Daily English 1241 Breaking an Arm or a Leg

Dialogue/Story

Slow Speed begins at: 1:24
Explanation begins at: 3:25
Normal Speed begins at: 17:10

Complete Transcript

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 1,241 – Breaking an Arm or a Leg.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 1,241. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

This episode is a dialogue between Elizabeth and Sidney about breaking your arm or your leg – sounds painful. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Elizabeth: We need to get you to the hospital right now!

Sidney: I took a tumble, that’s all. It’s nothing – just a little pain in my elbow and leg.

Elizabeth: Your arm is twisted in an odd angle and you’re limping. You could have broken bones.

Sidney: In the past, I’ve had a compound fracture in my ankle and a stress fracture in my wrist, and they both hurt a lot more than this. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.

Elizabeth: Look how your arm is swelling up. It almost looks deformed. And you still can’t put weight on your leg.

Sidney: The last thing I need right now is to get a splint or a cast. I have to get to work.

Elizabeth: You can’t work in the shape you’re in. Why don’t you let me take you to the emergency room to get treated?

Sidney: I’ll just take a couple of painkillers and walk it off.

Elizabeth: You mean limp it off. Well, in the end, it’s your arm, it’s your leg, and it’s your funeral!

[end of dialogue]

Elizabeth begins our dialogue by shouting or yelling, “We need to get you to the hospital right now!” Sidney says, however, “I took a tumble, that’s all.” Elizabeth thinks that Sidney needs to go to the hospital immediately but Sidney doesn’t agree. He says he “just took a tumble” (tumble). “To take a tumble” is another way of saying “to fall down” – to go from standing to being on the ground accidentally.

Sidney says, “It’s nothing – just a little pain in my elbow and leg.” Your “elbow” (elbow) is that part of your arm that connects the top part of your arm to the bottom part of your arm – your “upper arm,” we would call it – to your lower arm. Elizabeth says, “Your arm is twisted in an odd angle and you’re limping.” “To be twisted” (twisted) means to have two parts of something turned in opposite directions. In this case, I suppose it would mean that one part of your arm is not in the direction it should be. It’s twisted.

Elizabeth says the arm is “twisted in an odd,” or unusual or strange, “angle” (angle). An “angle” is technically the number of degrees between two straight lines. So, the corner of a room is a, usually, 90-degree angle. There are 360 degrees in a circle. If you have a square room or a rectangular room, the corners of the room have 90-degree angles. Elizabeth says the arm “is twisted in an odd angle” – an angle it should not be at. “And,” she says, “you’re limping.” “To limp” (limp) means to walk in an uneven way so that you are putting more of your weight on one leg versus the other.

Elizabeth says, “You could have broken bones” (bones). Your “bones,” of course, are those hard substances in your body that support your body. All the bones in your body make up what’s called your “skeleton” (skeleton). You have bones in your arms. You have bones in your legs. You have bones in your ears, even. Sidney says, “In the past, I’ve had a compound fracture in my ankle and a stress fracture in my wrist, and they both hurt a lot more than this. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.”

Sidney is saying that he has broken his bones before, and when that happened, it caused a lot more pain than what he is experiencing right now, and therefore he thinks he has not broken any bones. He mentions a “compound (compound) fracture (fracture).” A “fracture” is when there is a break in the bone – when the bone is broken. A “compound fracture” is when the bone is broken into one or more pieces and often the bone comes out through the skin. I know, it sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it? Well, it is.

Apparently Sidney had a compound fracture in his ankle. Your “ankle” (ankle) is that part of your foot that connects the foot to the lower leg. Sidney also had a “stress (stress) fracture” in his “wrist” (wrist). Your “wrist” connects your hand to your lower arm. A “stress fracture” is less serious than a compound fracture. It’s basically a crack or a line in the bone that is often caused by using the bone in a certain way over time that causes it to form a small crack or line.

Elizabeth says, “Look how your arm is swelling up.” “To swell” (swell) means to get bigger, to get larger. The verb, the phrasal verb, “to swell up” means for a part of your body to become very large, usually because you have hurt it. Your body naturally tries to protect parts that have been hurt, and one consequence, one result of, say, breaking a bone may be that the parts around the bone swell up.

Elizabeth says that his arm, Sidney’s arm, “looks deformed.” “Deformed” (deformed) means not having a normal shape, especially when we’re talking about some part of the human body. Elizabeth says, “And you still can’t put weight on your leg.” “To put weight (weight) on your leg” means to walk or stand as you would normally, so that part of the weight of your body is being supported by your leg or legs.

Sidney says, “The last thing I need right now,” meaning something that I definitely do not want, “is to get a splint or a cast.” When you hurt your arm, especially if you break your arm or your leg, you may get a “splint” (splint). A splint is usually made with one or two hard objects that cannot bend that are placed next to or around a broken bone so that you don’t or can’t move your arm and leg and damage or hurt your arm or leg even more.

A “cast” (cast) has a similar function or purpose. A “cast” is when the doctor puts an object that surrounds your arm or your leg – usually it’s made nowadays of a special material called “fiberglass,” though it used to be made more commonly with something called “plaster” (plaster). If you break an arm or a leg, you will often have the arm or leg put in a cast so you don’t move it, to give your body time to “heal” (heal). “To heal” means to get better, to recover. Sidney doesn’t want a splint or a cast because he has to get to work.

Elizabeth says, “You can’t work in the shape you’re in.” “Shape” (shape) here refers not to the form or look of something, but rather to the health or physical condition of the body. Elizabeth says, “Why don’t you let me take you to the emergency room to get treated?” The “emergency room” is a special place in a hospital where you go when there is something wrong with you that needs to be taken care of immediately. So, if you fall down and break your leg, the first place you will go to is the emergency room of a hospital so that the doctors can help you.

An “emergency room” is sometimes called by its initials: the “ER.” “To get treated” (treated) means to get help from a doctor or a nurse. Sidney says, “I’ll just take a couple of painkillers and walk it off.” Sidney doesn’t want to go to the hospital. He just wants to “take,” or swallow, “a couple of painkillers.” “Painkillers” are pills usually that you take, that you swallow, that help you with the pain that you are experiencing. It’s a pretty logical name for the drug, “painkiller.” It kills, or stops, the pain.

Sidney says he just wants “to walk it off.” “To walk it off” means to use your legs even though they are in pain. We use this expression when you hurt your legs in some way but it isn’t serious. Athletes, for example, will sometimes hurt their legs during a game but they don’t stop and go to a hospital. They just walk around a little until it feels better, until the pain dies down or goes away. Elizabeth then says to Sidney, “You mean limp it off,” meaning he isn’t just going to walk it off – he’s going to have to limp because his leg is hurt so badly.

“Well,” she says, “in the end” – meaning if we examine the situation and try to come to a conclusion – “it’s your arm, it’s your leg, and it’s your funeral.” The expression “It’s your funeral” (funeral) is used to tell someone that he or she is responsible for the bad things that will happen because of his or her bad decisions. A “funeral” is a ceremony, an event you have when someone dies.

Elizabeth is making a joke here. That expression – “It’s your funeral” – is said somewhat jokingly to someone who we think is making a bad decision. We’re saying well, you’re making this bad decision, but you are the one who is going to suffer the consequences. You are the one who will be hurt by your bad decision, including perhaps even dying. That’s why Elizabeth says, “It’s your arm, it’s your leg, and it’s your funeral.”

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