E: Well, hello everyone! And welcome to EnglishPod! My name's Erica. M: And I'm Marco. E: So, Marco, how're you doing today? M: I'm doing great and I'm really looking forward to our lesson, because we're going to the eye doctor today. E: Okay, so, we've got an elementary lesson about going to the eye doctor. M: Yes! E: Well, let's get started then with our “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview. E: We have three words today in our vocabulary preview. All three words come from our dialogue. Our first word is struggle. M: Struggle. E: Struggle. M: Struggle. E: So, Marco, when I struggle to do something, what does that mean? M: It means it's difficult, it means that you have a hard time, so you can't really do it very quickly. E: So, what you have to try really hard. M: You have to try really hard. E: Yeah, to do something that's difficult. M: Yes. E: Okay, our next word is… M: Blurry. E: Blurry. M: Blurry. E: Blurry. B-L-U-R-R-Y. M: Blurry. Whenever something is blurry, you can't really see it well. E: It's not clear. M: Right. E: That's right, everything will be blurry. M: Uhu. E: Okay. And our final word is… M: Prescription. E: Prescription. M: Prescription. E: Often when you go to the doctor and you need some medicine, he writes out a prescription. M: Right, a little paper that says all the medicine that you need and then you can go to the drug store and buy it. E: Exactly. M: Uhu. E: Okay, so, those three words you'll hear in today's dialogue and I think it's time we listen to the dialogue. A: Hello, Arthur. What seems to be the problem? B: Hey doc. Well, I think I might need glasses. I’m getting headaches, and I really struggle to see things that are far away. But I have always had 20/20 vision. A: Sounds like you may be far-sighted. OK, then, cover your left eye and read the chart in front of you. B: Mmm. . . X, E, R, 3, a question mark, and I can’t quite make out the other symbol but I think it’s the peace sign. A: Wow, Arthur! You’re as blind as a bat! B: Yeah, I know, my vision is really blurry at times. A: Ok then, head on over to the other room and pick out some frames while I fill out your prescription. B: Thanks doc! A: Arthur, that’s the bathroom. E: Well, this guy really has poor vision, hey? M: Hehe. E: Well, actually, you know what, I've walked in to the bathroom, the men's bathroom, actually, instead of the women's bathroom. And that's not 'cause I wasn't wearing my glasses. M: It's because you weren't paying attention. E: That's true. M: Hehe. Okay, let's take a look today at out “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway. M: The first word on our language takeaway for today is twenty/twenty (20/20) vision. E: 20/20 vision. M: 20/20 vision. E: If I have 20/20 vision… M: It means that you have perfect vision. E: Which I do not have. M: Hehe. No, me neither, so, I… I usually wear glasses as well. E: Yeah. M: But, yeah, people that have 20/20 vision don't need glasses, they can see clearly with… E: And perfectly. M: And perfectly. E: Yeah. Next word is far-sighted. M: Far-sighted. E: Far-sighted. M: Far-sighted. E: So, if I'm far-sighted, I can't see very well, right? M: So, if you're far-sighted, you can't see things that are near. E: So, you can see things that are faraway. M: Right. E: But thing that are close are blurry. Okay. M: And the opposite would be… E: Near-sighted. M: And which is… E: You can see things that are close well… M: But not far. E: Yeah. M: Hehe. E: Okay. M: Far-sighted and near-sighted. E: Okay, so, our next word is make out. M: Make out. E: Make out. M: Make out. E: Make out, that's kind of a funny little phrase. And let's listen to a few examples of this phrase, so we can understand how it's used. Voice: Example one. A: I can’t make out what this says. The writing is too small. Voice: Example two. B: If you look carefully, you can almost make out a few of the stars in the sky. Voice: Example three. C: Can you see what’s written on the sign there? D: No, I can’t quite make it out. M: Okay, so, basically, make out is to see clearly. E: Exactly. M: Uhu, make out. E: To see. M: Okay. And our last word for language takeaway today is blind as a bat. E: Blind as a bet. M: Blind as a bet. E: So, this is a really funny sounding expression, one of these weird English idioms. M: Yeah, it's a really common expression that just means that you can't see. E: Exactly, so, it's not like you actually are blind, right? M: But you just really can't see very well. E: Okay. Alright, we saw four great words today in our language takeaway, now I think we can listen to our dialogue another time. M: But this time it's gonna be slower, so we can pick up all these great words that we just talked about. A: Hello, Arthur. What seems to be the problem? B: Hey doc. Well, I think I might need glasses. I’m getting headaches, and I really struggle to see things that are far away. But I have always had 20/20 vision. A: Sounds like you may be far-sighted. OK, then, cover your left eye and read the chart in front of you. B: Mmm. . . X, E, R, 3, a question mark, and I can’t quite make out the other symbol but I think it’s the peace sign. A: Wow, Arthur! You’re as blind as a bat! B: Yeah, I know, my vision is really blurry at times. A: Ok then, head on over to the other room and pick out some frames while I fill out your prescription. B: Thanks doc! A: Arthur, that’s the bathroom. M: Alright, great stuff on our dialogue and with this we can start now with “Putting it together”. Voice: Putting it together. E: So, we saw a couple of useful phrases in this dialogue and I think we can show you how to use these phrases in a few different ways. M: Right, um, the first one that we have today is what seems to be. E: So, we heard in the dialogue the doctor said… M: “What seems to be the problem?” E: We can use this same expression in a number of different ways. Let's listen. Voice: Example one. A: What seems to be the problem? Voice: Example two. B: What seems to be the matter? Voice: Example three. C: What seems to be the trouble? M: Okay, so, with these examples we can see how we can use the phrase what seems to be in many different ways. E: Yeah, it's a great way of asking “What's the problem?” M: So, now let's take a look at another phrase. E: We heard in the dialogue the doctor said “Head on over to the other room”. M: Right, and with this phrase head on we can combine it with other prepositions to indicate another place. E: Exactly, let's hear three examples. Voice: Example one. A: Head on in. Voice: Example two. B: Head on out. Voice: Example three. C: Head on up. M: Okay, so, for example, we can say “Head on into the house, it's gonna rain soon”. E: Or we can say “Hey guys, let's head on out to the park”. M: Uhu, or I can also say “Head on up to my room, I’ll be there in a second”. E: Great! Those are some cool phrases. M: Right, and they're really useful. E: So, why don't we listen to our dialogue and maybe we'll hear them again. A: Hello, Arthur. What seems to be the problem? B: Hey doc. Well, I think I might need glasses. I’m getting headaches, and I really struggle to see things that are far away. But I have always had 20/20 vision. A: Sounds like you may be far-sighted. OK, then, cover your left eye and read the chart in front of you. B: Mmm. . . X, E, R, 3, a question mark, and I can’t quite make out the other symbol but I think it’s the peace sign. A: Wow, Arthur! You’re as blind as a bat! B: Yeah, I know, my vision is really blurry at times. A: Ok then, head on over to the other room and pick out some frames while I fill out your prescription. B: Thanks doc! A: Arthur, that’s the bathroom. M: Okay, so, talking about going to the eye doctor today, I have a question for our listeners. E: A challenge for our listeners. M: A challenge. What's it called when you can't distinguish colors? E: So, like when you can't tell the difference between read and blue and green. M: Right, so, what is that condition called? So… E: There's like a technical term, we want the technical term. M: Hehe. We want the technical term. So, we'll be looking for it on our comments' page and be sure to… if you know the answer, post it. E: At englishpod.com, also if you have questions about today's lesson or any other lesson, please come and visit our website and, uh, ask us. M: Yeah, we hope to see you there, but until then it's… E: Good bye! M: Bye!