was Pippi Longstockings last year. Well, um as a child one year, I dressed up as an injured soldier because like my dad was in the military so we always had fatigues around the house. And so I used his fatigues and I like put blood on my face and I had crutches. And people thought that I really had a broken leg. So they used to give me double. They gave me that that year they gave me double the candy because they thought, oh here's a poor girl in crutches.
And trick or treating.
And my my my costume was an injured soldier. So they they still don't understand it. It's really funny.
Nice. Well, we want to hear about you guys if you go trick or treating or if you dress up for Halloween. I know that many places around the world have uh parties or festivities for Halloween and and people dress up. So come to our website Englishpod.com. We'll see you guys there and uh we'll see you guys next time.
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween!
Summary
This audio is an English vocabulary learning exercise. It begins with an introduction and instructions to listen to definitions and then say the corresponding vocabulary word. A male speaker introduces the segments, while a female speaker provides the vocabulary words, their definitions, and later uses them in example sentences. The exercise covers words like 'be not', 'trick or treat', 'dress up', 'kidnapper', and 'run around'. Emotions expressed range from neutral and happy to angry and frustrated in the example sentences.
Transcript (Click timestamp to jump)
The English pod audio review.
Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.
Be not.
Be not.
A children's Halloween practice of asking for treats.
Trick or treat.
A tire and clothes suited to a particular role.
Dress up.
To seize and detain or carry away by unlawful force.
Kidnapper.
To go all over the place, to move quickly from one place to another.
Run around.
Let's try that faster.
A children's Halloween practice of asking for treats.
Trick or treat.
A tire and clothes suited to a particular role.
Dress up.
Be not.
Be not.
To seize and detain or carry away by unlawful force.
Kidnapper.
To go all over the place, to move quickly from one place to another.
Run around.
Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.
Trick or treat.
It is common for young kids to go trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Trick or treat.
Last year when I went trick-or-treating, I got enough candy to last for a whole year.
Trick or treat.
Many parents don't allow their children to go trick-or-treating because they think it's dangerous.
Dress up.
When I was 8 years old, I dressed up as Superman for Halloween.
Dress up.
Many people don't like to dress up on Halloween.
Dress up.
It's cute to see all the children dressed up in their costumes.
Be not.
The teacher gave out the exams.
Be not.
Our company gave out Christmas bonuses this year.
Be not.
I hate Halloween. Why do I have to give out candies for free?
Run around.
There are so many kids running around that they are driving me crazy.
Run around.
I saw your dog running around the front lawn this morning.
Run around.
Pete's cat is running around here somewhere, so make sure to close the door.
Be not.
Aren't you a little too big to be playing with those kids?
Be not.
Aren't those pants a little too small for you?
Be not.
Isn't that shirt a little too old to be wearing it to a dinner party?