M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name isMarco. 
C: And my name is Catherine and today we’re talking about being on the road. 
M: Yeah, we’re gonna be on the road, but we’re gonna encounter a little bit of a… car 
problems. 
C: Uh, my favorite kind. 
M: Oh, yeah, I think it’s happened to everyone. You’re on the road or maybe you’re coming 
back from work, you get a flat tire or something happens to your car, right? 
C: And it’s always when you’re in a rush. 
M And most of the time it’s raining. 
C: Yeah. 
M: Hehe. 
C: Or snowing, so all the circumstances definitely… well, they don’t help, let’s just say. 
M: Yeah. 
C: Right, so before we listen to this dialogue, let’s take a look at some of the… the words on 
today’s “vocabulary preview”. 
Voice: Vocabulary preview. 
M: Alright, so we’re gonna take a look at two words. Um, they’re kind of strange, I don’t 
know, kind of difficult to understand, so that’s why we’re gonna explain them. Um, the first 
one is spew, to spew. 
C: It’s a verb, okay, to spew. Um, well, what can spew? Volcano can spew. 
M: Exactly. 
C: An engine can spew. 
M: Uhu. 
C: A person can spew. 
M: Yeah, that’s not very nice. 
C: No. 
M: Hehe. So basically, it’s to like expel or to… 
C: Shoot out. 
M: Shoot out from, uh, your mouth or something… liquid, so in the case of a person, right? 
C: So if a person spews, it means a person throws up. 
M: Uhu. 
C: But it’s usually very forceful. 
M: Uhu. 
C: Alright, it’s very messy. Uh, a volcano can spew lava. 
M: Exactly, so a volcano is spewing lava. Now, uh, for the next word that we have it’s, um… 
it’s an informal way of saying that something is broken. 
C: You could say it’s busted. 
M: It’s busted. My DVD-player is busted. 
C: Man, my phone is busted. 
M: Uhu, so it’s an informal way, very popular, very common, I would say, uh, to describe 
that something is not working. I don’t think many people actually say, well, “it’s broken” or 
“it’s damaged”. 
C: Yeah, they’re pretty… pretty much mixed I think, but you’ve… 
M: Uhu. 
C: You will definitely hear busted if you’re talking to native English speakers. 
M: Or even like, for example, your arm: “Oh, he’s got a busted arm”. 
C: Exactly, so busted. 
M: Uhu. Alright, so let’s listen to our dialogue for the first time. Let’s see what’s going on 
with, uh, this car trouble and then we’ll come back and explain some things. 
A: Howdy! Nice car! What seems to be the problem?
B: I don’t know! This stupid old car started spewing
white smoke and it just died on me. Luckily, I man-
aged to start it up and drive it here. What do you
think it is?
A: Not sure yet. How about you pop the hood and
we can take a look. Hmmm, it doesn’t look good.
B: What do you mean? My daddy gave me this car
for my birthday last month. It’s brand new!
A: Well missy, the white smoke that you saw is steam
from the radiator. You overheated your engine so
now the pistons are busted and so is your trans-
mission. You should have called us and we could
have towed you over here when your car died.
B: Ugh... So how long is this going to take? An hour?
A: I’m afraid a bit more than that. We need to or-
der the spare parts, take apart your electrical sys-
tem, fuel pump and engine and then put it back
together again. You are going to have to leave it
here for at least two weeks.
B: What! How am I supposed to get to school or go
shopping? This is not happening!
C: So if I were the mechanic, I would not be very happy to be dealing with someone like 
this girl. 
M: Hehe. I think it’s, uh… well, maybe it’s a little bit stereotypical that we put it as a… as a 
girl, because guys and girls, so many people don’t know anything about cars or mechanics, 
right? 
C: And in the States there’s a lot of female mechanics too, so it’s… 
M: Yeah. 
C: You know, it’s mixed. 
M: Yeah, yeah. Uh, but definitely it’s a… it’s something that happens all the time and 
probably the mechanic will overcharge her as well, because apparently she doesn’t know 
what she’s doing. 
C: And that’s one of the reasons we wanna give you the vocabulary to deal with this 
situation, so let’s look at some of those car words in today’s “language takeaway”. 
Voice: Language takeaway. 
M: Alright, so we’re gonna take a look at very specific words related to cars and… and the 
engines and everything, so, um, let’s start with the first one. 
C: Radiator. 
M: Radiator. Alright, so the radiator of the car. 
C: So radiator is something that you normally find in a front of the car, near the engine. It 
usually gets very, very hot, right? 
M: Yeah. 
C: So one of the big issues is radiators getting too hot, because there’s no way to cool them 
down. 
M: Uhu. So if you live in a place that’s very hot, the radiator keeps your engine cool, 
because it has water in it. So if it overheats or maybe you didn’t put enough water in 
there, then it’ll start spewing,steam like in this dialogue. 
C: And if you have a problem with your radiator, you could actually do a lot of damage to 
your engine, which is why this is important. 
M: Exactly, and that’s what happened in this dialogue. So a radiator. Now, because the 
radiator wasn’t working well, it overheated the engine and he said they had some busted 
pistons. 
C: So broken pistons. Pistons are important, because they’re kind of like valves that go up 
and down. 
M: Right, so inside your engine you have mini explosions and the pistons move up and 
down and that’s what actually moves your car. 
C: Right, and so pistons, in general, are things in mechanics, so like atrumpet has pistons… 
M: Uhu. 
C: Things that go up and down and allow for the flow of… 
M: Air… 
C: Air. 
M: Or something like that. 
C: Uhu. 
M: Very good, so that’s a piston. And, well, another very common mechanic term is 
the transmission. 
C: Alright, so the transmission. What happens if your transmission dies? Can you still drive? 
M: You basically can’t move or maybe you only have one gear or two gears. 
C: Alright, so think about transmission as coming from the word totransmit, it means “to 
transfer” 
M: Uhu. 
C: Right. 
M: So this is the part of the car that transfers energy or the power to actually move the car. 
C: Uhu. 
M: So the transmission. 
C: And we’ve got the mechanic who says “Well, we’ve got to order you some spare parts”. 
M: Uhu. 
C: So first, let’s look at the word spare. 
M: Uhu. 
C: What’s another word for spare? 
M: Uh, additional, maybe… 
C: Extra. 
M: Extra. 
C: Right, so spare means extra parts or… well, pieces. 
M: Uhu. 
C: So, he’s talking about ordering a new transmission, new pistons – the things to replace 
the broken things. 
M: Uhu, spare parts. So this is why you go to the mechanic to get some spare parts… 
C: Cause… 
M: And get them installed. 
C: You probably don’t have many spare parts at home, right? 
M: Hehe. You probably… 
C: You’ve gotta… transmission lying around. 
M: Well, yeah, so spare parts. And the last word that we’re gonna take a look at is a fuel 
pump. 
C: Okay, so a pump is, uh… you could have a bike pump… 
M: A water pump. 
C: Water pump, so these are something… these are some things that we use very, very 
often, but a fuel pump is something that allows f… gas, gasoline to get into your engine. 
M: Uhu. So it’s basically a device that pushes gasoline into the engine, so you can start. And 
that’s the same thing with a water pump. It… it’s a device that pushes water. 
C: Or an air pump is something that pushes air into your tires in your bicycle. 
M: Uhu. Exactly, so a fuel pump, water pump, et cetera. 
C: Wow! I feel like we know a lot about cars. 
M: Yeah, apparently we do, see? Alright, so, uh, now that we’ve taken a look at all of these, 
uh, great words, uh, let’s move on to a couple of phrases in “fluency builder”. 
Voice: Fluency builder. 
C: Alright, these are phrases that you hear sometimes when you’re talking about 
electronics, but in today’s lesson we’re also talking about specific car phrases, you hear 
these all the time at mechanics. 
M: Right, and the first one is the car suddenly died on me. 
C: Alright, to die on. So we keep these two words together – die, on. 
M: Uhu. 
C: Oh, man, so while you were driving your car died, it’s stopped moving. 
M: Uhu. So that means that it… it doesn’t work anymore. And it’s not only for cars, right? 
You can say “My mp3-player died on me today”. 
C: Exactly, and what it means is it’s not like you left it and you forgot about it and you tried 
it again and it didn’t work. It means, while you’re using it, it dies. 
M: Exactly. 
C: Doesn’t work. 
M: Uhu. So I think this phrase is a… is a good one to give some other examples, so let’s 
listen. 
Voice: Example one. 
A: My CD-player died on me and I had to listen to the radio. 
Voice: Example two. 
B: Get that medicine over here faster, this guy is gonna die on me. 
Voice: Example three. 
C: I forgot to charge my mobile phone; it’s gonna die on me soon. 
C: So this next one is a phrase you hear, the first thing you hear maybe when you tell 
someone you have a car problem. 
M: Right, you tell them to pop the hood. 
C: Or let’s pop the hood. 
M: Uhu. 
C: So, this means let’s open the front part of the car, the hood to look at the engine, 
transmission - all those parts. 
M: Exactly. So you can say “open the hood”, but… but the most common one is pop the 
hood. 
C: So the reason is because there is a little spring. 
M: Yeah. 
C: And you have to pull inside the car and it goes “pop”. 
M: Yeah. 
C: And the… there’s a little… there’s a little jump. 
M: Yeah, exactly. 
C: There's a little ??? jump. So it’s… it’s literally popping. 
M: Right, or you can also say the trunk, right? The back part of the car. 
C: Hey, can you pop the trunk for me? I’ve got to put some stuff inside. 
M: Exactly, so pop the hood, pop the trunk. 
C: And, uh, next, we’ve got this… this girl, actually, who’s talking about her car, because 
she just got this car, so it’s another way to say “it’s a new car”. 
M: It’s brand new. 
C: Is there more new than new? 
M: It’s like newer, newer than new. 
C: Alright, so brand you think about brands like Ford or, uh, Gucci, these are brands. 
M: Uhu. 
C: But brand new means she maybe got it like today. 
M: Uhu, so it’s brand new; it’s very, very new. 
C: Did you see my brand new watch? 
M: Wow, it is nice. Where did you get it? 
C: Hehe. 
M: Alright, so brand new. And, well, the last phrase that we have for you today is to take 
apart something. 
C: Alright, so this is very popular with young children like they like to take things apart, so 
they can find out how they work, but… 
M: Uhu. 
C: To take apart means to take all the pieces and to pull them out. 
M: Uhu. Yeah, I used to do that a lot. When I was a kid I used to take apart any… any 
electronic device to kind of see how it works and then I would try to put it back together 
again and… 
C: That’s why you’re so smart. 
M: Well, uh, it never really worked. 
C: Hehe. 
M: It worked half the time. 
C: So the problem is always putting them back together again, right? 
M: Exactly, so you can take it apart, but then you put it back together and there’s always a 
screw missing or a screw that’s extra or two or three parts ??? 
C: Hehe. Not a good sign. 
M: Alright, so, um, we’ve taken a look at a lot of great words and phrases, so let’s listen to 
this dialogue for the last time. 
A: Howdy! Nice car! What seems to be the problem?
B: I don’t know! This stupid old car started spewing
white smoke and it just died on me. Luckily, I man-
aged to start it up and drive it here. What do you
think it is?
A: Not sure yet. How about you pop the hood and
we can take a look. Hmmm, it doesn’t look good.
B: What do you mean? My daddy gave me this car
for my birthday last month. It’s brand new!
A: Well missy, the white smoke that you saw is steam
from the radiator. You overheated your engine so
now the pistons are busted and so is your trans-
mission. You should have called us and we could
have towed you over here when your car died.
B: Ugh... So how long is this going to take? An hour?
A: I’m afraid a bit more than that. We need to or-
der the spare parts, take apart your electrical sys-
tem, fuel pump and engine and then put it back
together again. You are going to have to leave it
here for at least two weeks.
B: What! How am I supposed to get to school or go
shopping? This is not happening!
M: Alright, so car travel. Have you ever had like any very serious car travel or, um, like 
something weird happened to your car? 
C: Actually, uh, the week before I decided to leave Chicago. I had this 1991 Honda Civic 
hatchback. 
M: Mm. 
C: So only two doors. 
M: Nice. 
C: And I was driving home from work, I was on a highway, I had the radio on and windows 
open and then, tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh, puh. 
M: It died. 
C: It died in the middle of the highway during rush hour. 
M: Wow. 
C: Right, so that’s when there's tons of cars and I don’t know what to do, so I’m calling 
people and then all of a sudden I see someone tapping on my window and there’s cars 
everywhere. And it’s this guy and I… and he’s like “Listen, do you need a hand?” I sad 
“Yes”, so I put the car in neutral, so that there’s… there’s no brake. 
M: Aha. 
C: And, uh, he pushed it to… a side road and gave me a ride home. 
M: No way. 
C: He was the coolest guy, it was so nice, um… And he was just there with his truck, he’s a 
gardener and just gave me a ride home. It was super, super cool. 
M: Wow. 
C: And so, it turns out my… my, uh… my engine died… I mean, no the engine was new, it 
was… the transmission was shot. 
M: Oh. 
C: It was totally broken. 
M: Wow. 
C: But I was very lucky to have such a kind person. 
M: Yeah, that’s… that’s a good story, because usually people are too afraid or maybe a little 
bit reluctant to… to stop and see if you’re okay or if you need a ride or something, 
because, you know, you can’t really trust people these days. So, uh… but it’s good, I… once 
I saw somebody on the side of a road, they had a flat tire, it was two girls and they didn’t 
know what to do, so I was like passing by. It was actually raining. 
C: Oh, of course. 
M: And I was like “Hey, do you guys need a hand” and they’re like “Yeah, please, we can’t… 
we can’t, uh, locate my dad” or whatever. So I was like changing the tires. It’s not a big 
deal, right? 
C: Right. 
M: And they were like “Oh” and they wanted to tip me, they wanted to give me some 
money. 
C: Are you serious? 
M: And I they were like “Oh, please, take this, it’s just so kind, your time, and you’re all 
wet” and I’m like “No, don’t worry about it”. 
C: No, it’s just a nice thing to do. 
M: Yeah. 
C: If you… if you know anything about cars, I mean… 
M: Yeah, yeah. 
C: Or you can offer someone a lift. I know it’s not terribly safe to ride with strangers, but, 
uh, this guy totally helped me out, so… 
M: Nice. 
C: Yeah. 
M: Alright, well, maybe you guys have some cool or maybe some interesting stories of 
what’s happened with your cars or maybe you’ve helped somebody out, so come to our 
website at englishpod.comand let us know. 
C: And, of course, if you have any questions about the vocabulary or phrases that you 
heard today, please ask away, don’t hesitate and, uh, well, again we hope to see you on 
the website. 
M: Alright, we’ll see you guys there. 
C: Bye! 
M: Bye!