Complete Transcript
You’re listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 195.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café episode 195. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
On this Café, we’re going to continue our series on famous Americans, focusing on two famous brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who we usually just call the Wright brothers. They created the world’s first real airplanes. We’re also going to talk about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is an organization and a museum that recognizes the best rock-and-roll musicians. And, as always, we’ll answer a few of your questions. Let’s get started.
This Café begins with a continuation of our series on famous Americans. Today we’re going to talk about the Wright brothers – that’s Wright, “Wright,” not right, “right.” The Wright brothers were Orville and Wilbur Wright, and they are famous for building the world’s first real airplane.
Of course, many people tried to create airplanes and many of them had success in different ways, so it isn’t really fair to say that the Wright brothers invented the airplane, but they are usually, at least in the United States, credited with creating the first airplane. The phrase “to credit (someone) with (something)” means to say that they did something, to give someone recognition for doing something good. For example, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is often credited with expanding the use of personal computers, although many other people also contributed to that. It wasn’t just him, of course. Some people argue that the Wright brothers weren’t the inventors of the airplane and that someone else should be credited with that honor, but most Americans, at least when they are in school, are taught that the Wright brothers were the inventors of the first airplane. So we’ll talk about them even though it might not technically be true, according to some people.
The Wright brothers were born in 1867 and 1871 in the states of Indiana and Ohio. Of course, one was born in Indiana, the other one was born in Ohio; they weren’t simultaneously (at the same time) in two states. Indiana and Ohio are located in the mid-western going towards eastern part of the northern United States. Indiana is next to the state of Illinois; it is east of Illinois. Ohio is east of Indiana, in between Indiana and the state of Pennsylvania.
The Wright brothers were born in Indiana and Ohio, and in 1878, their father gave them a little toy helicopter that could fly. The boys played with it so much that it broke, so they decided to build their own. They, themselves, said that it was this little toy that sparked their interest in “aviation,” which is the art and science of flying.
A “spark” is usually a small piece of light and heat that is created when you take two pieces of metal or stone or other objects and you move against each other very quickly. We can use a spark to start a fire. The verb, then, “to spark” means to start something, to begin something, often suddenly and usually giving it a lot of energy, making the person very interested in that topic. The phrase “to spark (one’s) interest in (something)” means what gets you interested in something. When I was young child, I had a chance to travel with my parents and my brothers and sisters – some of them anyway – to different parts of the United States, and this definitely sparked my interest in history and geography. Well, the Wright brothers’ interest in aviation was sparked by this little toy helicopter that their father gave them. A “helicopter” is a machine that flies that has – well, they’re not wings, we would call them “blades,” they are pieces of metal or wood that go around in a circle.
Neither of the boys (the Wright brothers) finished high school, which was not that unusual back in the late 19th century, but they started a printing business, a company that printed books and newspapers and other publications. They also opened a store to sell and repair or fix bicycles, even manufacturing or making their own brand or style of bicycles. These experiences taught them how to use tools and they began to understand engineering concepts even though they had never formally studied engineering. Their bicycle business became profitable, it began to make money, and they used that money to try to build airplanes.
At that time, there were many “gliders” (gliders), which are like airplanes, but they don’t have any motors or engines. Gliders float through the air – they fly through the air, but they always come down and they have no way of going back up. You would have to push the glider off a very high place in order for it to go out and fly. There were also other airplanes at that time that had motors, but there was no real way to control the airplane’s movements, so the airplane wasn’t very useful. The Wright brothers were trying to create an airplane that had a motor and that you could control.
They began by creating gliders and flying them like kites. A “kite” is a large piece of fabric, usually it consists of two pieces of wood that are crossed, and the material goes around that. A kite is flown in the air by putting a very long piece of string, tying that to one end of the kite and then holding onto the end of the string or the rope while the wind takes the kite into the air. You have to have wind for a kite to work – for the kite to fly. Many children like to play with kites on windy days. The Wright brothers flew their gliders like kites to test their designs, tying ropes, or very heavy strings, to their planes and holding onto those ropes as these planes flew in the air.
Finally, by 1903, they had a glider design that they liked and they began to add motors to it – engines. On December 17, 1903, in a small town called Kitty Hawk, in the state of North Carolina, they had their first successful test flight, even thought it lasted only a minute, actually less than a minute. That was the first time that they had an airplane that could fly with a motor that you could control, somewhat. Over time, they continued to improve their airplanes and they began to patent their design. “To patent” means to get the government to say this is your creation, no one else can copy it without your permission. After that first successful flight, they began to improve the airplane, to make it better and better so that it would become more and more useful, and within less than 10 years, airplanes were common throughout the world, or least in many parts of the world, and they continued to get larger and larger, stronger and faster. But the basic idea that was one that used by the Wright brothers more than 100 years ago.
You can actually see the original Wright brothers plane, called the Wright Flyer One at a museum in Washington, D.C., at the Air and Space Museum, which is part of the Smithsonian Museums that are our national museums in our capital of Washington, D.C. I saw the original plane when I was a young child, back around the age of 9 or 10. It’s a very important part of American history, and all American children learn about the famous Wright brothers. In fact, there are schools and buildings named after the Wright brothers. Not too far from the Los Angeles International Airport there is a school called the Wright School, named after one of the Wright brothers.
Well, that was back in 1903, now we’re going to move forward in time by several decades. Now we’re going to talk about Cleveland, which is a large city in Ohio. It is the home of something called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. A hall of fame is a way of recognizing people who are very good in a particular type of work. We have many halls of fame in the U.S. for athletes, for actors, for musicians, there are even halls of fame for doctors and scientists. Sometimes there actually is an actual building (a hall), where there are photos on the wall showing people who are considered very good or even great in that particular area. If you go to Cooperstown, New York, where according to American tradition the sport of baseball was invented, you will find the Baseball Hall of Fame. So sometimes it’s an actual building; many times, however, it isn’t a building, it’s just an organization of people that recognize and honor great accomplishments in their particular area or field. I don’t think there is a hall of fame for English teachers – not yet anyway!
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognizes the work of important rock-and-roll musicians, and it is also, like the Baseball Hall of Fame, a physical museum where you can go and visit. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum gives you information about the history and significance or importance of rock-and-roll popular music. It also has a very large library of rock-and-roll music and books about music and artists, musicians, and other performers.
When someone enters into the Hall of Fame (when they become part of the Hall of Fame – when they are honored by the Hall of Fame) we say they are “inducted” into the Hall of Fame. To be “inducted” (inducted) into something means to be invited to join something and usually to participate in some sort of formal ceremony, making you part of that organization. The first induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was back in 1986. This was before there was a physical building or museum; it was just an organization at the time. Every year since then, there are musicians, singers, groups that are inducted into the Hall of Fame. You have to have released a major album or collection of songs available to the public, and it has to be 25 years after that first album before you can be considered to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Of course, only a very small, small number singers and artists will be part of the Hall of Fame.
The first induction, back in 1986, included such famous rock-and-roll singers as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Buddy Holly, James Brown, and perhaps the most famous rock-and-roll singer, Elvis Presley.
People are inducted into the Hall of Fame in one of four different categories. First there are the performers, like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. These are people who sign or play instruments as part of a rock-and-roll band. There are also, however, non-performers, people who, for example, write songs, or even write about music, or help produce the music. Another category – very interesting category is called early influences. These are for people who were before rock-and-roll was even invented in the 40s and 50s. It includes people like Louis Armstrong, the famous jazz musician, or Hank Williams, who was a country singer. The Hall of Fame, finally, has a category for what it calls “sidemen,” this is for men and women who don’t seem to fit into the other categories, they might have been musicians that were on many different albums or played with many different groups for example.
Some people think that the way that inductees – a person who is inducted into an organizations such as a hall of fame is called an “inductee” with two ‘e’s at the end – some people think that these inductees, and the process for making them inductees is “controversial,” meaning they think that it is not a good way of doing things. There has been some controversy – some disagreement about it. One reason is that the public, the people who buy the records, people like you and me don’t actually get to vote on who becomes part of the Hall of Fame. In other words, it’s not the general public that votes. Instead, it’s a small group of people who are voting on who becomes part of the Hall of Fame. A lot of these people who are on the selection committee (the group of people who decide who will be inducted) are musicians, but some of them are writers and authors who have written about rock-and-roll over the years. Some of them are music critics, people who write in the newspaper or in a magazine about particular musicians. This, however, is not that unusual for halls of fame. Usually the public does not vote upon who is going to be inducted or not. This is not the common procedure. For example, in the Baseball Hall of Fame, the public (the people who watch the baseball games) do not decide who goes into the Hall of Fame, it’s decided by a group of sports writers, journalist (people who work for newspapers and magazines and television programs), they vote in decide who will be part of the Hall of Fame.
Another “criticism” of the museum, another negative thing that people say about it, is that it inducts only big-name artists. The phrase “big-name” is used to talk about someone who is famous and very well known. Barak Obama is a big-name politician, everyone knows who he is. You probably know who he is, I’m sure you do. Sidney Leiken, the mayor of Springfield, Oregon, is not a big-name politician, most people have never heard of him. So, a big-name person is someone who everyone knows, everyone recognizes. Someday I hope to be a big-name singer – someday it will happen, don’t worry!
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is under a lot of pressure to induct only big-name artists, because they want to get people to come to the formal ceremony – the induction ceremony, and people are going to go to see people who are famous, assuming they are dead. If you’re dead, you are not allowed to go to the induction ceremony!
The museum opened in Cleveland in 1995. It has many different “exhibits,” or places that talk about specific kinds of music or specific musicians. It has clothing that Elvis Presley wore, and other famous musicians. It may have instruments that were played by famous rock-and-roll artists. It may have posters and pictures of those people as well.
The museum also tries to talk about other parts of popular culture that have been influenced by rock-and-roll. They try to explain how rock-and-roll music can sometimes reflect important issues. “To reflect (something)” means to represent in this case, or to be something that is influenced by something else. When you look at a mirror, you see your reflection. You see yourself – it comes back to you, that image. Rock-and-roll music often reflects larger cultural, economic, social, and political issues that a country is dealing with. At least it can, it doesn’t always. That’s true for all kinds of music including other kinds of popular music. The museum then tries to have exhibits that talk about these other things.
So that’s the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, it’s in Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve never been to the museum, but someday, the next time I go to Cleveland sometime probably in the next hundred years or so, I will definitely visit, myself.
Now let’s answer a few of your questions.
Our first message comes from Carmen (Carmen) from Spain. Carmen wants to know the meanings of the words “every day,” “each day,” and “everyday,” spelled as one word instead of two. Good question!
“Each day” is an adverb that describes the frequency or how often something happens, how often something is repeated: “Each day I get up at 7:00.” That means that on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I get out of my bed at 7:00 – each day, that’s how often it happens.
“Every day” can also describe how frequently or how often something happens, usually it means same as “each day.” “I get up every day (two words – every day) at 7:00 in the morning.” So, both “each day” and “every day” are adverbs; you can use one in place of the other. I would say that “every day” is probably more common however.
“Everyday” spelled as one word is an adjective; it means ordinary, common, or frequent. You might say, “I’m going to wear my everyday clothes.” “Everyday” (one word) is an adjective describing my clothes, meaning my normal clothes, my common clothes, the clothes that I wear frequently.
Although “everyday” as one word is technically an adjective, you will see both “every day” as two words and “everyday” as one word used often interchangeably; the distinction is becoming less and less common in American English. But if you look in a grammar book, you will see that that is the difference, even though people are changing the language slowly to get rid of that difference more and more.
Our next question comes from Yveline (Yveline) in French Guiana. Yveline wants to know about “splitting infinitives.” To split an infinitive is when you take an infinitive, which is a verb in the form of “to” plus the word, so “to go” is an infinitive, “to walk” is an infinitive. To split the infinitive would be to put a word in between the “to” and the main verb. “To not go” would be to split the infinitive – to divide it and put a word in the middle.
There are some people who think that split infinitives are wrong, are ungrammatical. However, in both formal and informal English a split infinitive is perfectly acceptable and is quite common, it really depends on what sounds more natural to people. The words that are used to split the infinitive are often used for emphasis. For example: “To really understand Shakespeare, you have to read his plays.” “Really” comes between “to” and “understand.” You could say, “To understand really well Shakespeare, “or “To understand Shakespeare really well (that would be more natural – more common) you have to read his plays,” but that would not be the way that most people would express the idea. They would simply put “really” in between “to” and “understand.”
So, there isn’t any reason why you can split an infinitive. I understand there are some lawyers, for example, who think that it should not be used in formal writing; that is, a split infinitive. This, however, can create all sorts of awkward expressions; that is, things that just don’t sound very natural to people. So, nothing wrong with splitting an infinitive, it just depends on what sounds best in terms of expressing your idea.
Finally, Antoni (Antoni), also from Spain, wants to know the meaning of the expression “to spare someone the hype.”
Well first, “to spare (someone) (something)” means to keep something from someone that might be painful, something that the person might not like. “I’m going to spare you the details,” meaning I’m not going to give you the details because they’re boring or you might find them painful.
“Hype” (hype) is when something is advertised or promoted to be wonderful, but it isn’t really as good as people say. It’s when people have very high expectations about something. Everyone says it’s really wonderful, then you actually go and see it or experience and it isn’t as good as people said. That’s what “hype” is, when people praise it too much, think it’s too good, or say that it’s better than it is.
“To spare someone the hype,” then, would mean to tell someone that they’re not going to give them all of these wonderful descriptions because they’re not really true, because they don’t think the person would find them interesting.
From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast’s English Café is written and produced by Dr. Jeff McQuillan and
Dr. Lucy Tse, copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
Glossary
to credited (someone) with (something) – to say that someone did something; to give someone recognition for doing something
* Thomas Edison is credited with inventing the telephone.
to spark – to start something; to begin something
* We bought Luis some comic books hoping to spark his interest in reading.
aviation – the art and science of flying; the flying of an aircraft
* Ophelia is interested in a career in aviation when she goes to college, and hopes to fly airplanes for a living one day.
glider – an aircraft that flies without an engine
* We can launch our glider from the top of that mountain, but first, we’ll need a lot of wind.
kite – a large piece of fabric that is held open by wooden or plastic pieces, with a long string tied to one end and a person holding the other end while the wind takes it into the air
* Let’s have a contest to see who can fly their kite the highest and for the longest period of time!
hall of fame – a way to recognize people who are very good in a particular type of work; a place or museum in which people who are the best in a field are honored and important things that are part of their success are displayed
* In what year was Babe Ruth inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
to induct – to formally allow someone into an organization or group; to be invited to join something or some group
* Each member will be inducted into our secret society after proving his or her worth.
controversial – something that people do not agree on; something that causes public disagreement
* The teaching of sex education in American schools is a controversial subject.
criticism – a bad thing that people say about something or someone; the disapproval of something or someone
* I really like the story you wrote. My only criticism is that it’s a little too long.
big-name – famous; very well known
* We hope to get a big-name sports player to help us raise money to build our new community center.
exhibit – collection of information and materials related to a subject shown to the public; a display of information and materials, usually in a museum
* Let’s go see the Picasso exhibit tomorrow when we have more time.
to reflect – to mirror something back; to give an image of how something is
* The money we are putting into training our employees reflects our commitment to excellence.
each day – describing how often something happens repeatedly; on all days
* Elian goes the hospital and visits his mother for at least two hours each day.
every day – describing how often something happens repeatedly, on all days
* Instead of going to a restaurant for lunch, Deng brings food to work every day.
everyday – ordinary; common; frequent
* In addition to her everyday duties, Leanna has to do the manager’s job while he is on vacation.
to spare (someone) (something) – to keep someone from knowing or experience something that might be painful; to not allow someone to be negatively influenced by something bad
* Junko hid the newspaper to spare Karen the bad reviews of her performance in the show.
What Insiders Know
The National Air and Space Museum
If you’re interested in airplanes or flying, a very interesting place to visit is The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The National Air and Space Museum is part of the Smithsonian Institute, an organization “funded by” (supported with money by) the U.S. government. The Smithsonian Institute runs 19 museums and The National Air and Space Museum is among the most popular.
The National Air and Space Museum is located on the “National Mall,” which is a section in Washington, D.C. that has a large grass area in the middle and buildings on every side. You will find on the “National Mall” many other museums and important government buildings, including the U.S. Capitol building where lawmakers meet and make laws, and the Lincoln Memorial, a “structure” (building) that remembers Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States.
The National Air and Space Museum has the largest “collection” (objects of the same kind) of “aircrafts” (machines that fly) and “spacecrafts” (machines that travel into space) in the world. The collection includes over 30,000 aircrafts and 9,000 spacecrafts.
Although the museum is large, it is not large enough to display all of the items in this very big collection. Those items not on display are kept in a storage “facility” (building; place) with 32 buildings. Nearly all of the aircrafts and spacecrafts are originals, so if you visit the Museum, you may see many crafts that have made “historic voyages” (important travels in the past). Among its collection is the “Wright Flyer,” one of the Wright brother’s airplanes.