2010年ESL之餐饮娱乐 01 Describing Different Smells_在线英语听力室

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01 Describing Different Smells

GLOSSARY¹

to renovate² – to improve a room or building by rebuilding, expanding, and/orredecorating it

* They’re going to renovate their house by adding another bathroom.

stale – not fresh; old and used

* The bread won’t become stale as quickly if we keep it in a closed plastic bag.

musty – slightly wet and bad-smelling because something hasn’t had enough airmoving around it

* The basement is really musty. Would it help to put a fan down there?

to air (something) out – to make air move around something so that it becomesfresher and better-smelling

* If you don’t have time to wash your gym socks, at least air them out before youput them back on.

putrid³ – dead and decaying, with a very bad smell

* They couldn’t understand why their entryway had such a putrid smell until theyfound the dead rat under their front porch.

faint – very slight; almost unnoticeable; barely

* Can you hear that music? It’s very faint, but you can hear it if you stand verystill.

nasty – very unpleasant and disgusting; gross

* Why would anyone want to live in such a nasty apartment building?

to permeate⁴ – to be present in every part of something; to be found through out something

* The sound of laughter permeates⁵ the air at school during recess⁶.

burnt – damaged by fire; damaged by being burned

* After the fire, a few pieces of burnt wood were all that was left of the building.

smoky – with a lot of the smelly, hot, grey air that is produced by a fire

* Let’s open the flue in the chimney before we start the fire, or else the wholeroom will get smoky.

to hold (one’s) breath – to not breathe, usually to avoid smelling something orto avoid making a noise

* When we go in there, hold your breath! The air is full of poisonous gases.

truckload – the amount that would fill one truck; the amount of something thatcan be carried by one truck; a large amount

* They used two truckloads of river rocks to decorate the area in front of thebuilding.

scented⁷ – with a pleasant smell

* Do you like to use scented soap when you take a bath?

perfume – a liquid with a strong, pleasant smell, used by women to makethemselves more attractive, usually placed on the wrists and neck

* The smell of her perfume quickly filled the elevator, and people began to cough.

to mask – to cover something else; to make it impossible to see, smell, hear, orperceive something else

* Yu-Lin tried to use makeup⁸ to mask her acne.

foul⁹ – very unpleasant

* We went to that restaurant last week, and we were served the foulest¹⁰ food we’dever tasted. It was horrible!

to stink¹¹ – to have a very bad smell

* That blue cheese stinks¹²! I don’t know how you can eat it.

sense of smell – the ability to smell things and/or to recognize something by itssmell

* Dogs have a great sense of smell, so police officers use them to help find drugsin suitcases at airports.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What kind of smell would you expect to find around a dead animal?

a) A musty smell.

b) A putrid smell.

c) A burnt smell.

2. What does Giles mean by saying he’d have to lose his sense of smell to workthere?

a) He’d have to learn to stop breathing.

b) He’d have to bring good-smelling things to work.

c) He’d have to stop being bothered by smells.

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WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

faint

The word “faint,” in this podcast, means very slight or almost unnoticeable:

“There’s always faint music playing in the office, but it’s never so loud that itinterrupts our work.” The phrase “a faint hope/chance” means a slight possibilitythat something might happen: “There’s only a faint chance that people are stillalive under the collapsed¹³ building, but we have to keep looking.” The phrase “tonot have the faintest idea about something” means to not know anything aboutsomething: “‘What do you think she meant by that?’ ‘I haven’t the faintest idea.’”

Finally, someone who is “faint-hearted” is not trying very hard, usually becauseone doesn’t think one can do it, or because one doesn’t really want to do or haveit: “Marissa made a faint-hearted attempt to get the job, but she really wants tostay home with her children.”

foul

In this podcast, the word “foul” means very unpleasant: “Bryan hates changinghis daughter’s foul-smelling diapers.” The phrase “foul language” means bad orrude words that may be offensive: “Please don’t use foul language around thechildren.” If someone is in a “foul mood,” he or she is in a very bad mood andmight get angry very easily: “Don’t do anything to make Mom mad. She’s in areally foul mood today.” In sports, a “foul” is an action that doesn’t follow therules: “The player got a foul for hitting another player.” Finally, the phrase “foulplay” means an illegal or dishonest activity, or murder: “The newspaper said shedied of natural causes, but the police suspect foul play.”

CULTURE NOTE

Many “breeds” (types of an animal) of dogs have a very good sense of smell.

For that reason, these dog breeds are often used as police dogs, which are alsoknown as “K9s,” meaning “canines” (dogs or dog-like animals).

A “public order enforcement dog” is used to help police officers “chase” (runafter) “suspects” (people whom the police believe have committed a crime).

These dogs can also help to protect the police officer by “attacking” (physicallyfighting against) a criminal, if necessary. These are usually large, strong, andintelligent dogs.

A “tracking dog” is used to “track” (find where someone has gone and follow thatdirection) criminals or people who have become lost. The dog might be given asmall piece of the person’s clothing and then be told to track that person. Thepolice officers follow the dog until the person is found.

An “illicit substances dog” is used to find drugs or “explosive devices” (bombs).

These dogs are often seen at airports where they “sniff” (smell something bybreathing in loudly through one’s nose) suitcases. If the dog “detects” (findssomething), it points to the suitcase until the police officer comes over and opensit.

Finally, a “cadaver dog” is used to find “cadavers¹⁴” (dead bodies) through itssense of smell. With the right training, some dogs can even smell cadavers thatare underwater.

Police dogs are “valued” (respected and honored) members of the “police force”

(a group of police officers). Sometimes they are given their own “badges” (apiece of metal worn to identify oneself as a police officer or firefighter). When thedogs are “killed in the line of duty” (killed while working), they are often given afull police “funeral” (the ceremony held after someone dies).

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Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – b; 2 – c

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT¹⁵

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 543: DescribingDifferent Smells.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 543. I’m your host, Dr.

Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development inbeautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our website is eslpod.com. Go there today to download the Learning Guide forthis episode, that will help you improve your English even faster.

This episode is called “Describing Different Smells.” It’s a dialogue between Juliaand Giles talking about the different words we use to describe how things smellin English. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Giles: Do you really think we’ll be able to renovate this place and turn it into arestaurant?

Julia: It’s not so bad. I know it smells a little stale and musty in here, but all weneed to do is air it out.

Giles: Air it out? This place needs a lot more than an airing out. The kitchensmells putrid. I wonder what died in there.

Julia: There is a faint smell of something nasty in there, but I don’t think itpermeates through the rest of the building, do you?

Giles: No, but there are different nasty smells in other parts of the building. Oh!

There’s a really strong burnt, smoky smell in this corner. Hold your breath!

Julia: This is a restaurant. I’m sure a thorough cleaning will make all thedifference.

Giles: That might be true for the kitchen, but what will you do in the dining room?

An entire truckload of scented candles or bottles of perfume couldn’t mask thosefoul smells. This place just stinks, from top to bottom!

Julia: All right, I’ll look for another building, but this place is cheap and within ourbudget.

Giles: Yes, but if I had to work here, I’d first have to lose my sense of smell!

[end of dialogue]

Giles begins by saying to Julia, “Do you really think we’ll be able to renovate thisplace and turn it into a restaurant?” “To renovate” means to improve a room oran entire building by usually rebuilding parts of it, expanding it, perhaps puttingdifferent decoration – different colors, that sort of thing. “To renovate” means tomake new, in some ways, the room or the building. Giles wants to take a place,some place they own or are renting, and turn it into a restaurant, meaning makeit into a restaurant. Maybe it was a store before, now it would be somethingdifferent.

Julia says, “It’s not so bad.” The place is not too bad is what she’s saying. Shesays, “I know it smells a little stale and musty in here, but all we need to do is airit out.” “Stale” is a way of describing a smell that is not fresh, that is old;something that smells used could be described as stale. “Musty” (musty) issomething that smells like it’s slightly wet; it’s a very bad smell, usually becausethere hasn’t been enough air circulation in a particular area. If you live in thenorthern part of the United States and your house has a basement, sometimes inthe basement it can get very moist, very damp, meaning there’s water there, andthat can lead to a musty smell. “To air (something) out” means to open windowsor to do something to make the air move around the particular space so it driesout, smells better, gets rid of the bad smells. You might open a window, forexample, to air something out.

Giles says, “Air it out? This place needs a lot more than an airing out.” Notice heuses “airing out” as a noun, from the verb “to air (something) out.” He says, “Thekitchen smells putrid.” “Putrid” (putrid) is the smell of something that is dead,something that is perhaps decaying, meaning that, for example, it’s been sittingthere for a long time and so it starts to come apart. A human body, if it were leftin a room – a dead body, that is – would start to decay. It would start to changecolors; it would start to smell bad. Well, that bad smell we could describe asbeing putrid. It doesn’t just mean it’s a dead body; there are other things that cansmell putrid. “Putrid” is perhaps one on the most negative words you can use todescribe the way that something smells. Giles says, “I wonder what died inthere.” He’s joking; he doesn’t mean something actually is dead in there –although it’s possible!

Julia says, “There is a faint smell of something nasty in there, but I don’t think itpermeates through the rest of the building, do you?” A “faint (faint) smell” is a very slight, very small – so small you can almost not notice it. “Faint” has a lot ofdifferent meanings in English in addition to this one. Take a look at the LearningGuide for some more explanations. “Nasty” (nasty) is something that is veryunpleasant; we might even say it’s disgusting or it’s gross. It’s a very negativeway to describe something. You could say, “It was a nasty fight.” The twopeople were fighting, they were yelling at each other, they were shouting, usingbad language. That would be a nasty fight. Here, “nasty” means that the smell isvery bad. Julia says there’s a faint smell something nasty in there, but shedoesn’t think it permeates through the rest of the building. “To permeate”

(permeate) means to be present in every part of something – in every part of, inthis case, the building. If a nasty smell permeates the building, we mean you cansmell it everywhere in the building.

Giles says that he doesn’t think the nasty smell permeates through the rest of thebuilding, but there are different nasty smells in other parts of the building. Hethen says, “Oh! There’s a really strong burnt, smoky smell in this corner. Holdyour breath!” A “burnt (burnt) smell” would be something that smells after it hasbeen damaged by fire. “Smoky,” similarly, means that something has beenburning, or something has been producing smoke, and the smoke is now thesmell that you get when you go close to that object. So if there’s a fire in theroom, and there was a wooden chair, after the fire whatever is left of the chairmight have a burnt, smoky smell. Giles says to Julia, “Hold your breath!” “Tohold your breath” means not to breathe, usually because you don’t want to smellsomething. You want to avoid a bad smell, hold your breath. It means not tobreathe.

Julia says, “This is a restaurant. I’m sure a thorough cleaning will make all thedifference.” So I guess they’re in a building that had a restaurant, but it’s an oldone and it needs cleaning up. Giles says, “That might be true for the kitchen, butwhat will you do in the dining room (the place where people eat, or dine)? Anentire truckload of scented candles or bottles of perfume couldn’t mask those foulsmells. This place just stinks, from top to bottom!” Giles says that an entiretruckload of scented candles or bottles of perfume couldn’t mask those foulssmells. A “truckload,” here, would be the amount that you could put into a truck;more generally, it just means a large amount of something. So he’s saying thateven if we had a large number of scented candles – “scented” means with apleasant smell. So you buy a candle, and you light it, and it gives off a pleasantsmell. That would be a scented candle. I personally don’t like scented candles,because I don’t think the smell is very pleasant at all usually. Giles alsomentions bottles of perfume. “Perfume” is a liquid with a strong, pleasant smell.

It’s used primarily by women. When men use perfume, they don’t call it perfume,they typically call it “cologne,” just so they don’t seem like they’re women I guess.

I don’t know; it’s all perfume basically! “To mask” (mask) means to coversomething, to make it difficult or impossible to see or smell or hear something. Inthis case, make it difficult to smell something. “Foul” (foul) is like the word“putrid,” something that is very unpleasant, something that is very bad. “Foul,”

however, has some other meanings; take a look at the Learning Guide for those.

So going back, Giles says, “An entire truckload of scented candles or bottles ofperfume couldn’t mask those foul smells. This place just stinks, from top tobottom!” “To stink” means to have a very bad smell. You would never want tosay to your boss or to your girlfriend, “Boy, you really stink!” That is not a nicething to say. More generally, “stink” means to be very bad at something. So wecould say, “Ah, that baseball player stinks.” “David Beckham stinks,” forexample. I’m not saying he actually stinks; I don’t watch soccer so I don’t reallyknow! But when Giles says, “This place just stinks,” he means it literally¹⁶ stinks; itsmells “from top to bottom,” meaning the entire building – the entire room.

Julia says, “All right, I’ll look for another building, but this place is cheap andwithin our budget,” meaning we can afford it; we have enough money for what weplanned. Giles says, “Yes, but if I had to work here, I’d first have to lose mysense of smell!” Your sense of smell is your ability to smell. We talk about thefive senses: smell, see, hear, taste, and touch. And then of course, the sixthsense, which is the ability to see dead people – if you saw the movie, you knowwhat I’m talking about!

Now let’s listen to the dialogue again, this time at a normal speed.